featherB

Actually, Boiler, this is the one time I have to disagree. I entered Manchester, England on a VWP without a return ticket. The officers at the gate gave me hell, but they let me in the country.

Is that something the US requires?

The VWP is for travel TO the US, right...? So if you were visiting the UK from the US, you weren't using the VWP. Unless I'm misunderstanding your post, of course. The VWP does require a return or onward ticket, AFAIK.

I dunno but I think I've missed stuff too - haven't been in this thread in a while.

Did you all see in my siggy that I have a bun in the oven?

Tracy with bun in oven?! Big big big congrats!!! How very awesomely... awesome!

I will forward this to my husband to study. Is it bad that I can't answer half the questions and I'm the USC?? lol

For anyone who has an iPhone... there's also an app for that. Well, there's several, I think - I downloaded one a couple of months ago called "Naturalization Test" and have resorted to going through the questions a couple of times on boring car journeys (and I'm not even eligible to file my N-400 yet). It's pretty good - it gives the questions as (sort of) "flash cards" that you can flip to see the answer, and you can mark "favorites" (i.e. the ones you have trouble remembering) and tell it to ignore questions too (i.e. the easy ones). I will definitely be using it a lot in the coming months, until I can get all those answers drummed into my thick skull!

May as well add my response...

I got the 90-day employment authorization stamp on my I-94 when I entered the US on my K-1 in April 2007, but I didn't actively seek employment until after receiving my EAD and green card (within days of each other) in August 2007. I found a job as a waitress in August/September 2007 (I can't remember now but think I found the job pretty much straight away but put off my start date until September because my mother was coming to visit) and worked every shift I could get, while applying for anything and everything else that paid a steadier wage in the mean time. I lost count of how many positions I applied for, but it was a LOT. I did fire off a huge amount to one particular locally-based big company, and after many automatic rejections,was surprised to get an email inviting me for a pre-interview for a job I'd applied for with them, in December 2007. I was then invited for a real interview, and was quite amazed to be offered the job... started in January 2008, and am still there now.

I do consider myself VERY lucky to have found a job so quickly. Even more so considering that that interview was literally the only one I got out of many, many applications I submitted. The same week I had the interview-turned-job-offer-turned-job, I had an interview at a local temp agency, where the recruiter sounded very positive that she'd be able to find me plenty of openings (this was 2007, mind...) - never did get to find out how that would have gone, as the job offer came up immediately afterwards. Like I said, I was lucky. Very lucky, I think!

Good luck to anyone out there who's job-hunting, or about to be. Applying for and interviewing for jobs are right up there among the things I hate most in the world, and it's difficult right now for everyone, let alone people who've just arrived in the US from other countries...

The Selective Service System is a means by which the United States maintains information on those potentially subject to military conscription. All males between the ages of 18 to 25 are required by law to register within 30 days of their 18th birthday As of the end of 2008, the names and addresses of over 14 million men are on file.

Why the copied-and-pasted-from-Wikipedia quote? That doesn't help answer the OP's question at all.

Anyway... like Kathryn said - the wording on the application is just not applicable to your husband, OP. The question seems to be assuming that all applicants will be USCs born and bred. Your husband did nothing wrong in not replying for selective service - is it possible for him to write "n/a" on the form and possibly include a brief explanation as to why it's not applicable?

Hello fellow VJ members,

In connection with my other post about the wrong data in my 10 yr. green card,, some said I need to file I-190 for correction of my green card.

The fee is $370 and some said if it's their fault for the clerical error then i do not have to pay for the fee. My 2 yrs. green card is correct but my 10 yr. green card is not.

My correct name is:

First Name ---Maria

Middle name/single name---Llamera

Married name--Smith

The 10 yr green card shows:

MARIA LLAMRA SMITH ( letter "A" is missing)

My questions are:

1. Who's fault is it that my green card is not correct? I did sent them a copy of my 2 yr. green card, old and new passport and other documents with correct spelling?

