Team J and B

Thanks for letting me know about the applying for federal jobs aspect. So becoming American means:

1) you can vote (big woot)

2) you can appy for federal jobs

That it?

I'm also undecided. The fiance wants me to become American, but so far I've stood my ground. I've also stood my ground on keeping my surname. But if he becomes persistent, we may need to sit down and have a chat when the time comes. But for now, it's no to taking on another citizenship and no to ridding my own surname.

(Right now, the only way I'd take on American citizenship is if he could take on Canadian citizenship as well. But he'd have to have lived in Canada for a few years before that can happen, afaik.)

Thanks for the insight so far, y'all.

Thank you for the warm welcome, everyone!

Did I mention how glad I am to have found VisaJourney.com? My fiance and I have a lawyer, jobs, cars, lives, volunteer work, even a little money, but for me, it feels so much better knowing there are so many out there in the same boat as us, even if how we got here is all different, we're all waiting for the same result.

I have no one to rant to beside my fiance. None of my friends are in the same boat and they have no idea what hoops and red tape we must go through. And our lawyer? Well, let's just say that I have to email and call for updates and replies are hardly prompt.

Now that I've read the forums here, I'm starting to calm down a bit and am less anxious. I now understand how the K1 Visa works, the time lines, etc., it doesn't seem that bad!

There was a q in another thread that asked, "What do you do with your time while waiting?" and I actually have quite a full life right now. I may even want to try to delay my entry to the USA for as long as I can once my K1 Visa is approved.

You never know!

Thanks for listening to this n00b.

This has been a HUGE question in my mind since I was first asked to withdraw my application for entry to the USA once. I was shocked and inside I was thinking, "The US gov't thinks I'm like one of them? I can't believe this!" (With them obviously being illegal immigrants and fraudulent visa chasers from (mostly) third world countries. I'm Canadian, I'm your brother!

Many fraudulent visa chasers are still settling down in the USA, they just have to jump through hoops and pay filing fees. So they're still ending up in the USA, but just have more obstacles to go through. In the end, does that make that much of a difference to the US government? The day after someone gets their Green Card they file for divorce. And then what? Are they deported?

But anyhoo, I digress. I'm just a bit bitter having to jump through hoops and feel like I'm being judged and lumped in as "one of them."

My fiance and I met in another country. In that country, we met many couples where the woman was local and the man was an American/Canadian/British/Caucasian from the western world. The age difference was the first thing that struck us as unusual. We rarely see a 40 year old man with a 25 year old girlfriend in Vancouver or San Francisco.

The second thing was, the woman's English language skills were usually quite poor. And the thing their men loved about them was their cuteness and the cute way they spoke poor English.

A whole bunch of other factors stood out in couples like this I'm sure you can all imagine. However, it goes both ways, doesn't it? It's like a business transaction. The man wants exoticism, the woman wants financial security/eventual visa to bring over her family and their dogs.

Sharing a same language with your partner should be the first and foremost trait. Communication is everything in a relationship, and when you both understand the language, you both understand the culture. "Me love you long time" is only cute for the first ten minutes.

I'm one of those freaks who showers at night and when I wake up. I call my night showers my full showers. My morning showers are my half ones, ie I don't shampoo my hair and I don't soap all over, just the "important" places. To me, a full shower once a day is enough so I go to bed smelling clean and drift on into bliss in lala land. The morning shower is a waker upper and also gets my hair wet so I can style it. But after both showers I always lather on lotion all over. It's been my regime since I was a tot.

If the future of the world depended on my choosing only to shower at night or in the morning, I'll go with night. How can you bring all your "daytime dirt and pollution" into bed? Ick.

Great answers, everyone. Keep 'em coming!

I'm new to this forum so I screwed up by posting this thread twice in this forum. This thread has the poll option, the other with the same title doesn't.

Our I-129F package was mailed out May 31st.

CSC cashed cheque/issued receipt number June 7th. (The receipt # is the NOA1, right?)

Twiddling our thumbs waiting the six-eight months it'll supposedly take till I set foot in the USA with my K1 Visa.

We hired a lawyer, I wonder if that delays our petition any? The lawyer said we will prolly be approved by Christmas, if not before. Her exact words: "...if not before..." That's comforting...innit?

