DaveAndAnastasia

4 hours ago, Infoman said:

Good question.  I wasn't aware of any time restrictions to travel once they are in the US - ARE there?  As for green card, I'd like to know as well.

If you're doing a spousal visa so they have a green card right away, no there aren't any travel restrictions other than ensuring you spend enough time in the US to maintain residency between entering the US and applying to remove conditions, renew a green card, and/or US citizenship.

If you're doing a K-1, you need advance parole or a green card before leaving the US if you want to return without starting all over with a new visa.

On 4/18/2024 at 12:53 PM, JayFromTexas said:

2) You don't have to go through the lengthy K1-CR1 Adjustment of Status (AOS) process (I think we will have to adjust from Cr1 to IR1, but I haven't researched that step, yet. I am under the impression that CR1 to IR1 is a much simpler and easier process, but not sure.

Your immigrant spouse doesn't adjust from a CR1 to a IR1, (s)he removes conditions on a his or her permanent residence. You always have to do this on a fiancé(e) visa; on a spousal visa if you've been married for two years when you enter the US you get an IR-1 visa and a non-conditional green card that you don't need to adjust status from.

Back when we did things it was taking about 9 months from filing petition to visa issue for a K-1 and about 18 months for a CR-1. Plus there were no Utah zoom marriages then and given that I couldn't realistically spend a month in Russia to marry there and Anastasia couldn't realistically get a US tourist visa to marry here (even pre-war in Ukraine, young single Russian women rarely got tourist visas approved) we would have had to marry in a third country to do a CR-1. And we wanted to have a child soon (and our son was born a little over a year after she arrived in the US), so working ASAP wasn't a huge priority. And this was pre-Covid when we didn't really know or care that the state department basically wouldn't care about fiancé(e)s in an emergency. So we did a K-1 then, and I think it was the right decsion then.

But now, for any couple that can overcome the logistical hurdles to make a US/Russia relationship work these days, I wouldn't advise doing one.

22 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

All you need is Many points, si and see and  DA man!

Perhaps Lot understands and accepts points in p-Math, but Southwest does not. 🤣

22 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Borrow or rent some, si DA man.

Actually have a decent collection of my own stuff despite not being much of a DIY home improvements guy (and, y'know, living in rented housing until two years after I married PRG).

Five years of marriage with PRG today.

Still contemplating how incredibly implausible my non-work life now would have seemed to me before we met (prior romantic attempts on my part being ... really unsuccessful), and very glad she's part of my life.

For some reason mini-Dave's daycare seemed to think "he'll be four soon" meant "he's four now" (corrected them on this a few times), so he was in a class with slightly older kids for a few weeks. Seems happier with new class (though this is only day 2). Also started soccer, which he seems to be having fun with. Watches some British cartoons on YouTube, so will need to make sure he doesn't start calling it football (nothing wrong with soccer, but futbol no es football).

Met up with a couple of guys I know from an online college football fans group over the weekend.

Despite rain, and a baby shower taking up the room with the kid-height tables, was good to meet some other people here.

Also have an old college friend in town; need to catch up with him again (did meet while I was here over Christmas break).

Arranged for parents-Dave to visit for mini-Dave's birthday (have been to every one but his 0th); paid for tickets entirely with airline points that had been sitting around unused (because buying points isn't very efficient, three transcontinental tickets was way more than I had in points, and it's usually a good idea to get all tickets in one transaction when traveling together). Wonder if papa-Dave will do more minor household repairs and upgrades this time; won't be able to bring his tools when flying instead of driving.

Closed on old place on Friday because county recorder's office has meetings today.

Closing on new place on Tuesday.

Staying here until Friday anyway.

Trying to get away with only taking one day off of work because the movers say they should be here on Monday and I have President's day off work, but we'll see.

Going out for dinner tonight with neighbors. Haven't seen them much since they had their second baby, but they've been good friends to us here.