2. SHould i pay the I-90 fee which is $370.00?

How can i convince them that it is not my fault for the clerical error in my card?

Please please i would appreciate your help.

Do you have copies of your I-751 form showing that you spelled your name correctly on there? When I had to file an I-90 I made an Infopass first (so that I could get the I-551 stamp), and the officer made a point of looking my "stuff" up in the system - from what she could see (although I have no idea what that was), she seemed satisfied that it was their mistake and not mine that led to my incorrectly-spelled green card. I also showed my NOA for the I-485 application showing the correct spelling, and had copies of the forms in hand to prove that I know how to spell my own name. Whether it helped or not I have no idea, but she did note something down somewhere in "the system" before giving me my I-551 stamp to state that I'd be applying for a replacement green card due to USCIS error. When you send the I-90, send a cover letter stating that you're filing for a replacement with no fee due to THEIR error, and send copies of evidence to back this up.

Good luck!

This is a terrible shame to get so far and then have to start all over again.

When I first came over here on my K1 I used to have nightmares that I went home to do something and forgot all about the fact my visa was only valid for one entry. It was awful and I would wake up and be so thankful it was a dream. For this poor person there is no waking up.

Hope they get it sorted out and stay strong if they have to go through the process again.

Luke and Deanna

I had those dreams too.

For this person, I think the only hope (of not having to start again with an immigrant visa) is that it might turn out that the AP was approved before they left the US, and they just don't know about it yet. I think people have managed to get away with that (leaving before receiving their physical AP docs), but if that's not the case, I believe the AOS application is deemed to have been abandoned, and they need to start from scratch.

As someone said below - it really is worth repeating that in emergency situations, emergency advance parole IS available, exactly for cirucumstances such as this. Make an Infopass and be prepared to offer proof of why you need the emergency AP.

Depending on how long since you filed your I-751 and when your NOA with the one year extension runs out, you might want to make an Infopass appointment before you send off the I-90 and ask very nicely for an I-551 stamp in your passport to show that you really are an LPR. I did this when my conditional green card showed up with a misspelled middle name, and although the replacement showed up reasonably fast, I'm glad I got the stamp in my passport as a backup. The officer I spoke to at the Infopass was also able to look up my information in the system somehow and verify what I already knew - that the typo was their mistake, and not mine. I then included this in the cover letter for my I-90 (that USCIS had already admitted that this was their error - of course I provided plenty of proof to back this up, too, as I didn't want them turning around and trying to extract another fee from me!) - it probably didn't help, but it can't have hurt!

Good luck - it's annoying having to file an I-90, but fingers crossed you'll get a quick resolution. With mine, I didn't get a proper NOA, but I did get a letter, eventually, acknowledging that they'd received it, and then I started to see updates to my I-485 status online. I'd imagine you may get similar updates on your I-751 status...

OP, together your credit score is well above average for American borrowers. In my experience, it will take another year for the rating agencies to raise it above 700. It is respectable as is, so why not just go ahead and apply for the mortgage now? Interest rates are sure to increase as the economy recovers further. On the other hand, no matter what your credit score, some major banks just aren't accepting applications from new borrowers.

There's no reason to assume that (the bolded part) - it could be a matter of something so simple as having a credit card report a different balance (less than 5% but higher than nothing at all, ideally!), an existing tradeline becoming a year old, an inquiry dropping off, something like that... there are any number of things that could easily get the OP's FICO score above 700. A bit of reading on myfico.com will help figure out what you can do to 'polish' your scores, OP!

