george1

Just thought I'd share our interview experience from today.

We arrived at 10:40 for our 11:00 appointment, put our letter in the basket outside the waiting room, and sat down to wait. There were about 7 groups/individuals waiting. Almost promptly at 11:00, 3 people were called in. A short time later, another was called. We kept waiting (I forgot to bring something to read) and finally at about 11:20 a woman called our name. She apologized for keeping us waiting, she had not realized we had an 11:00 appointment! She said when she first looked at her schedule she thought she only had a 1:00 appointment. I wonder how long we would have waited if she hadn't realized!!!

Because of this mistake she was super unorganized and had barely looked through our file. So the whole time she was flipping though our file trying to look up the stuff she needed. We were better organized than she was!

She first asked us to swear in and then got into the questions. She first double checked she had documents such as both of our birth certificates in the file. She then asked us about when/how we met, when did we start dating, the marriage proposal, the wedding. She asked who attended, what we did afterwards, did we go on a honeymoon, did we have a reception. All these questions were directed at my wife, the beneficiary. She then briefly asked me a couple questions about the Affidavit of Support. She asked my wife her full name, birthdate, and adress. She asked for documentation on joint assets. I have to admit we were a little lite on this one. We do have a joint bank account and joint credit cards but our rental agreement is a handshake deal because we know the owner of our house and we have yet to purchase a car together and also are both waiting for health insurance to kick in from work. She did take what we gave her though. She also asked if we plan to have kids. We told her we're thinking about getting a dog first.

As an after thought she did take one page of photos we brought from our reception to put in our file.

I was amazed to see our entire file all together. I noticed that they even keep the envelopes we sent stuff in.

She took back Amy's EAD and AP and I94 as she won't need them now. She said they mail the I94 back to the border patrol with an update that GC has been issued.

We were approved on the spot. She said the name check had gone through successfully so she was able to stamp Amy's passport and said that the GC should arrive in the next 2 weeks or so.

All in all we were interviewed for about 20 minutes. It wasn't stressful for us. Seemed worse for the lady interviewing us since she was so unorganized.

I hope this helps anyone with an upcoming interview.

Not that the Peace Arch in BC/WA would be an option for you but when I called there the nice lady I spoke to said she had never heard of the stamp. She was even nice enough to put me on hold and consult with (what she told me) were 2 superiors.

So hence no stamp at Peace Arch.

When Amy moved down she drove her car with the cats and a friend to help and I drove a separate rental moving truck. We had no problems crossing with our stuff.

What letter are you speaking of?

I was thinking of when you get notification that you've filed or a refund check. I swear this paperwork is making me crazy.

I was just making it more complicated than necessary. I can't imagine where I got the idea that something dealing with AOS would be complicated. haha.

So we are working on our AOS including the I-864 and I'm a bit of a pickle when it comes to the income info on question 25. I need to include my 2006 tax info but have not filed taxes yet. Is my 1040 with W2 sufficient or do I need to wait for the actual letter back that states my Federal tax return info for 2006? I made enough in 2006 to meet the income requirement but I did not meet it for 2005.

I'm reluctant to wait for for my Federal tax return info from 2006 because who knows how long that will take. I have the transcript from the last 3 years but as I said 2005 wasn't exactly a stellar year for income.

Any thoughts/help is greatly appreciated.

It's been a couple of hectic days but Amy is now in the US after crossing in Blaine, WA yesterday.

On Monday I took the bus to Bellingham, WA and picked up my rental Budget Truck and drove up to Vancouver. We helped Amy's roommate move all of his stuff to his new place and then we loaded up the truck with all of our stuff.

We got up about 5:45am and got rolling the next day. We picked up Amy's friend who came along to keep the cats company in the car with Amy. We rolled up to the Peace Arch crossing at 7:50 am. Amy went up first with me right behind her in the truck. We went inside for the visa processing. It was first thing in the morning so the Boarder Agent didn't say much that was more than one syllable. He opened the envelope, did what he did on his computer, finger printed Amy and took her picture, took our $6, and stapled the I-94 into her passport. We were out the door by 8:15!!!

They didn't look at her packing list. Didn't look at the cats. Didn't even look in the back of my rental truck!

All in all the agents at the boarder were really nice. The guys at the parking for secondary joked about the cats escaping (said it's happened before) and the agent inside was nice and laughed at a joke Amy told him.

It was amazingly easy!

We got to Portland quickly, unloaded the truck, and had it returned before the place here closed.

Now it's time for the fun of unpacking!

There's a great Vegan/Veggie restaurant called the Naam. It's on W. 4th in Kitsalano, so it's not close to where you're staying. But it is open 24 hours! There's a good all veggie Chinese place on Main and 14th called Bo Kong and of course all the great Indian food.

For celebrating you should check on the Cambie. It's a fun pub. Also a great pub with a good atmosphere is the Brickyard on Main St. in the Chinatown area.

I was hoping someone on here had the lead on getting Canadian TV channels here in the US. I'm thinking that a satellite provider would be the best bet but I haven't seen anything on their programming.

