SingleCharles

• Filed on 3/19 - what a mountain of paperwork!
  
• NOA on 3/26 - fast!
  
• Biometrics on 4/19 - our only disappointment was that we did not read our letter and thought it was our actual interview. We waited about 45 minutes and the biometric process took about 20 minutes for my wife and step-son.
  
• Interview on 6/9 in Seattle - THANK GOD, APPROVED! The interviewer said that we will receive our Green Cards in about two weeks and in two years we will need to file an I-751. The interview was simple and took about 30 minutes. He only asked for proof of identity (passports) and "photo" proof of our relationship. He asked my wife what her current address is, and about how we met. He asked my step-son if he likes the US. It was pretty much like I read from other people here in VisaJourney. The only downside was in the waiting room as it was difficult to hear who was being called. We panicked several times thinking that our name was being called (but was not).
  

It is a fantastic relief to finally come out the other side of this 587 day journey! Thanks to God for all the miracles big and small along the way.

To those still waiting - Best wishes and good luck!

A quick note to report that we we had a successful interview at the US Consulate in Rio on the 30th of June! Gabriella's K1 Visa is in the Express mail right now!

A few things that stick out in my mind:

1) VJ has everything you need to prepare for a K1 interview - thank you VJ for all your help

2) Several people had used lawyers to prepare for the interview. Each one told horror stories about the lawyers "sleeping" on their papers. I felt that we were more prepared than any of the people we met that used lawyers. IMHO the cost of the lawyer is not worth it.

3) The process is complicated and full of pitfalls. It is a miracle that anyone gets through it. To that Gabriella and I thank God for our miracle!

Good luck to those still in the process.

I fully understand now some of the emotions and anxiety people go through as they approach their date. I can hardly wait to see Gabriella again.

Thank you for the replies! 2 days left before I leave!

Wow, glad I went back and read the guides. I was going to leave for our interview in Brazil without the passport type photos of me. Thanks VJ!

Double checking.. I need to bring originals of my divorce documents?

What about my previous marriage certificate?

So close, really excited. Interview in 8 days!

Thank you for the replies. I really appreciate it! 15 days until Rio! WOO!

I like free attorneys. They're the only ones who are worth every dime you pay them!

Stole the words right out of my mouth... the best thiing about free attorneys is that you get exactly what you pay for! B)

In all seriousness, I hope you find someone that can help you.

Why is taking a child away from their birth father so okay with so many on VJ?? And the child has no say? Only what mom wants.

The child is not legally old enough to have a say. It is up to the mother and father. The father is an abuser of his son, an alcoholic and a drug abuser. He is a known burglar and extortionist. I have the police records to prove it. So you tell me, where is the better life? With a stable emotionally mature loving couple, or with a father that allows his five year old to drink his beer and watch him make love to his prostitutes?? AND WE NEVER SAID we wanted to exclude the father. From the beginning we offered to PAY to allow him to see his son, to forgive his child support payments (which he never pays but is close to going to jail because of failure to pay).

We have called the US Consulate in Rio and have heard both stories from "The child can be on the DS230 and if the child will Follow to Join later, no problem" AND "you have to start over with a new I129F". Anyone deal with having the child on the DS230, then was not able to bring the child directly? How did you deal with it at the interview?

18 days and counting...

I wish I had known Gary's advice before we hit this situation. I think it would have helped a lot. We are in a similar situation, but I think all the ex wants is to make Gabriellas life difficult.

Congratulations lazulineiris!!

I fly down to Rio de Janeiro at the end of the month to go through the interview with Gabriella! I found an awesome fare, $771 from Seattle to Rio RT! WOO!

Thought I would follow this up. Gabriella used the MagicJack I sent her about three times total. All three times it was terrible. It stopped working after the third time. It could be her computer or the internet at her house, both, or none of the above.

Skype still rulez!

I make my own pizza dough, put it in a pan, top it with cheese, sausage, bacon, mushroom, onion, green pepper, and jalapeno. Sometimes I also make a thin crust green pepper and onion. Either one is delicious to me!

Moving to Embassy and Consulate forum.

Ops! Thank you.

I hope our experience will help you, so you will not need the kind of luck that we have had. Our experience is directly with the US Consulate in Rio de Janeiro, but may apply also to other US Consulates..

