Vexie

I'm in the same boat - my life was better in the UK if you factor out my husband. We're talking about moving to the UK as I'm not happy here - but we're going to give it a few years here first and try a different US city as well. Its a difficult situation where I've gone from being a very independent city-dweller to being completely reliant on someone else in a tiny "city". We're hoping things get better once I can at least drive as I've been essentially housebound due to it - a car is essential where we live due to no public transit and everything being really far apart. I've sadly not made any friends here yet and his family is... not interested in helping me settle in.
We very much feel that if we were in a larger city I'd be happier when it comes to making friends and finding things to do. The only meet-up groups here I've found are parent or church related- I'm not religious and we don't have kids so its tricky. The local college won't enroll me on even a leisure course until I have my green card (not EAD, green card!) and even if they did I'd find it hard to get there right now if my husbands shifts changed which they quite often do.
I'm filling my time with video games, brushing up on my spanish and repeatedly refreshing the status update on my case. Life's too short to be miserable - love my husband but I can't wait to move! With him in tow of course

We got married in Georgia at the courthouse - we didn't have rings and they added an extra section to the license after the service. The top of the paper we got was the license and the bottom was stating that the judge had married us with a seal and signature. I know licenses differ by states but that was how it was in Georgia
Make sure you get extra copies if you can of the license, a bunch of places like banks/insurance agencies wanted original copies from us to add each other to accounts and to change my name.

It can be anyone, but its a legally binding contract that has some teeth so family/close friends is usually the easiest bet. If, heaven forbid, you and your partner were to divorce and you were to claim a heap of welfare whoever co-sponsored could be sued for that amount. Obviously I doubt you are planning on that but its a big ask for someone unrelated to your partner, especially if they are someone who doesn't know you too well yet. We ended up self sponsoring with my assets as I had about £150k in various accounts but my understanding is that amount was overkill as you can see in the link above.

It can be anyone, but its a legally binding contract that has some teeth so family/close friends is usually the easiest bet. If, heaven forbid, you and your partner were to divorce and you were to claim a heap of welfare whoever co-sponsored could be sued for that amount. Obviously I doubt you are planning on that but its a big ask for someone unrelated to your partner, especially if they are someone who doesn't know you too well yet. We ended up self sponsoring with my assets as I had about £150k in various accounts but my understanding is that amount was overkill as you can see in the link above.

Well, I'm at at over 100 days now. Clearly issues with cards made the last week in April. How the production of faulty cards don't go to the top of the pile when the machine is working properly again just bemuses me. Makes ZERO sense.
Glad to hear your niece is ok!
Hi Cattleya. Thanks for the update. I spoke to a "friendly" tier 2 officer 2 weeks ago who said I'd have my card "within 10 days tops" and it didn't happen.
Trust me, I have called about 10 times asking for them to help me and push the card into production - but they have absolutely no power whatsoever. They are in a call center. The best they can do is start a service request, which can take up to a month to be responded to.

Hi Francis_USA,
What ever came of this? I am going through a similar process right now and would love to know.
Thanks!

Wind your neck in. Yes an opinion can be made but if you are going to be as subtle as an elephant attempting to be the sugar plump fairy it doesn't quite "help"... Maybe add a little empathy along the way and as others added there is the chance to rebut, which is a more helpful response as you provide the worst case scenario as well as a possible solution.
Put yourself in the persons shoes wage you offer a reply as I'm pretty sure you wouldn't just want to hear a negative sentence alone (however true it is!)

God bless America...and no place else

I'm not complaining, although quite frankly I have the right to if I want to... We all have the right to express our own personal trials and tribulations of moving to the US... That's what this board is for in my opinion. I came on here to enquire about everyone else's thoughts and feelings on the vacation culture in the US and also hoping to gain insight into companies that are more generous/flexible (which has worked as I have now discovered KPMG offer 25 days which matches the UK)
I'm probably going to spend some time browsing Glassdoor and looking into the best companies to work for to find out about their benefits so will update my findings on here soon!