KTandTommy

That's pretty funny that he called her out on trying to trip him up! LOL. Glad it went smoothly for him, I imagine that could have been really stressful, especially if VJ wasn't around to compare notes.

"On October 2, 2012, we ordered production of your new card."
I'm crying like a baby!

Wait, am I reading this correctly? Losing one week's pay was good enough to prove "severe financial loss"?
There are people in serious emergency situations who don't get approved.

While I am happy for you that your request for an expedite worked, it's not something that everyone should be trying to do - There is a valid reason sometimes for an expedite - Due to EMERGENCY circumstances, etc... - which are major changes / issues in your life - If everyone starts trying to request an expedite, all its going to do is tie up the system further and cause further delay for those that are impatiently waiting their turn.

People seem to have the idea, however silly, that someone else getting approved quickly in some way slows them down. That there is some imaginary line we are all standing in, and these people who get quick approvals are somehow butting in ahead of others. Which is utter nonsense. There is no way to compare one persons case against another, every last one has it's own idiosyncrasies, and every last one gets dealt with in a singular way, sometimes it takes no time at all, and other cases take quite a lot of time indeed.
I remember being a K1 filer very well. We were last in our group, and that has followed me up til ROC. Always last in any queue. And after finally getting our NOA2 on the K1, we were yanked out of line and placed in 'random' AP at NVC, which was not before common practice. Held up there a further almost 2 months, and missed Christmas together, thank you very much. But I didn't feel that any of that gave me the right to moan about other people getting in some perceived line 'ahead' of me. I congratulated every last one of them, and meant it. It's what adult grown up people do.
I think what disturbs me most of all, is this desire to pour scorn and disapproval on the lucky few who whiz through the process with the rally cry of ' it's not fair!!!" "They filed after we did!' " They are lucky and got the faster service center!"
Life isn't fair.
What also isn't fair is to try and subdue the joy of people who have successfully run the gauntlet, even if it appears that they started after you did. Why do we need to begrudge those people their happiness? Why do some think it is acceptable to ban posts like that, or warn the poster that they can be happy, just not too happy, and that they had better watch their words so as not of upset or annoy or provoke the ones who are still waiting?

The person who started the threat, joined the site yesterday and obviously this is his/her first post. And being honest IM REALLY ASHAME of some of the posts in here. This is not the Visa journey fellows I know. I always felt very proud of belonging in here and every time somebody ask me any question regarding immigration, always says "go to visajourney, best site and people ever" . But thanks to some of you, im having second thoughts about it. We dont know if maybe he is a soldier or a marine in duty! That may explain why he/she got their approval so fast. If that were the case, some people here should regretting their words. We dont know!! But either way, he/she deserve a better welcome than this!

People should not have to update their timelines is silence.
I can't believe how rude some people are being.
Yes, it sucks when someone else gets approved very quickly and you've been sitting here for months and months. Nobody likes that feeling. But that unfairness is all on USCIS, there's no need for VJ to take out their frustration on the member themselves. Remember there are actual people behind these screen names with actual lives and actual relationships. They want to be with their loved ones just as much as you do.
To make them feel BAD about their progress is not the purpose of VJ. We're all here to support each other through this, not to shun the people who happened to get their approval faster than you did.
If it bothers you, stay out of the progress reports. If it makes you bitter, that's your problem, not the person posting the threads.

Why do you have to hide behind your sockpuppet? If you want people to "have some respect" who do you wish them to respect?

So what you are suggesting is that within this immigration community people who get approved in less than 249 days should just keep there excitement to themselves? Maybe we should also require that people who have been waiting a long time keep their complaints to themselves?

I cant believe some of the post I'm reading here! Is really unfair! If somebody is approved after 300 days they DO have the right to post and celebrate ??? But if someone was approved in 40 days then he/she DOESN'T has the right to do it? EVERYBODY in here HAVE THE RIGHT TO CELEBRATE THEIR APPROVALS!!! That's why this site was created it for TO HELP and SUPPORT people in the bad times but also in the GOOD ones also! I know that the waiting is awful but that doesn't mean you should act like a bunch of haters, cause if one of u were approved in 40 days you weren't be that mad, uh? So after saying this, CONGRATULATIONS sweetheart hoping your journey will be this smooth and quick....

