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Tim n Irina

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  • City
    Levant
  • State
    Maine

Immigration Info

  • Immigration Status
    IR-1/CR-1 Visa
  • Place benefits filed at
    Chicago Lockbox
  • Country
    Ukraine

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  1. Anyone else have some interesting or humorous stories to share about your spouse's initial settling in? Right now we seem to be in a bit of a cold war over US vs UA canning methods. "Honey you can't just pour hot water in, drain and repeat then seal the lids like in UA." "This how I do it" A couple days later I decide to check the seals on the lids (US Ball canning jars) and start removing the bands/rings where she can see it. "WHAT YOU DOING????" Actually it was something like "SHTO TII DELAT????? and and bunch of other words that I have no freakin clue. Its been kinda quiet for a few days now. Btw, I found two lids that didn't seal.
  2. -OR- Things our girls say when they first get here? Well, I married a city girl with a country girl's heart, which is good because we're building a small house (not a tiny house) on a dirt road, in rural Maine. What does she do? What any self respecting Ukrainian gal would do, go mushroom hunting of course. "Hachu les. hachu les." We're surrounded by woods, knock yourself out babe. We now have several lbs of dehydrated shrooms (reduced to several ounces) in the pantry and now she wants an old cheap blender to make some shroom powder for soups. I took her kayaking (sit on top) at one of my favorite local lakes. Now its "kagda go baidarka apyat?" Next time we're taking the sleek sea yaks out. Almost every time we get in the Ram to go to town I hear "Kak horosho" in a very contented voice. And yesterday when we returned to the apartment (10 mins away from the cabin site) on a rather humid day I hear "switch on the conditioner". SCORE! She has 2 jackets and 2 or 3 sweaters in the Ram so I can crank the AC. I'm actually a little nervous about when she finally opens that 6 CD set of Pimsler - Eng for Ru speakers sitting next to her laptop. She's still binge watching shroom hunting and thrift shop videos, so I'm safe for now. Her SSN and Green Card have both arrived. Now if I can get her to understand she needs to have these things WITH her when we go out (and her fishing license). I want to go to DMV and get her State ID card and open a bank account for her. Life is good So to sum things up. My gal's transition is going quite smoothly.
  3. Yesterday I heard my gal utter the best word ever (well, almost the best). She will frequently say things like "kak horosho" in that very contented tone, as we set out in the Ram to go somewhere. Yesterday it was "I'm happy in Maine." Of course having mushroom infested woods around our home building site doesn't hurt at all. We already have 2 of the large BJ's (or Sam's/ Costco) mixed nuts canisters full of dehydrated shrooms, some of which she wants to make powder out of.
  4. OMG that's priceless! 🤣 I spewed coffee all the keyboard, sending the bill. The price tag for your free kitchen remodel is piling up.
  5. There were many times I wished we had gone the K1 route....or just flew to Mexico and walked in. But its all done and over with now so all's gone. And to be honest I made several mistakes on my AOS that resulted at least a year's delay. Being stuck in S. Africa last year caused almost another year delay when we got the notice for her interview July 14th 2020
  6. Hi Paul, It looks like your thread kinda got hijacked and I didn't find any updates on your situation so.... Hopefully you've had your interview scheduled by now. We got our interview date set by the Consulate last year a month (or so?) after receiving notice that our petition had been sent to Kyiv. Thinking back (which makes my brain cramp) we got the notice in Jan and the interview date notice in Mar or April. So to answer your question it shouldn't take more than a couple months, but it might. Unfortunately we were stuck in S. Africa visiting our daughter and couldn't fly out so had to cancel our mid July 2020 date. Later in July 2020 we finally escaped, but due to restrictions we had to part ways in A-dam. Then I was told by Kyiv that I had to reschedule and for months could not get into the scheduling page. I finally got in and was able to reschedule it for Apr 29th this year. All done now, she's in Maine with me and we celebrated her GC arrival Sunday with her first lobster dinner.