OP, also remember that mortgage lenders will look at the middle score of the loan applicant with the lowest scores (i.e. they look at both spouses FICO scores from Transunion, Equifax and Experian, and whichever spouse's mid-score is the lowest, that's the one they'll use when determining your interest rate). [edited to add - you cannot buy your Experian FICO score anymore. Don't waste money buying any other kind of EX score, as it will be just that - a waste of money]. myfico.com has a mortgage forum where I learned a ton of useful information when we were buying our home - my husband (the USC) actually had slightly lower scores than me, and my research on that site was as useful to me in house-buying (or at least, getting approved for a mortgage without getting ripped off) as my research on VJ has been for immigration! I'd highly recommend going there for a read and some advice - I went from being told on other forums that I didn't have a chance in hell of getting approved for a mortgage (including one memorably snotty response from an alleged loan officer who rudely informed me that "in case you didn't notice, this is the US, not the UK, and no lender is going to care about your credit or employment history in the UK" and told me I would NOT be getting a loan - charming), to finding out that actually, it could be done. We got an FHA loan with a fantastically low (at the time!) interest rate, and the lender did consider my 9 years of continuous employment in the UK when considering our application.

Good luck! Things have tightened up since we bought in May 2008, but I know it can still be done! All I ever heard on the news at the time we were househunting, getting approved for our loan, etc, was that it was IMPOSSIBLE to get a mortgage... and yet we managed to do so with relative ease. I have to say that the time between making the offer and closing was the most stressful thing ever, though - immigration has NOTHING on house-buying!

My income is not enough to qualify since I am partial owner of a rental property which effects my debt-to-income ratio... Everything we have are already in joint accounts. And we have been told that due to the current economic climate a good credit score is absolutly necessary regardless of what we put down... unless it is 100% (which of course we would not need a mortgage!!!) We are still pursuing private "self-funded" lenders since they do not need you to qualify under the Freddy/Fannie rules... But it is looking more like we will need to wait it out and buld up credit for him... It just sucks that we have planned for years for him to get off the ships and buy a house and start our family then you have slam on the brakes!!! I guess this explains why the housing market is taking so long to recover, they went from being way too loose with credit to not giving it out no matter what!!!

Have you looked at getting an FHA loan rather than a Fannie/Freddie one? That's what we did - we bought our house (with a joint mortgage) when I'd been in the US a little over a year, but had only been employed for about 4 months. We had a MUCH smaller deposit than you, and while my credit score was good, my credit file was very 'thin' (i.e. only a year's credit history)... this was in April/May 2008, so things may have changed a little, but under the FHA guidelines I know they are a LOT less strict than Fannie/Freddie about "must have two years in the same job/field, must have credit score of X or above", etc etc. We were able to get a really good interest rate, too. Might be worth looking at, if you haven't already...

Never mind your wife - I'm pretty sure YOU are no longer eligible for free healthcare on the NHS (and yep, I speak as a green card holder who paid my own NI for many years until moving here), as you're no longer resident there. Your wife most definitely isn't. Just cough up for some travel insurance for the pair of you, it's really not that expensive!

If you're a Permanent Resident, you don't need an EAD anymore, so you won't need to pay to replace that, at least. Sorry that happened to you.

Oooh - on Netflix - have you seen The I.T. Crowd? I love that show!

You've just decided my next Netflix rental(s)! Went back for my first visit to the UK since moving over here (in April '07) this May, and one of my friends was insisting that we must watch the IT crowd. I'd never heard of it, what with having been in Ohio for the preceding two years.

Aaaand... we sat and watched our way through multiple episodes, and it was bloody marvellous. Thanks for the reminder!

Also... Paulinespens, what you said about BBC America being "what the BBC would be like if they abolished the license fee" - that is SO true - absolutely spot on! So much better-put than my estimation of "utter shite".

I'm really disappointed with BBCA. I know really I'm lucky to have whatever they show, but the programming is so lazy and really sporadic at best. I like the idea of having the marathons on, but really, Cash in the Attic and Gordon Ramsey are on ALL THE TIME? They used to actually show Eastenders years ago but I think sold it off somewhere (according to another blog I read) and the continuity of some of the shows they do air, like Top Gear is all jumbled up, mixing seasons up, sometimes, with years between episodes. And then its all repeats repeats repeats (of stuff already shown on BBCA, not BBC and Channel 4... cos obviously it's all be repeats then;))

It could be a brilliant channel, to showcase loads of great shows from the UK, but sometimes, some of the choices, are well, poor, I think because ultimately the budget they have isn't that big to 'bring'the better shows over here.

