DaveAndAnastasia

I'm thinking P-math is even less Polish than French Fries are French. 🤣 Took mini-Dave to the zoo for the first time yesterday. Had put off going even though the San Diego Zoo is a really great zoo because we didn't want to go until mini-Dave was old enough to get something out of it and that we had the spare cash to get memberships (because mini-Dave isn't two and a half yet, and we didn't know how long he'd be good for; if you're members and you go for two hours, whatever, you can go home and come back another, but if you spent a lot of money on 2 single-day tickets -- because the kid's still young enough that he's free -- then you'll probably try to tough it out). But PRG's job is going well, so we went ahead. Definitely was fun. Also good for spending a lot of time walking 🤣

Good luck. Good luck. Hoping what I've lost since some unfortunate test results a couple months ago said I needed to lose weight and eat fewer carbs. I love homemade bread, and always keep some around. I love desserts. My wife's Russian; we ate lots of potatoes. And I'm programmer who doesn't really have any active hobbies. Nonetheless, down a little over 15 pounds after rather more carefully monitoring my diet and walking 45 minutes a day. Would like to manage another 15, get within rounding distance of 200 lbs, which wouldn't be that bad at 6' 0" (really, not rounding up from 5' 11").

Apply for an SSN first, because you could run into SSA officials who don't understand the rules, but if logistically that's a serious problem I wouldn't sweat it. I've only ever heard of one state (Idaho) requiring an SSN for K-1 visa holders, and I'm not even entirely sure how accurate that is (the report was that anyone eligible for an SSN had to have one; I think the couple in question may have resolved things by getting legally married in another state). Online forms having issues or local officials not understanding the law (usually people without an SSN do not have to provide one), that's more common.

Apply and be accepted. State colleges may have further requirements for getting in-state tuition and even private colleges may have requirements for not getting hit with international student tuition, but you aren't prohibited from going to college during the 90 days a K-1 is valid for or the "authorized stay" period while you're waiting for AOS (and after that you can prove you're a legal permanent resident).

You can only have one RealID at a time, apparently. We wanted to get Anastasia a RealID state ID (for now) and apply for one when she gets her driver's license, but both the online forms and the people in-person said only one could be a RealID. Since we didn't know how long it would take to get a license, we went with the state ID.

Well, in a lot of states it's either a nearly identical document (as in CA) or the same document after it's been endorsed by officials after the wedding, but yes, it's not the same thing. This isn't really true anymore (at least not everywhere; the closest DMV location to us has road test appointments available starting less than three weeks from now -- and I've been checking on this because Anastasia's working on learning to drive right now; yeah, she's been here three years, but it's hard to learn to drive with an infant around -- and some spot checking says the first offices that come up when you search in SF and LA are similar). As far as making an appointment to take the written test (though you can do this online now) and/or hand in paperwork, well, if you're willing to wait in line you don't actually have to do that.

Went to Best Buy on Saturday morning to get monitor and keyboard for PRG; starts new job today 🙂 and didn't think she should have just a laptop screen. Had acquired desk and chair last weekend. Didn't check what time they opened, not open until 11, got there at 10:45. Oops. Went to TJ Maxx next door, PRG got some new shirts from the clearance rack, found some Peanuts-themed pajamas for mini-Dave for $10 (4Ts are a bit big, but silly to buy smaller now; fast-growing mini-Dave), and then returned to (now open) Best Buy. Took a little while to find monitors (and a little bit after that to find a box with the one we wanted to get -- lower resolution and no integrated hub like mine, but less than half the price -- granted from five years ago, too; 27" IPS monitor from a major brand for $220) and regular, non-gaming keyboards and mice. Sunday observed neighbor-girl's birthday (she's a few months younger than mini-Dave) at children's museum. Only had one cupcake, diet, man. But mini-Dave and neighbor girl had fun (at least when other kids didn't get in the way). Realized when we got home that I hadn't set up flank steak I'd taken out for dinner to marinate, and other recipe I had for it needs to sous vide for 5 hours , so ended up having dinner a little bit late. Turns out if I make Mongolian beef a little less spicy (cut out a clove of garlic and half the red pepper flakes) and keep the sauce on the side, it goes from "you can make this every once in a while but it's a little spicy" to "you should definitely make this the next time your parents come here" according to PRG.

You contain multitudes?

It's not really a question of which is better; as per above, a CR-1/IR-1 is clearly a better visa (saying this as someone whose wife came over on a K-1, believes it was clearly the best choice for us at the time, and it worked fine for us). The question is which process works better for you, as for some people it's either difficult to marry outside the US and the foreign fiancé(e) cannot easily get a tourist visa (though the Utah online marriage can get around this to some degree, and this wasn't an option in 2018), are uncomfortable being married and living apart for an extended period, or have other issues which make them favor the fiancé(e) path. What's not a great idea is to do a K-1 simply because it may get your fiancé(e) to the US to stay sooner; processing times go up and down all the time.