Papa-Dave has put together long list of stuff from the inspector's report that he says he can fix; will be there later next week with mama-Dave (who gets to play with mini-Dave, though we've already found a new preschool for him).

NC law apparently means he needs to see a doctor in NC or a neighboring state before starting preschool in NC, so have an appointment with the closest pediatrician I could make an appointment with online for a holiday. Anything he can't fix we'll need to call professionals.

On 2/4/2024 at 11:03 AM, Lil bear said:

Visa requirements are based on Passport country ( eg Philippines) not country of residence 

There are a few countries where US permanent residents can normally visit legally without a visa, but they're in the Americas.

On 2/1/2024 at 9:28 AM, TBoneTX said:

Scintillating repartee lately except from DA man, yawn except for DA man man.

And that's probably a short-term thing. After we move, will no longer be starting work at 7 am and so have some free time between signing off for the day and picking up mini-Dave from preschool.

/though PRG's job won't let her start earlier than 7 Pacific, so I think I'll be making dinner every day we don't go out instead of just most days

//not really a problem; I like cooking; made some Hungarian goulash yesterday because mini-Dave decided he didn't like stroganoff so tried to come up with something else to do with the meat and that turned out well, even if I used cheap store-brand paprika despite recipe calling for imported Hungarian sweet paprika

On 1/29/2024 at 2:15 PM, OldUser said:

I would like to discuss pros and cons of all payment methods one can use to pay USCIS fees.

 

Here's my view and understanding so far.

 

Credit Card

Pros:

- Can earn miles / points / cashback

- Can spread the payments (think of 0% APR intro + 10% effective cashback in the first year etc)

- You know when USCIS charges it

Cons:

- Requires a credit history and card

- Payment can be easily denied due to suspicious charge (yes, USCIS fees can be viewed as suspicious by bank IT systems) or hitting the limit. USCIS won't retry charging it.

Also pro:

You fill out a USCIS-supplied form to use a credit card. It cannot be made out to the wrong person, have some missing or incorrect information in the memo box, or anything like that.

/I used a credit card for everything without issues.

On 1/29/2024 at 7:15 PM, TBoneTX said:

Even as a lifelong USC, I do the same with jury-service summons.  Whether I postal-mail or scan/e-mail my exemption form, I'll hold a copy until the court clerk responds with an OK.  Fortunately, my county is good about sending "received; you're excused; you need do nothing more" responses.

In California they don't send a response unless your request for excuse / rescheduling is denied.

Anastasia has gotten 3 summons for jury duty.

First one (while still an LPR) - checked "not a citizen", mailed back.

Second one - filled out request to delay online

Second one - filled out request to delay online even though we'll have moved out of state by the summons date because requesting a delay is simpler

1 hour ago, TBoneTX said:

We are feeling rather out on a limb, unclear how to proceed man.

Dunno, only one I ever had many dates with was PRG despite how old I was when we met.

And "hope the girl who looked really cute on one of the few non-scammy Russian dating sites in existence, had a nice profile, and seemed nice in one email was busy and not blowing you off and so will respond to a follow-up" doesn't seem like a replicable plan, even if getting back and forth from Russia wasn't a pain right now. Also, much more likely to find a brunette that way.

19 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

We congratulate you on exiting that needlessly expensive state for NC, si DA man.

I mean, if they paid us like we lived in San Francisco, we could afford to stay in San Diego (we want to see my family more than 2-3 times a year, and PRGs at least once a year*). However, no one seemed willing to do this.

19 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Now what about employment, huh DA man?

New job is going pretty well three months in, and both PRG and I are fully remote (and I mostly work with people in Eastern time anyway). So that's fine.

13 hours ago, Neonred said:

On another note, sad to see you have caved to TBone's crazy math...

One time thing.

