PrincessButtercup

A bit of a random post here but bear with me...
I came to the US on a K1 in July and i'm living blissfully happy with my wife here in California. This website helped me the whole way through the grueling process - I certainly could not have done it without all the support and advice this brilliant resource provides. US immigration can be unbearably drawn out and I remember toiling through days and weeks on my own wondering if it was ever going to end. It's a huge mountain of confusing paperwork and documentation and reference numbers and all kinds of strict administrative processes. It can also leach plenty of hard earned money out of your pocket, with no recourse to getting it back if it all falls through. Oh and on top of that I had further stress from minor historic offenses which could've cost me everything.
Its clearly long winded, hard work, and expensive. They don't make it easy.
So now I'm reflecting on this struggle, nine months after starting it all, from the privileged position of having successfully completed much of it. I'm living with my wonderful wife, I have permission to work, social security sorted and driver license on the way, and hopefully green card delivered in the not too distant future. I came from a position of disadvantage, I fought against it, I read hard and took advice, and I came through it.
This morning I updated my timeline and it felt great to be looking at all those blue boxes with green ticks. There's still plenty to do, I know, but I feel like a hill has been climbed and that feels good.
On the rare occasions I check back here at visajourney, I feel great sympathy for all the honest, well-meaning folks who are despairing at their current K1 circumstances. Its important to stay focused, keep your convictions, be honest, take advice from people who know better and be humble with Uncle Sam's way of doing things. I just want to let those people know that time falls away, things will move for you, and I wish you all the best in your struggle to get wherever you're going.
Keep the love and nothing can separate you from the person you've chosen to be with!
Peace,
D
x

I'm finding the direction of this thread somewhat entertaining.
Before I found VJ, I followed the message boards at theknot.com. There are about 67 pages of arguing about whether it is socially acceptable to have a "wedding" after you are legally "married". They call it a "Pretty Princess Day" (PPD for short)- this is actually where my user name came from (ie The Princess Bride)
Immigration doesn't really care what you do, just as long as you are legally married within 90 days. If it's really important to you to have a wedding party later on to celebrate with family- by all means go for it! Heavens knows we all deserve to celebrate our love after all this! (And be sure to take plenty of pictures for future evidence of a continuing marriage )
Let's just please leaving the arguing over the sublties of the words "marriage" and "wedding" to theknot.com... We have bigger issues

Hope we all get our NOA 2, this is another week of torture

Oh no! That's a bummer! What are you missing? Atleast the turn around after an RFE seems pretty quick
At first I didn't like weekends but now I appreciate the break from checking obsessively!
I'm training for a marathon and my fiance and I watched all 62 episodes of Breaking Bad. (Seperately, and then we would discuss. It's always nice to talking about something besides the Visa!) Premier league football started last week and I'm in first in his family's fantasty league. That took a lot of work! Oh, and my kickball team starts on Wednesday. I think I just need to get through the next week because in September I'll be busier at work and the time will go WAY faster!
Oh and I'll be on my way to visit 4 weeks from today. Hopefully it turns out to be a waste of vacation time but I knowing that I'll seem him in a month is what's keeping my sanity!
Edit: I also drink wine.

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!
We're March 21. I've been lurking on this site for a few months now and was very excited to see yours come through! It just means our day is right around the corner, which is so exciting because a month ago we were bracing ourselves for the worst. My fiance was totally against we looking on a website in the beginning but now everyday he asks me about the latest news!
You must be completely over the moon!

I highly suggest taking up running. I'm training for my first marathon and no longer have the energy to worry or get mad (Except today when I was running and cursing him for encouraging me to sign up for the marathon in the first place ;-))
I totally hear you though. He left 8 months ago in between work visas and the renewal got denied, and now we've been waiting almost 5 months for our K. We've realized as long as we stay positive things are great but when we perseverate on things and get negative about the process, life gets a LOT harder.
Like most things in life, this is way easier with a positive attitude. Another reason to take up running- I feel like we're at least 20 miles into the marathon and it's all mental now!