maliciant

Happens all the time in USA

I'm pretty sure it happens at least as often in the philippines as it does here, just because you aren't aware that it exists there, does not mean it doesn't exist (it absolutely exists). Seriously, most of your posts these days just seem like attempts to get attention by stirring sh** up, you can't possibly believe the ####### you spew?

I'm guessing you hit a bad day to fly, that there was a reason they were checking everyone's bags... I think most the time if you declare nothing you get waived through... but hey, it wouldn't be security if they didn't cause some kind of delay some of the time.

Well, only a few more august filers to go now.

I didn't know about any changes to DL rules, and haven't really done any research on it. I assumed it was a little varied state by state though. The international DL is sounding like a better idea all the time, what I don't know is, how long will that be valid in the US? I know citizens are supposed to switch their license and other information when they become residents of a different state than they were issued in, are there going to be any similar rules like that for the international DL? (I could see once she has a green card it makes her a resident at which point she may need to get a normal DL, but at that point that shouldn't be hard...). Have you asked this question in the life in america forum? (The AOS forum might be good too but this affects k-1 to aos etc).

It's a four hour trip to get to a panel physician in my state, so I took the chance on getting a RFE by just sending the DS 3025 document, which indicated she had been given all the vaccines required for her age group. We may get a RFE for that, and if we do we'll deal with it then, but otherwise we've saved a day off work plus a bunch of travel expenses etc. Waiting for the AOS is not nearly as rough as waiting for the Visa process itself, if you are hurting for money that probably changes things, but for me personally it just means my debts will take longer to pay off.

The wedding photo's are here. I think I posted them before, but I'm not 100% sure anymore.

I don't think you need a green card to get a drivers license, I may be wrong though as all we applied for was an ID. There was no real issue getting the state ID, however, because she is a foreigner they could take up to 60 days to send it by mail (vs citizens who just get it right there as they can print them in the license center), and, when we received it, we found out it was only valid for 3 months, so I guess the point is, if you don't have a green card yet, you might want to wait to get your drivers license if going without isn't too much of a hassle and you expect the aos to complete soon. I guess it depends on the fees etc, though id fee in missouri is only $8.50, a license may be more.

how much does the whole journey cost starting with the k-1 visa??? im not sure if any1 can answer this question but its worth a shot...any way what do u do after the visa is in hand???lol..thanks

Depends.

$455 for petition, $131 for visa fee, medical exam...varies greatly, police certificates...varies greatly, $1010 for AOS + $600 for every child under 14 or $1010 for every child over 14 (all fees are "per person") Plus any travel expenses for the finacee, yourself as you deem appropriate.

I believe the medical exam required for the k-1 is ALWAYS $213.35, in the local currency at the current exchange so it is not something that varies much.

The trips to disney land, jacuzzi's, fast cars, etc, are not necessarily required, it depends on the couple... but you can pretty much expect that marriage will increase your expenses one way or another, for me the big expenses before the marriage were travel, it's not cheap to fly to pretty much literally the other side of the world, if you just have to drive a car across a border it's a lot cheaper. My biggest after marriage expense, health insurance... it costs $350 a month to add my wife to it, over a year this will make the travel expense a minor thing. Germany is not a poor country so most likely you wouldn't have to cover as much of the costs as you would if you were marrying someone from a poor country and had to pay the various local fees ($213.35 is probably a minor annoyance in germany, it's potentially someone's life savings in other countries).

I believe all K-1's and K-3's have interviews before entering the country, as well as the CR/IR? folks too, about the only people who wouldn't are people from VWP countries, and possibly there is some degree of difference between a visitor visa interview and a k-1 interview since one is focused on the relationship questions and one is purely can you prove that you have enough reason to return home if we let you into america... I just don't think that the embassy interview is viewed as a reason not to interview here, other than possibly the very short time frame between that interview and the AOS, I imagine if it takes some time to file AOS they are more likely to require an interview than those who file before their I90 expires. The K visa's don't require both people to be present (although it certain helps and may unnofficially be required in some countries) and the AOS interviews REQUIRE both husband and wife, the only exception being if one of them is military and deployed at the interview, in which case it seems like the preferred thing is to reschedule the interview so that they can attend (earlier or later, but it's a pretty big sticking point for both to attend the interviews when they are done).

The biometrics appointment and being transfered to CSC are two distinct things, many people are transfered before their biometrics appointment (a few of us in march received the transfered notice in the mail the same day we did the biometrics, which means it was sent a few days before we went).