If the ones in Texas were different than the ones in Ecu, presumably they would be North American tree frogs. 🤣

Sadly sometimes need (or at least want) to go places where this is either impossible (aka outside of the US, Mexico, and the Caribbean) or really inconvenient despite Southwest being largest carrier out of Sandy Eggo by a lot. But two bags included in the standard fare and no "basic economy" nonsense (aka assigned seats you don't get to pick, so conceivably PRG, mini-Dave, and I could be in three completely separate locations)? Yeah, let's go with that.

The first nice dinner out Anastasia & I had together was at an Argentinian steakhouse ... in Hong Kong 🤣 Was really good, though she ordered some pasta with seafood instead of steak.

I've never head anyone say it was fast, but IME if you have a straightforward case it's more tedious than difficult (to do the paperwork; the stress of being in a long-distance relationship can be difficult for many people) and (as per this case) the major things that are expensive are not immigration fees.

Which is financially insane; before EAD or green card the immigrant spouse cannot work. In less than 110 hours of work at the federal minimum wage, you will have made more than the AOS fees (before taxes, anyway; after gets complicated). If money is tight it's more important to get started on AOS ASAP, not less.

Well, they're almost certainly going up. Soon, though? I doubt it. The fee changes (almost entirely increases) the previous administration proposed were thrown out in court before taking effect, and the current administration hasn't, as far as I know, put a new proposal out there yet. Which means it'll be well over a year before any new fee rates take effect, I think.

Not really, IMO. You'll probably visit each other at least once more over the course of the CR-1 process than you would over the course of the K-1 process, and that basically takes care of anything you saved in fees (unless things drag on long enough that you end up with an IR-1 and so skip ROC ... but then you're probably way more than one additional visit vs a K-1). But the lost income of the intending immigrant not working for 6 months or more ... that can very significant even if you're working a pretty low-wage job (or not significant at all if they're retired or planning to be a stay at home parent or otherwise not work outside the home).

It doesn't; Anastasia's green card (and the combo card that ended up only being useful for a month) both said "Anastasiia [my last name]"; her passport is in her maiden name (and will still be when she renews it, as the process for getting that changed for a Russian passport is quite cumbersome).

I thought (perhaps incorrectly) that wire transfer fees were usually a flat amount, whereas most services like Wise charged more the more you transferred, so they were cheaper for smaller amounts of money but for large amounts of money it was different.

For large amounts of money, maybe a bank wire transfer is actually the best thing to do? I'd check, at least.

I've said before and will say again that you shouldn't use processing times (which can go up or down by quite a lot in a short period of time) except in the most general sense (aka if you do a K-1 you have to do AOS and can't work without an EAD or travel outside the US and return without a new visa without AP, but don't make any assumptions based on how long this will take) or government fees (which are a tiny part of the costs in an international relationship in most cases) to decide what's best for you. Figure out what process meets your needs best, and go with that.

? AOS from a non-K visa isn't consular filing, it's just AOS. I'm not aware of any other process for a fiancé(e)/spouse to come to the US permanently beyond K-1->AOS, CR/IR-1, and AOS by someone already in the US on a non-K visa?

but generally is not available in normal cases now that the overseas USCIS field offices have all closed.

It's not; you typically deal with the SSA by going in-person to an office, and there's no requirement you go to any specific one. It's not like USCIS field offices, where you have to use the one your case is assigned to you, and that's typically based on where you live. We used the downtown SSA office for my wife's dealings with them because we were in the area (the store where we got wedding rings for the initial application for a number, our USCIS field office when we got her name changed and the 'valid for work only with DHS authorization' text removed) but there's actually a suburban office closer to where we live.

Well, here goes the last phase of immigration stuff Filed N-400: 7-9-2022 Local Field Office: San Diego, CA (and since this was filed online and is linked to Anastasia's email account, I can't follow everything quite as closely as I did with prior phases ...)

I don't think anyone has ever argued otherwise. There are some circumstances where the K-1 has a superior process (and used to be more pre-pandemic) and at times has been significantly faster to get your partner to the US (though not to having a green card). Having said that, I strongly recommend choosing whatever path you choose based on what fits your circumstances best, not on processing times. Processing times are subject to wild swings even in the best of times (over the five years or so I've been following things, I-129Fs have gone as low as 3-4 months from NOA1 to NOA2 on average here at VJ and as high as well over a year, and I believe CR-1s have been just as variable), and basing a decision on processing times today may have you thinking very differently six months from now.