VeeNDee

Visited my folks in Canada this weekend and we stocked up on Canada food for craving moments.

Got some all-dressed Ruffles chips, Scotch peppermints (the hard ones with the chewy inside), some vegetable thins crackers (I have discovered I can eat those no matter how sick I am feeling and they taste good to boot!), some Rogers Golden Syrup, and last but not least, Coffee crisp. Now I know we are supposed to be careful with caffeine but a chocolate bar every few days can't be that bad. Man do I love those things. Our stash will hopefully last till the next visit It was funny crossing the border when the guard asked what we were bringing back. My husband said just some chips crackers and other groceries and he made him list off all the food items. Just to make sure there weren't fruits, veggies or meat I am sure, but I have to wonder what he thought of the random food selection

We had received some cheques as wedding gifts in Canadian funds. I had read about all the cheque cashing issues and was prepared to engage in a long conversation but surprisingly the local bank just took them all and deposited them without any fees or delays. As far as I know they just went with the current exchange rate too. It might have something to do with our account being with a credit union that is non profit but I am not sure. I was very relieved not to have to deal with that hassle!

That is all that I recall - my due date is October 14, 2013... which also happens to be Canadian Thanksgiving. A date my husband and I both found very ironic But that no one down here seems to get

Welcome Autumnal!!!

Our child is due in mid October and we will also likely want to travel back to Canada for Christmas (and probably before that since we live pretty nearby). I am still trying to figure out what is all needed to cross the border. Since they are a US citizen at birth when born in the USA, I presume that a birth certificate should suffice for their ID as far as a land border crossing and that we only need a passport for crossing by plane. Is that correct? I have no idea how long it takes to get a birth certificate. Guessing it probably varies by state.

My mother's day was nice.... but I had varied reactions. Some people would say happy mother's day only to be contradicted by people around them saying I don't count yet. It was a pretty interesting mixed bag. I just kept quiet My husband gave me a surprise gift he had been planning and made with the help of my inlaws. A beautiful necklace made out of one of October's birthstones since we are due October. So sweet He is the best!!! Now I need to scheme for Father's day next month....

Well, no more lying on my back! Good thing I've always been a side sleeper. It's so odd that a uterus can squash an important vein -who knew. Oddly now that I know I shouldn't sleep on my back, my brain is telling me it wants to. Bad brain! On a positive note, no desire at all to stomach sleep so that is good.

Can't believe I am now 18 weeks. Last week I was feeling the baby move more but this week I barely feel it at all... can't say anything I've felt was the baby. I don't know why it started moving less. Maybe I am less sensitive. I used the Doppler some days and still hear the heart beating away so that is reassuring. Looking forward to it telling me it's whereabouts on a kicking basis Of course I may regret my words when those kicks start to get super powerful later on hehe.

Bump for Immigration 101, this course just started. If anyone is interested, once again, this is the link: https://class.coursera.org/immigration-001/class/index

Thanks for the link - looks interesting!

One more question, But how does one get a bank statement?

Depending on your bank and your decisions, you can print off your e-statements, bring or photocopy statements they have mailed to you, or go in person to your bank and ask them to print off bank statements.

Just chiming in to encourage you - I was unable to get any live vaccinations (MMR/Varicella) - although I didn't need Varicella and just 1 booster of MMR. My titers showed I had received the MMR as a kid but was not immune to measles and needed a booster. Unfortunately due to the medication I am on (immune reducing) I was not allowed to receive any live vaccines. My doctor wrote me a note and I brought it to my medical and the doctor checked off that I was eligible for a waiver on that shot and everything went fine. I still haven't gotten it and won't be able to unless I get off this medication (unlikely). Another situation is being pregnant means you can't have live vaccines if I recall. The main point is, there are reasons not get shots, the doctors are aware and with a simple doctor's note you will be fine

My ppo told me labs diagnostics xrays are billed separately, everything else is billed at the end. thus why i already have a 300$ bill to pay

they probably consider it a "preexisting condition" and are being aholes about it. is it your hubby just switchign insurance or is it the company he works for thats changing insurance? cuz if its the company well thats not your fault and it should be seamless and just carryover type of thing.