Totally agree with you, lovelyalex! BBC America is appalling - I see better BBC programming (albeit ANCIENT BBC programming) on PBS - but BBCA just consists of the same endlessly-repeated drivel, all bloody day long, most of it not even BBC drivel, FFS! It's sad, when it has so much potential to showcase (and show off) what the BBC is all about, and what great TV can/should be like.

They stopped showing EastEnders years ago - around 2002ish, if I remember right. Teeth were gnashed, garments were rent, petitions were signed and sent, but all to no avail - all too expensive, apparently. Even back then, though, it was utter shite - Changing Rooms and Home Front all day, I think (didn't live here at the time, but got to witness it while staying with UK-expat friends), so when they stopped showing EastEnders the whole thing went to the dogs altogether.

On a less grumpy note, it is nice when I flip over to BBCA sometimes and find something like, I dunno, Catherine Tate on there. But it's mostly utter #######.

I'd pay good money, incidentally, to be able to get BBC World here in Ohio. Not available, though. Bah.

Editing to say... ummmm, sorry to the OP and all the other BBC America fans - I sound like a right moody old cow and I don't mean to!

Moving this to IR-1/CR-1, as I'm guessing that's where it should be, and you'll likely get more answers here than in Off Topic! Thanks, Charles, for PMing to get this thread moved to (hopefully) the right place.

Moved from K-3 to K-1 forum.

I for one don't like the fact that Amazon can access the content via IP and delete any material it sees fit to delete.

Wow....are you sure? I would think that would be illegal, even if they included it in the terms of service?

NPR had a story on this a month or two ago... they literally went in on several users and erased material that they deemed to be in violation of copyright arbitrarily.

Holy smoke! I could see someone challenging the constitutionality of that. Can you imagine if companies were allowed to look through your computer for anything you shouldn't have? There's no way this will continue...eventually some court will rule against it.

Link (yeah, hardly a news source, but it's where I first read the story, and I love the headline! ) . I quite fancied getting a Kindle until I read about that... I might still consider it if they sold "books" for the Kindle at a much lower price than the real thing, but... they don't. And I can't go and re-sell the Kindle version on eBay (or indeed Amazon) when I'm bored of it. Or lend it to my friends. Also not sure I could get used to reading books on an e-reader, it just wouldn't feel right!

You certainly don't want to lend a Kindle to a friend.

Swapping books among friends would become a thing of the past! Unless you just passed your Kindles around weekly or something. Musical Kindles.

I for one don't like the fact that Amazon can access the content via IP and delete any material it sees fit to delete.

Wow....are you sure? I would think that would be illegal, even if they included it in the terms of service?

NPR had a story on this a month or two ago... they literally went in on several users and erased material that they deemed to be in violation of copyright arbitrarily.

Holy smoke! I could see someone challenging the constitutionality of that. Can you imagine if companies were allowed to look through your computer for anything you shouldn't have? There's no way this will continue...eventually some court will rule against it.

Link (yeah, hardly a news source, but it's where I first read the story, and I love the headline! ) . I quite fancied getting a Kindle until I read about that... I might still consider it if they sold "books" for the Kindle at a much lower price than the real thing, but... they don't. And I can't go and re-sell the Kindle version on eBay (or indeed Amazon) when I'm bored of it. Or lend it to my friends. Also not sure I could get used to reading books on an e-reader, it just wouldn't feel right!

You're kidding, right? You can have a yard sale and sell your used books. I don't see how legally they could prevent anyone from selling their Kindle to a private party. It sounds to me like publishers are holding for dear life over their power of what gets published. I think we'll see a gradual shift from big publishing companies to individual authors self publishing their work. I believe Steven King has already released a digital only version of book he self published. We saw the same kind of power grab by the record companies when MP3's were first getting downloaded. Hopefully, the digital age will continue to make the middle man obsolete - and provide more open access between artists and consumers.

