Buck and Natalia

This reminds me of the scene in Traffic where Catherine Zeta Jones is drinking the wine whilst preggers and all her friends are mumbling about it when she says "What? I'm European, I'm allowed to drink one glass a day, right? I can do that, my doctor said I can do that. What can I do, I'm European?"

My wife did the same thing with Tea- What do you mean I cant have tea, russians always drink tea!!! caffeine is not that bad I just wont have a lot of tea.

My sweetie learned to throw hand-grenades as part of her physical education training in High School. She can also field-strip and re-assemble an AK-47 in under a minute as part of her military/police training. She left the Russian Police with the rank of Major. She has my respect as well.

Hmm changes the meaning when you are in the grocery "Hey honey can you toss me a pineapple?"

HAHAHAHAHAHA.......... good one. I will relay that to her and explain the meaning. She will get a kick out of it.

I am a bit late to the party here but I will add my two cents

"The steel front door", my god, my bank would be easier to break into; oh, and that is after getting into the front of the apartment bldg steel door, up the tiny "lift" and opening the bolt lock that must be turned three complete revolutions to open the lock

"Tea, Hot Tea", never been a tea drinker and never a hot tea drinker but that is changing

"Soup", before I lived in Russia I think I tried soup two or three times, in Russia-it's a "main dish", almost every meal

"Look Beautiful when leaving home", Americans can go outside looking like trash, never a Russian woman-always presents herself the best on the street, I love this habit.

"lift or elevators", I need to go outside the lift just to change my mind, they can be small

"wrap up for cold"; must wear a hat, scarf, gloves, boots, socks, long underwear, a jacket, sweater, undershirt, etc for cold weather; my personal body temp is great down to -25 C, after that I think about a jacket, at -37, I like a pair of gloves and a cap

Just returned from Russia a couple of days ago. Yeah....... the steel blast doors are a bit intimidating. What are they protecting against? It makes one wonder because there is generally less violent crime in Russia than in the USA. We should be the ones with the blast doors. An observation on Russian women: During my visit I was severely tempted to take photos of russian women in "every-day wear" for the benefit of my teenage daughter just to show the contrast between what Russian women wear to go shopping and their USA counterparts. However, I could not think of a discreet way of taking candid "walking on the streets" shots without looking like a pervert or worse. I guess my daughter will have to rely on my descriptions although actual photos would have been much more convincing.

When I was a child and my buddies and I payed army, we were fighting the Germans. Of course one of the (black and white) TV programs we watched was "Rat Patrol". I'll bet not many of you remember that one.

My wife also tells me she learned how to use and care for a Kalashnikov when she was in school. She's got my respect.

Rat Patrol??? I remember it quite well - thus, giving away my age. My favorite character was the British guy with the beret. My sweetie learned to throw hand-grenades as part of her physical education training in High School. She can also field-strip and re-assemble an AK-47 in under a minute as part of her military/police training. She left the Russian Police with the rank of Major. She has my respect as well.

There are few more

1 - Don't sit on the corner of the table or you won't get married for the next 7 years ( that's if you are not married already)

2 - Do NOT eat and watch yourself eating in the mirror

3 - Do NOT stop sweeping while sweeping ( that's for girls only)

What is the story behind the eating/mirror superstition? Just curious.

A couple of times I wanted to scream but I thought that would appear unmanly. I did feel relaxed afterwards but it was the kind of relaxation one feels after a beating has ended.

I think this is the definition of marriage isnt it????

hahahaha............ well, it probably was for some of us the first time around but our fiancees are "sugar and spice and everything nice."

This is going to be the "official" Russia Forum Cultural Awareness thread. Post about little things that are different between U.S./FSU couples. Could be widely-held superstitions, could be something small that you or your S/O do.

Here is another cultural difference for you. Russians like their saunas rough (among other things). While traveling in Russia I was invited to a Russian bath. It was insanely hot and I had the hell beat out me with these tree branch things. A couple of times I wanted to scream but I thought that would appear unmanly. I did feel relaxed afterwards but it was the kind of relaxation one feels after a beating has ended.

This is going to be the "official" Russia Forum Cultural Awareness thread. Post about little things that are different between U.S./FSU couples. Could be widely-held superstitions, could be something small that you or your S/O do.

