bebop + rocksteady

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It's really hard to see a post that has the information you need when the title is "Help! Question"

Cass (bebop the great)

And part of the problem is that threads are often not titled appropriately. "K1 question" is not a good title, for example. I think expanding the moderation role to include making topic titles more transparent would be a good start.

I'm so jealous of you! I try to feel this way. You know, force myself to realize that we show each other so much love everyday that we don't need a special day to celebrate it. But then I see the cute pink hearts and fuzzy stuffed animals and I swoon and turn all girly. I Valentine's Day! I'm such a sucker for commercialism.

Cass (bebop the great)

My husband and I have made a joint agreement not to celebrate Valentine's Day. It will be just another day for us because we don't like the idea of being told that we have to get each other a card and/or gift and go out for a rushed, very expensive dinner.

You should be fine. But everything else you send or receive regarding immigration, make sure you copy it!

Cass (bebop the great)

Congratulations! Now.....you wait. Make sure you have all your evidence and everything printed and organized....and you wait.

I thought the wait was going to kill me before the interview, but now that I look back at it, it sped past!

Good luck!

Cass (bebop the great)

Well, Craig and are celebrating Chrismanniveratine's Day.

We didn't get to see each other over the Holidays, and Valentine's Day is our anniversary. So we just decided to hold onto all our Christmas presents for when he gets here. He flies in on the 12th, and I think we are going to wake up on the 13th and have Chrismanniversatine's Morning! And open all our presents.

Cass (bebop the great)

Don't get ahead of yourself!

If it doesn't show up, cross that bridge then.

But it'll show up.

Cass (bebop the great)

On the chance that it, you know, never arrives there, what should I do? Keep badgering Vancouver to send me packet 3? Get my husband (the USC) to call them?

If there would be a way for people to check their egos at the door, that's be nice. But I guess that would be something that would come about with more moderation, and well, more moderation might hamper the vast stretch this board covers.

I agree with limiting photo size in signatures. I like seeing pictures. And I like seeing graphics. but when I have to side scroll on my widescreen monitor? That's a little much. Also, I say completely get rid of the blue boxes and hearts. Or at the very least, bury them inside the profile, and make the "joined date" more prominent.

Cass (bebop the great)

I make much less than that, rent an apartment, have no savings, and about the same average balance on the bank account, and got approved without a second thought.

Cass (bebop the great)

ok shortly i will have to fill out a I -134 form for my girls K1,,,now here is the thing,,all i really have is a good paying job at 50k a year,,,no real assets,,no savings,,only a checking account with a average balance of $500,,,i rent a house from my uncle so i dont have a morgage....i was thinking maybe a life insurance plan to make it look better but my lawyer says dont worry about it......any ideas on what i could do it make it look better???,,,i hear the consols in manila difficult and will deny you for anything

Craig is going to be here a week from TODAY. EEK!

I have a question about customs.

He's flying from Thunder Bay (no pre-clearance) to Toronto, and then onto Indy.

He'll go through customs at Toronto, correct?

Anyone have any POE experiences from Toronto-Pearson?

Will he have to go through any sort of customs thing again at Indy? Or will he just be arriving like any other domestic flight?

Thanks kids!

Cass (bebop the great)

He's asked me to post in here to see who all you recommend notifying of his new address/the fact that he's moving to a new country (mostly legal purposes, mail purposes are less important considering his old address is his parent's address). We've got the GST people and then the credit card companies. Anyone else? Any other departments with the Canadian government he needs to inform?

Thanks kids!

Cass (bebop the great)

Alright, I need help from the Canadians in the bunch in helping to make my Craig feel at home. What are your ideas for things to make a Canadian feel more at home in the US? I already plan on finding a good perogie recipe and making them for him. I'd like to see if there is anyway to get get Cheez Whiz (Canadian, not American) shipped to us. I have a nice big Canadian flag hanging in the apartment. Of course, I'll do the normal things like having a drawer cleaned out for him and have all this shampoo and stuff. But what else?

Thanks!

Cass (bebop the great)

We transferred from Nebraska to CSC and were in and out in 79 days. Not nearly as fast as Vermont, but not bad at all.

Cass (bebop the great)

I want to get Craigory something to carry around with him to help with the metric to imperial conversion when he gets here in two weeks...any idea where I can buy something like that? I guess just chart would work, but it would be really nice to find a calculator that does the conversions for you.

Thanks!

Cass (bebop the great)

One original, and one photocopy.

Cass (bebop the great)

Congrats to you both and thanks for the review! We have our interview tomorrow and I am just checking our paperwork again for the 41st time!!!! When they asked for 2 copies of the birth certificate, do you mean, the original and 1 copy or 2 copies plus the original?

Thanks!!!

My surreal experience came at the interview, it was so...not how I pictured it. I couldn't imagine that this was it, and we actually had the visa in our hands.

Cass (bebop the great)

Alrighty kids, I'm going to post this in the reviews as well, but thought I'd post it here for some more visibility.