Mine is from the O.P.P. It has a raised seal but the same wording KT

With no job, how could you two live? Concentrate on the immediate priorities and wait for the visa process. There is much cost associated with everything beyond the K-1 visa.

Is it just me or some seasoned members here are only up to humiliate the newbies?
I've noticed that there are quite a few members here that just like to call out other people who doesn't exactly answer OP's question and sadly they're the seasoned members. I understand that sometimes this could confuse the OP even more but it could not be avoided most of the time but was that even necessary? As a fairly new member and still learning the ins and outs of the process, it's intimidating to add comments sometimes. You'll never know who will pop up to humiliate you. We're all here to learn from each other and not to show who's smarter and point out who has no absolute idea what they're getting into. Just sayin'....

I moved to Britain in 1995. Pre-internet. I had a full-time job within weeks, and then moved on to a full-time masters. I worked my ####### off. I was also sad a lot, despite being much-loved. I missed my home, my family, my friends. I went from a city of 100,000 to 6 million. It was tough. But I made it in the end because I had a spouse who was sympathetic.
I had little time on my hands in the beginning. I worked and ran a household. I had no community of others like me to commiserate with. I had no internet. No VJ. I had one call home an hour every fortnight. It sucked. But I made it through grit and love and perserverance.
Homesickness is not weakness or lack of commitment or busy things to do. I'm sorry, I'll never accept that.

So you're wife's been here for all of three months and she doesn't have a job yet? Divorce that slacker.
Seriously, when I was a new and very young bride, trying to make my way in a foreign country, with no friends and no immediate family but my husband, I freaked out. A lot. I often thought, "I left all that behind for this -- to live in a country where people make fun of my accent, where I am always the last one to get the joke, the one who had to and has to compromise all the time?" And I'd get angry and say spiteful things like, "I wish I'd never come here" and "I want to go home." I'd pack my bags and call my parents and say that was it.
But I didn't leave. Why? I had a husband whom I loved, and who loved me, and who listened to why I felt so desperate. It was never about him, it was about feeling powerless in a situation that I willingly entered because I loved him. I remembered I had vowed to stay with him and support him in good times and in bad. Ours was no great love story, a pretty average transnational romance that ended after ten mostly happy years due to us just growing up and wanting different things in life. But what we were very good at doing was listening to each other and really trying to understand what was going on underneath frustration. It was part of our vows. Did you not make similar vows?
It's one thing if someone is being abusive -- emotionally, physically or otherwise -- and another if that person feels lost, powerless, confused. In the former case, leaving is obviously the right thing to do. In the latter, the relationship can often be saved. This goes for either sex, lest someone accuse me of naturally siding with a woman here. The immigrant spouse is going to take a while to get accustomed to his or her new environment. It isn't plug and play. I would encourage you to seek counselling if things "just aren't working out" before you walk away from a marriage.
While writing this, my boyfriend asked me what I was posting about and I told him. He's Korean-American, and he suggested (as did Mr Smiley above) that your wife reach out to the Korean community in your town. Do you live anywhere near LA by any chance? There's gigantic Korean community here if you live within driving distance. He was also shocked that anyone could complain about an immigrant spouse (whose first language is almost certainly not English) not having a job after three months when there are so many native speakers who have been unemployed for many months in this environment.
In any event, he and I both wish the OP and his wife the best and hope they at least work a little harder to try to make this relationship work. Better to put the work in now and realise it can't be saved than to regret not doing so.

Hahaha... I think I instantly love your wife. She is hilarious.

I have an iPhone 4 and I love everything about it - especially because it syncs seamlessly with my MacBook Pro.
I hate the clicky sound of Blackberry keyboards, plus I find them difficult to navigate... which is what pushed me in the iPhone direction initially.

