EmersonsFoot

I don't think you have much to worry about. Since you have already admitted this to the physician on your medical I think you probably ought to write yes and send a couple of paragraphs. It shouldn't be a big deal. If you say nothing and the doctor noted your confession in your file then it may look like you are not being honest with them. Being dishonest is much more serious than smoking a little pot a long time ago.

There may be folks that disagree with me on this. My reply is not based on VJ experiences, just common sense.

My common sense agrees with your common sense, and that's what I'm going on. Thanks!

First of all, what is 'moral turpitude' exactly?

Second, am I screwing myself if I answer yes to the following question? (I think I have to say yes, because I've admitted to smoking marijuana in the past, to both customs agents and the doctor at my K-1 medical exam).

Form I-485, Q1a:

"Have you ever, in or outside the United States, knowingly committed any crime of moral turpitude or a drug-related offense for which you have not been arrested?" (If 'Yes' explain on seperate piece of paper).

So I'm thinking I should answer 'yes' and just explain that it pertains to my having smoked marijuana (years ago) in my Country of origin. Should be safe, yes?

Thanks again!

Brooke

i looked it up and according the the Wikipedia Encyclopida it means :

Moral Turpitude

1. n. gross violation of standards of moral conduct, or vileness, such that an act was intentionally evil, making the act a crime. The existence of moral turpitude, as used in criminal proceedings, can bring a more severe charge or penalty for a criminal defendant.

2. is a criminal behavior that gravely infringes on the moral sentiments of the community. It is classified as a malum in se type of crime. Examples include murder, larceny and aggravated assault. Such a finding can lead to deportation in the United States, one of many collateral consequences of criminal charges.

3. Conduct done knowingly contrary to justice, honesty or good morals.

4. Can result in the removal of persons in a position of legal authority.

I hope that helps you some

Yogi

Thanks Yogi, that does help (and makes me laugh - they actually use the word 'evil' in relation to LAW. Wow).

I appreciate your help!

First of all, what is 'moral turpitude' exactly?

Second, am I screwing myself if I answer yes to the following question? (I think I have to say yes, because I've admitted to smoking marijuana in the past, to both customs agents and the doctor at my K-1 medical exam).

Form I-485, Q1a:

"Have you ever, in or outside the United States, knowingly committed any crime of moral turpitude or a drug-related offense for which you have not been arrested?" (If 'Yes' explain on seperate piece of paper).

So I'm thinking I should answer 'yes' and just explain that it pertains to my having smoked marijuana (years ago) in my Country of origin. Should be safe, yes?

Thanks again!

Brooke

Thanks! That is just what I wanted to hear.

You guys are awesome. I love this place.

I thought I was done with the questions, but... (sigh)...

Q. 9 of form I-485 asks, "Have you ever been deported from the United States...?"

Three years ago I was ordered to leave on "Voluntary Departure," at my own expense, because of an overstay when I was unaware of the 6 month policy. Does 'Voluntary departure' count as being 'deported?' They did 'order' it, and I've been flagged in their system since, because of it. I don't want to answer yes to this question if I don't have to, but I don't want to seem like I'm trying to hide anything either. Does anyone know for sure what I should do?

Thanks in advance!

Brooke

Thanks a lot guys, I think I'm set!

And hello back to you, fellow igloo-dweller.

~ Brooke

Thanks guys, that's what I needed to know!

Sorry in advance for these probably dumb questions.. And thanks in advance for your help

I'm filling out forms I-485, and the ones that go along with it (Biographic info, affidavit of support, etc)...

First question: The A# - what should I be taking that from? There's a number on my K-1 visa that I originally thought was it. Then I found the number on the back of my I-94 (which has an A in front of it, so I'm leaning towards that one now). But in the VJ example form, the # looks different - has dashes in it - though all of the above have 8 digits. I'm assuming it is one of the two I mentioned, but which? and do I throw dashes in there so it looks like the one int he example form? Silly nit-picky detail, but.. it's bureaucracy we're dealing with here.. don't want to take chances.

Second question: I'm assuming that I (the alien ferriner from Canada) am the one who should be filing all the AOS forms (other than affidavit of support), but I noticed at least one poster here mention they were doing the filing, and they're the US citizen. So, thought I should double check, since it really doesn't clearly specify this anywhere that I've seen.

Third question: Is the Nonimmigrant Visa Number the red 8-dig. # on my K-1? If so, that probably answers the question in my previous post about the A#.

Aaand I think I'm done. For now. Thanks again in advance!

Brooke

I've been in the US now for under 2 weeks. Married my American hubby in Vegas the day after I entered, and am waiting on both my SSN (which is delayed because I'm not even in their system yet from the K-1 visa entry) and to get my name changed officially.

I keep wanting to put down my hubby's (soon to be my) last name under 'family name' on all these forms (I-485 and friends) but if that isn't my official last name yet, I probably shouldn't, right? But it'll be changed soon, so is there any advantage to waiting? I'll also have an SSN within a couple weeks, and don't know if thre's any advantage to waiting for that, as opposed to leaving the field blank on the forms.

I get the impression that I should be filing these forms as soon as possible, which I suppose answers the above questions, but the questions came to mind anyway, so I thought I'd ask before sending anything off.

This is pretty overwhelming, I gots to say. Still, it's great to have made it this far. Good luck to all those still waiting for their K-1 (who probably won't be reading this topic), and congrats to those who are this far along or further!

Thanks in advance for your help,

Brooke

Thanks for the update! We're heading out in just an hour to the same location, and your message was a good stress reliever!

And, of course, congratulations on the visa and condolences on the loss!

Good luck! We're set for Vancouver exactly one day after you! I know exactly where your'e coming from as far as the obsessive rechecking of documentation!

