Gulskjegg

I know NickD, I should gave dived on a grenade during the war. This way the gov't only expense would have been dropping me into a hole in the ground. Now I feel bad because I am cutting into ####### Cheney's 10 BILLION a month Halliburton profits.

Anyhow, I already have a 5 year Ukrainian visa and my wife got me a Ukrainian social security number and assigned me an address for legal permanent residency, for lack of a better word.

My concern is standard of living and ability to produce income. The USD dropped 5 freakin cents in a week and a half vs the Canadian Loonie. Regardless, we are sending off for my wifes US passport next week, then I will consider going for the Mexican M2 long-term residency visa or pushing northward into Canada.

If the US Border Patrol worked as hard to keep people away from our southern border as the Canadians work to keep Americans out of Canada, wed have no problems at all. Time will tell of course, but the citizenship issue is solved once and for all. We have freedom of movement...for now.

To continue NickD's line of thought. I was going to trade school back in 1989. I took out some student loans and joined the Army Reserve for some extra educational benefits. The war came along in 1990 and off I went. Came back in 1991 pretty banged up. Couldnt work, thus couldnt go to school, and certainly couldnt pay back the student loans. They were $3000 back then, but are $15,000 now with interest and penalties.

So after I finished my NINE YEAR fight with the Department of Veterans Affairs, which fought 100 times harder then the Iraqi Republic Guard did in order to deny me my EARNED PENSION. I was designated "Totally and Permanently Disabled" by the VA in 2002. I found out shortly after that those that become T&P can have student loans forgiven.

So I filed the paperwork back in 2005. The Department of Education denied me for LACK OF EVIDENCE. The previously stated nine years of VA medical records, plus my grant of Social Security Disability Insurance. So thats two federal agencies that agree, whole heartedly, that I am a physical and psychological wreck. But all that apparently isnt good enough for the DoE.

I actually had a DoE Disability Determination Board phone bank drone BRAG that they routinely deny forgiveness to soldiers coming back from Iraq with missing limbs. I would like any future war crimes tribunal to drag these enablers of tyranny up for crimes against humanity. Openly putting cash before the welfare of wounded veterans whos lives are already in shambles.

The silver lining is, this years Education Bill includes a clause that essentially forces the DoE to recognize VA letters of Total and Permanent. I also dug up a DoE memo that discusses this very problem, but the consensus was to IGNORE the problem until DoE is forced, by law, to recognize VA or SSA decree. The clause comes into effect on July 1, 2010.

So is the crummy pension worth all the misery? Im not sure, because I was a fairly normal kid before with war with lots of friends and hobbies. I think Id rather have my health and sanity and let Uncle Sam keep the 30 peices of silver. Had I known back then that the gov't would stomp me over and over then kick me in the teeth every time I tried to get up I would have renounced my citizenship and headed for greener pastures long ago.

My wife is now a US citizen as of September 18th, 2008. Thanks ALL for the support and advice, especially you NickD. I truly hope your situation gets sorted out before years end.

GOOD LUCK ALL!

Couldnt have said it better myself!

Ive noted some strange things about Canada over the last few years. Case in point, my wife and I went to one of the main CBP crossing stations to get a study permit. The kid behind the counter, most likely fresh out of college and making a whopping 15 bucks an hour, told us we didnt have sufficient money to warrant a study permit. He suggested we come back with $30,000USD cash in the bank, all tuition paid in advance, and (get this) proof of stocks and bonds. The CIC regulations state proof of $10,000 per-person per-year and I found at least one major college that states clearly that the money does not need to be in the bank, you just need to show you have access to it. My pension is in the $40,000USD range, tax free, but thats not enough?

There seems to be a national myopia/xenophobia developing in Canada. At this rate the current prosperity will run collapse by sheer micro and mismanagement. Oh well, theres always Europe.

Im not sure but I think you need to be a citizen plus reside in America for 6 months before they let you vote. So the only people getting their votor registration cards are the people that got their in the spring.

Well, since the majority of N-400 cases are for American husbands and foreign ladies, this becomes a political issue. I don't have the energy for a long drawn out diatribe, but suffice to say, feminism (that is in fact based on communism) has fully infected all aspects of American culture and society. Lets just say the disease is terminal. Ill let the "esteemed" political hack Bonnie Erbe fill in the blanks. The sooner American men figure out that they are indeed, at best, second class citizens and at worst worthless (aside from child support and alimony) slaves the better off we will all be.

Again, to quote Bonnie Erbe;

"Let's not just make it tougher for American men to hook up with "mail order brides" over the Internet and import them, let's ban the practice altogether."

"In one of the more laudable acts of his tenure in the White House, President Bush earlier this year signed into law the "International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005" or IMBRA. The law imposes some tough restrictions on men seeking to import wives. Some of the men complain the law presumes all such American men are abusers."

"But I say the mere act (to wit, the bizarre act) of deciding to marry someone from a foreign country who is just about guaranteed to be less well educated and a lot less well off financially, creates such an incurably unhealthy imbalance of power in the union, even horrifically burdensome regulation won't suffice."

"The law requires before any foreign woman's contact information is sold (by an Internet marriage broker) to an American man, he must disclose his criminal and marital background. It also requires the agency brokering such relationships to obtain the man's record from the National Sex Offenders Public Registry database, translate it into the woman's native language and give her a copy."

Have a nice day!