Hadn't even got as far as thinking about selling the Kindle (if I had one to sell, that is) - my guess would be that you could sell the Kindle itself no problem, but that you would (according to their usage agreement etc - which of course I admit to never having seen, so take this guess for what it's worth!) have to wipe all the content from it first. Kind of like how you're welcome to sell your iPod, but not loaded with MP3s. It does seem like with the Kindle, you're buying the right to read the work in question, and nothing more. You don't own anything at all... apart from the device you're reading it on. And when you couple that with Amazon's right to snatch back what you've paid for (yeah, they refunded all those people, but still... grr!)... hm, it's like paying tons of money to borrow a (rather fancy version of) a book. I'd rather just pay nothing and borrow one from the library, if I'm never going to own it.

I for one don't like the fact that Amazon can access the content via IP and delete any material it sees fit to delete.

Wow....are you sure? I would think that would be illegal, even if they included it in the terms of service?

NPR had a story on this a month or two ago... they literally went in on several users and erased material that they deemed to be in violation of copyright arbitrarily.

Holy smoke! I could see someone challenging the constitutionality of that. Can you imagine if companies were allowed to look through your computer for anything you shouldn't have? There's no way this will continue...eventually some court will rule against it.

Link (yeah, hardly a news source, but it's where I first read the story, and I love the headline! ) . I quite fancied getting a Kindle until I read about that... I might still consider it if they sold "books" for the Kindle at a much lower price than the real thing, but... they don't. And I can't go and re-sell the Kindle version on eBay (or indeed Amazon) when I'm bored of it. Or lend it to my friends. Also not sure I could get used to reading books on an e-reader, it just wouldn't feel right!

Hey, May filers! This thread seems to have a worrying lack of new news... anything to report for anyone?

I got my 10-year card a week ago today (I think... maybe it was Friday?!), and am glad to report that, unlike with the 2-year one, they actually spelled my name right. Glad to have the card in hand... and looking forward to the May 2010 N-400 filers thread!

Good luck, everyone still waiting... I will be following (and bumping) this thread. Oh, and Vermont? Pull yer finger out, OK??

The lawyer is wrong.

If you meet the requirements to file the N-400, you are eligible to file it, approved I-751 or not.

Congrats, Kathryn!!

If your wife leaves it in her passport, it will probably be taken at the airport. That's what happened to me - my AOS was approved in August 2007 but I didn't leave the US again until May this year. I had to carry a copy of my marriage certificate as the ticket (and my green card) were in my married name, but my passport is still in my maiden name. I had marriage certificate/green card/boarding card in a little plastic wallet, and had forgotten that my I-94 was also in there along with the boarding passes from when I came to the US on my K-1. Some impatient TSA/DHS/whatever guy wanted to see my driver's license (well, state ID as I don't have a driver's license) as well, due to the fact that my green card was "expiring" (yeah - in August. This was May. Everyone who saw the thing seemed to feel the need to glare at me and comment on the fact it was "expiring" )... while I was fumbling in my purse looking for that, impatient guy snatched my little plastic wallet and started going through it.

So, long story short, he found my I-94 and said "I'll take this" - oh well, there goes my K-1 souvenir! So, if your wife has long-term plans to use it as a bookmark, make sure she takes it out of my passport. Mine was never stapled in in the first place (I guess they were out of staples at JFK on the day I arrived ), hence sticking it in the wallet for safekeeping in the first place!

I'm moving this to the AOS forum, by the way... I know it's not strictly to do with the AOS process, but it's definitely not removal of conditions-related, either!

Mailing hubby's removing conditions package at lunch today.

Hooray - may USCIS do the approving thing speedily! I'm told (via CRIS-mail) that my 10 year green card was mailed out yesterday.

Yikes. I just realized that it is roughly 478 years since I last posted in the UK forum.

Behold, sponge candy!

Oh.... my.....

.... droooooolllll.