 * If flying from 'Murrica to Russia becomes possible again. If it's third-country meetups or workarounds to get into Russia (and as long as I'm working for a defense contractor, I think the latter is likely PRG traveling alone or with mini-Dave but without me) indefinitely, I think it'll probably be every other year, but want to make a third-country meetup this summer happen because it'll have been five years. Mini-Dave still has one living great-grandparent in Russia who we'd like to get to see him in person at least once, but that'll take going to Russia (if she were fifteen years younger, would be easier to convince to go outside of Russia than PRG's mom).

So since my last check-in here, we've

- Visited the Raleigh area between Christmas and New Years (mini-Dave was informed that Santa knew we would be flying early Christmas morning and so stopped at our place on Christmas Eve) to evaluate potential relocation (we want a house with a yard, to be closer to my family, to save money, and we don't really have close friends or family out here). Parents drove up from Florida to meet us after Christmas morning with my brother and his wife and kid (even more mini than mini-Dave) and so got there the next day. Saw many houses (generally accompanied by papa-Dave while mini-Dave got some grandma time), checked out things to do for mini-Dave (children's museums, indoor playgrounds, parks). Had a good time, really liked the area, and concluded we could in fact get a nice many (2*2) - bedroom house with almost twice the square footage of our townhouse in a good school district for less than we paid for our townhouse. Found a couple places we really liked, though as the one we liked the most had the highest list price, we wanted to see what we could get for our place before making any offers.

- Talked to realtor we used to buy our place about selling, concluded we could probably get $many00,000. Did a bunch of touch up work and minor repairs, got pictures taken. Realtor suggested we could raise listing price based on interest levels. Got multiple offers for $many many 0,000, and accepted one after just one weekend with our place on the market.

- Made an offer for the place we liked the most (still on the market, yay), but ended up needing to slightly revise that upward to get the place (which we did).

- Made all sorts of arrangements with movers, car rental places, hotels, and such to get ready to move

- So now after almost many (2*2*2*2 + 2*2*2 - 1) years in San Diego, I'm leaving. With as much as I moved around between middle school and two years after college, I never really expected to be in city that long, to be honest.

23 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Fotos or it didn't happen, see or no DA man.

Here's me about to cut the cheesecake. Pictures of the rest of dinner also have my niece and nephew in them, no posting pictures of other people's kids without their permission and too lazy to crop them...

23 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Grandma-food is the best food, si man.

Oh, they were good when they were mom-food too (when we were kids we usually had Thanksgiving with mom's family, with most or all of her many -- 2*2*2+2 -- siblings, their spouses, and so many of my many cousins -- not really sure how many, but there were a lot even if the youngest of them weren't around yet; every family brought something so there was quite a lot of food even given the number of people eating).

23 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

However, specify "+" or "x" for greatest accuracy (= precise value of Many), si man.

* does not confuse computers, who can't tell a letter x from a times sign x, so what I default to for multiplication. Programmer, man.

23 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

What a great time, story, and effort to use P-Math, si D man!   

Hoping I can get the whole family to Casa-DA some holiday season, though my other siblings and their families may be more difficult even if we move closer to them (one brother and his wife have jobs that make leaving town for the holidays difficult; other brother rarely visits everyone; other sister has other issues; and of course Vlad makes meeting the in-laws difficult these days).

On 11/20/2023 at 7:27 PM, TBoneTX said:

Tell us what you want to say about your new job and the preceding hunt-jobbing, si DA man.

Can't say much about new job; working for a defense contractor, classified, man.

Would not accept a job that requires a security clearance without having an active one and while unemployed again; too long between offer and start of work so got very stressed out (and in the last month or so before I started, was sufficiently frustrated with nothing happening to start seriously interviewing elsewhere).

Had many interviews, even many second interviews, only one actual job offer. Though a few got close right around when I got the initial offer and I declined to interview further, and a few around when it became clear I'd actually be starting with these guys.

On 11/20/2023 at 7:27 PM, TBoneTX said:

Very, very happy to hear that you're re-employed, si DA man.

