suzukiwookie

i'm sorry to hear that. I hope it works out for you.

talk about diggin up an old thread.. i finally realized the dates were in 06. wonder what ever happened

Damn.. I was going to reply before I noticed it was from '06!

We just moved from CO to CA with a Uhaul towing my car on a transporter. Basically it kind of sucks and if there is a way to avoid towing anything I would do it. We did not fill up the entire truck so we "sold" space to someone on Craiglist, which paid for our gas (however, she had boxes that were literally full of rocks, so I suspect we would've spent way less on gas without her stuff. Another story though:). It took forever—we had to drive really slowly over the mountain passes. going downhill is much scarier and more dangerous than going up. I am so glad it was summertime.

One thing I will say, is that the UHaul price is always negotiable! My husband went to a few different Uhaul places until he found someone willing to negotiate. We got the truck for $100 less, including 00 extra miles, and the transporter for the price of a tow dolly. I think we saved about $300. It helped that it was the middle of the month—not "moving" week.

I might look closer to the Craigslist thing.. but I am leery about trusting someone with my stuff. They could very easily dissapear with my things. What kind of arrangement did you make with the Rock Person to guarentee them that their rocks would not be stolen?

She paid us half before we left and half when we delivered her boxes in LA. We should have looked at what she had before we agreed—she had WAY more stuff than she had said and, of course, it was all rocks....well, almost all rocks.

That was her only real "guarantee" that we would not steal her stuff. I think she paid us around $300. It was bizarre—she was very trusting. But, it turned out she was from the Queen Charlotte Islands in BC. She was very sweet, and gave me a beautiful print by a Haida artist. So, even though I think we used a lot of extra gas due to the rocks, I'm glad we did it.

Our Uhaul was VERY heavy. We had all our stuff, our Honda Ruckus scooter (a BIG scooter), her rocks, and a transporter with my car, which was also packed up.

It was very nice of you guys to do that for her. But you could have easily taken her $300 AND her precious rocks! lol So I guess there would really be no way to guarantee that the people wouldn't just dissapear with my stuff and my $300. Maybe you just have to meet up with them and see what kind of vibe they give off. So the obvious question is why did she have rocks?

Yeah I got the letter (both of them). Funny story actually - well, not really funny, but I'm all out of tears.. There was super cold weather here in Toronto in mid-Jan. I finally finished faxing in all the stuff to Honda Canada and American Honda, and I got my letter from American Honda in the mail. I neatly put it in my desk with the other one and thought, "Ok, one less fish to fry!". Then I got in my Civic and hit a runway of black ice on the 401 and wrote off the car So I had a nice funeral for the Civic, and now I bought a Honda Accord and had to do the letter thing again. Honda must be getting suspicious.. Sending me all those letters.

Oh wow @ the picture. Glad you're not hurt. PITA about the compliance letter, though.

Yes, I think that's what I might end up doing. It's going to be really sad to leave so much of my junk behind. It took me a long time to collect that much stuff. But I guess that goes along with starting a new life - new stuff! I'm going to pack as much stuff into my car as I can, and then I'm going to put the rest in some large suitcases (purchased for $20 each in Chinatown!), and sending one suitcase with every participant who is flying down to my wedding - yes, it's cheap, I know.. but hey, "I invited you to my wedding man... you're my BEST MAN!" lol I've already practiced my sales pitch.

As for the trip down. I went down once to surprise my giflriend in 2007 driving a very rare 1991 Olds Toronado Trofeo. I broke down in Erie PA in the middle of the night, had to sleep in a Wendy's parking lot until the next morning (didn't want to ruin the surprise) and then got my car fixed at Bill's Atlantic (highly recommended by the way), then was on my way again. Tried to drive straight through and got to Georgia before I started to see things. Yep, actually seeing shadows and patterns. And I've never done drugs before. So I stopped in a truck stop and passed out for a few hours. Then i woke up suddenly and started to drive again, while trying to remember (in my dazed state) where i was going in such a hurry, so that was a questionable 5 minutes. Luckily I had picked the right direction before my memory came back... But needless to say, the trip was hell and I'm dreading doing it again.