My wife passed her interview. She was asked 10 questions, including the infamous "original 13 states" one, and got them all correct. She was asked to write a very simple question. We have been scheduled for the swearing in at Billings, Montana about the middle of September. The staff were all pretty helpful but I did a lot of praying. So, by my calculations, my wife will have her US passport within 6 weeks. Its been a long, expensive, miserable, and dehumanizing experience and I am incredibly glad its essentially over.

But this forum has been a great help! Good luck to all other applicants.

Well, we are leaving for Helena tomorrow. I will report back how it all goes, but we are not expecting any problems. I could be wrong, but I think we will be given our swear in date and location after my wife passes her interview. I also think my wife will be given her citizenship form, for lack of a better word, after the swearing in process. Then its off to the post office for expedited 14 day passport processing!

I hope there is someone else that will keep this post alive. Anyone else having any progress at all?

CONGRATS!

Ya I did some research and found out that you can pay for expedited 2 week service. I was kinda worried that since my wifes swearing in is October, we may not get her passport before Xmas. But if I can pay a little extra and have it back in less then a month, Im all for it.

Its just good to know that in a week we will be done dealing with the USCIS forever. Thats worth any price.

lol good on ya and good luck

You may want to consider going to the post office and getting a postal money order. Its as good as cash and gives you a tracking number. Using a POSTAL money order, not a bank money order, may help speed up your processing by a few days.

Well, were heading out for our N-400 interview next week. We moved recently, and we did file an AR-11, yet we didn't get a letter letting us know the date. That we got from calling the USCIS. The post office botched the address change, as did the USCIS. A nice guy from a block over actually knocked on our door and gave us the mis-delivered USCIS letter! We plan to give him 50 bucks and a pizza hut gift certificate.

Moral of the story, careful with the address changes and verify everything. Wish us luck but it looks like everything is moving towards endgame. I will post the results of our interview.

Anyone know how long it takes to issue a passport after they get the request?

Awesome, congrats! We have yet to get a letter from USCIS but our interview is in about 2 weeks.

As a Canadian, of course you don't want "debate". If there is one thing I have learned about Canadians, its that a strong opinion about anything is considered bad form. You must believe what everyone else believes...or else! I cant be certain, but I suspect Canadians tend to be less "Pro-Canada" then "Anti-America". I think it has something to do with so many Loyalists being deported to Canada after the American war for independence.

Anyhow Nick, as to why Canada suddenly seems unwelcoming. America learned its lessons from Viet Nam. Plus, with have two other points working against us. The so-called "war on terror" and the North American Union. It all coalesces into the "Smart Borders Declaration". This declaration forces the Canadian Border Service to inform the American gov't if any "draft dodgers" attempt to flee into Canada. Plus, the massive flow of goods from the south is covered over in the perception that Canada has a strong border. Basically, drugs, illegal immigrants, and junk from China can move north, but YOU cant.

http://www.ambassadeducanada.org/border/declaration-en.asp <-- Smart Border Declaration

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/...tradition.shtml <-- OpEd on SBD and how it effects us

Good stuff Nick, you are a wealth of information.

Im with Nick. Vancouver, to me, seems to have more humanity then any American city.

I look at all nations by the numbers. This isnt always perfect, case in point being the Czech Republic that looks great on paper but in reality is a hell hole. American falls in that category as well. The reality does not match the brochure.

Lets compare Canada with America. The number one factor I consider is how pervasive is the police state. America has the worlds highest prison population rate at 738 per 100,000. Canada has a prisoner rate of 107 per 100,000. So, whats that, a 700% difference between America and Canada?

Second, economy, Alberta is ranked at the second highest per capita income next to Luxembourg. That is pretty impressive. Even more so when you look at the America economy in freefall with massive unemployment, home foreclosures, bank collapses, etc etc.

Then you look at future problems such as the "Reconquista" of the American southwest by aggressive Mexican drug gangs and illegals. Or the growing amounts of racial tensions, such as what we saw during Hurricane Katrina. I don't see much of that stuff in Canada.

To me, life in America basically boils down to swimming in a sea of steroid addled, bug eyed cops running around in a feeding frenzy, wanting nothing more then you beat you, lock you up, plant drugs on you and steal your property. Or, as my wife and I counted a whopping 5 police cars when we drove from Montreal to Calgary...but here in podunk Montana I pass 5 cops on my way to the quicky-mart.

In my opinion, anyone that would turn aside the thriving economy and cohesive society of Canada in favor of the warmongering fascist dictatorship that is America needs a reality check.

You may want to let the USCIS people at the local office know when you go in to see them next time. I could be wrong, but I think the swearing in procedure is set each month, and you are put on the list by the local office. Might want to ask them simply add you to the next month's swearing in ceremony.

I called the local USCIS for a clarification. I was told that returned mail does not automatically initiate an abandoned N400.

Maybe we should have created a generic June filers topic.

Have to admit the post office people seem to be a bit dull. Had to talk to a supervisor to get the address change/mail hold problems resolved.

Yeah, we are waiting for the interview letter but we suspect the letter was sent already but got bounced back to USCIS by the post office.

Sleep well.

Do you ever sleep, Nick? They need to make you an admin here.

So, according to your calculations, the USCIS has not yet mailed my wifes interview letter, even though her appointment is in 3 weeks?

Here is an existing June N400 topic.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=136377