  7. Thanks, you're correct. I was talking about delivery time after entry. UPDATE: her GC arrived in the mail on Saturday, so 28 (ish) days after arrival. IR1 good for 10 years. Now to get her on some Eng lessons so she can study for the Citizens test.
  8. After poking around here a bit, I see that the GC is taking up to 90 days or more these days. Anyone have recent info on that? We're fine if it takes awhile as she CAN use the stamped visa as her GC for now.
  9. Thank you!!! Wife has IR1, we arrived Boston 6/25/21. SSN card arrived early July 2021. Still waiting for GC, will try to remember to post when it comes in.
  10. The only packet I was worried about being opened was the Med Exam stuff that only the Consular Officer could open. After that we had the CD for the CBP at our point of entry. There was no packet of docs. The stuff (I thought) was in our baggage was just the stuff we submitted to start the visa process and as it turns out, is still in our bedroom in Kramatorsk. We were both so concerned with what stuff we could bring with, neither of us thought about it. A translated copy of our marriage doc would be nice to have. Oh well, we'll manage and our house mate can ship it to us if needed before we make another trip over. On a cheerier note, her SSA card showed up in the mail today. I thought we had to go apply for that. Just waiting for her GC, but we can go open a bank account for her now. Then an Ebay & Etsy shop for her hand crafts.
  11. I forgot to mention, we DID have a bit of drama in Zurich airport on our way home. We flew United (?)/ Swiss Air KBP-ZRH-BOS During preboarding check in at the gate the checker wanted to see her immy folder from the Consulate. She then sent us to an adjacent gate where the supervisor was working and after explaining why we were there HE asked for the same thing. ME: that's all in checked baggage, we have the disk for the Med Exam. Him: Are you married ME: Yes Him: Do you have your marriage certificate? Me: No we have a valid Immigration Visa issued by the US Govt. Why do you need to see anything else? Now my voice is starting to rise. Him: Um, have a good flight It took Irina over an hour (in flight) to finally calm down from that one. What the ACTUAL hell? Anyone else fly through ZRH?
  12. UPDATE: Its SO good to be HOME..TOGETHER. We arrived in Boston June 25, spent the night in Portsmouth NH and drove home to (now) Dixmont, ME on Sat the 26th. We are now settling in and getting started on making our cabin habitable and awaiting the arrival of her Green Card...which isn't actually green, but I digress. In BOS they were sending all Immy visa holders to a side room where (I think) CBP made online checks of everyone's Med records. So why the disk? Any way, all is good and it only took about 10 minutes.
  13. THEY SAID APPROVED and her passport is with TMM. TMM called and told her Fri or next Tuesday, Monday is Victory day. I didn't get to go in with her (rona restrictions), but she came out and gave me a smile and a nod and we went to celebrate with some friends in Cherkassy for the weekend. So... - We did the Med Exam (at IOM/MOM) the week before - 21 Apr. - They didn't request a new Police Report from her, but we did one anyway. - They DID request (by phone no less) a new tax return from me. Great I'm in Ukraine and all my stuff was in Maine. Got pics of the 1099s sent and did the return, emailed and submitted at CEAC. - And of course the day before while packing for the trip to Kyiv my original Divorce docs were nowhere to be found! SERIOUSLY? There were copies, but no originals. Turned out to be a nonissue. They were more concerned that there weren't any couple pics in the stack of docs. lol. So now we have to wait for the UA Pension Dept. to grind out her retirement. She just hit 60 Apr 26th. I was hoping to be back in Maine by Memorial Day, but not so sure about that now.
  14. Its been awhile since I last stopped in, TBH I've been in a real funk being apart from my bride. The GOOD NEWS: I finally got into the Interview scheduler and we have a date set for Apr 29 in Kyiv. Major load off my heart there. I already registered for PP delivery (its on our Dash Board at least). I'm trying find whether or not I need to schedule the Med Exam tho or is just walk in? I'll keep digging, but if anyone chimes in, I'd be much obliged. Stay safe out there, Tim
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