This time, I just plan to take it easy with my girl, listen to some tunes, munch on some tim-bits and follow my trusty GPS, but if you have a good route with nice sights and cheap gas, hotels where we won't have to accidentaly sit on a prostitute, please, let me know! tyrred2@hotmail.com.

Having others bring your items with them on the plane is a great idea. Thanks for the heads up about Bill's Atlantic. Always good to know. I've had the hallucination thing while driving, too. It's freaky. Someone I know had one while driving from Vancouver to Toronto. After about 16 hours he began to hallucinate he was driving on the seam of a couch. Thankfully, he pulled over.

I'll send you all the info, SuzukiWookie. I just wanted to let you know I'll put it together and send it next week. I've got visitors arriving in a couple of hours and don't have the time to do it properly at the moment. Sorry about that.

I look forward to the Krikit route.

In that case yes that would not be a good idea .. lol

For your other question, last time I went to Tampa I just took the I95, drove 10 hrs or so the first day, stopped in a days in a little bit past Washington, slept there for the night and then drove the rest to Tampa (took approx 11 hours the second day). I actually enjoyed the I95 starting around North Carolina .. Starting from North Carolina you start feeling you're heading south

It was also nice to ride beside all the Canadians I saw on that highway .. lol

I was just asking my fiancee the other day "At what point do you think we're going to hit that line where we cross from winter to warmth?" and she thought NC would be that point. So I'm glad you seconded that. That time I drove down it was July and it just went from hot to gross. And then when I got to Tampa it was a new level of gross. I love FL, but I'm going to have to get used to those African summer temperatures!

We just moved from CO to CA with a Uhaul towing my car on a transporter. Basically it kind of sucks and if there is a way to avoid towing anything I would do it. We did not fill up the entire truck so we "sold" space to someone on Craiglist, which paid for our gas (however, she had boxes that were literally full of rocks, so I suspect we would've spent way less on gas without her stuff. Another story though:). It took forever—we had to drive really slowly over the mountain passes. going downhill is much scarier and more dangerous than going up. I am so glad it was summertime.

One thing I will say, is that the UHaul price is always negotiable! My husband went to a few different Uhaul places until he found someone willing to negotiate. We got the truck for $100 less, including 00 extra miles, and the transporter for the price of a tow dolly. I think we saved about $300. It helped that it was the middle of the month—not "moving" week.

I might look closer to the Craigslist thing.. but I am leery about trusting someone with my stuff. They could very easily dissapear with my things. What kind of arrangement did you make with the Rock Person to guarentee them that their rocks would not be stolen?

Why don't you ask your car dealer what is the safe charge your car can pull ? I mean it is not like you have an entire house to move from what you describe. Then you can base your decision from there.

Well the specifications for my car state that it can tow 1000 Lbs. However, my dad who has been a mechanic for 30-some years told me that Honda puts that number almost all the way across the line for most of their cars and it may not actually be accurate. And driving 2200-some-odd Kms's hauling 1000+ Lbs (the trailer already weighs 850 Lbs) is a sure way to over heat and wear down the transmission - especially going over the mountains. So I don't think it's worth chancing a transmission - they are not cheap to replace. So I think my suit case idea is much cheaper and safer for my car!

Plus the car dealer will just look at that spec sheet and glibly tell me that it will haul 1000 Lbs. They won't be able to factor in all the variables.

Pack as much as you can into your vehicle and sell the rest. You can buy new/used stuff here in Fla for the money you save in rentals and gas. You have mountains to drive through in order to get here. It's a beautiful drive but I wouldn't want to be hauling a trailer with an Accord. (I'm assuming you're going the scenic route and not the Windsor/Detroit route.) And that doesn't even take into account the fact that you might get hit with a snowstorm on your way through the northern States.

Now for the good stuff!..... I've driven that route a million times. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. But at least 40. If you want to know where the cheapest gas and the best places to stay are, let me know.

Have a great trip!

Yes, I think that's what I might end up doing. It's going to be really sad to leave so much of my junk behind. It took me a long time to collect that much stuff. But I guess that goes along with starting a new life - new stuff! I'm going to pack as much stuff into my car as I can, and then I'm going to put the rest in some large suitcases (purchased for $20 each in Chinatown!), and sending one suitcase with every participant who is flying down to my wedding - yes, it's cheap, I know.. but hey, "I invited you to my wedding man... you're my BEST MAN!" lol I've already practiced my sales pitch.

