morretti

Hi mcelliott,

They did replace my CR1 for the IR1, no charge and took about 1 month to receive the card. So I got the full 10 years and it was well worth to be done with them for 10 years. If you need any extra info, let me know. Good luck.

Me too...and it means I get to talk to a real person instead of a puter screen, bonus!

Hi, we got married at our apartment in Wisconsin, no family or friends, just a few of my husband's work colleagues as witnesses. It was lovely, I had a simple dress and we had very little to organise, so got to enjoy getting married without all the stress that can come with planning a wedding and only had the wedding day "this is a HUGE thing to do" nerves to deal with. On our first anniversary we were living in the UK and had the whole church thing with family and friends. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our first anniversary and gave us plenty of time to meet with the vicar, plan the ceremony and reception and all the extras. And because we were already legally married, we got to enjoy the big wedding ceremony without having any of those nerves. It worked out so well for us and only one wedding anniversary date to celebrate too. I feel we got the best of both worlds.

Seems like this is correct, see here:

http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/drivers/drive...ply/foreign.htm

I've read that, but how does it apply? I'm a resident, not a tourist. That's what concerns me.

I got my first US driver's license in West Bend Wisconsin too ! We lived at Hubertus a few miles South

- and I got married there on Elm Street ! (I know. It's not funny - I have been told it's not funny)

They warned me about looking over my shoulder but I had been trained to use mirrors so I didn't much. Because of that she said I had barely passed but she had never seen anyone parallel park so well. I used to park in Paris through work so it was a piece of cake in West Bend

I traded the license for a Florida one and then for a Washington State one. No tests. I know all States don't reciprocate fully.

I took my test after a month or so because the insurance company (State Farm) made it a condition

I have car insurance. Hubby and I have a joint insurance through State Farm, coincidently. The lady at state farm saw my license, put it into the system and never made any comments about getting a US license.

We got married in Germantown, WI a couple of years ago now so it made sense to move nearby when we moved here together. They do seem to have a tree fetish in these parts, every other street seems to be named after a tree. But I'm glad to say we're not living on Elm Street.

I'm not look forward to the test at all, the roads are so different from what I was used to. Came from the Isle of Wight and they don't really do multi-lane traffic there, a lot of the back roads are single lane, with random pull in areas if you happen to meet a car coming in the opposite direction. Very rarely drove on the mainland. Six lanes of traffic, plus turning lanes, are bad enough...but then I have to remember what side of the road I'm meant to be on too! I'm sure they put all of those "you're driving the wrong way" signs there because they heard I was coming. lol

Hi, I'd applied for my SS number through the embassy in London. After 4 weeks here there was still no sign of it, went to the local SS office in West bend, they said come back after 6 weeks. Went back after the 6 weeks, on a Friday, they filled out a form there and then, gave me a copy and I went back the following Monday and they gave me my number. Glad I got it, because there's still no sign of the card and I feel it looks better on job applications to be able to write your SS number in. Seems ridiculous that you have to wait 6 weeks from POE date when you apply ahead of time, yet the lady told me the system gets updated overnight for an in-office filing.

I had been driving for over 25 years in central London and had to take my test in reedsburg WI. This was the day after a big snow storm and the instructor just made me drive around without worrying too much about parking or emergency stops etc. The one thing he did point out was you must stop completely at the stop signs and not slow down and coast like we do once we develop bad habits over the years. Good Luck, Wisconsin is great and the people here are so friendly and helpful.

Hi, I'm in Wisconsin too. The DMV in West Bend have told my husband that I can drive here on my UK license for 1 year. I've read so many stories of people getting into trouble for not holding a US license and being given the wrong information from DMV's that I'm not sure what to believe. The way things read to me, is that in WI you can drive on your UK license for 1 year if a tourist, which I'm not as I have a CR1/IR1 visa. I got hubby to recheck and they insist I can drive here on my UK license. Has anyone been told or know any different?

Thanks

Hi, I'm actually having this problem at the moment.

