BOS_LHR

Immigration and naturalization are such lengthy and convoluted processes, but everyone thinks it's as easy as packing a bag and getting on a plane. The frustration I've experienced because of that misconception was a huge driver behind writing that massive post. The idea that LDRs aren't real relationships is another notion I'd like to lay waste to. I hope at least a few people in my life will read and understand that this was not an easy, casual thing, and that it takes a strong as hell marriage to get through it. You guys all know that, so for you, I just hope it was a good reminder you're not alone <3

Of course! It always helps to know we weren't the only ones going crazy during this crapshoot.
And YES. Everyone asks, "So that's it? He's done?" ... "Well no, there's still the Removal of Conditions to get his 10 year GC, and then after another year or two with that GC, he can apply, but we have to submit the same kind of paperwork each time." And all I get back from the person who asked is -

Since there's been talk of blogs today, I'll add mine to the list. For most of the process I've kept a private journal, but my husband finally immigrates five days from now, and I decided to write up a detailed account of our entire visa process to share with family and friends. I've spent the whole week writing and editing it, so it's pretty long, but you lovely people on VisaJourney have cameos!
http://bostoncactus.wordpress.com/

Since there's been talk of blogs today, I'll add mine to the list. For most of the process I've kept a private journal, but my husband finally immigrates five days from now, and I decided to write up a detailed account of our entire visa process to share with family and friends. I've spent the whole week writing and editing it, so it's pretty long, but you lovely people on VisaJourney have cameos!
http://bostoncactus.wordpress.com/

Hehe! It's Removal of Conditions, the process for renewing your 2 year conditional green card into a 10 year one.

Hehe! It's Removal of Conditions, the process for renewing your 2 year conditional green card into a 10 year one.

A backlog while together and going about our lives should be much more bearable, at least

Congrats to everyone who just got an interview date! They certainly got started early this month, I hope there's a lot more good news in store. Best wishes to those of you still waiting!

Congratulations!!!

I learned something today! You guys know that Latin text beginning "lorem ipsum" used as filler when laying out graphic designs? Apparently it's scrambled text from a work written by Cicero about delayed gratification. That concept is one we LDR types are intimately familiar with, so here you go, a little inspiration to keep fighting the good fight -
"But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing of a pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?
On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains."

I learned something today! You guys know that Latin text beginning "lorem ipsum" used as filler when laying out graphic designs? Apparently it's scrambled text from a work written by Cicero about delayed gratification. That concept is one we LDR types are intimately familiar with, so here you go, a little inspiration to keep fighting the good fight -
"But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing of a pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?
On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains."

I learned something today! You guys know that Latin text beginning "lorem ipsum" used as filler when laying out graphic designs? Apparently it's scrambled text from a work written by Cicero about delayed gratification. That concept is one we LDR types are intimately familiar with, so here you go, a little inspiration to keep fighting the good fight -
"But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing of a pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?
On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains."

I learned something today! You guys know that Latin text beginning "lorem ipsum" used as filler when laying out graphic designs? Apparently it's scrambled text from a work written by Cicero about delayed gratification. That concept is one we LDR types are intimately familiar with, so here you go, a little inspiration to keep fighting the good fight -
"But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing of a pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?
On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains."

Cats in sinks! Cats in sinks!!

Para Español por favor pregunte aquí: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/96-mexico-latin-south-america/

Scroll down to the Check List section on the I-864 instruction form http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864instr.pdf

Scroll down to the Check List section on the I-864 instruction form http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864instr.pdf

The hubby arrived in Boston last night, unfortunately the Border Patrol computer systems were down and we waited 2.5 hours for him to make his way through the International Arrivals...
But he his here, and real life shall begin!! We are so thrilled.
Best of luck to everyone still in the process, there is an end to it all and it feels incredible. Love you VJ Family!

So subtle

I wonder who made the spreadsheet

They're contracted paper pushers, not actual gov't employees. I doubt OT for them is anything like what a legitimate government employee would get. They're probably getting time and a half on like $10/hr or something. It does seem really unlikely that actual OT is occurring, though. It seemed plausible last time they started the backlog spiel because processing times were brought back in line within a few weeks. This time it's just dragging on Doesn't seem like they're getting back on track at all.

Congratulations!!!

CASE COMPLETE as of June 18th!!!
So happy right now!!! Didn't catch the name of the operator, she told me that my case was going to be sent to the embassy shortly, because of my expedited interview request.
Thank you everybody for the support and advice and special thanks to Saylin!!!! This would have been impossible without you
Good luck to all of you who are still waiting!!!! I'll stay here to support you!

It's not strange! Disney rocks Just didn't know if you had planned a trip to Disney World, or a Disney movie marathon, or something... lol.
Random anecdote time: I met my college roommate while standing in line for lunch at orientation the summer before school began. I was one of few kids there that hadn't come with a parent, so I was a bit lonely. I had a Disney song stuck in my head, so I turned to the girl behind me in line and told her so. She got really excited and asked me which one! We spent all weekend together, decided to be roommates in the fall, and she's been one of my best friends ever since. For the last Superbowl we got together and had "super bowls" of ice cream while watching several Disney films back to back.
One more: one of my teammates said recently he doesn't know what a baguette is, and my other teammate volunteered that it's in Beauty and the Beast, as if that would help him. "It's in one of the songs!" Predictably we then started singing "Marie! The baguettes! Hurry up!"

It would be easier to filter Saylin's spreadsheet. For the "do not have case completes yet" list, filter out blanks under AOS, IV and DS-260 and voila! There's everyone waiting for CC with everything submitted