First of all, a note about staying in Vancouver. We thought we'd be genius and stay on the outskirts of downtown to save some money on our hotel. Well, save money on the hotel, we did. But the money we saved we spent on taxis TO downtown. So my recommendation, find a downtown hotel, spend a little more money. You can walk to the medical, the interview, the fun touristy area, the beach, the park, the aquarium, and pretty much anything you'd really want to do. If we would have stayed in a downtown hotel, the only time we would have had to get at taxi was to get out to the airport. Also, be warned, there is a really bad part of town just outside of downtown, so if you don't know the area and are driving yourself, be very careful.

Alright, enough of that, onto the medical.

Craig had his medical with Dr. Ian Morgan at Woking Medical Services in Vancouver. The building is on one of the main stretches downtown, and the address is very visable, although there isn't really much of sign that lets you know who's office it is. We got there a little before 6:30, walked up to the door, a man was waiting to let people in. He let us in and asked us, "What doctor are you here to see?" We replied with Dr. Morgan's name, and the guard said that was the password and told us to take the elevator up to the second floor. It opens onto a pretty sizable waiting room (with pink faux leather couches). In one corner of the room is the sign for Woking and a receptionist, Laura. Pretty much the nicest woman ever.

You walk up to her, hand over your passport, immunization records, etc. and she hands back two pieces of paper work and tells you to bring them back up when you are done. The order in which you finish the paper work is the order that you get your exam finished. Craig finished his fourth, so he took it up to her, and she gave him a slip with a 4 on it. By the time Craig had finished his paperwork, about 20 other people had shown up for their exam. I think they went all the way up to number 20, so get there early!

After he got the paper they told him that after 6:45 he could go over to the building next door (you walk through indoors) to get bloodwork done. You walk over to the next building, and there is another waiting room. When the bloodwork place opens at 7, they'll call a group of numbers. They started with 1-4. So those people went in, took them all of 5 minutes to do everyone, and then we were told to go back to the pink faux leather waiting room for x-ray. A few minutes passed, someone walked out of the door for x-ray and called numbers 1-6, that took maybe....10 minutes. Then we were told to sit and wait for the exam. They called one by one. Craig went in, and I swear the exam was maybe 5 minutes. He said Dr. Morgan had him strip down to his boxers, listened to his heart and his lungs, and that was it. Craig said Dr. Morgan was so incredibly nice that he wished he could be him family doctor. Oh...and I think Dr. Morgan looks like Gene Hackman.

So, we were out of there by 7:45. We went and got some breakfast. Spent some time doing the touristy thing in Gastown (yay cheesy souvenir shops). We walked by the building on our way to the beach at 1pm, and the #20 was JUST coming out of the building, so I stress, get there EARLY! We came back to the building at 2 to pick up the results. It took them until 2:30ish to get them ready. But we picked them up and were good to go.

Soooo, onto the interview.

Our appointment was for 10:00am, so we didn't get there until 9:45 or so. The bulding is unmarked really, so make sure you know the exact address. The Consulate part is a small side entrance. You walk into the door, and there is a tiny (I'm talking 5x5) area to do security. There were two women there one checked the interview letter and our passports, and checked Craig's name off a list, and the other asked us to empty our pockets, take off belts and jackets, and hand her our paperwork. We took in two large accordion folders, one binder, and a photo album. I had a small wristlet purse with me. They seemed fine with all of this, although they looked through every opening of the accordion folders. We then walked through the metal detector. Collect your things (don't put everything back on, you have to go through security again!). You then go up a set of stairs to the elevator where you meet a guard. He was so funny and nice. Talking about how much fun we are going to have being married and how he can't wait to see us smile when we come back down from the interview.

So, the guard takes you to the 20th floor, you get off and there is more security. Same drill as before. They checked our interview letter again, and directed us to the visa room. It's a small room with a small hallway attached. When we got there, it was PACKED (standing room only) of people trying to get non-immigrant visas. But as the people interviewing for K visa started arriving, the very nice elevator guard started clearing them out so we could have seats. The little hallway has four little blue seats facing 5 or so partitioned plexiglass windows. No sooner than we sat down, a man came to the window infront of us and called Craig's name. He couldn't have been any nicer if he tried. He really put us at ease. He pulled out a checklist and asked for each form individually.

A few things of note, he asked for TWO copies of the DS-156 and then also TWO copies of Craig's birth certificate. He asked for only ONE copy of the I-134 and all the evidence. He barely even glanced at the W2s and just handed them back to me. He asked us if we needed any of the other evidence back, we said no. He looked through our forms, saw where we checked "yes" to a border denial. He asked us what happened, we explained, he said "Don't worry. Happens all the time." and never mentioned it again. He said everything was in order, and said it'd take about an hour to get prepared for the interview, and to expect it to come around 11. He asked Craig to go to window #1 and pay the fee, and then just bring the receipt back and wait for the interview.

So, we sat back down, a few other K visa applicants came in, and we all nervously chatted. I have to admit, I was SO much more relaxed than I thought I'd be. Once I got into the building, it was so...not intimidating. I mean, the chairs are all ghetto and you can see the people joking and laughing with each other back in the office. It's just....not the intimidating government building I'd thought it'd be. It also helped that everyone we encountered in the building was crazy nice to us.