As for the trip down. I went down once to surprise my giflriend in 2007 driving a very rare 1991 Olds Toronado Trofeo. I broke down in Erie PA in the middle of the night, had to sleep in a Wendy's parking lot until the next morning (didn't want to ruin the surprise) and then got my car fixed at Bill's Atlantic (highly recommended by the way), then was on my way again. Tried to drive straight through and got to Georgia before I started to see things. Yep, actually seeing shadows and patterns. And I've never done drugs before. So I stopped in a truck stop and passed out for a few hours. Then i woke up suddenly and started to drive again, while trying to remember (in my dazed state) where i was going in such a hurry, so that was a questionable 5 minutes. Luckily I had picked the right direction before my memory came back... But needless to say, the trip was hell and I'm dreading doing it again.

This time, I just plan to take it easy with my girl, listen to some tunes, munch on some tim-bits and follow my trusty GPS, but if you have a good route with nice sights and cheap gas, hotels where we won't have to accidentaly sit on a prostitute, please, let me know! tyrred2@hotmail.com.

Uhaul will calculate the size of trailer you can tow on their website. I doubt you'll be able to do it all for $500, but the time you get your hitch put on, the cost of the rental and then your gas. Have you checked into one of those plastic luggage compartments that go on your roof. They hold quite a bit of stuff. I think you can rent those as well at uhaul or maybe purchase on second hand on kijiji. Between that and your car maybe you'd have enough room. I'm not sure what I am doing yet. I am looking into a uhaul truck with a trailer to haul my car. Remember your going to need a letter stating that your car meets emission standards before they will allow it in, unless this has changed and you won't be able to sell it for two years without having to pay duty on it. Again this may have changed as well. I checked into the blue book value of my car here and where I am moving to in the US its actually 4 thousand dollars less in the US. Something to think about. GOOD LUCK!

Yeah I got the letter (both of them). Funny story actually - well, not really funny, but I'm all out of tears.. There was super cold weather here in Toronto in mid-Jan. I finally finished faxing in all the stuff to Honda Canada and American Honda, and I got my letter from American Honda in the mail. I neatly put it in my desk with the other one and thought, "Ok, one less fish to fry!". Then I got in my Civic and hit a runway of black ice on the 401 and wrote off the car So I had a nice funeral for the Civic, and now I bought a Honda Accord and had to do the letter thing again. Honda must be getting suspicious.. Sending me all those letters.

You can also rent a small U-Haul truck and tow your car instead. I would say that $500 isn't enough, however.

The U-Haul truck is a no-go. I calculated everything to be well above $1500 to have a truck towing my car. Not to mention the gas.

Hi Guys,

I'm 4 weeks away from moving from Toronto to Florida to get married and do the whole thing! I have a honda accord with a V6 and was planning on just getting a trailer hitch put on it and renting one of those uhaul trailers. But a lot of people are asking me if I am crazy. So I am starting to wonder... It is believed that I will ruin the transmission on my car. So now I am left sitting here wondering how I am going to do this move.

So my question is - how did you move and what do you recommend for me? Here is some info:

- I only have about one small bedroom worth of stuff to move (one computer desk, a tv and a bunch of boxes and my clothes). It wont' all fit in my car though..

- Not taking my bed.

- Want to do this for under $500 if possible.

Your experiences and suggestions would be much appreciated!

Hi Guys,

I'm down here in the USA spending the holidays with my fiancee, and I'm hving a great time! I was a little worried (very worried, actually) about whether or not I could visit the US with a big fat K-1 visa on my passport (without activating the visa). So here is my experience. I hope it eases your mind.

I am self-employed, have no debt, and there is nothing much really holding me to stay in Canada (except for deciding who I will sell my business to). So when I searched this forum (as I have done throughout my whole K-1 process) I didn't really find any postings with anyone's experience in this particular scenario. All I gathered was that I was going to have to show proof of ties to Canada. So I spent some time putting whatever proof I could muster (all I ended up with was a list of client meetings for the month of Jan...) and lost sleep the night before my flight.

