shadtov

My husband's green card arrived yesterday. The same day we also received a letter stating that the case was being adjudicated. On-line it says we're waiting for the welcome notice and mentions nothing about card production. And we've never received an email. I think it's 3 communication methods that aren't synchronized. I've heard it's common.

My husband's 10 year green card arrived today. woo hoo!

I'm so glad they took into account the years of waiting and went straight to the 10 year.

I caught myself saying "Wow, that was fast," because the welcome notice only arrived on Saturday.

It took me less time to get through college than to get my husband's green card!

Lal--has yours arrived?

That's wonderful and fast!

No, my husband's card hasant arrived yet, but we received the welcome letter on Friday (and it stated he is set to receive the 10 year )

Isn't it funny how our perspective becomes so skewed? We call it "fast" when the green card arrives a few days after a letter... even after years of waiting. Maybe it's like mothers who say they forget the pain of birth as soon as the baby arrives. funny, funny

My husband's 10 year green card arrived today. woo hoo!

I'm so glad they took into account the years of waiting and went straight to the 10 year.

I caught myself saying "Wow, that was fast," because the welcome notice only arrived on Saturday.

It took me less time to get through college than to get my husband's green card!

Lal--has yours arrived?

That's wonderful and fast!

No, my husband's card hasant arrived yet, but we received the welcome letter on Friday (and it stated he is set to receive the 10 year )

Great! No I-90 in your future.

ELW, thanks for the reply.

We moved from california to washington. Our case was pending name check (post-interview) since 2004. I did the change of address on-line, called the misinformation line and did an infopass. I don't know if it affected anything. We just got the green card 10 months after the change of address. The only thing that was funny, was that we had a whole new receipt number b/c CA had the AOS at the CSC while Seattle sent it to the NSC.

Congratulations!

ya llego, ya llego :dance:

Por un momento, pense, "Wow, que rapido!" Pues, pase menos tiempo en la universidad!

10 year card arrived today, so it looks like they're considering the length of the background check in granting the card.

My husband's 10 year green card arrived today. woo hoo!

I'm so glad they took into account the years of waiting and went straight to the 10 year.

I caught myself saying "Wow, that was fast," because the welcome notice only arrived on Saturday.

It took me less time to get through college than to get my husband's green card!

Lal--has yours arrived?

Entonces los dos, Pedro y Len, estaban de vacaciones... pero creo que Len no sos regreso bronceada.

My husband is a package handler at FedEx, however, after talking to a UPS driver, I think shortly he'll switch to UPS because of the benefits. But we want to wait until after we go on vacation so he won't have to ask for two weeks off. Plus, as others mentioned, there is more upward mobility available at UPS than FedEx.

He's young and strong, but we do go through a lot of Ben Gay. Alas, you do what you have to.

ah, the aroma of bengay... Our bedroom smelled of bengay for 3 months straight while he worked at UPS. Even the cats were deterred by the smell and wouldn't go near him at night.

If you can handle the work, UPS does seem like a good place for someone to move up. And I loved that my husband was a "teamster" like my grandmother.

It's great that there are at least a few good companies out there that offer benefits even if you can only get part-time hours.

That's pretty harsh on Athena. She met someone that she loved. They want to spend their lives together so they got married. Isn't that the point? I object to people marrying under false pretenses and abusing the system, but what Athena did was her right as an American. She did everything legally.

Back to the original topic. I think that you have to think through what obstacles you put up. It's incredibly hard to be separated from someone you love, but not that hard when you're just scamming someone. If it's just a scam, you put up with the time it takes knowing that at the end you'll get what you want. When you love someone, every minute apart is painful.

I could see increasing the proof required for someone marrying on a visitor's visa, but isn't that already the case?

In Chula Vista (san diego) they won't let you in the building until 15 minutes before your appointment. In Seattle, the guards don't check the time so I imagine you can go in early.

I think it depends on how busy the office is and how strict the guards are.

Whenever we walked across we went through San Ysidro, but when we drove, we went through Otay.

hmmm... I'm trying to remember timing. I think it really mattered if it was Saturday or Sunday. Sometimes we would hop over to get tacos and go to a cheap movie. I remember the line was always shorter on Saturday. On a Sunday afternoon, I know that we've had to wait in a line that trailed back quite a bit (to those little stores along the sidewalk).

We only activated one of our APs in San Ysidro. It may have taken an hour or so outside and then 20 minutes inside. They make you wait outside along the fence and only let a few people in at a time. It wasn't so bad since we talked to other people in line. Once you get the AP activated, you then have to go through the regular line again. B/c of the double line, I'd probably not want to do both on a Sunday or on a Monday after a long holiday.

After the first time, you can go straight to the regular line just like you've always done. It's just the first time that's a pain.

Was your wife going to travel by herself? It was a bit intimidating in the small building so I'm glad I was with my husband to give him moral support.

We've also crossed at Nogales. We drove to my husband's hometown on the Pacific Coast of Mexico for Christmas in 2006. They had a more thorough inspection than in San Diego.

Are you guys in LA? I think LA's 100 miles north of the border... or is that only as far as Orange County or Temecula?