Me too, man.

Parents, little sister and her family all back home now. Parents left casa-DA at about 5 am on Tuesday, early morning flight.

Was great to see everyone.

Thanksgiving dinner was successful despite green bean casserole falling out of the fridge and crashing into pieces.

Veggie pot pie for non-meat eaters looked good, but I didn't try it; too much else and after one day of leftover-eating on Friday (combining Thanksgiving leftovers with Greek takeout leftovers from Wednesday) it was all gone.

My turkey (pre-seasoned frozen turkey breast in a bag whose cooking steps were basically "put it in the oven"), non-gloop sugar-free cranberry sauce, and sugar-free pumpkin cheesecake were well-received, si man.

Mama-Dave made the same rolls she'd made for almost every Thanksgiving that I can remember. Mini-Dave ate many (2 * 2) of them.

Niece and nephew decided they weren't interested in going to the Safari Park, then were sick the next day, so saw them (and sister and brother-in-law) less than we'd hoped. Though we did go down to La Jolla Cove and saw the sea lions on Thanksgiving morning (mama-Dave finished rolls and rested), then had lunch at a place that was only serving breakfast food. Parking where I did was $many.

Took mom and dad to Legoland with us instead of taking whole crew to Safari park (all non-Sandy Eggo people would have had free or half price tickets at the Zoo or Safari Park via our memberships), had fun and then had pizza and pasta buffet lunch (thanks to membership discounts and 3 year olds still being free at the buffet, surprisingly inexpensive for amusement park food; spent less than we did at Panera the next day). Papa-Dave accompanied us to Safari Park and Sea World, where we had free guest tickets, but mama-Dave wasn't up to walking that much. Then they had Monday on their own, dinner back at our place (made a sous vide tri-tip roast), and packing up to leave early. Papa-Dave was also able to help us fix a few things around the townhouse; more handy than us, si, man.

On 11/17/2023 at 7:27 PM, TBoneTX said:

Q for DA man, see man:  Why is it that, whenever you post in any thread, the sentences are so long horizontally and the message expands the screen widthwise, huh man?

You're browsing using a phone, tablet, or a computer with a small monitor, so the formatting on my signature block (I couldn't figure out a good way to do multiple columns other than preformatted text; timeline takes  pushes things out, maybe?

Which is to say my posts look just like anyone else's for me, but, as someone who programs for a living and who back when I was a single guy with no life spent most of his free time in front of a computer too, I spent $many for a large, high-resolution primary screen many years ago.

Anyway, I'll try reformatting my signature.

Need to do final Thanksgiving prep this weekend.

Parents (from Florida, though they're driving around NorCal for a few days before coming down here), sister (from Colorado), her husband, and her kids are coming for Thanksgiving. Sister's kids kind of getting bored with Florida, so she's out here to see me for the first time since before she was married (and her oldest kid is a teenager somehow, so that's been many years).

Fortunately, my sister's family will be at a hotel, not staying here; this place isn't that big :D. Staying where they just need to walk through the church parking lot to get here, good since parking near casa-DaveAndAnastasia is extremely limited.

Have already acquired frozen turkey breast (since four people are vegetarians, mini-Dave is a preschooler, and my parents are old, we don't really need a lot of turkey). Also got some new furniture including a kitchen table that 9 people could reasonably sit around (at least if three of them are kids and the extra leaf is in).

This weekend, will acquire stuff for pumpkin cheesecake (one cheesecake can serve 9; one pie cannot; PRG is very concerned about space in the fridge therefore wants to minimize leftovers; untraditional but understandable since due to various diets Thanksgiving dinner will be the only major meal we're cooking for everyone) and cranberries (real cranberries, not cranberry glop). Intention is for mama-Dave and anyone else who wants to make anything to make another grocery run on Wednesday.