I arrived at the airport 4 hours early with an anxious stomach. As I lined up for US customs my palms began to sweat, and I raced through multiple scenarios in my head. I was pretty sure that I would be sent to secondary for interrogation and would certainly come close to missing my flight. I looked up suddenly and came back to reality, I was waved in by a Customs officer. "Ok it's show time!" I thought.

Here is a transcript of how it went (I will do my best to provide it as exact as possible without boring you to tears):

Officer: [in an inaudible voice]

Me: "Pardon me? I can't hear you."

Officer: "Where are you going?

Me: (handed him my passport) "I'm going to Florida."

Officer: (leafing through my passport and stopping at the K-1 visa looks at me)

Me: (trying to beat him to it and blurt out as much info in as little time as I could) "That's a K-1 visa. But I am not activating that today. I will be activating it in March. On this trip I will just be going to visit for 2 weeks."

Officer: "Well.. I don't know."

Me: I'm thinking 'what does he mean - I don't know?'

Officer: "I'm not sure if this is allowed." (and he started leafing through booklets that he pulled out of a briefcase) This indicated to me that he has no prior experience with the K-1 visa. So I thought I had better inform the guy and try to sound like I know what I'm talking about (which I actually do, thanks to VisaJourney and having gone through the process this far).

Me: (Very confidently speaking) "The gentleman at the embassy told me to tell you that I would not be activating the K-1 visa and that I will only be visiting. I didn't even bring the envelope so I would have no way of even activating this today if we tried. You should be letting me in as a B2 Visitor." He did not like this!

Officer: (in a very antagonistic tone) "How do you know what I should be doing? Why are you telling me how to do this?"

Me: "Well I travel back and forth every month. You can see that on your screen."

Then paused and looked at me with annoyance, and then began to shoot quick, angry questions at me without letting me finish the previous answer before starting on the next question (I notice that they are trained to do this - not sure why though, it's only effective in making the traveler feel upset) So I thought I was pretty much screwed at this time, so I would just return very quick antagonistic answers back. In Science class I learned that a wave of equal vibration will cancel out another wave traveling in the opposite direction. So I thought I would match his antagonism with my own! lol

Officer: "What do you do for a living? Who are your customers? What kind of people are they?"

Me: "What kind of people are they?"

Officer: "Yes. What kind of people are they?"

Me: "Officer, I'm not sure how to answer that - they're people.."

Then he asked me about my education and tried to convince me that my school program was called something else.. and then he handed back my passport and papers and let me through.. This was certainly the weirdest experience at customs yet! But I was really happy because this took all of 5 minutes and they let me through! And then I had to kill 3.5 hours at the airport, but It was worth it.

I am now here enjoying some quality time with my fiancee. The funny thing is, on this visit I'm getting really jittery and anxious because I know in 12 weeks I will be living here.... A whole new life in a whole new country.

Anyways, I hope someone out there finds this helpfull, or atleast amusing.

If you or anyone you know is on psychiatric medications, or is being diagnosed with any sort of "mental disorder" you HAVE to watch this. Please pass it along to everyone you know. Your health may be at risk. We have a right to know and I feel very strongly about this particular subject.

http://www.cchr.org/#/videos/making-a-killing-get-the-facts

The video should start playing right away.

APPROVED!!!!!!!

We were the first ones in this morning and were out in less than 2 hours!! Easy as pie too. Will update my timeline with a detailed account.

well its finally here!! My fiancée an I are on our way out to eat at Reuben's (we ate there for lunch and the smoked meat was AMAZING). So we're going to have dinner there too. Our interview is tomorrow morning, and we did some reconnaissance today. Bring it on USCIS!

Good luck to our fellow VJ'ers who I'm sure will try to beat us to the line. Will report back when the interview is over.

I'm going to see my fiance in a couple weeks just decided hehe, anyway, what do i need to get past the border, before i started my k1 process i got denied because i didn't have a job to prove i was coming bk and it was early and couldn't get ahold of anyone that could tell them i was coming back, so now that i have started the process, is that going to come up when they run my passport? will i be flaged because of that last time? and what should i take with me, a letter from work? rental agreement? phone bill? i need to get through this time or im gonna go nutts.

I have visited my fiancee about 17 times over the past 2 years, and it's the same drill every time:

Customs: "What is the purposed of your trip"

ME: "Vacation"

Customs: "How long are you staying in the US?"