So, a little after 11 they called us up to the last window (the only one without people sitting in front of it). The interviewing officer was a very young guy, who was smiling when we walked up, that was nice. He asked if I was the fiancee, and then had Craig do the oath and sign the form. He actually ended up asking us more questions that either of us expected, but they were all easy answers:

- How'd you meet? (We met online on livejournal.com)

- How did you find each other on Livejournal?

- What did you like about each other's profiles?

- When did you first meet in person?

- Who came to who?

- What happened after the first meeting?

- What about after the second meeting?

- When did you decide to get engaged?

- What do you do for a living (directed to me)?

- Where will you be living?

- Why the U.S. and not Canada?

It was more of a conversation between the three of us than just straight on questions, but those give the general idea. Then he asked to see our pictures, I handed the photo album over to him, and he saw the first picture of Craig with a nosering, and asked him if it hurt and what the process was like. He asked us where a few pictures were taken and when. He then verified where we'd be living, in Bloomington, Indiana, and started chatting to me about the movie "Breaking Away" about Bloomington. He was laughing and smiling the whole time. He shuffled some papers and said, "You can pick up your visa around 2 this afternoon." Craig and I looked at each other with an "That's it?" look, and then looked at the officer and he said "That's it!" We gathered all our evidence and then hugged in the little hallway and my eyes started to well up. We skipped on out of the room. All the guards we encountered on the way in were smiling and told us congrats.

We left, did some touristy stuff around downtown, and then came back a little before 2. The sign outside says to return at 2:45 for the visa, but that's for the vistor/work visas only. K visas go in at 2, so ignore the sign. The security guards had told us to not bring any bags or paperwork and JUST the immigrant can come in to pick up the visa. So I took all the paperwork and sat down at Starbucks (it's on the first floor of the same building, just walk down the street 10 steps from the consulate entrance). I waited for Craig, and 10 minutes later he came back with passport in hand and a WHITE (not brown!) envelope.

We were merrily on our way. He booked his ticket last night and will be in Indianapolis at 6pm on Monday the 12th!

:star; Cass (bebop the great)

YAY, We got the visa. And now we're off to get really drunk on some good beer.

I'll post a full review of the medical/interview/awesome process on Monday.

Cass (bebop the great)

Even better, I speak INDIANA English. Very, very different.

Cass (bebop the great)

Err, aren't you American? You don't speak English, you speak American English. Very different.

I always got much better results with emailing. They'd email me back within a few hours in most cases.

Vancouverk@state.gov

Cass (bebop the great)

Trying to call Vancouver but I can't seem to get an option to talk to someone in their K visa department and can't find one anywhere. Does anyone know the extension or what number to call (if different than what is posted on the consulate website).

Oooh, and restaurant or attraction recommendations? We're staying in North Vancouver, but will have a rental car, so the whole city is open.

Cass (bebop the great)

Have a great time in Vancouver!!!!! I grew up in Vancouver and think it's the most beautiful part of the whole world!!!!

Either one way or round trip, although round trip will probably be cheaper.

Your wedding dress? It doesn't matter. It depends on the airline and how they can accommodate it.

Cass (bebop the great)

I don't know which feeling is more overwhelming, the nervousness about the interview, or the excitement that I get to see Craig and I haven't seen him in 3 months. I am for sure, trapped in a glass case of emotion.

Tomorrow I fly to Seattle, drive to Vancouver to pick up Craig from the Vancouver Airport. Wednesday is medical. Thursday at 10:00am is the dreaded interview.

I feel good about our evidence and paperwork. I've gone over it three million times and have a hard time imagining how they could come up with a denial, but alas, I'm too jaded to think ourselves into the clear. I'm actually much more calm and much less nervous than I thought I'd be. I thought by this point I'd be huddled in the fetal position in the corner asking for my Mommy. But nope, I'm still a fully-functioning (albeit on edge) member of society. Actually, out of everything, I find myself worried the most about Craig's flight. It's his first time flying and I want it to be a GREAT experience for him, especially since he'll be flying alone.

All-in-all, we are going to make Vancouver a great trip. We factored in some extra days after the interview to visit his family, sight-see, and just enjoy being together and exploring a city we've never seen. We've already scoped out some good restaurants (with good beer lists) that we're for sure taking trips to.

So, I'll catch you guys on the flip side. And it better be with visa in hand.

Cass (bebop the great)

EDIT: #######, I mean to post this in the Canada forum. Oh well, helllooooo world!

I make fun of Craig for not speaking English correctly all the time.

Crazy Canadian English.

OOOOT AND ABOOT!

Cass (bebop the great)

it's funny to make fun of people with accents or who don't speak or understand English perfectly, and that's it's American humor to make fun like this, then I'd say the same thing.

RACIST. INTOLERANT. ARROGANT.

Good luck and thanks! Start the week off well for the rest of us!

Cass (bebop the great)