Tim n Irina

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.

Spacibo Vlad!

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.

6 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

This is the definitive study guide:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/382775-mrs-t-b-the-citizenship-test/

 

OMG that's priceless!   🤣

I spewed coffee all the keyboard, sending the bill.  The price tag for your free kitchen remodel is piling up.  

19 hours ago, uapilot said:

I wish we had gone that route now, haha.

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

On 6/4/2021 at 12:10 PM, Paul&Anna said:

My wife has been document-ally qualified since April 29th. The NVC hasn’t scheduled an interview at the Embassy yet. How long are people waiting for Kiev? Also I keep reading about other people scheduling their own interview? How is this? I called the NVC and they said that is impossible. 

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.

19 hours ago, DaveAndAnastasia said:

I think @Tim n Irina is talking about delivery of the actual card for a CR-1/IR-1 (though the endorsed visa counts as a green card), not AOS from a K-1 (which even pre-pandemic almost never took less than 90 days unless you were at a very fast field office).

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.

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.

On 2/20/2021 at 5:01 AM, Chancy said:

 

Up to 90 days, according to USCIS -- https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/expect-green-card

 

Some VJ members have reported waiting for much longer, but the wait time seems to be getting back to normal.  Check the recent updates on this thread --

 

 

Reminder that your immigrant visa with CBP entry stamp serves as your green card for 1 year while waiting for your plastic card in the mail.

 

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.

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.

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?

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.

2 hours ago, uapilot said:

Ah, I missed that you were doing a CR-1/IR-1. Sorry, that may have been the wrong info.

If it's required for you, then it's valid for one year from the date of issue.

 

No worries.  I'm pretty sure the last one has expired so good we're doing a fresh one.  Oh and we're up for the IR1 since we passed the 2 year marriage mark in 2019.

23 minutes ago, uapilot said:

Hey, we got ours scheduled recently for Mar 26, so we're on a tight schedule. We found out the hard way that a police report takes 1 month (!!) to complete, in case you haven't done that yet. There are paid agencies that can do an expedited report that takes between 3-7 days, however. But still, information we wish we had earlier.

I didn't see anything that indicated we needed a new one, but we decided to go get one just in case.  Plenty of time to get it done for us.

On 3/12/2021 at 10:25 AM, Myroslava said:

Congratulations for getting your interview date! There are two clinics that are accepted by the embassy in Kyiv, Medikom and IOM. You need to contact them to get an appointment date. It's good to do your medical like 2 weeks before the interview. 

Got the clinic booked for the day after I arrive, pick up the exam results the next day.  Hotel Ibis Vokzalna will be our home for 3 nights then off to Kramatorsk.

All we need now is a Yes from the CO.

Yeah, I considered a divine miracle after trying this since August and smacking a wall all the time.  Seriously, if it hadn't been for that "small still Voice" nudging me to try, we might still be in visa limbo.

For now I have transport all booked and paid for thru to KBP.  Will likely book a room in Ibis near Vokzalna.  Hoping to get booked at the IOM clinic at Tarasivska, awaiting a reply from them to confirm.

4 minutes ago, Myroslava said:

Congratulations for getting your interview date! There are two clinics that are accepted by the embassy in Kyiv, Medikom and IOM. You need to contact them to get an appointment date. It's good to do your medical like 2 weeks before the interview. 

THANKS!  I thought a day or 2 prior was the norm.  I'm returning to UA the 20th so I suppose we could schedule it for the 21st. 

Must discuss it with her first, but it would reduce the number of nights spent in a hotel.

Tim

Found it!

Its amazing what one can find when looking through all those saved site links. 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Supplements/Supplements_by_Post/KEV-Kyiv.html#med_exam_instructions

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

Thanks Steve, but I can't get to the Scheduling page.  I just get a loading error.

Again, I'm trying to reschedule and they won't help me by email or phone.  I get the same treatment your gal did.

Greetings fellow sufferers.  Its been quite some time since I last checked in.

Ok, here we go...

Our package was sent to Kyiv in Jan (2020) and in Feb/Mar received the email that the interview was scheduled for mid July. 

PROBLEM:  We were In So. Africa visiting our daughter, due to return the end of Apr.  THEN they locked us down end of Mar.

So, we had to cancel the interview and told that I had to reschedule online or through the Consulate call center.  Call center was useless, she only gave me the email that told me to call in.  We finally escaped the end of July and I've been hitting the same wall ever since I got back to Maine.

So, I've been trying to get on the scheduling page only to get a lot of "No appointments are available at this time" then a couple of months ago it changed to a page loading error.  Feedback emails have not resolved anything.

Does anyone know (actually know) what's going on in Kyiv?  

I can't find anything on the Kyiv Consulate site (ustraveldocs) that says whether they're interviewing at all right now.

Thanks,

Tim

On 10/6/2020 at 10:09 AM, Ryan and Iryna said:

CAN WE SCHEDULE AN INTERVIEW WITHOUT HEARING FROM THE EMBASSY???

 

Our case has been "Ready" for interview for over a month and we haven't heard anything from the Kyiv embassy.

 

Others who filed in Kyiv AFTER us have scheduled interviews already!

 

Someone please advise on if we need to wait to be contacted?  

 

THANK YOU!!!

 

Ryan 

Hi Ryan,

I feel your pain.  Wondering if you've had any success.

We were scheduled by the Consulate in July but had to cancel because we couldn't return to UA due to the lock downs.  Now I have to reschedule but can't get into the scheduling page. 

Been getting a page loading error for 2+ months and before that "No appointments are available..."

UPDATE

So, I have the following completed for the CR-1 petition.

COMPLETED

G-1145 - digital notification request.

I-130

I-130a

Complete copy of my passport

Complete copy of her passport

Translated and notarized copy of our Marriage cert.

Certified copies of my Divorce judgments.  (Court Certified and Attested for legal use.  Maine does not issue decrees)

Evidence of Bonifide marriage.  Pics in front of famous Kyiv landmarks, travel itineraries, train tix, etc.

PENDING:  

Apostilled and notarized translation (of the Apostilled copy) of her divorce certificate (or w/e its called).

Cover letter

PP photos for both of us.  - IIRC the CIS site said TWO photos, but the guide here says one.

Check for $535 USD

Again, this is a CR-1 petition for a UKRAINIAN National (less than 2 years married) and it looks like we'll submit the package to the Chicago drop box from Ukraine as I'll be heading back in a month.

Am I missing anything?

Honestly, I thought applying for Ukrainian Temp Residency was a PITA.  That was a walk in the park.