Mick & Janni

Does anyone know when to send a new K-1 package in case the old one myseriously went missing? We haven't heard anything about our petiton since it left for CSC, so we have no idea if it even arrived. We've never been able to check status anywhere and when calling USCIS they just say they can't find any info about our petiton. When is it appropriate to send a new package, and what happens with the payment as we've already paid once?

I have proof of full custody but they only make them in danish

Yes that's a good one to have translated. Necessary, I can imagine. I don't have any children so that's one less paper for me. Also no military records or divorce papers.

What kind of papers do people usually have to get translated? I can't think of a single one for me personally. Personbevis and police records are already in English, not sure what else there is.. =/

There's a lot of very unnecessary information in your post and very little else, I suggest you edit it if possible and only add information needed for others here to be able to answer some of your questions.

It's hard for someone else to know what's going on between two people in love. No one in my circle of friends or my family knows what me and my fiancé talk about on the phone, in texts, chat or when we see each other IRL. They know the big parts, that we're madly in love and that we're preparing for marriage and a life together, but they don't read our chats, they don't listen to our conversations. I assume it's the same way with you, you don't know what your friend and her new bf are talking about, how they act towards each other, how they get along and what their feelings are. There might be a real, true love growing there - do you really want to be the one standing in the way of her happiness?

Me and my fiancé talked about marriage very early on, way before we even met IRL. At least your friend has already met her man in person, maybe my situation would've be considered a red flag in comparsion to your friend's (back when we hadn't even met yet). There was an instant connection. I know, and I did already early on, that this is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with and I would never let any "friend" stand in the way of our happiness and future. If you have any concerns, voice them once and be done with it. Anyone who claims to be a friend should also act like one.

//The foreigner

Gärdet (basically where the embassy is) isn't much to see, it's mostly just a big field, but you have Kaknästornet there that give you a very nice view: http://www.kaknastornet.se/eng/

Stockholm over all is only nice in summer, but that goes for most of Scandinavia I guess.

I was looking at this place, it's not a fancy hotel by any means but it seem to be very close to the embassy, and also quite cheap. STF Gärdet: http://www.booking.com/hotel/se/stf-gardet.sv.html

All passport type photos used in the visa process should be US standard.

I never had or got hepatitis shots.

So that one is all up to you.

Maria scared the sh*t out of me with her post about hepatitis, so I don't dare not to get it now.

Thank you, Sören & Maria. I called the local vårdcentral just now and their "vaccination expert" (hahaha) will call me tomorrow and give me some recommendations and information. I'll ask to have the stelkramp, flu and the hepatitis shots (hopefully I won't have to wait 6 months for the last one), mustn't forget to get the records of it so I can bring it to the medical.

Good luck on your journey too, Maria. You've come far already, I'm a bit jealous, just wish to be with my man as soon as possible. It feels like it's taking a long time now, but once this part is over I bet I'll be thinking that it went pretty fast after all.

If you only got the ones that all the kids get when they grow up you will most likely need a tetanus shot if it's been over 10 years since your last one. Have you ever had chickenpox? If not you'll have to get vaccinated for that too. You'll need the flu shot if it's the flu season.

I don't know how expensive vaccinations are in America but at some point I would recommend getting vaccinated against hepatitis A & B. It's recommended for travel and moving outside of Europe. It's 3 shots, the 2nd is 1 month from the first and the last you'll get 6 months after the 1st.

Makes sense, yes. Stelkramp is most likely a must for me, and I've never had a flu shot ever in my life. If chickenpox is the same as vattkoppor, then yes, I've had that. My mom even wrote it down in my little baby book, the exact day I got it (got it from my brother) - not sure if that's enough proof though, they might want a blood test?

Yeah I've never had any hepatitis shots, ever. Even if it's not needed for the medical (?) I might need it later on. Good advice, thank you!

Flu shot

tetanus (Stivkrampe)

That was all for me.

Oh thank you! I might get a stelkramp then, can't remember last time I got one, so it should be time for it. And flu too, depending on the season.

Those of you who needed extra shots at the medical, what kind of shots did you get?

I was thinking maybe I could prepare by having a couple of them done already now, as most of them probably last for quite some time. I've only had the regular ones "all" Swedish kids get growing up, in school and such. I've never travelled anywhere so I've never had any shots some people get in cases like that.


//Janni

There is some sort of detailed immigrant data sheet you get from the embassy that lists all employment and schools, I believe. I can't for the life of me remember of the official name of it, but that would be your updated form.

Oh that's good to know, thank you so much!

If your job situation has changed after the i-129f was sent in, do you bring a new g-325a to the interview to show the changes? This is about me, the beneficiary, so I'm not sure how important this really is?

//Janni

Check out the Scandinavian thread and ask there, maybe other Norwegians can help you out: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/185-scandinavians/

Annoying. I so prefer räkmacka style.

I have only flown once and that was with Norwegian. Only just over 550 USD back and forth between CPH and LAX (including check-in bag) and the flight was so smooth and comfortable. And I didn't have to change planes or anything, I really couldn't be more happy and will definitely fly with them next time too.

But just like with all other airlines it gets more expensive in summer of course. If you don't have a specific date you have to travel then I would probably recommend to get a "last minute" ticket, if possible.

//Janni

If you would have gotten a RFE you would probably already have been noticed about it so I son't think you'll get one. But of course can't say for sure.

And yes if you look at Igor's list you can see the latest approvals and so on.

Here: http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/monthly_filers.php?form=1&visa=1&scenter=1&option=2&sortby=2

And set the filter as needed and you'll get them all.

Thank you so much!

Calling them won't help anything at all since you are inside normal processing time. But They are approving late December as of now so yours is on it's way very soon.

Yes, we noticed. We were mostly interested in knowing why our receipt number doesn't work - obviously they couldn't help us with that either, haha.

Is there some place in this forum (or elsewhere) where you can see what petitions are getting processed as we speak? That would've been great. But who knows, we might have an RFE coming our way and it'll take a lot longer to hear from them.

//Janni

I might have this exact issue in the future. I'm worried, haha. But at least I have my family here in Sweden so just in case there's something I really want to keep and can't bring with me when I leave I'll have my family store it for me in the meanwhile. I can come back and get it later or.. after a year or so I might not even miss the item, whatever it may be, then it'll be easier to get rid of it.

I hope you get a lot of responses as I'll be asking the same questions as you.

Yes, I think we can all agree that it sucks being apart and all of us want to be together as soon as possible.

Yes, I would be hard leaving someone after getting married, but some people choose that way because it is the right way for them and others the K-1.

No matter what way we are all in the same boat. So we need to support each other and not push anybody in the water.

I hope you understand that comment before was not nice or supportive. But enough of that I hope you can offer more support to others as we all go on in this process that's what we all need

Hope you get your NOA2 soon!

I didn't write that.

Thank you, I sure hope so too. We called USCIS the other day and as always they have no idea what's going on. The answer is always "You have to wait a bit longer".

//Janni

I think all in all the IR/CR-1 process is probably a bit faster than the K-1, or about the same at least. It takes about 6 months (or more) to get a K-1 and then you still have to go through the whole AOS process too which probably takes a year or something. With the IR/CR-1 you have already gone through all that when entering the country, which must be really nice. But yeah it sucks being away from each other, that's the main issue for us, that's why we decided to go for the K-1 and not the IR-1. It would've been too hard leaving him after getting married.

//Janni

Blaming the US government because people can't be bothered to put their, um, case number on pertinent papers requires a unique and special ability in its own right.

~Mick

Grattis! So happy for the two of you!