My visa was issued at the end of July in London, our 2nd Wedding Anniversary was beginning of August and P.O.E was in September. I was issued CR1 in my passport and the immigration officer at Chicago airport said that wasn't his problem and to contact USCIS. At that point in time I'd just had enough and wanted to get through and sleep. I called USCIS service centre and they said to make a appt at my local field office. So I made an appt at Milwaukee field office and they told me I had it all wrong and that I was issued CR1 in London and that was that, no changing it. After much arguing, with a very insistent lady, I left doubting myself and what I'd read here, on the DOS site and various other places. I went home and reread just about everything I could find regarding the whole CR1/IR1 differences. When my green-card arrived it was CR1 still, obviously, so I've (reluctantly) sent it back to them with a cover letter explaining about the dates, our wedding certificate and the I-90 form, no fees needed.

I sent it back on the 20th October, they received it the 23rd Oct and sent me a receipt. In the meantime I have the CR1 visa in my passport which is valid for a year, I believe, to show eligibility for work etc. We were really looking forward to being done with all the USCIS and immigration stuff for several years but I guess it wasn't to be just yet.

Oh, no that is not nice at all.. the exact scenario we tried to avoid. Have to waste another $1001 and collect all evidence and another interview for AOS. The thought of doing all that kindda knocks me off. Seems like living with a lot of judgement.. I hope all goes well for you. Hope to hear good news.. And my POE will be in Chicago too, so that kindda make me sad.

Not having to pay anything, as yet. Applied to get it changed for free and hoping...will keep you updated. From everything I've read it should be changed without any evidence other than our marriage certificate and the I-90 form. But it just goes to show, you shouldn't believe everything USCIS or anyone else tells you. As others have said many times here before, find out as much as you can about the whole process and anything that might relate to your visa and then double-check it. I feel sorry for people who haven't found visajourney, if I hadn't, there's a good chance I'd have blindly believed everything USCIS have told me over the time. And two years from now I'd be having to face them all over again and pay them even more money.

Hi, I'm actually having this problem at the moment.

My visa was issued at the end of July in London, our 2nd Wedding Anniversary was beginning of August and P.O.E was in September. I was issued CR1 in my passport and the immigration officer at Chicago airport said that wasn't his problem and to contact USCIS. At that point in time I'd just had enough and wanted to get through and sleep. I called USCIS service centre and they said to make a appt at my local field office. So I made an appt at Milwaukee field office and they told me I had it all wrong and that I was issued CR1 in London and that was that, no changing it. After much arguing, with a very insistent lady, I left doubting myself and what I'd read here, on the DOS site and various other places. I went home and reread just about everything I could find regarding the whole CR1/IR1 differences. When my green-card arrived it was CR1 still, obviously, so I've (reluctantly) sent it back to them with a cover letter explaining about the dates, our wedding certificate and the I-90 form, no fees needed.

I sent it back on the 20th October, they received it the 23rd Oct and sent me a receipt. In the meantime I have the CR1 visa in my passport which is valid for a year, I believe, to show eligibility for work etc. We were really looking forward to being done with all the USCIS and immigration stuff for several years but I guess it wasn't to be just yet.

We did. We got married in the US, was kind of planned/unplanned, we knew we would eventually get married but I was only on holiday that time and we had no plans. I'm not really sure how it happened, we were talking about it one day and a week later we were married in a civil ceremony. It never crossed our minds for me to stay in the US and adjust status so I came back here and we applied for a visa. When we had enough of waiting he moved here instead and on our 1st wedding anniversary we renewed our vows in the local church. The vicar was absolutely wonderful, we had readings, hymns and a service. Was a wonderful day with family and friends there.

We did have wedding outfits, white dress and suit. We never took our rings off we didn't like the idea of that either, we just held our ring hands together and the vicar blessed them.

I have applied on-line for my ESTA and was approved and sent my application number.

What I need to know is should I have any paperwork with me when I get to the airport or will it be picked up when my passport is electronically read?

I will take a note of my application number as a just in case but would appreciate it if anybody can tell me if they have traveling using their ESTA?

Thanks.

Pauline

I have never been asked to show proof of the ESTA however I do usually bring a print out or have the number written somewhere.

I just printed the page (2 lines of writing) off the computer. Never been asked for it by an US officials but was asked at Heathrow, by an airline worker/security, before I flew out in July. Maybe it'll be another of those things that if you have with you, you'll never be asked for.

I'm totally amazed! Not 10 minutes after I posted here there was a knock at the door and the guy was there with the visa package (lucky I was home). From the day we posted the I-130 till the day we got visa in hand was 91 days total.

I had to sign the part 2 and swear all was true, so in my opinion definitely worth checking up on, glue.