Parents arriving late Monday; gave them garage door app permissions, we'd normally be asleep by the time they get here even if they teleported from the plane to their rental car. They get to spend Tuesday on their own; we still have to work, and mini-Dave all day would tire them out. Sister's family arriving too late to meet for dinner Tuesday, they'll come by afterwards for a bit, I think.

Also finally started new job two weeks ago, gainfully employed again, si man.

1 hour ago, TBoneTX said:

Play-Doh wouldn't do for Manyagers, no mam ma'am.

There were a decent number of unattended buckets of candy around us (including at our place; as PRG and I were both accompanying mini-Dave).

If we were somewhere that got more than a handful of trick or treaters, though, and I were handing out in person ... teenagers need to be in costume or accompanying costumed younger siblings to get candy.

On 11/1/2023 at 6:25 AM, mam521 said:

Why don't Americans pass out more mini bags of chips?  This is a common thing back home.  Not only do they tend to be less allergy offensive, but they keep the trick or treat bag much lighter!  

While out with mini-Dave, PRG, and neighbors (have little girl nine months younger than mini-Dave and even littler girl who's like six months old now -- also, babies seem much lighter now than they were three years ago), overheard some older tricker-treaters complaining about getting too many Reese's. I was like "most people buy candy they like so the leftovers won't be wasted, and everyone without a peanut allergy likes Reese's". Of course, this year bought candy mini-Dave likes instead as Halloween candy is bad for my diet, man; last year regressed five or ten pounds (still, down over forty pounds from when I started this back in August 2022) over the holidays, trying to avoid repeat.

At any rate, mini-Dave had a good time trick or treating; didn't get scared off by the slasher-movie-villain at the super-decorated home this year (last year, daddy having a lightsaber and mommy dressed as Captain Marvel was apparently insufficient reassurance).

Unless processing times change radically and K-1s become much faster to get to the US again, or Utah Zoom marriages go away, there's basically no upside to a K-1 for most people unless you're just really uncomfortable living apart for an extended period while married (there are some exceptions; children aged 18-21 can be derivatives on a K-1 but not on a CR-1/IR-1, and there may be other legal corner cases I'm unaware of).

When we did one, K-1s were significantly faster to the US, and the only way to get around the difficulties in legally marrying a foreigner in Russia would have been to get married in a third country that we wouldn't have visited otherwise (surprisingly in a lot of major European tourist destinations, two foreigners cannot legally marry quickly and easily, and I hadn't been aware before I started looking in to this that in a lot of 'destination weddings' the couple legally marries in the US first to get around that). But now you can do a Utah Zoom wedding if your fiancée's home country is difficult to actually legally marry in, and K-1s are not faster in processing time. And even pre-Covid, if you were living with your partner outside the US then a CR-1 usually made more sense unless you could legally marry in the US but not in the country you were living in.

13 hours ago, millefleur said:

Single entry means you can enter any country but if you enter from a different country than the issuer (i.e. Greece gave you the visa but you enter via Italy first) then the consulate that issued the visa frowns upon that and if they don't see any of their country's stamps in your passport, they may not issue you a second visa.

Now, I was aware of the latter; that's why when Anastasia and I met in October 2018 (last time before she got her K-1 and came here) we spent a couple nights in Riga (she'd gotten a Schengen visa from Latvia because at the time Latvia would issue one without having to go to a consulate in person if you'd had a Schengen visa previously) before going on to Vienna.

20 hours ago, Pirozhok said:

 

And I thought single entry meant you could go to any of them, provided you didn't leave the Schengen territory.

I thought it was a single entry into the Schengen zone too (and am pretty sure it is, in fact).

On 9/24/2023 at 4:13 AM, big_tex_69 said:

Hi All,

 

I finally got my NOA2 after 11 months, California Service Center where the petition had been sent to was estimating 16.5 so I feel lucky. Now a new set of questions arises. Which are making me nervous, so any helpful responses would be appreciated. Maybe someone else out there has the same questions and this can help them too.