I'm about to head out to Canada to give some moral support to my fiancee during the interview, and then we're off to a wedding in the states before heading back home. Quite litterally the least of our worries, but we're 'finally' to the bottom of our checklist of things to do, so here's my question. Would either the Canadian or US side of the border cause any commotion if I brought along some vitamins and supplements? I'm a vegitarian and like to keep up on what I might be missing out on in my normal eating. I'm a little paranoid about suddenly depriving my body of something it's used to getting on a daily basis. It'd be rather annoying to finally be on the town together again only to find that the sudden change to my diet gave me a headache. I've gone accross the border a million times over in a car with no problems carrying them along in a little travel pill case, but I've never crossed the US/Canadian border on a plane before.

I can't believe how fast that last step was. They got back to us by email about a day and a half after receiving the checklist! Not only that, but the interview's for the 12th of next month. So it comes out to about a four week wait....not too shabby at all! I can't believe I'm actually checking out the flights. We've been working on this for so long now it's odd thinking of it actually being finished!

Sorry - my fiance has all the paperwork, and it's driving me nuts that I can't look at it all myself (guess I'm a control freak!)

I'm in the same boat. It's funny, I was looking forward to being in the stage where I didn't have to handle it anymore. But at least having paperwork, or something else in the process, gave a nice illusion of being able to push the process forward. Now it's just 100% sitting around.

OK, OK, I shouldn't be complaining about 'anything' now that we're finally at packet 3.

We just received packet 3, and I'm really curious how much longer we have until an interview. I've been looking over the posts here, and it seems like most have been getting the Montreal office. We're going to be going the Vancouver route, and I was wondering how that's currently shaping up to Montreal in terms of waiting time for a K1 interview.

I know, just waiting another week or so and finding out a definite date is more certain than asking for guesswork, but oh well, I'm excited. Sometimes one just has to give in to the temptation to start shaking the Christmas boxes under the tree.

You might get caught in administrative review as well, which adds another six months or so onto the wait. Somewhat rare, but best to keep the possibility in mind for plans and whatnot.

We were in almost the exact same boat. CanAmerican, Nebraska service center, and our NOA1 went through on April 11th, 2005. I received an email of NOA2 approval on Janurary 11th, 2006.

My biggest recomendation is to get in touch with your congressman's office. I did, about...mid december I think. The woman who handled it was amazing. She told us what was going on just days after getting in touch with her, gave us a lot of updates, and I'm guessing the nagging for updates by the people there may have been what got the wheels back in motion.

Aside from advice though, I wanted to offer condolences on the wait. We haven't been waiting as long, but we came pretty close, and I'm never going to forget how much it sucked. The only thing worse than the wait, is being so unsure of what's going on. Worry that the case fell through a crack on somes desk, or had just been forgotten as you see people from the same area getting through in a third, then a fourth, etc, of the time you've been waiting. Even if the congressman can't move it faster, they can at least take that worry factor away. Or at least ours was able to....good luck!

I contacted congressman and they wairing for replay.

I've received a lot of good advice here, but that was the best. We had a huge wait as well, with no feedback from the USCIS after several contact attempts resulted only in empty promises to get back to us with the nature of the holdup. It took about a week for someone in my congressman's office to determine that we were in AR, and find out where in that process we were currently at. Even after that, she touched base with us every couple weeks until we were through. Just being treated like a human and reassured that our case hadn't fallen behind a desk somewhere was an almost unbelievable relief.

Hey, looks like you wound up with your 129f sent out from the NVC on the same day as me - visa race!

One of the big kickers is if you're caught in administrative review. We did, and it took nearly ten months from noa1 to noa2. There's a lot of folks who've had it even worse.

Though, on the other hand every now and again some people do fly through the process.

I have a pretty strong feeling this might be answered somewhere, but looking about the site I haven't been able to turn anything up. Is there any list which shows where the interviews will be held, based on the home of the recipient?

My fiancée is living in Alberta, which I 'think' means the interview would be done in Vancouver. Is this certain, or is there a chance we might wind up at another location?

Isn't that email awesome. I too had the exact thought when I saw ours, "spam". It's such an anticlimatic end to a long wait that somehow it just downplays the idea that it could actually be the real notification and then - bam. In that one second the long wait's over.

Way back at the beginning of our application process we made use of a lawyer to put together and send out the paperwork for our k1. I recently received our NOA2....sort of. A "courtesy copy" was sent out to me, with the origional going to the lawyer. One thing I noticed is that it has note within it, stating that "This courtesy copy may not be used in lieu of official notification to demonstrate the filing or processing action taken on this case."

How important is it to have the original? Do we need the original document when we go to the interview? The lawyer is 'really' slow in responding to us, so I'm hoping there's no real need to get the original document from him.

Yep, there's a very good chance of a long wait ahead. Though, along with that a slight chance you might be one of the lucky who wind up zooming through the process.

In any case though, you're actually on the road now, where before you were just looking around for the road sign! Congrats!

We were paranoid and used one too. Great for easing the jitters at first, but after he received our payment his helpfulness and availability dropped right off the map. To some extent it was worth it, since at least during the very long wait we could be fairly certain all the i's had been dotted and the t's crossed on our forms. Still, we had an almost unbelievable lack of professionalism from him once we ceased to be a cash flow.

After what seems like forever, we just got the email that our noa2 had been sent out. Amusingly, I think just hours before the visajourney crash.

I just wanted to quickly thank everyone here. The process had a number of hiccups along the way, and the posts here were amazingly helpful.

I know there's still a ways to go, but it feels like we've finally got the bulk of the lap ran now that the noa2 is on the way.