Congrats to you Michelle! Bet it feels absolutely fabulous! Just one question - did you just say on the DS-2001 checklist that is would be you and your husband attending? Or did you get an email code from the extortion line and let them know he was accompanying you!?

I want to go to the interview with my husband which means we take the little one with us too.

And to sharpies! Yay on the NOA2, it looks like our petitions were sat on top of each other at the embassy! We are forever linked... or something

Thanks to everyone for the answers to my questions. Still waiting on the Packet 3 to come through. Jealous of the people who only had to wait 2 days!

Cheers

Jen

Thank you. On the DS-2001 checklist I did put my husband down as attending the interview with me but they never added his name to my interview letter. I asked on one of threads on VJ about it and was told that it wouldn't be a problem, just make sure my husband had something like his passport with him for ID. At the security bit they checked hubby's passport, took my interview letter and wrote something like +1 and signed next to it (they may even have written his name) asked if he was there to support me I said yes and we were let in no problems.

Got SMS message yesterday visa will be delivered on Monday...interview was on hubby's birthday and visa will be delivered on Monday 3rd, our 2nd Wedding Anniversary, can't beat prezzies like those!

So we wait in the rain from around 7:20am for our 9am appointment, some discussion going on amongst other people waiting was that they don't open the doors till 8:30am. Great! the only thing I never checked was the embassy opening times..lol Anyway, that turned out to be rubbish, as we were let in and given our stickers/number at 7:43am. Waited, got called to a window, gave the info, were sent to another window to pay the fee then back to the original window to be told to be handed a bit of paper and told to go back and sit and wait for our number to be called. We sit there (hubby and I) ,I'm fretting and he's chilled out telling me not to worry, all will be fine. Then he asks why my piece of paper is a different colour than everyone elses....I momentarily majorly panic! Before realising my paper is pink and most the ones I see are blue, thankfully I'd read here about the pink and blue papers/slips. We got called back to the window and was asked a few basic questions by a lady: Have I ever been arrested; How did we meet; When did we meet; When did friendship become a relationship; How big is Sheboygan?! lol And then smiled and said congratulations.

Big thanks to everyone who has answered my questions patiently and plainly, and those who answered the questions for others so I never had to ask them. Also, thanks for all the good lucks and wishes too.

Been dying to say this....Please put a red star next to my name, thanks.

Michelle

So we wait in the rain from around 7:20am for our 9am appointment, some discussion going on amongst other people waiting was that they don't open the doors till 8:30am. Great! the only thing I never checked was the embassy opening times..lol Anyway, that turned out to be rubbish, as we were let in and given our stickers/number at 7:43am. Waited, got called to a window, gave the info, were sent to another window to pay the fee then back to the original window to be told to be handed a bit of paper and told to go back and sit and wait for our number to be called. We sit there (hubby and I) ,I'm fretting and he's chilled out telling me not to worry, all will be fine. Then he asks why my piece of paper is a different colour than everyone elses....I momentarily majorly panic! Before realising my paper is pink and most the ones I see are blue, thankfully I'd read here about the pink and blue papers/slips. We got called back to the window and was asked a few basic questions by a lady: Have I ever been arrested; How did we meet; When did we meet; When did friendship become a relationship; How big is Sheboygan?! lol And then smiled and said congratulations.

Big thanks to everyone who has answered my questions patiently and plainly, and those who answered the questions for others so I never had to ask them. Also, thanks for the good lucks and wishes too.

Michelle

Congrats to Yvie and JGA! Well done to you both. I'm sure you're both having a well deserved mental rest now that you've gotten this far

I just received an Approval of Notice of Relative Immigrant Visa Petition in the mail. Is this NOA2?? And if it is, why is there no file no? Or perhaps it's NOT and we're waiting on the NOA2 to come addressed to my husband with the case number attached?

Very confused! Any assistance would be grateful! Luckily husband is on the phone with relatives or I would be on the extortion line looking for answers.

Cheers,

Jen

Sounds like the NOA2 to me. We never got a file/case number till we received packet 3 (which is just one page with packet 3 written at the bottom, not some bundle of forms like it sounds). Just went through paperwork and double checked and the Approval of Notice of Relative Immigrant Visa Petition is the NOA2 with the file number box left blank. Congrats on getting to the next step, good luck.