 

Basically since embassies in Russia have stopped processing visa's and Poland is a bust because of such bad relations, we want to move our case to Costa Rica ( for several reasons )

Unless your fiancé(e) actually has legal residency there, it will probably be impossible to move your case to Costa Rica.

On 9/24/2023 at 4:13 AM, big_tex_69 said:

 

Here goes:

1. Does DoS / NVC ever mail anything to the Fiancee or does all mail come to me, the petitioner ? << Everything I have found indicates the mail gets sent to the petitioner but everything is a little vague.

All mail goes to the petitioner. Back when my wife's was processed and when Moscow was still processing K-1s, all communication with my wife (my fiancée then) was electronic; the only thing ever actually physically sent to her was her passport with her visa in it (and presumably if you're interviewing in a country you don't live in, there wouldn't even be that as you'd pick it up in-person, I think).

On 9/24/2023 at 4:13 AM, big_tex_69 said:

3. What happens if the I-129F petition approval expires during this process ? I understand the petition is good for 4 months, but even the process alone could extend past the timeframe the petition is good for.

I'm sure I'll have more questions, but this is my starting point.

It's been a while since I was paying a lot of attention to this stuff, but it should be automatically renewed in most cases when there was no possible way you could have interviewed before the expiration. Still, confirm this with whichever embassy/consulate is handling your case.

7 hours ago, mikeyp123 said:

The question  was, why there was emphasis on avoiding I-751. Is it just to avoid paying another filing fee, or does it make things more difficult?

It can make things more difficult. It's all but guaranteed that you will not get your 10-year green card before your 2-year green card expires, which means the only proof of legal residence you'll have will be the extension letter.

Usually that's not a big deal, but that can sometimes cause inconvenience particularly when dealing with people or companies not experienced with immigration processes.

On 8/23/2023 at 9:16 AM, BigRedCat said:

How does this consulate sessions work? They will be in LA during those dates and were you able to get an appointment or something? My wife has expired Russian Passport and valid internal visa/passport so would she be able to renew her passport at this event? I will gladly drive down to LA if that is the case.

Yup. That's exactly what my wife had.

You request an appointment somehow when they announce the dates.

The event they had last fall in LA was at a hotel near LAX.

She was in and out in less than half an hour; we had an 11 am appointment and were in Orange County by lunchtime (not all the way back to San Diego, though).

49 minutes ago, powerpuff said:

Very relatable. My saving grace was that NY allows you to get a driver license regardless of your immigration status so I had a bit of freedom if I had to, let’s say, get groceries without waiting for husband to get back from work to drive me. There’s no reliable public transportation like in big cities where we live. However, it still took 3 months to get everything sorted (buying a car, getting a learner permit then the DL) and in those 3 months I was 100% dependent on my husband and his schedule. I literally couldn’t leave my house to buy a loaf of bread without my husband. It sucked. Some days he was very tired after work and he didn’t want to do much while I was dying to get out of the house.

It probably helped with the pre-EAD/green card limbo period for us that

1) We were only about a mile from a plaza with a grocery store; my American-suburb-raised background said that's a long walk, but Anastasia (used to walking or taking transit everywhere in Russia) thought that was fine

2) The first couple months we had a ceremony-like thing to plan

3) not long after that we found out she was pregnant (not surprisingly)

4) she actually got her green card pretty quickly

... but she didn't actually get her driver's license until this year.

But the basics are that ... back when K-1s were reliably significantly faster to get to the US, and there were no Utah online marriages to get around difficult home country marriage laws there were lots of cases where K-1s made sense, despite the hardships in the pre-green card period (and indeed, that's why we did one when we did). But that's basically not true today, so barring some oddball corner cases (children who would be between 18 and 21 by the end of the process and want to come to the US with their parent, maybe a few others) or just really not wanting to live apart while legally married, there's no reason to do a K-1 anymore.