It's a bit complicated and it's not for sure yet, but likely he will be at the exact same job but with a different contractor who goes on a different health insurance plan and their policy is not to allow people on the health plan for the first 3 months. Probably to avoid pre-existing conditions but they use some other reason to justify it since I don't think you can do that... at any rate, it's pretty lame. But on a bright note, COBRA should carry me from months 5 to 8ish of pregnancy and by the time I give birth we should be on the new plan. Which means a new doctor at the last minute but I'm not exactly super attached to my current one at this point anyway!

we also found out that every time I go for an injection I am billed separately, $24 each time but that might go up to $35 when our new insurance term starts in June. With 20 visits altogether that can add up... I thought it would be included in the Global maternity fee.. I did call the doctor's billing office and they said there was no way they could include it in the global fee

so my husband suggested that we just do the shot ourselves. My SIL was some kind of nurse years ago so maybe she could do it..

Do you have the actual medication at home? With my health situation I have shots I can give myself that are a certain type and there was one my doctor had to give me because it was 'intra muscular' - he said that it is possible someone could be trained to give that one though. So if your SIL is a nurse I bet she knows how. Are you obligated to go to the doctor for any other reason?

So we currently have healthcare and I'm seeing a monthly OB/GYN and possibly some type of experimental group midwife thing, but my husband is most likely switching to a different company in under 2 months. The new company goes through different health insurance, and they will NOT cover you for the first 3 months. Why? PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTT (insert rant about healthcare here). At any rate, he said we will probably need to look for coverage under COBRA for those 3 months. Never heard of this before, but I am hoping it is simple to figure out how to get on it.

Green card production ordered today!

That's a big weight lifted.

I like today. A lot.

Grats Salazar!!

We travelled this weekend to visit my parents using the greencard for the first time. On the way back, it was kind of amazing. The POE officer asked us only TWO questions. Where we had been and if we were bringing anything back. He was flipping through my passport with a weird grin on his face at the K1 visa and then looked at the greencard. On the 2nd question, my husband answered that we were bringing back gifts for the baby. At this point he got a sillier look on his face, handed back our paperwork and said "welcome back guys" and we got to go through.

I was kind of in shock, and the best part was the 'welcome back guys' - I said to my husband, HEY that means ME too! I have crossed over to the 'other side'! What a nice change

gosh, I am not sure what to do. the other day I remembered that my brother's ex-gf was named Emily but everyone, including my brother is ok with that. Today my mom informs me that one of my cousin's has a kid named Emily. Would it be weird for 2nd cousins to have the same name? We hardly ever see them because they live in Manitoba. It has probably been over 10 years since I have been there..

Both my husband and I love the name. We don't want to give it up.

That is kind of the reason why we don't want to say our names until the baby is born because then it is too late for anyone to object... plus think of it this way - if you named your child Emily when they were born, would you really care and change it after finding that stuff out? I know it's not the same but I have two aunts with the same name and two uncles with the same name and it doesn't bother me one bit (ok so I know that's through marriage) but there are so many people out there it is hard to find a name that no one else has. I guess in the end it comes down to if you are comfortable with it...

How much time outside of the US are you planning on? Aren't you going to be residing in the US? I believe you still need to be spending more time in the US than outside of the US in order to maintain residency here. I think that goes for anyone, even the USC.

This has me a bit worried too. It's not how MUCH time outside of the US, but more like how OFTEN for me. We live pretty near my parents, just a 2 hour drive + border, so will probably visit over weekends more often. Over a period of years that is going to add up. I will definitely need a spreadsheet if they want exact dates. As it is, I am already having trouble remembering the dates from last month we visited!

Hey all, my green card interview is tomorrow, in Baltimore, and I was wondering if they stop you taking in anything with electronics in for example cellphone/ipod.

I ask as I know such items are restricted from the London US embassy, and don't want any holdups should we need to store our electronics back in our car?

When I went for biometrics I left my phone in my car just in case, only to wait there and watch everyone else kill time on their phones. For the AOS interview we both took our phones in and had no issues. This was the Seattle office, so I guess maybe it varies from location to location.

Been feeling so much better lately (I'm currently 16 weeks), with the occasional hiccup. Managed to eat most dinner last night except the rice didn't stay down. I had lots of salad, fruit, cereal, etc etc and thought I was doing pretty good at eating. Then this morning I woke up with a huge headache that is better but STILL bugging me this afternoon, and weighed myself to discover I'm down another pound this week. So discouraging. I also ate a banana and it came up and then some. I suppose the moral of the story is, even if I am feeling a lot better I still need to take my anti nausea pill. That and probably buy myself some type of high calorie shakes.

so everything looks good.. Cervix is long and closed, no placenta previa, lots of amniotic fluid around the baby, It has all the parts it should have. They only tiny concern the Doctor had was this white spot on the heart. She said it was a calcium deposit but it doesn't effect the heart in anyway. It just might be a indicator of Down Syndrome. But she said it was a very tiny chance of that , I think around 1 or 2% and if that all my other tests are normal it should be fine. I was reading online and I guess a lot of babies have that calcium deposit..