ME: "Until next (blank)"

Customs: "where are you staying?

ME: "At my GIRLFRIEND's (never say Fiancee unless they ask) place."

Customs (only asked a third of the time) "how did you meet?"

That's it. Simple. Don't volunteer more info than is necessary.

I have no advice for you, but thanks for getting this all together so others have a nice concise reference

Best of luck to you! You seem like you have your sh*t together so I am sure you will do fine! Congrats on the upcoming togetherness!

Thanks K34! Don't worry, in a few months Obama will let you marry one of his people too! lol

So here again is a further rendered list of what documents are needed: (the instructions from the embassy are lacking at best)

-Copy of I-129F package

-Copy of NOA1 and NOA2

-Copy of Packet 3 (DS-230, 156's, 156K)

-Additional evidence of relationship (photos, plane tickets, phone records, etc)

-2 photos

-one pre-paid envelope

-passport

-police letter (original and copy)

-birth cert (original and copy and certified translation)

-medical and x-ray

-I-134 with Evidence and notarized

-Letter from Fiancee stating that she is still willing to make the biggest mistake of her life! lol (just kidding)

-$131 in US CASH

- Photocopy of passport page

I know what you guys are going to say "This has already been posted elsewhere!!!" But I have honestly searched for it in the guides, and in the forums (with the search function) and have not been able to find it.

I just need to know which documents to take to the K-1 interview in Montreal??

This is what I think I need, but I am not sure....

-Copy of I-129F package???? (is this necessary)

-Copy of NOA1 and NOA2??? (is this necessary)

-Additional evidence of relationship (photos, plane tickets, phone records, etc)

-2 photos

-one pre-paid envelope

-passport

-police letter (original and copy)

-birth cert (original and copy)

-medical and x-ray

-I-134 with Evidence and notarized

-Letter from Fiancee stating that she is still willing to make the biggest mistake of her life! lol (just kidding)

LOL!!! You're funny...if its her soon to be biggest mistake I'm sure it's gonna be her favorite..good luck!!

That's what I keep telling her! lol

Ok, here is the updated list of documents to take to the embassy. Someone please advise as to the first 3 items. Are these necessary?

-Copy of I-129F package???? (is this necessary)

-Copy of NOA1 and NOA2??? (is this necessary)

-Copy of Packet 3 (DS-230, 156's, 156K) (is this neccessary)

-Additional evidence of relationship (photos, plane tickets, phone records, etc)

-2 photos

-one pre-paid envelope

-passport

-police letter (original and copy)

-birth cert (original and copy and certified translation)

-medical and x-ray

-I-134 with Evidence and notarized

-Letter from Fiancee stating that she is still willing to make the biggest mistake of her life! lol (just kidding)

-$131 in US CASH

Am I missing anything else?

YES bring copies of everything... you may not need them, but it's better to be safe than sorry!! You definitely need copy of Packet 3, because you have to sign one of those forms in front of the interviewer.

Oh and you need a photocopy of your passport page as well to give to them.

Thank you very much!! I did not know about the photocopy of my passport page. I honestly don't know how anybody goes through this process successfully without having a resource like visajourney.com.

I know what you guys are going to say "This has already been posted elsewhere!!!" But I have honestly searched for it in the guides, and in the forums (with the search function) and have not been able to find it.

I just need to know which documents to take to the K-1 interview in Montreal??

This is what I think I need, but I am not sure....

-Copy of I-129F package???? (is this necessary)

-Copy of NOA1 and NOA2??? (is this necessary)

-Additional evidence of relationship (photos, plane tickets, phone records, etc)

-2 photos

-one pre-paid envelope

-passport

-police letter (original and copy)

-birth cert (original and copy)

-medical and x-ray

-I-134 with Evidence and notarized

-Letter from Fiancee stating that she is still willing to make the biggest mistake of her life! lol (just kidding)

LOL!!! You're funny...if its her soon to be biggest mistake I'm sure it's gonna be her favorite..good luck!!

That's what I keep telling her! lol

Ok, here is the updated list of documents to take to the embassy. Someone please advise as to the first 3 items. Are these necessary?

