DaveAndAnastasia

Throughout the VJ forum, there runs the all-too-common issue of being "too married to qualify as single."  You'll need to file the I-130 petition.

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.

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.
 

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.
 

If you already have the K1 in hand, I wouldn't waste the money and time starting over.  EAD seems to be coming more quickly than it has been traditionally and you can file for Advanced Parole so you could leave the US and travel home until such time that your green card was issued.  Just make sure you apply for your SSN prior to sending your AOS paperwork.  
 
I-130's are still taking more than a year.  You require that before you can proceed with Consular Processing.  So, you can be with your partner now, or you can wait another 12-18 months.  100% your choice.  

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.

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.

Happy Birthday to your mom. I'm happy she is able to keep lecturing you too  

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.
 

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.

Ex-Mrs. T-B. has clarified that the Hawaii trip is to accompany the Rojo on a trip to a business conference, hmmmph man.
 
We hope that it monsoons the whole time, ha ha man.

I used credit card for the whole process, and never had an issue with rejection. Granted I'm running a card with no set credit limit, and have the security options set pretty high. I will get a text message on anything over 5000, and it gives me the chance to approve it before it gets denied. If you have a lower limit, or a new card, as long as you let the credit card know, about when it will be charged, they can put an exception in the credit monitoring for your card for a 30 day window or so, that will allow either a specific amount ( you know what the charge is going to be), or the source of the charge ( The US government for USCIS, you can even tell them USCIS), and you should have no issues. I like the points and miles I earned thru the whole process.
 
I will say only one time the card failed me. I had been in Rio ( Brazil) for like a week already, and was hitting the card hard all week. Funny thing is I took an uber to a restaurant from my hotel, and not the ride charge ( about 5 US dollars) caused the issue, but the Tip I gave the Uber driver in the app, somehow didn't get approved. it was about 2 USD, and it froze my Uber account and I had to get creative to get back to the hotel. I added my other card to my uber account to clear the tip, then was able to continue on. Next day I called the card and asked what happened, and for some reason the low charge got flagged by the security algorithm, and didn't get approved. Rep said it's the small charges that can cause issues, because it looks like someone is testing the card before a big purchase. Funny thing, I bought a car one time on the card, and did get a call from the security fraud department while in the dealership. It was a 22,000 dollar charge, so I guess a call was expected, but they let it ride.

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

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.
 

Once married you will file I-130 and I-485 BECAUSE your partner is already in the US. All other visas you mentioned are for those who are currently outside. This is very important. Filing I-130 and I-485 at once is called "concurrent filing". I suggest you research this term and information about it.
 
Make sure to also file I-765 and I-131 along with I-130 and I-485. They are free.
 
Fees are likely going up beginning March so if you are thinking about it doing so soon would save you a few thousand dollars.

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.
 

Russia literally shuts down for the holidays 🙃 I wouldn't bother trying to schedule anything until after Jan 10.

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...


 
 
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).
 
 
* 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.
 
 
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).
 
 

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...


 
 
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).
 
 
* 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.
 
 
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).
 
 

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.
 
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.

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.
 
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.

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.
 
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.

Well, they didn't make it to Dec 9.  
 
After a few prenatal health episodes, the girls were born 2:29am and 2:30am on Sunday the 26th.  All are doing well.  
 
Both of my kids have two girls, and my wife's daughter has two boys.  They all say they are done procreating.  

It's been a hectic week+.   Week ago today added another candle to my birthday cake...Sorry, too hard to do P-math to give you the exact number of years LOL.  Did go out and buy myself a birthday present.  New huge TV with the help of $889 worth of discounts from Costco credit card and yearly  membership return.
 
Tomorrow leaving for the Keys to have our Thanksgiving there.  I may regret this, but invited mama Neonred and she said she would like to go....Let the complaining begin.  The ride was too long.  My back aches.  My legs are stiff.  That ride nearly killed me.  We need to find a bathroom quick because I have diarrhea 💩.  I can't eat that because it upsets my stomach.  I didn't sleep at all last night.  Elderly senior lady .
 
On a brighter note, our family will increase in size by 2 on December 9 at 9:00am.  My daughter is scheduled to give birth....C-section...to twin girls.  Wife asked me if we are going to the hospital for the birth?  I asked why?  They don't need me....I don't do C-sections.  How am I going to help?  Let her mother, the ex-Neonred, be there for her.  Will see how this sorts itself out.