Mods: I posted the above in the May Filers thread, but I should really be a June filer since the countdown starts from when the CSC receives my I-129F packet. So this is crossposted and I can't delete the post in the May Filers' thread. Thank you.

J

I am of the impression that I don't need to take on another citizenship. That by getting the Green Card, I would be content. Short of having the right to vote, I don't need to become American, do I?

When our kids are born, they can become American like their father and hold American passports, but as their mommy, I don't need to become American, right? And I would like to not change my name as well. Do these two pose any problems? Assuming we'll be spending the rest of our working lives in the USA, that is.

Just curious.

Mods, feel free to move or merge this poll if it's been done before. I did a search and did not hit what I was looking for.

Thank you.

J of Team J and B

I am of the impression that I don't need to take on another citizenship. That by getting the Green Card, I would be content. Short of having the right to vote, I don't need to become American, do I?

When our kids are born, they can become American like their father and hold American passports, but as their mommy, I don't need to become American, right? And I would like to not change my name as well. Do these two pose any problems? Assuming we'll be spending the rest of our working lives in the USA, that is.

Just curious.

Mods, feel free to move or merge this poll if it's been done before. I did a search and did not hit what I was looking for.

Thank you.

J of Team J and B

Our I-129F package was mailed out May 31st.

CSC cashed cheque/issued receipt number June 7th. (The receipt # is the NOA1, right?)

Twiddling our thumbs waiting the six-eight months it'll supposedly take till I set foot in the USA with my K1 Visa.

We hired a lawyer, I wonder if that delays our petition any? The lawyer said we will prolly be approved by Christmas, if not before. Her exact words: "...if not before..." That's comforting...innit?

that's crazy!

ppl can just go down there and mess things all up or steal someone else's!!!!!!!

Bingo! Old school way of doing things. Ie honesty is the best policy. Nowadays, don't even think of punching your PIN in the ATM without looking over your shoulders.

Thanks, everytwo!

Liz legend n 'Ol and Nini & Bee, I am looking at your time lines and it only took four months from the day you filed your I-129F to your medical/interview. That's very quick. Is it because your service center is in Vermont or just that April was a quick month?

I'm thinking I won't get my interview till eight months from June 2007, which is February 2008. Six to eight months is the norm, according to our lawyer.

Our lawyer is in San Francisco so they sent our app to the CSC. Is there anything I can do on my end to expedite things?

Thanks!

J

Hello!

I'm really glad I found this forum. Each time I had a question I would google it and come up with a whole bunch of links. I'm sure VisaJourney.com came up a few times but I just never paid attention to the forum as a whole.

I will be hanging out in the Canada region area for now, methinks.

We sent in our I-129F in June, which the California center has received, so I'm thinking it will be February before I get my visa. There goes my February 2nd wedding! Hrmph.

So nice to meet all of you! Looking forward to all the interesting things you have to say! And I gotta be up on all this visa lingo!

Best regards,

J of Team J and B

...Since you have time, make sure you get your long form birth certificate. You'll need that at the interview. It's the one that has both your parents name on it. And short form, wallet sized one will not suffice.

Thank you for this additional info, misa. It doesn't apply in my case as I was born in another country.

My mother is so great. She went to the hospital where I was born and told the staff she needed my birth certificate as she had lost it herself. The hospital only kept birth records in their system from the early 90s on, so they told her she could go down to the basement where ALL hospital records were kept and find mine herself. So the birth records are kept in boxes according to month and year. Of course, mine was misfiled in the wrong month AND wrong year. Of course! But she eventually got a few copies of it and had a current ob-gyn stamp and sign it.

You can access old records yourself in the hospital basement! Gotta love the old school way of doing things, eh?

Love that mother of mine.

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum and am so grateful I found it!

I went down to the Vancouver Police Department today to get my Canada-wide criminal record check, which I should receive in a month's time.

I hear the USCIS is verrry ####### about having all your paperwork in exact order and exactly the way they require it.

So I went to the RCMP website to see if I should be requesting my Canada-wide criminal record check from the RCMP instead of the VPD. That's where I get confused.

On the list of paperwork I need to get (provided by our lawyer), I can have the CPIC done by either the local PD or RCMP, right?

By the way, in case anyone is interested, the VPD will do the record check for you from the age of 16 till now no matter which city you have lived in, so you don't need to have them done in each municipality.

TIA!

Jay the Canasian and Bee the Amurkin