Fun Thread Slim. Thank you for starting it. I read some of your "hot looking wife" posts. It sounds to me like she is going through "adoration withdrawal." For a woman, beauty is power whether she lives in the USA or FSU. The difference is that in the FSU, beautiful women are more openly adored and sugar daddies are more common and tolerated. The american brand of feminism has never really been embraced by FSU women. In fact, ask your wife how she feels about american feminists. Indeed, ask her if she thinks american women in general are very feminine. Anyway, I digress. You could wait for your wife's adoration withdrawal to abate with age. However, she looks rather young in your photo together so this could be a very long wait. The waiting option is probably not very practical. The other option is to give her the adoration she craves. Not all the time but enough so that she is certain that you find her THE HOTTEST WOMAN ON THE PLANET!!!!! Ham it up. Lay it on thick. Twice as much as you would for any american woman. The trick, as you alluded to in some of your posts, is to do it in such a way that she sees your adoration as coming from "Slim the Lover" and not "Slim the Husband." Good Luck. Of course, it goes without saying that you can ignore my comments if you find them not helpful.

Petition sent to Nebraska on May 2. Checked cashed by California Service Center on May 29 (27 days later). Still no hard copy of NOA1 yet.

You are not alone.

Buck

As you have discovered, the 800 number is so useless as to be essentially worthless. In fact, USCIS would probably be doing all of us a favor if they removed the 800 number entirely rather than give people false hopes that they might actually be assisted on a timely basis.

In your case, there is probably little that Customer Service can do without you supplying them the Case Receipt Number....... which is what you need.

I know a method that might work but it is a long shot. Immigration attorneys in this situation will go to the local USCIS office and try to "back door" the information through their contacts there. This would cost you money for an attorney. However, you could try the same method yourself without an attorney. You would go to the local USCIS office in your city, take a number...... wait to be helped......... and then desperately hope that you get a helpful USCIS representative behind the counter that is willing to hack into the USCIS computer database to find your Case Receipt number on the basis of your photo ID and a copy of the fee check that USCIS cashed. (Of course, you should bring these).

I say again this is a long shot. One USCIS rep at the Customer Service 800 number told me that they can not look up pending cases by last name on their database. They need the Case Reciept Number. On the other hand, immigration attorneys are able to find their clients' Case Receipt Number so there must be some way of doing this in the system.

As others have suggested, waiting might not be a bad option since you know that your fee check was cashed. I know this sounds terrible and gives you and your fiancee no peace of mind. Trust me, many of us here know exactly how you feel.

Buck

Have not received your hard copy yet from CSC? Do not lose hope.

Long delays are expected from the California Service Center (CSC). As of June 2007, the CSC Customer Service Center is advising "Customers" (us) that hard copies of documents can take up to 45 days to receive in the mail. If you are still waiting for your NOA1, that means that your fee check will probably be cashed by CSC long before you receive your hard copy. If your fee check has been cashed you can often get your USCIS Case Receipt number from the endorsement section (back side) of your check. The case receipt number is a 13-character number beginning with 3 letters, usually the letters "WAC" for filers in the western USA.

We hope this information helps new filers that have sent their petitions to the California or Nebraska Service Centers.

Good Luck..... we are all in this together.

Buck

Yes fwaguy! The NSC sends the packages to CSC, but the OP is just trying to compare his timeline to other filers of the NSC, nothing wrong about that!

ramzis55, you can also do search other couple's timelines, where it says "Immigration Timeliness", so you can see how other Nebraska filers have been doing. Click here: K-1 Visa Timelines /Nebraska Service Center Hope you find this helpful:)

I feel your frustration checking every day your bank account, and seeing that your check has not been cashed Since mid April, NOA1's for NSC filers have been taking a little longer. We waited for ours for 34 very long days!

Hang in there! Hopefully you'll get yours soon!!!

Agreed, I think maybe the OP has heard the rumor that NSC and TSC people get approved a little faster, despite the fact that their petitions are forwarded to CSC. I'm curious as to whether it's true myself.

Not true. CSC is slow and becoming even slower as more Service Centers are forwarding their I-129F Alien Fiancee Petitions there for processing. It appears the only Service Center not currently forwarding all or part of their I-129F Petitions to CSC is the Vermont Service Center (VSC) which accounts for VSC's much faster processing times.

You're partially correct Buck. They have been forwarded from Texas and Nebraska since spring of 2006. There was some thought that it was originally just a "temporary" fix, but who knows. I guess on one hand if it was going to be a permanent change they would have made the mailing address change on the "new" forms when they were released in February, but they didn't.

The other issue is that the VJ timelines are still being tracked by service center. There is a difference in processing times between CSC/TSC/NSC as shown when you look at them. I know that there has been some thought that perhaps the NSC/TSC petitons may (and I say may) be getting processed by specific groups at CSC. In other words the forwarded petitions are being processed seperately from the CSC petitons. This would account with the disparity in the timelines. I would encourage ANYONE who has filed at TSC/NSC to keep that service center listed as their service center rather than change it to CSC for that reason. It will provide a more accurate reflection of the processing times if that is indeed the case.