We crossed in San Ysidro and in Otay Mesa multiple times. If you drive over they'll direct you where to go for inspection. We walked over pretty regularly. If you do that, you have to go to a building just before the pedestrian customs checkpoint. There was a quite a line. Once inside it didn't take too long. They looked over the passport, EAD and AP. My husband also had his drivers' license. That time we carried lots of papers with us. After the first time through, we just carried the passport, driver's license and EAD. They would almost wave us through.

Also, if they do need something additional and your wife doesn't have it with her, she can always call you and have you drive it across. That's obviously not ideal, but we helped a Canadian nurse and his Japanese girlfriend once. He didn't have his passport with him and he had to call his roommate to bring it across.

Customs at LAX was more intensive, but never that bad with the AP.

Is your wife flying from the Tijuana airport? We used to do that to save money. Now we're in seattle so it's a bit different.

Congratulations Joey!

What a relief for you guys.

thanks all, they said i would have to come in every time to get a new I-94 and pay ,i told them they will be seeing a lot of me then , one more question ... do i leave the I-94 stapled to my AP next time i come back or should i remove it before hand?

You could post this in the canadian regional section. Maybe there are some POEs that don't usually charge. At least it's only $6, but you paid for the AP already for goodness sakes.

We're almost off the name check pending bus.

For those pending in the Seattle office, we had the renewal biometrics in early February and our case was finally sent to the NSC at the end of May. So it looks like they're working, just slowly.

We never had to pay and we've had 3 APs

They probably have something against Canadians.

I'm sure, cause they loooooove Mexicans

We never had to pay and we've had 3 APs

I like this thread. It's interesting to know what people actually drive all over the country.

Me

Make: Subaru

Model: Forrester

Year: 2002

Color: silver

Length of daily commute: 50 mi.

Average gas cost per week: $80-$120 (including work-related travel)

Do you carpool? No, I have to make home visits once I get to work, but I get paid .50 a mile.

Any plans to buy a more fuel efficient transportation? Yes. We can't afford a hybrid, but we plan to park the Subaru and buy a scion xd.

Marcos

Make: Seattle's bus system

Model: some hybrids

Length of daily commute: 6 mi. roundtrip to school and 4 mi. roundtrip to work.

Average gas cost per week: free bus pass 'til November then $1.50 each way

We've been a one car family for a few months. We sold our 2000 Saturn b/c we found we never used it now that we live by a bus line.

Anyone use the zip cars?

I think that would be a great way for a city person to not have to buy a car. You could use the zip car a few times a month for much cheaper.

In a recent column on TangoMag.com a group of overweight women revealed what seems to be a growing concern among their cohort: That foreigners are marrying women with weight problems strictly to gain U.S. citizenship. And though the assertions in the column were made out of personal experience rather than concrete proof, hard data on "fake marriages" seems to back them up.

Recent figures released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed that one in five of the marriages they investigated turned out to be "fake," and that quickie marriages between American citizens and citizenship-seeking foreigners has become a multimillion dollar business.Is immigration too easy? Is America's current immigration system too open or too restrictive

I've always wondered how the immigration officials judge "fake". I know lots of americans who marry other americans b/c they're "in love" but have put no other thought into it. And what about americans who marry for reasons other that pure love, like financial security, religious or cultural reasons, or any other non-love reason? If you marry an American you can marry whomever you choose without anyone asking. But if you marry someone abroad for security and companionship, then that is wrong. I don't know. For my part, I never would have gone through the trauma of the immigration system if we hadn't been in love and if I wasn't pretty darn sure we'd stay married for our lifetimes, but still, it's hard to judge others.

And also, what if there are foreigners who prefer women with a little meat on them? Couldn't that be a cultural preference?

I think it would be fine to raise the costs of AOS from a visitor's visa a couple of thousand dollars, but 10,000 is kind of ludicrous, as is getting rid of co-sponsors. A sponsor is a sponsor.

Gracias!

Athena--pq tienes que dejar a tu esposo por dos meses? Todos nosotros sabemos lo que es estar lejos de nuestros seres queridos por cosas de imigracion, pero sigue siendo dificil. no creo que es posible acostumbrarte de eso.

Espero que para ti te pasen muy rapidos los meses.

Im sorry I cant answer that. Was it transferred? We also have been waiting 4years. Im so happy for you and yours. Im sure this has been a very stressful journey for you both and maybe you both can now exhale and begin to really live your lives.

My Best Wishes to you both,

Barb

Thanks everyone for the congratulations. I think I figured out the WAC to LIN thing. We initially filed in San Diego and the case was sent to the CSC (WAC). When we moved to Seattle I guess they switched it to the Nebraska Service center (LIN).

I hope they still understand that it's a 4 year old case.

I'm sorry Barb that you're still waiting. Have you been told anything at infopass appts? I think our combination of infopass appts and having a good person to talk to at our Senator's office helped. Even though the name check memo was written in February, I think that they have to do an extra review when cases have been pending for so long, like many of us on visajourney who got trapped in the name check.

Hola amigos!

case status today:

Application Type: I181, CREATION OF RECORD OF LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENCE

Current Status: Approval notice sent.

On June 6, 2008, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this I181 CREATION OF RECORD OF LAWFUL PERMANENT RESIDENCE. Please follow any instructions on the notice. If you move before you receive the notice, call customer service.

does anyone know why we would have a different receipt notice for the case? from WAC to LIN?