Considering that you knew before hand that recently smoking 'weed' carries a one year ban then I don't think you should be disappointed. Did your fiance admit to using or did the doc find marijuana in his system?
You being denied as well because of a lack of a bonafide relationship between you and your fiance should be an eye opener. Not saying that there isn't a genuine relationship between you both but this is a good opportunity to look at your relationship under a microscope. Maybe have an 'outsider' (someone who is objective and you trust) look at your cell messages and or IMs and tell you their impression of your relationship. The fakeness of your relationship may have come across to the CO due to how your fiance answered his questions eg: too confident/rehearsed, not confident enough, hesitation, nervousness, not knowing basic must know info, vague answers, answering 1 question different times with different answers, story not adding up. Your fiance's denial may also be due to the relationship comming off as a 1 way relationship eg: too many trips in one year to JA by you, too many Western Union receipts (for such a short relationship), the amount sent via Western Union, the converstion in the chat evidence (you're obviously more into it than him/he's professing love very soon after knowing you) etc. Take this one year a chance to see if your relationship is true. Don't rush into anything.

My plans are to plan our wedding and do a lot of crafting (we're doing a civil ceremony right after POE, and then our big family/friends bash in May).... and I bookmarked a few online courses that I can take for free (mostly photography, but even just general learning). I also plan on daily (or maybe weekly) bike rides to the beach (I'm also moving to Florida!) and hopefully just hanging out with some of our friends who don't have regular 9-5 jobs.
(My fiance's shifts are actually 2:30pm - 11pm, so I'll mostly be looking for people to hang out with at dinner time)

Because immigration doesn't want to hear from disappointed USC's who have spent time and lots of money to bring someone here , they try to gauge the potential of the immigrant to cut and run. Their methods are from another era but they are what they are. The simpliest method is to estimate how low would the immigrant stoop to get to the US. In places where the living conditions are very close to the US , it isn't likely that someone would walk from friends and family for nothing. In places where there is not a stable government or power or sanitation , someone might so almost anything to get to the US. So they look at the normalicy of the relationship to gauge the relationship. I don't see many 20 year olds from the UK marrying someone in their mid 40's . yet these relationships are more common than not in high fraud consulates. So the odder the couple the harder you work to get the visa.

Finally! Congrats!!

Well, if that is your logic. While you're at it.... Why not bring each service center down to 1 month approvals.

I concur with the offer-to-move-there advice. Look for legit jobs that you could do there (that you could ask him about with enough details to sound convincing)and ask him to help you find out about the immigration policies to his country. Tell him you have read so many horror stories of visa denials, that you are trying to prepare to move there if the visa doesn't work out. A genuine fiance will want to be with you no matter where you make your lives together.
If you need to stall for time and haven't sent the documents yet, don't send them or leave out something completely necessary so that he has to try to reschedule. This could buy you some time.
If there are issues now, waiting for another period of time won't make things better, but it could reconfirm how legit this is. Time is usually a requirement for working through problems of any kind in a relationship.
Doubts are normal for both parties. Immigration only adds an extra level to the stress.
(Here is a trick I learned many years ago: Ask your date/lover/whatever about his exes. If he trashes them and can't say good things about them, then this is how he treats women in general. If he has positive things to say along with perhaps negative things or explanations, that is a good sign. If he blames every break-up on the women, he is a creep and a liar. If he questions you about why, as his potential spouse, you have the right to know if there was some crazy jealous woman in his past--just look at the news.)
Good luck.
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Edited to add:
No matter how much a visa costs, a spouse is much more expensive. For the visa related costs and travel expenses for our first year, I could have bought a nice used car or had the best dream vacation ever. That first 340$ is only the tip of the iceberg.

im going to be frank, im a jamaican man and if your really feeling what you said you are, chances are that your right and its best to end the relationship and withdraw the petition. No normal person in jamaica apply for a Visitor Visa 7 times just because he wants to visit. A friend of mine went twice and he got denied and dont wanna go back.....now 7 times seems a bit strange. All you just need to email the consulate @(KingstonIV@state.gov) and make sure you put in the case# in the subject line telling them you want to case close because you suspect you might be a victim of immigration fraud and they will contact you within a day or two. Makes no sense dealing with that stress in the USA, a lot of these guys dont care, they just want the visa which is a gateway to the US, after which they can survive on their own because of the large jamican community there in places. I was surprise to learn of the amount of undocumented jamaicans living there right now. Thank God for VJ it helps a lot of people to see the light

YAY! I'm thrilled for you! Congratulations!