I did find out the gender. They were 99% sure. I don't really want to spill the beans because I haven't told anybody in my family yet..

Glad to hear all the good news and it sounds like that spot is absolutely nothing to worry about. I bet you'd rather not have seen it but 1% is so low. Exciting about the gender. Let's see if you can avoid saying 'he' or she' by accident

Kimbear so glad to hear you are starting to feel better! It's like a whole new world isn't it!!!!!! Good for you taking your hubby to the doctor. They tend to avoid taking care of themselves as if it would be admitting weakness or a waste of their time /eyeroll

YAY so apparently I have a definite lack of patience, because as of a few hours ago we now have a tracking number with an ETA. So I cancelled my InfoPass appointment and should be good

I asked for mine to be copied but never heard back before I moved. Now that I'm down here, the health company has been trying to request my records with written permission from me and they are just being ignored and not responded to (on the specialist and general doctor front). It's annoying. I unfortunately have a large amount of files due to my health history so not sure how many papers they'd actually need to copy. What I've done down here is just to tell them my medical history myself and they've been treating me based on that. Definitely not ideal but it is working so far. I suppose next time I get back to Canada I should bug my doctors about getting on top of that.

THANK YOU! This is very helpful. One more question... did you stay in Vancouver to get your Visa or did they mail it to you? I live about 12 hours away and am in the sam boat as you. The vaccination stuff has me worried. I will get some blood work done to see what can be proven from that. You are wonderful! THANK YOU! It seems like it might not be 3 months to finish after NOA2 if I'm ready. I hope not. THANK YOU!

I live near Vancouver so I didn't have to leave but I had a choice of which location to pick up my visa from. You pick the delivery location when you are on the visa site scheduling your interview. I know I could pick between Richmond and Burnaby and at least one other place by Vancouver. I am not sure what the other options were since I wasn't thinking about that at the time-sorry

#1 - Took them 10 days from NOA2 to Consulate receive for me (if you look at my timeline you can see it in more detail)

#2 - I think it varies and you won't really know until you can book one unless you run into someone who's done it recently. It is definitely a LOT faster than Montreal so hooray!

#3 - It took me 10 days to get my visa, BUT it was ready before that but no one let me know coz the tracking status kept saying 'undeliverable' - I made a post about that awhile ago. I think it's probably ready in just a few days after the interview. If it takes longer you could phone the location to ask if it's available or the service number with your tracking information to explain what is happening.

#4 - I couldn't get my vaccination records from BC since they didn't save them past a certain year (I think it was maybe 10 or 15 years and then they burned them - go figure). What you need to do is make sure you have the needed vaccinations before you go to the medical. You can find out what vaccinations you need from the doctor's website. If you go through the doctor in BC, his website is: http://www.drcheema.ca/

Click on the 'USA immigration medical exam' link at the top and scroll down till you find the age category you fit in and what is required. Some of the vaccinations you can check if you have had through blood tests called 'titers' and others you may need to get. I needed to get a new shot of Tdap (Tetanus, diptheria, pertussis) because when I went it had to be taken within the previous year or two or something like that, even though I'd had it as a child.

#5 - Can't answer that one for you

#6 - Faster than Montreal... I can't say exactly since I tried to make mine take a bit longer due to timing of moving. For example we put together "Packet 3" after we got the information instead of mailing it back the same day to extend it a week or so. We didn't pick the first interview date available either. Perhaps someone else can be of more help

Update - so I scheduled an infopass appointment since I was planning to visit my family this coming weekend. Apparently they can give you an i-551 stamp in your passport. If only I'd thought to ask for it in the interview. If by some miracle the greencard comes by Wednesday I can just cancel it. Grr...thought I was done with being stuck in this country!

Been reading about traveling on advance parole while waiting on greencard to arrive.... it looks like I might be admitted out of 'courtesy' but really shouldn't cross till I have the greencard. Something about how I am admitted to the USA, as either a parolee or a permanent resident.

http://www.trackitt.com/usa-discussion-forums/i485-eb/365760303

Am I reading this forum correctly?