I want Amy to feel like she has a little bit of home here in Portland. Hockey Night in Canada would really help that! :-)

When I was growing up in Montana our cable came with the Lethbridge, AB station. That was pretty cool.

I asked the border guard last week at Peace Arch (after waiting for an hour and a half. The lineup was backed up past the duty free) and he said you can cross at either with a rental truck. Only commercial trucks have to pass through the truck crossing.

BTW, I'm renting a truck in Bellingham from Budget and crossing into Canada to pick up Amy's stuff and driving back to Portland. The price is much more reasonable than Uhaul from Vancouver to Portland. Plus I've heard nothing but bad things about Uhaul's service.

After my conversation calling the crossing in Blaine I don't expect Amy to get a stamp. There is some pretty interesting debate about the temp. EAD stamp in the "Working prior to getting your green card" forum.

From the SSA website here - https://s044a90.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx...33;opendocument "The following sections list nonimmigrants, by alien class of admission codes, who are authorized to work in the U.S. without specific authorization from DHS. The person’s I-94 will not have the DHS employment authorization stamp and the alien will generally not have an EAD." K1 falls under this classification. Very interesting indeed.

I just called the POE (Blaine, WA) and they told me they had no idea what I was talking about. No one thought that a temp. EA stamp even exists. Weird.

Thanks for the info.

Denise I must have confused yours and Monique's posts.

The www.k1poelist.com website would be helpful if anything was current. Mo, way to add your info on there. I'll be sure to add Amy's.

The CBP site has the Peace Arch contact info. I guess I'll give them a ring so there are no surprises when we get to the border.

With Amy's move upon us soon, I've been sifting through the posts about the Temporary EA stamps.

Will be driving down from Vancouver crossing in Blaine, WA. I haven't checked to see if we have to take the Uhaul through the truck crossing rather than the peace arch.

My real question is if anyone has had their temp EA Stamp issued at the Blaine crossing.

I just saw that someone (cdancer?) had called the crossings to see if they would issue the stamp or not. Any leads on where to find those phone numbers?

Thanks for the help gang!

Amy had her interview today at the Vancouver Consulate. She said it went very smooth and that the guy there commented on how well orgazined she was (way to help VJ!).

It's so exciting to make it past this point! All these months and waiting finally amounting to something.

There is some substantial debate on the EAD issue over in the "Working & Traveling prior to receiving Green Card" forum.

It seems that a K1 technically allows one to work but without the stamp it can get tricky to prove when filling out an I-9 for an employer. That's just what I got from sifting through all the posts on the subject.

This goes along with the original question... Did anyone crossing at Blaine with a K1 have trouble getting their temporary EAD stamp?

Also, any different experiences at the Peace Arch compared to the truck crossing? I suppose with a UHaul we'll have to go through the truck crossing.

K-1 doesnt need EAD stamp, fiances are allowed to get a SS without it and work...as well as get a Drivers License, however you will need to apply for it later on once you are married in order to keep your DL up to date...cause it expires when your I-94 does.

Carms,

I'm certain that a K1 does not come with an automatic temporary EAD. I know that with a K1 one is able to get a SS card and DL and all that. And then when we apply for AOS we can apply for the real EAD before the green card arrives. I'll try to find the info that goes with this.

This goes along with the original question... Did anyone crossing at Blaine with a K1 have trouble getting their temporary EAD stamp?

Also, any different experiences at the Peace Arch compared to the truck crossing? I suppose with a UHaul we'll have to go through the truck crossing.

Amy faxed in her packet 3 on Monday and got her interview letter in the mail today. January 18th. I'm happy to finally have that date and be able to make plans from there. But that seems like they're scheduling it pretty far out. She asked for the interview ASAP on the form.

Does the Consulate shutdown over the holidays?

Amy waited until her medical was done (11/22) and faxed the checklist on Monday 11/27. Now we see what kind of interview date we get.

thanks,

I alwasy forget about the example forms...

So for Question 20.... Places you have lived. There doesn't need to be addresses? Just the city?

I want to say since it doesn't ask for addresses that they don't want them but I just want to be sure.

Thanks for the help!

Thanks Karen!

Does Amy need to list EVERY visit to the states? She's travelled down a lot for business before we met and played sports growing up so she was going to swim meets in Washington when she was 9 and soccer tournaments through high school. Do they really expect all that info?

Thanks for asking these questions HockeyGal. Amy is waiting for her packet 3 and this is exactly the same question I would ask once she has sent it back.

Thanks guys... I just got an email from Vancouver - a reply from message I sent last week. Amy has a new mailing address and I wanted to be sure they had it on file. Well, they updated the address and sent out packet 3 yestderday! Funny that they didn't mention that to Amy yesterday when she was on the phone with them. I guess it doesn't matter because things are now on their way!

Amy called the Vancouver consulate yesterday to see if they had received our case from NVC. They have. which is good, but when she asked when they would send out the packet 3 he said in "a couple weeks". That's pretty vague. It's so close that I just want to be done with it and have Amy move here.