DaveAndAnastasia

Also mine, have to work, man. But going out for dinner, and have made cake and ice cream for after. /Between weekends, MLK day, teachers' association meetings, and snow (Ohio, Wisconsin, and upstate New York 0, San Diego Many) rarely had school on my birthday growing up. The first few years PRG was here she insisted on making her own birthday cake, rather than taking her chances with my baking or having me buy one despite my best efforts to convince her otherwise. This year I made my own birthday cake because I'm on a diet so not using a normal cake and she doesn't know how to bake for that.

Was still $8.99 for 18 this weekend. Made the cake that needs 8 whole eggs for the cake and six yolks for the frosting anyway; it better be good. 🙂

I think they were about $6/doz last week at the regular grocery store and they were limited purchases to 2 doz. Which was better than the week before, where I ended up getting 4 six-packs of organic free-range whatever eggs at $3.50 each (so $7/doz) at the organic-ish grocery store in the same plaza as the regular grocery store, and that was the cheapest variety they had in stock. Cashier mentioned lots of people coming in to buy eggs; I said "yes, the regular grocery store doesn't have any". Last I saw they were trending down. We'll see if it's cheap enough for me to think it's okay to get enough eggs for a birthday cake (there's a recipe I'd like to make but needs 8 whole eggs and 6 yolks, and I already got some of the stuff for it, but that's a lot for eggs). I think, mostly due to CA's cage-free mandate, they're normally like $3/doz here.

I thought he was in Texas, man. Surely the friendly people at USCIS can see that would only make America better to have PRG as one of us, right? 🤣 And that otherwise we have to deal with whatever the rest of the world thinks of Vlad's adventures when going anywhere but Russia. 🤕 /honestly, we've had a relatively smooth journey the whole way; the closest thing to a hiccup was a couple weeks of post-interview administrative processing in Moscow after her K-1 interview that had me wondering if I'd need to reschedule her flight here (which wouldn't have been too big of a deal, as I'd bought a ticket that had no change fees, somewhat unusual in 2019, man). Not the fastest we've seen here at around when we were doing things, but faster than average at every step. And we even caught a rare window where things were moving through Moscow in almost reasonable amounts of time (once we got past the week's worth of Russian holidays around New Year's that just happened to coincided with when NVC was done with my petition). Well, PRG also has to finish learning to drive (somewhat difficult to do while caring for mini-Dave full time or working full time, but I think she'll be ready to take a road test this spring). 🙂

Saw on Friday that PRG's citizenship interview scheduled (online status changed). Last civics test review saw 58/60 questions (she'd only studied up to there) answered correctly in semi-random order, zero claims Calvin Klien held any major office in the US or California. Commentary when we originally printed this out and filled in the names of the current holders of various office holders - "the speaker of the House will probably change after the elections, and one of our Senators is very old, so those might change before you interview"; status today - someone from California still the Speaker of the House, one of our Senators still very old. No letter appeared in mail on Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, or today. PRG suggests checking her online account to see if there's something there. Poke around, hey, there's a document there. Looks like the day before Valentine's. Clearly should reserve a table somewhere Monday night, combo celebration, right? 🤣

Update: Still nothing in the mail, but Anastasia checked her online account and it's Feb 13.

When we got this place, one thing that didn't seem completely impossible that might get us to move would be adding a mini-PRG to mini-Dave (two boys could presumably stay in the same room indefinitely). But since a 4BR house (as opposed the 3BR condo we've got) anywhere in San Diego we'd like to live and send the kids to school in would be over a million dollars I think ... I suspect what would actually happen is I'd go back to working in the office (right now the third bedroom is my office; PRG, who is less weirded out by working in her bedroom, has her desk in a corner of our bedroom) and we'd get a room at the hotel across the street for my parents when they visit because that would be way cheaper than a bigger home.

Yes, those circles being "anywhere except Russia". 🤕 Between K-1 restrictions, a new kid, Covid, buying a new home, and Putin's adventure in Ukraine, we haven't traveled internationally since our last trip together before Anastasia came to the US in 2019 ... but most places we'd like to go to, it's a lot easier to go as an American than as a Russian. Also even looking for an entry-level software QA job, Anastasia ran into some positions that required a security clearance and therefore US citizenship (not many, and she got one that didn't, but some), though that might be less common in areas with less of a military presence than the San Diego area. Anyway, presuming Anastasia's interview is next month (online status is "interview was scheduled" as of Friday, but we don't have the notice with the interview date), it'll be about seven months from filing and at 3 years + 4 months from initial green card (ROC was approved last April, so before we filed the N-400). Since USCIS's processing times thingee says 19 months for an N-400 in San Diego, I don't think three-year-rule N-400s are being deprioritized here (OTOH, my wife knows someone in Orange County who's been waiting for almost a year and also still doesn't have her ten-year green card).

It's California; it could be $1,Many,0000 🤣

Nope; we weren't approved today, we just got our interview scheduled today. Presumably the actual interview (and approval, because our case is super boring) will be in February. My wife thinks it will be on Valentine's Day because that's when her interview in Moscow was back in 2019.

No, San Diego (presumably, we haven't got the letter yet, but it's our local office and that's where her AOS was; we've moved since then -- though not since before we filed for her ROC, which was approved early last year so it's not a combo -- but not very far). We had been a bit worried it would end up in April when we'll be in Florida visiting my family, as that would have fit with the official timeline forecast. Good luck.