Thanks for the reply, Nich-Nick. Not thinking straight at all, what you said about myself being the only traveller makes perfect sense. My husband will have his passport with him when we attend the interview, so ID won't be a problem.

this is also a good resource:

http://uk-yankee.com/

We did it before so my hubby could come to the UK. It took a couple of weeks, cost more than going to the US but was nowhere near as much hassle as shown by the time scale. It was very simple, can't recall all we had to do cos we're pretty immersed in US immigration now. We plan for me to get my US citizenship (if I ever get there!) before we'd even consider moving back to the UK. But never thought it essential he get his UK citizenship as it's so simple to for USC to get a 2 year spouse visa for the UK. I think we just used the Brit embassy and consulate sites for info, he dealt with Chicago Brit embassy. Good Luck

Sometimes I hate being right about things. I told Brett what would happen and he didn't believe me - next time I'll bet him a week's housework!

We've been approved pending additional documentation. Despite Brett making +$70k per year with a US company, we need a co-sponsor because he hasn't paid taxes in the US (because he earns his money in the UK, he doesn't need to pay US income tax as long as he files as usual). Fortunately his parents are in a position to do this and offered weeks ago, so we just need to rustle up an I-864, an I-864A and a checklist for them to complete and we'll soon be sorted.

Something in the back of my mind said we should have had them do it already and hidden it at the back of my folder in case they asked for it, next time I'll listen to myself! So yeah, we were technically approved on day 71, but the Visa will take a little longer to get here. In any case, we're still on track for our intended move date, so I can't say as I'm that concerned about it

EDIT TO ADD - My appointment was 9am, but I got there at 7.45 and was allowed in early. I only queued outside for 10 minutes before passing through security too. Bonus! Inside I waited until around 8.50 until I was called to the first window, that took about 9-10 minutes, then I went to sit down again but was only waiting for another 15 minutes or so before I was called back up again. They were lightening fast this morning! I was on my way home again by 9.30, in the car by 10.10 and home by noon. I now get to spend the rest of my day doing sweet fa, lol.

Congrats! It's the approval that counts. You're almost there.

Real quick question. Now that our papers have been mailed what's the first thing that we should expect to see? E-mail from them or seeing the money come out of the account. I know most likely we won't see anything at all for at least a month. Just wondering.

I never received any email, first thing I saw was the money coming off the credit card. People have said the money being taken is the same date as their NOA1.

Yvie - good luck for tomorrow. I hope it goes smoothly and they don't give you any hassle with the I-864! Can't wait to hear how it goes! I'll be thinking about you

We all have our fingers crossed for you, Yvie. Good luck!

Hi,

I received the interview letter from the embassy on Saturday and it says: Traveling applicants <just my name > . I'd put on the packet 3 forms that my husband would be attending the interview with me, will I need to contact the embassy and have his name added or can he just turn up with me and he'll be allowed in the embassy? Any help would be appreciated.

Michelle

WOOHOOO we got an interview for July 31! thanks for the number and the tip posted above. I called the DOS and some guy gave us the interview date and time. still no official notification, though. have people gotten this through email or through the post?

what does the interview entail? i'll be busy completing my affidavit of support (my dad's already done a joint sponsorship one) and making 5x copies of everything. hope it's not too intimidating. my poor hubs is already sick of the us embassy staff, they've denied him a tourist visa twice and they're always really mean as well

Congrats!

We never did receive an email from the embassy, but we did get the hard copy interview letter on Saturday. As for the interview, if you look on the regional, UK forum...on page 3, there's a youtube video of the non-immigrant interview process, people have said it's exactly the same as what we'll face. Not formal like I'd expected at all. You can also get to the youtube link from the London embassy page. Good Luck

Thanks for the congrats everyone.

Henry has a job in Wisconsin, so no escape from bad weather for me. Humid as hell during the summer and 9 foot of snow in the winter, oh the joy! I plan to hibernate during the winter.

As for your I-864, Yvie, use any info and proof of savings and assets, you'll be fine. And if I don't get to post before, good luck now.

Sharo, I agree with Yvie, you must be completely mental. Hubby and I have agreed no matter what happens and how bad my homesickness is, we stay in the US till I get citizenship. That way if we ever do end up (in some moments of craziness) moving back to the UK, then back to the US, we'll never have to deal with the US immigration dept ever again.

Anyone heard any news from JGA? Do they have their visa?