villagespin2003

for Slovenia!!!

We used paperclips and I would advise not stapling things per the guidelines.

That form is obsolete so tax transcripts are what you should get.

We received an interview date of April 7th.

ETA we are June filers apparently--it has been so long I cannot even remember filing!

Hi Lexa!!!

Niko filed with VSC on 6/10

NOA: 6/18

Moved to CA--switched to CSC

Biometric appointment: 8/11

And nothing since then....

I hope we hear something soon!

Today in the huge pile of post-holiday weekend mail, we received Niko's 10-year green card!

All told, it was roughly 5 months for us from filing the I-751 to receiving his 10-year GC using the VSC.

I just wanted to update everyone as to our timeline so you can have an idea (albeit a very very rough one!) for yourselves.

Even though he has the stamp in his passport, I was hoping it would arrive in time for our trip back to Slovenia in a week (his first time back since he moved here). Now if only I could bring more than 3oz of water with me on that transatlantic journey.....

Good luck everyone....I am sure we will be comparing timelines over in the naturalization forum next!

Cara & Niko

I applied for DCF in Slovenia on May 18, 2004. I did not need a cover letter. We made an appointment by phone and just brought the paperwork with us--it was very informal, friendly and an easy process. I am trying to remember what we even brought with us and I think it was: my birth certificate and US passport, the I-130 and G-325s for both of us, our marriage certificate, photos and maybe the i-864. Niko went to the Zagreb office for processing a few weeks later because Slovenia does not process immigrant visas and brought more things with him to that appointment.

I have been a mostly lurking member of this site since 2004 and this is the first time I felt I absolutely needed to post.

I think that a lot of people are wasting their time trying to prove this was a conspiracy--my personal favorites are the ones who said it never actually happened. I think time can be spent in much more productive ways.

Are there conspiracies out there? Sure. Does our government lie to us? Sure.

HOWEVER....

I lived in NYC on 9/11, very close to the WTC. I had friends who escaped the buildings and a cousin exiting the subway at Chambers Street who watched the planes hit. I knew people who died that day. I watched people jumping from the building myself and saw those buildings collapse. I wore a mask because of the air and had the military stationed in my neighborhood, requiring me to carry a lease, photo ID, and bills to get back in. I watched people going hospital to hospital searching for thousands of their loved ones. Were you there? I see that you are in GA now, but I have no idea if you were in NYC to witness firsthand what happened 5 years ago.

I do feel sorry for anyone who believes those ridiculous videos, which are not at all based on sound reasoning, science, or fact. It is not hard to make a video that is completely one-sided to prove a point. It happens everyday in the news!

I do not mean to be harsh or attacking here, but it really makes me mad when people try to write this off as a conspiracy. It is very disrespectful to those who lost their lives that day, the families and friends left to grieve, the people who worked at Ground Zero and are so ill now, and those who will be emotionally affected from living there that day. Find me someone who was actually there who calls it a conspiracy and we'll talk.

Niko had a terrible time finding a job when he moved here in the summer of 2004. He sent out a ton of resumes, all over the northeast (we are in New York state) and the market was so tight that he never even got a response. I mean, a Thanks but no thanks form letter? Nothing.

So he decided to try to volunteer at a refugee center in the small city we were living in. It ended up being a part time position, paid, but it did wonders for his energy and self-confidence, to be teaching English to people from all over the world--none of them believed him that he too was a recent immigrant!

Once we moved to where I got a new job, another small city, he canvassed for jobs something fierce. He ended up working at Lord & Taylor, taking 3 buses (we only had one car) and even riding a bike in the snow to work!

Here is the kicker: he went to college here in the US--at Yale!! He speaks 9 languages fluently and I am yet to meet anyone who believes he is not American because he has no accent. He ran his own travel company and taught English to high school students as well as film to college students in Slovenia. The job market where we live just really really sucks and people are not open at all to immigrants. I know someone who was a lawyer in his country and delivered pizzas here in the US when he came over because no one recognized his skills (and I am not even talking practicing law, even filing in a law office!).

Now before we get too depressing, I will move on to the hopeful, light at the end of the tunnel portion of the story. While at Lord & Taylor, he met someone who told him about a corporate training company. He worked there for a few months, but he had to travel all the time. He called a temp agency a friend of mine from work had worked with and he ended up doing business to business marketing and audits, but he worked on a lot of projects that let him use his French. He met someone getting his MBA at a university here with an excellent program and realized that the coursework really appealed to him. He is now in his second year of his MBA, half the tuition is being paid for by the school for his academic record, he loves his classes, he was able to meet lots of people from all over the world at school and he was just offered the job of his dreams (with one year of school still left!) which will let us go back to Europe for a year to live while he works!

What a ramble! Anyway, you might have to take a job that is not what you expected or that you want, but you never know where it might lead you. Every job Niko had, he met someone or had some experience that led him to where he wanted to be. A lot depends on where you are going, who you know that can make connections for you and how open the area is to immigrants.

Good luck with everything. Don't get discouraged because it really all will work out for the best in the end. I am hopeful that you will have an easy time finding a wonderful job.

I got married on Monday afternoon and Tuesday at 9am we went to the US Embassy in Slovenia to file!

So we filed less than 24 hours after we got married and we did have the marriage certificate.

Best of luck, DCF is the greatest!

Thank you!

We are going to the district office tomorrow for our Infopass appointment with the 3 passport photos.

After freaking out upon seeing the change in reporting times at VSC and writing off hearing from them anytime soon, Niko received a letter in the mail that our I-751 has been approved!!!!

We mailed the stuff out in early May and had a notice date of 5/12/2006.

Date of decision: 8/24/2006

Letter received: 8/31/2006

No interview needed.

YAY!!!!!

When Niko called, they said the system was down. The woman also told him some stuff that made me think he accidentally called a local McDonald's she was so out of touch with the I-751, but that is another story:)

Now the date is back up on the BCIS webpage and is showing February 23, 2006--last week it was April 1, 2006!!!!!!

How can it be going backwards???

The date for the I-751 has been missing since the end of last week, at least for VSC, which is the only one I check because we are waiting (not so patiently) for our response.

We mailed at the beginning of May, have a date of May 17, 2006 (exactly our 2-year wedding anniversary). Last I saw, it was 4/1/06 and it seemed to be stuck there before they pulled the dates altogether.

Niko is calling now to try to get some answers. I will let you know what, if anything, he uncovers.

We are sending our 751 tomorrow or Wednesday.

Did anyone black out all or some of their account numbers?

We have our checking and savings account numbers, credit card numbers, money market account numbers, etc. in our packet of evidence.

(I may just be paranoid here because I do not like the idea of my whole financial account # information floating out there.)

thanks in advance!

Sorry, duplicate post.

Niko and I are now assembling our packet to remove his conditions. I have one quick question: Did you send in originals of photographs or copies? If you sent copies, were they black and white or color?

I am not sure if it matters one way or another so I would appreciate any input.

Thanks!

Cara