Saw online that Anastasia's interview was scheduled; will have to wait for the letter to find out when. Hope you have a happy my-birthday 🤣

I have a radical idea: Congress could fund USCIS for free and reduced-fee services out of general federal revenues (since USCIS's entire budget is a rounding error in the federal budget), and fees for things they are allowed to charge fees for should be proportional to costs. /of course, Anastasia's N-400 is already paid for, so we're actually done with USCIS fees

I'm pretty sure that won't work this time. IIRC, the 2020 rule was struck down because the person in charge of DHS at the time was improperly holding the office. At any rate, it was due to not following proper procedures, not because of the specifics of the plan.

Even pre-pandemic, K-1s were significantly less popular than both CR-1/IR-1s and AOS from non-K visas (yes, you're not supposed to enter the US on a tourist visa with intent to AOS and stay, but we all know how that works out in practice). It made sense to do a K-1 for us at the time (no Utah Zoom marriages then, marrying a foreigner in Russia is a pain, and young single Russians couldn't easily get tourist visas), but I'd certainly advise against doing one now.

Also looks like the elimination of free I-765 and I-131 with a pending I-485 application seems to have stuck from the 2020 proposal.

In what context did you see "eligible to work"? There is a difference between being a "legal alien allowed to work" and being "authorized to work" (someone in the US on a K-1 before applying for AOS is "allowed to work" -- because they're legally able to apply for an EAD -- but is never "authorized to work" -- because it's not possible to actually get an EAD based on a K-1 before the 90-day stay granted by a K-1 expires), but that's different.

Buy some of the cold-weather version online, or when you get farther north? /has been pretty cold by southern California standards this month, overnight lows barely above freezing ...

The next time they do this thing, it'll be here in 'Murrica (and a little bit in Mexico and Canada), not creepy in-stadiums-built-with-not-quite-slave-labor Qatar, so you'll probably hear more about it, not less. Sorry 🤣 My Orange started 6-0 ... and finished 1-5, but that still means they had a rare 21st century winning season (so their offensive and defensive coordinators were promptly hired by other teams, and their best players declared for the NFL draft or entered the transfer portal). I didn't watch any college soccer, but apparently the Syracuse men won the national championship, so maybe I should have ...

Made Christmas cookies this weekend; managed low-carb gingerbread cookies, peanut butter blossoms, and chocolate crinkle cookies. All good, though the gingerbread tastes most like the original version. Mini-Dave helped decorate the gingerbread, PRG put the chocolate in most of the peanut butter blossoms (no one makes sugar-free Hershey's Kisses or passable knock-offs, oversight, man; so we had to melt some sugar-free chocolate chips and butter instead), but no helpers for the crinkles. Mini-Dave wanted to go to the Safari park on Saturday, other plans, tomorrow, man. Saw the Nutcracker on Saturday with PRG, left mini-Dave with babysitter (only second time in over two years we've done that), then brought him with us to dinner at Burmese place. Also fun. Saw cheetah (usually is resting when we go there and not out) and gibbons (apparently not monkeys because no tails) at Safari Park on Sunday with neighbors, happy mini-Dave and neighbor girl.

That might let someone not from Europe or South America win.

Eh, I don't trust flying on Russian airlines right now; flying western planes (or even Russian planes with western engines) operated by companies that can't legally get spare parts does not seem safe.

... but that's still crazy; back when I visited Anastasia in Russia in 2018 I had a direct flight from SVO to LAX and back for less than $1000, and when she came here in early 2019 one-way from SVO to LAX was less than $700 on a flex ticket (so refundable and included two bags). I've been trying to figure the best way for us to visit Anastasia's family next summer (not really super enthusiastic about going to Russia right now, but my wife hasn't seen her family in person since coming here in early 2019, they've never seen our son in person, and she has some living grandparents still), though, and came to pretty much the same conclusions about lowest-cost way to get to Moscow from San Diego or LA (adding another connection vs two or three hours in an Uber or a shuttle with a small child as I'm not driving home from LAX after a transatlantic flight) as you did from Dallas (getting anywhere closer to Anastasia's hometown from outside Russia isn't really possible; Kazan's closer than Moscow but the only way to go the rest of the way from there is by bus and if the Allegro isn't working then flying to Helsinki, taking the train to St. Petersburg, and then flying from there to Anastasia's hometown doesn't work). Yeah; logically, it makes no sense that the US-Turkey (or other middleman country) flight would be the cheaper one, but the airlines operating the route know you don't really have many options.

The wrinkle in this is that apparently if your patronymic is not shown on your name change document (marriage certificate or other), then it's something of a pain to get your surname officially changed in Russia ... though this is apparently usually resolved by not officially changing your name in Russia (Anastasia is doing this).

Those aren't really mutually exclusive, but you should apply for an SSN before getting married (mostly to avoid having to argue with people who may not have correct understandings of the law) and then change the name on the card after EAD (or green card, if there's not much time between the two so it's not worth bothering to update her social security card twice or your wife gets her green card without having received an EAD card first). Back in 2019, Anastasia applied for her SSN her second full day after POE (in downtown San Diego), and then we got married the day after that (in Temecula, because they were the 2nd-closest county clerk's office that did outdoor ceremonies and downtown San Diego's web site was full of warnings about parking availability). Also as minor aside, you'll want to be consistent in whether or not your wife uses her patronymic as a middle name in your paperwork; we kind of changed our minds on that between the K-1 application and the AOS application and the discrepancy meant we needed to get a supervisor involved to update her social security card even though Anastasia [my last name], Anastasia [her maiden name], and Anastasia [patronymic] [her maiden name] were obviously the same person.