Tomandtanja: As far as I know I'm the furthest along the AOS path of the august filers, or at least the furthest along of anyone who is still paying attention to this august thread. No AOS or EAD yet here, though it's only been 2 months (tomorrow) since we got married and a little over a month since we filed AOS. We have done our biometrics appointment 11 days ago so now it's probably any day until the EAD shows up (but it could take another 2 months too), the AP could also show up anywhere in that time frame. The AOS case has been transfered to CSC instead of the local office, so an interview is pretty unlikely, in our case. If there is an interview they'd transfer the case back to st louis and schedule it, but I'm hoping to just get to skip the interview since st louis is a bit of a trip and right now I don't have enough money to make it worth the trip by staying a few days.

Since I filed in march for AOS, here's where people stand so far. There are 67 people listed in our spreadsheet, 19 have had their cases transfered to CSC. Two people have interview dates scheduled (not the ones who were transfered), one person (who actually filed a few days before march) has received AP and EAD already, and one other person has already received AP as well. I think both cases where people have received AP had requested expedites and apparently got them (for the AP only). Just one person who has received EAD, no interviews yet, no green cards yet, but it's almost May, and the first scheduled interview is for then. Here is the spreadsheet for those who want to look March 2009 AOS filers

AP showing up about the same time as the green card is kind of stupid, but I believe the AP and EAD have a much shorter maximum time frame, I think both are issued within 90 days, I'm sure they can be denied though I don't think that is likely, and it seems like I've read that they are supposed to be issued within 90 days, unlike the AOS which could be completed within 90 days but may take years.

Our marriage was on 2-22, does that mean we can hang out?

Someone asked how the wifey was doing... everything is going great so far, homesickness hasn't been too much of a problem which I was worried about, she's starting to get a serious itch for that EAD card, and I'm looking forward to her having an income, though I'm enjoying the current schedule now that things have kind of settled down (I'm back to having time to work on learning things, getting some good daily exercise, and now I have a partner to keep me motivated with that... at least until she gets a job that has her working a few hours later than I work or something and mangles the current routine). Not looking forward to the change in schedule that'll most likely happen but a second income will be very beneficial and I have no doubt that my wife will find a job fairly quickly, I'm hoping she can find something that fits in her long term goals, she wants to work with children (beyond that she's not as picky about it, teaching, daycare, whatever).

Thanks Mara, I konw you have enough problems I appreciate you.

Now I am navigating in the AOS tthreads and darn it! so much s%hi&t we still need t collect!, I am been positive and trying to have everything ready for after we get married. But what I don't get is if he has to file for the Advanced Parole, Is it free if you send it with the AOS package?, and if you get it, what if you don't use it?.

AP is free when filed with AOS, so you might as well file it. Currently it seems like unless you expedite the AP (which means you have an actual reason to need to file it/life and death of a family member or something...) it seems likely to show up around the same time as a green card, or not much sooner than one anyway. I'm expecting the EAD/AP to show up pretty soon, but really I'm reading a lot of stories about people getting the green card itself at almost the same time or before the other items.

I have my doubts about photo's of a public place being a security risk... oh no, terrorists might plan an attack!!! Or a terrorist might take a bus ride or walk through that place and plan an attack... I think it might be more of a fear of a 'false' camera than a fear that pictures of a public place may get into the hands of terrorists (cause well, face it, just about any electric gadget these days could be a LOT more than it appears).

It's not really clear what to enter into that before/after transfer/interview field, there are 4 possibilities... I think the field should have a clear specific meaning. I'd go with days until interview from original filing date... if it's for historical purposes, people can see which ones are transfer to CSC and see how long those took, really the office that it's processed at is probably the most important thing for determining the timeline, everyone processed in CSC is likely to have a similar wait, where people who are processed at a local office are likely to have a shorter wait, but just how short, depends on the actual office.

Good to see EAD cards are starting to show up...

As for working... I'm assuming you work for the same company you worked for before moving... it's perfectly OK for immigrants to continue to earn income from sources outside the US (and it's even possible to provide an affidavit of support for yourself if your income from outside the US will continue). Wether or not it can be an issue is really a matter of technicalities I think, if the company doesn't have US offices then clearly you aren't working illegally as you are working outside the US, if they have offices in the US... it's potentially trickier... but I think it's safe to say it won't be an issue since AOS is filed. If the company is taking out federal taxes etc, then you won't have to worry come tax time about owing extra, but I'd say technically you are working illegally... where if they aren't taking out american taxes... then you probably are working legally, but I think you may owe US taxes on it when you file... I'm no expert, so good luck and hope it works out, tax laws are complicated enough for citizens with 'normal' employement, adding in immigration specific fun is only going to make it harder.