-Copy of I-129F package???? (is this necessary)

-Copy of NOA1 and NOA2??? (is this necessary)

-Copy of Packet 3 (DS-230, 156's, 156K) (is this neccessary)

-Additional evidence of relationship (photos, plane tickets, phone records, etc)

-2 photos

-one pre-paid envelope

-passport

-police letter (original and copy)

-birth cert (original and copy and certified translation)

-medical and x-ray

-I-134 with Evidence and notarized

-Letter from Fiancee stating that she is still willing to make the biggest mistake of her life! lol (just kidding)

-$131 in US CASH

Am I missing anything else?

I know what you guys are going to say "This has already been posted elsewhere!!!" But I have honestly searched for it in the guides, and in the forums (with the search function) and have not been able to find it.

I just need to know which documents to take to the K-1 interview in Montreal??

This is what I think I need, but I am not sure....

-Copy of I-129F package???? (is this necessary)

-Copy of NOA1 and NOA2??? (is this necessary)

-Additional evidence of relationship (photos, plane tickets, phone records, etc)

-2 photos

-one pre-paid envelope

-passport

-police letter (original and copy)

-birth cert (original and copy)

-medical and x-ray

-I-134 with Evidence and notarized

-Letter from Fiancee stating that she is still willing to make the biggest mistake of her life! lol (just kidding)

First here is a link to a visitor guide for Montreal.

Amy and I were there for the Just For Laughs festival when she was up last. We stayed at the Days Inn in downtown.

215, boul. René-Lévesque est

Montréal Québec

H2X 1N7 Canada

514.393.3388

1.800.668.3872

reservation@daysinnmontreal.com

While we were there we went and saw the Basilique Notre-Dame. they have nice carriage rides but might be too chilly for that by the time you go for your interviews. They have lots of nice restaurants but you should really check out the underground shopping that they have in Montreal as well.

Hey thanks! The quide will come in very handy. There are so many hotels, restaurants and activities to chose from... 2 days just doesn't seem like enough time.. We're now deciding between the Square Phillips and the Sheraton. I am also doing some extensive research as to good places to eat. The only thing I remember from Montreal (being there about 7 years ago) was the amazing Chinese food (way better than Toronto Chinese food - which is pretty good in its own rights) and that chicken place... I think it was called Le Coq?? I think a nice hike up that mountain were you can see Montreal at night would be romantic, and I will also hang my head, hand my wallet over, and let my fiancee go shopping (her sport! lol) It's too bad that there's no Just for Laughs in October. That would have been an excellent show to check out.

I'm really looking forward to this little excursion!

We are looking at several hotels nearby:

- Sheraton Hotel - only 1.3 K walk. Very nice rooms.

- Square Phillips - Has kitchens in all the rooms and is 4.5 stars. VERY close to the embassy.

- Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel - also nearby, but the website is down so I can't get a good description of it.

We're making sort of a nice mini vacation out of this. So if any of you have any recommendations on where to stay and what to do and see please let me know. It's been quite a while since I've been to Montreal, so I am not really familiar with it.

Well today I read all of your posts and was like.. "#######, why didn't I get a letter??". Then at some point tonight, my upstairs neighbour slipped something under my door. Yep. It's the letter!! I got a DATE!!!!

October 14th. 8:30am.. but I'll line up at 7:15

Now starts the mad rush to get all the papers in order, photocopy stuff, staple other stuff, book plane tickets, hotel rooms. Very last minute. But I'm happy that we got it at last.

I hope that when the letters finally do come, the interview won't be set to, like, next week. Cause then that will make it difficult to get everything (including fiancee's plane ticket, hotel booking, etc.) together. So I'm hoping that they still give atleast a month between letter and appointment.

My only comfort in this, is that I'm next in line before WaitForever! lol I emailed the embassy a few days ago but have received no reply as to the date of our interview. Maybe they've decided just to let me in jk.

Hello,

I have a quick questions. How long does it usually take after you send in the packet 3 to receive packet 4? Does packet 4 have the interview date?

Thanks.

We've been waiting for a while too (maybe it seems like a while cause I'm impatient)... Sent off Packet 3 in July and still have not received Packet 4. (i'm in Canada). I emailed the embassy in Montreal and they got back to me on Aug 8 saying:

We did receive it and you are on a waiting list to be scheduled. You will be advised by mail once your appointment has been booked.

Thank you

Operator 6