Nice to see your posts Eric_and_Teresa and the rest of you. Thanks for the info. Here is another item for the rumor mill. A few couples (probably very few) are getting their NOA2's processed very quickly. According to our immigration attorney there is a rumor circulating among them that a few petitions are being pulled randomly from the middle of the pile by senior CSC processing agents in order to train new processing agents. Our immigration attorney has seen NOA2's issued in as little 2 or 3 weeks albeit he has only seen this happen a handful of times........ maybe 3 or 4 times for every 100 petitions or so in his case load. Of course, we fervently hope to be one of the "lucky ones" chosen to have our petitions pulled for training purposes.... but this probably a very slim hope...haha.

Yes fwaguy! The NSC sends the packages to CSC, but the OP is just trying to compare his timeline to other filers of the NSC, nothing wrong about that!

ramzis55, you can also do search other couple's timelines, where it says "Immigration Timeliness", so you can see how other Nebraska filers have been doing. Click here: K-1 Visa Timelines /Nebraska Service Center Hope you find this helpful:)

I feel your frustration checking every day your bank account, and seeing that your check has not been cashed Since mid April, NOA1's for NSC filers have been taking a little longer. We waited for ours for 34 very long days!

Hang in there! Hopefully you'll get yours soon!!!

Agreed, I think maybe the OP has heard the rumor that NSC and TSC people get approved a little faster, despite the fact that their petitions are forwarded to CSC. I'm curious as to whether it's true myself.

Not true. CSC is slow and becoming even slower as more Service Centers are forwarding their I-129F Alien Fiancee Petitions there for processing. It appears the only Service Center not currently forwarding all or part of their I-129F Petitions to CSC is the Vermont Service Center (VSC) which accounts for VSC's much faster processing times.

On April 24 we submitted all the paper work to the California Service Center, and received delivery confirmation from UPS the 27th, but 25 days have gone by since that date and we have not receive the first NOA!!! Any idea what we should do? Anybody had experience a similar situation?

Hmmmmm....... this link might work better

USCIS Case Status Service Online

On April 24 we submitted all the paper work to the California Service Center, and received delivery confirmation from UPS the 27th, but 25 days have gone by since that date and we have not receive the first NOA!!! Any idea what we should do? Anybody had experience a similar situation?

Don't worry. Things are a bit slow, to put it mildly, at the California Service Center (CSC) now. We submitted our petition to Nebraska on May 2. It was received on May 5 then forwarded to California. Our check was cashed by CSC on May 29....... i.e. 27 days after we submitted it. Still no NOA1 yet but it should come soon. If your check was cashed you can look on the endorsement section of the cashed check (the back side) for your case receipt number. It is a 13 character number that begins with 3 letters, usually the letters "WAC" for cases processed in California. You can then use your case receipt number to track the processing of your petition online with USCIS. USCIS Case Tracking You can also request email notifications of changes to your case status at the same website.

Good Luck...... and give it a bit more time (as painful as it sounds).

Hi there and thanks for having such a wonderful and informative website!

I have just filed a petition to bring my Russian fiancee here. We actually first met ten years ago but, due to circumstances beyond our control, our relationshipo was put on hold for several years. Now we are back together and anxiously waiting for the visa. Thanks to this website, we know how long that will take.

Take care everyone and good luck in your endeavors!

WELCOME TO VJ. WE WISH YOU MUCH SUCCESS AND LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR POSTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want to start a thread of Nebraska Service Center filers (mailed my NOA1 May 24, received May 25). I'd like to see and compare the times of touches NOA's, etc. I'm looking at my checking acct. everyday waiting to see a cashed check!

The Nebraska Service Center forwards all I-129F K1 petitions to the California Service Center (CSC) for processing. Our petition was submitted to Nebraska on May 2, received by Nebraska on May 5 and then forwarded to California. However, no real contact since then. Our fee check was cashed by the CSC on May 29 (27 days after the petition was originally mailed). We are still waiting to recieve the actual NOA1 from CSC. We hope to receive it in the next few days so that we can confirm our case receipt number which will enable us to track the processing of our petition with USCIS online. The endorsement section of our fee check was actually stamped with our case receipt number (a 13 character number begining with 3 letters - WAC in our case - and 10 numbers). Unfortunately, the endorsement stamp was partially illegible so we still do not know our full case receipt number..... only part of it. We wish you much better luck.

Hello Fellow Hostages,

This is my first post and we are new to the group. I am an Amerian attorney....... she is a Russian attorney....... and we have an immigration attorney helping us. However, I doubt our accumulated legal knowledge and experience will help us navigate the system quicker than any of you. I say this because we just received our NOA1 27 days after it was received by the Nebraska Service Center and then forwarded to the California Service Center..... about the same amount of time as it took Lewis & Clark to travel the same distance.

Despite our initial very slow start, we firmly believe that true love conquers all........ whether it be time, distance or bureaucratic lethargy.

We wish all of you the best of luck.

Hang in There !!!!

Buck & Natalia