The Pledge - Jack Nicolson, I don't really remember if the plot was bad or anything like that... it was just so incredibly boring, also, the woman he wanted to get with was missing half her teeth or something and that was a little disturbing to watch too... but mostly, that movie was just so boring it's actually painful.

Taken... not the Liam Neison one which I liked (it was entertaining despite being pretty ridiculous for a crime drama/action)... Taken was a sci fi channel original, back before battlestar galactica (in other words when sci fi channel was great at making shoddy crappy movies look good enough to watch in a trailer). Taken is a movie about aliens abductions/government conspiracies, it's kind of mysterious... and it's a miniseries, the first show hooks you a bit, though like any intro was a little slow... the second episode was much the same... you are expecting it to start getting really awesome and by the third one you are still bored, and you'd quit watching but you've already invested 6 hours in the first 3 parts.... each part is 2 hours and there was 10 of them... that's right, this mini series was 20 hours of boredom and the whole time you are praying that it'll get awesome, seriously, a movie about aliens, is almost always going to be awesome one way or another... it wasn't, 20 hours killed for one bad movie, it might have been a good movie had it only been say... 5 hours, I don't know. Anyway, the *cool* thing about this particular miniseries was it did play a new part every night M-F for two weeks so it wasn't like they dragged it out like some shows are...

I liked a lot of the movies that made other peoples top hated movies... Mr Wrong was bad... but I really liked the scene where bill pullman broke his finger to show how much he loved the girl... it's the movie that made me realize how much I hated the way movies are often advertised... Mr. Wrong was not a comedy, but they advertised it as though it was... I don't like to be tricked into watching a movie and finding out that it's not even in the genre I was expecting...

Do we have a general rule of thumb for how long the AOS takes after being transfered to CSC? I understand that when it's handled locally it depends a LOT on the location and getting an estimate is harder due to the number of different locations (not enough info for each location to be consistant) but when it's transfered to CSC (or VSC I assume for people who filed k1/3 through VSC) we should be able to estimate the time. Anyone know about how long that is? I seem to recall reading something like 5 months, but I'm hoping someone has more specific info.

Does anyone keep track of touches on their AOS applications? I know during the whole K-1 process untilt he NOA2's started to fly around, everyone was watching closely for them, they they happen much or have much meaning during the AOS process? I only just added our casenumber online today and it's showing a last updated date of today as well. It's possible that the reason it's showing an update of today is because this is the first day it was entered in the system or a result of being transfered to CSC. The EAD receipt number isn't working yet. I'm just curious mostly, it's far less stressful having to wait now, than having to wait during the k-1 process.

Our case got transferred to the CSC!

It was the hugest surprise. We went to our biometrics appointment today, and we thought we'd be stuck there for at least an hour or two. We walked in, and the place was a desert. Nobody but us, and two women on staff. We filled out a form, gave them his ID and appointment letter. Within two minutes, she called him in, and after about another two or three minutes, he was right back out. Done and dusted, no problem at all. In fact, the traffic to and from the federal building took longer than the appointment itself.

I went back to work for about two hours, then went home. We'd forgotten to check the mail earlier, so we did it right before we left to go out to eat, and there it was - I was afraid it was an RFE, but it was a notice that our case had been transferred.

So needless to say, very very excited. I'm hoping the good luck holds out, because I know his vaccination paperwork isn't exactly accurate to the letter (the ONE civil surgeon out here was booked solid, so we decided to just send in his DS-3025 along with the health department's HIV/syphilis/TB test results in a sealed envelope, rather than the vaccine transcription you get from the civil surgeon). If we can just avoid an RFE, this will have been the most pleasant experience we've had with USCIS yet.

This is almost identical to my wife and I, we went to biometrics yesterday and it was about 15 minutes total, we saw one other person in the room while we were there, otherwise there was a LOT of empty chairs, so I assume at least now and then they have some people in there, but not yesterday. We also got home and checked the mail (we left at about 5 am so no mail for the day yet) and had a letter from USCIS and thought oh #######, please not an RFE (because we also sent DS 3025 instead of the 697 form and hoping it is fine etc). It was also the transfer notice.

I tried to edit the spreadsheet to update the intformation but the file menu had all the options for saving blanked out, all I could do is export it for local saving.

I haven't read that other thread yet... but seems to be going around a lot lately (the brother of a neighboring business also died).

The good news is we went to St Louis yesterday, it was cold, rained quite a bit... but overall wasn't bad, we did the biometrics which took the classic 15 minutes (thanks for making us travel 4 hours one way to do that USCIS... it's fingerprinting and a picture, mcdonalds employees can handle that... locally!). Anyway, we roamed around and saw the arch and some sites, road to the top etc. There's pics and vids, but I haven't posted them anywhere yet. Also our AOS has been moved to CSC (and probably the same will happen to anyone else doing AOS in missouri). The plus side is apparently that means no AOS interview.

These deep thoughts are from the old SNL skits... "Deep thoughts by Jack Handy"... from back when SNL used to be funny, google will find plenty more...

We'll be doing biometrics in St Louis tomorrow... and seeing the sites, etc... it's a 4 hour trip, too bad it's going to rain on our parade, it's the scheduled interview date (Would have done it early had it been an option but the distance makes it necessary to take a day off work).

Awww.... the weather has gone rotten, the trip to st louis is going to be about 55 degrees and a 50/50 chance of rain... we'll still see the arch but we don't really want to spend 5 or so hours hanging out outside if the weather is going to suck. It could still turn out decent, but I have a feeling we'll be hunting for some kind of mall or flea market or something to kill some time checking out.

You are officially refiled... but is it expedited too or do you have to wait to find out about that?

I'm king... so I guess well, it's time to start demanding NOA1... for AOS!... or maybe approved visa's... it's kind of a mess.... it's hard to know what to demand...

Well Girls and boys!!!!!! MY K1 VISA WAS APPROVED ON Marzh 31st!!!!!!!!!! It was so nice the officer who interiew us, It awas lioke having a conversation, talking about us, It was so comfortable!!!! they actually gave us our visa the same day!!!!! I athank god and Noah .. that he came to the interview with me, I am so nervious, but with him oh my god I felt great!!! must of the interview was in english, sometimes the offecier asked me questions in english and I answered in spanish hahahaha but cool, It was nice

Actually, he gave us back our complete I129F package!!!!!!! I didnt know they could do that!!!!!!!! my aafolder awas so large that it couldnt pass through the window, so the officer went out aand give it in my hands!!! he said "ok, i think this belongs to you" OH GOD! we have ALL our I129F support back!!!!!! hehehehe it was great!!!!!!!!!!

Lot's of good news today, looks like HW is past the extra torture time that china likes to add to the wait, practically ahead of schedule by that embassy's standards!

Noa&Mia: Everyone get's their k-1 packet back, usually it's shipped to them with their passport, apparently in your situation they handed it to you directly since they gave you your passport on the same day, the only thing I wonder is, is it still in a brown envelope with one of the corners missing? That's what you need at the PoE and if they gave it to you like that and you opened the brown portion, you need to have them reseal it, if they didn't give it to you in the brown envelope with one corner missing, you might want to call them up and ask if they are sending one or something.

My wife will be doing biometrics on march 10, the other info is already in my timeline here.

k-1's are non-immigrant... so go with that when you call.

Finally some good news fred, I'm hoping she has the visa by tuesday (philippines time of course) but I have no idea if that's likely or not.

Friday the 10th I'll be hanging out in st louis with my woman... from about 11am to 7pm (it'll be a long day, only about 30 minutes of that will likely be for the AOS/EAD biometrics appointment... the rest of that will be wandering around down town st louis and hopefully not getting mugged by meth addicts, at least not too often). We'll go visit the archway, snag some lunch and likely a dinner from some place in the area... it should be a lot of fun... not jaccuzi fun, or mirrored room fun, but about as much fun as a person can have when you have to travel 4 hours to do a short 15 minute appointment.

Any august filers call st louis home?

The K-3 route doesn't get you out of having to deal with AOS... and from what little I've seen many of the people who go that route (K-3/IR-1?) end up taking close to a year... that's apparently the typical time frame. Anyway, it's the IR-1 that let's people avoid the AOS fun (to some degree).

Received the biometrics appointment a few days ago... ugh, we have to travel for about 4 hours one way to get to the local office for biometrics... it's finger printing and a photo, all things that could have been done in the embassy or even possibly at the PoE so much easier (I'm assuming the biometrics in the US is to insure that the person matches the person who went to the embassy for the itnerview or something... as they took fingerprints then too).