We tried to change our first appointment with the US Consulate due to pending custody issues. We had waited to within weeks to request the interview date change in hopes that our custody case would be resolved before the interview. The attempt to change the appointment resulted in much emotional pain, and the temporary cancellation of our K1 visa application. By the grace of God, the cancellation was reversed after we explained our situation. Not only reversed, but extended another four months to give us more time to reach the end of our custody situation. We were appropriately chastised for our actions, and told under no circumstance will there be any more exceptions. We were told to schedule our interview date at least 90 days before the new expiration date of our application. We were sincerely apologetic, and thankful to the people we worked with.

The original expiration date of our application (5/8) came and left without a thought. On 5/21 Gabriella received a letter from the US Consulate in Rio that we had failed to meet for an interview prior to the first application expiration date. It said that our K1 visa application was again cancelled. It also said that we could appeal within 60 days if we could provide evidence that the circumstances were beyond our control. Gabriella called the next day and talked with very nice people at the US Consulate. They made sure that the application was not cancelled and still pending. Gabriella scheduled her interview date at that time (111 days before the expiration date).

I learned the US Consulate in Rio likes to do things by the book. There is very little "wiggle" room. Making a deviation from the plan will definitely cause problems. If you need to change the plan, be prepared to meet heartbreaking challenges. There are people at the consulate that do not want to deviate from the plan. In fact, we were intially told that all hope was lost and we would need to start the process over from square one. However, there are people at the consulate that are very helpful, very understanding.

I would also like to say that is not good to sit on your application. Gabriella and I relaxed thinking that everything was fine after we got through our first cancellation. The only thing that was fine was the original plan that we received from the the US Consulate back in January. We deviated from that plan, and are suffering for it. If you change your plan, be diligent about your dates and what you need to do. Do not call two weeks before a deadline and expect pleasant results. We failed to make sure that everything was in place when our first expiration date came and passed. We paid for it. We also failed to promptly schedule a new appointment, and paid for it.

Parting advice...

Never relax - active participation is required

Follow the schedule - deviating will result in much emotional pain

CALL the agency - letter writing, and emails are impersonal - your sincerity can be heard if you call

Accept the consequences of your actions - in most cases the only person to blame is yourself

Enjoy the ride - it can be fun if you know what to expect

Good luck to all of you going through the journey!

I would like to (-1) Western Union.

Up until March I had been able to do "Direct to Bank" transfers to Gabriella. Western Union then "updated" their system and I had to go back and reenter all my information. Since the update, I receive an error that Gabriella's account information is incorrect. I reentered the account information, and verified that it is correct. I called WU and found the support people lazy and unwilling to help, only getting the scripted response back (Gabriella's account information is incorrect). In April. an agent told me that WU temporarily suspended "Direct to Bank" tranfers to Brazil. I called today, and the agent happily said that "Direct to Bank" to Brazil is now supported. I still get the same error. WU fails.

On the same token, I tried xoom.com out. It has a much nicer website, less fees, and much easier to use.

Good luck!

Our custody case is ongoing. Knowing this, Gabriella called the US Consulate to move our interview date (was 3/24/2009) to a later date. A few days later, we received email that our application was being cancelled. We were shocked, sad, confused, but acted quickly to call and email the US Consulate and cleared up the misunderstanding. Thankfully, they reversed the decision and extended our application another three months! They told us to call and schedule our new interview date at least 90 days before our new application expiration date. THANK GOD! We were also very succinctly told that there would be no more changes to our application.

Our advice to others that think about moving your interview date..

1) DO NOT move your interview date!

2) If you have to move your interview date, MAKE YOUR INTENTIONS CLEAR! I recommend that you have them tell you exactly what they will do next.

3) When in doubt, call the US Consulate where your interview will take place.

Both Gabriella and I feel fortunate we are not starting over from scratch. We hope and pray your journey is much smoother and faster than ours.

Good luck October 2008 CSC filers!

For those of you following the thread, Gabriella called the US Consulate on Friday the 13th. They told her to send them an email with the circumstances, and the reason she would like to suspend the processing of her visa. They said that they would respond within a week's time. The person on the phone gave a lot of good information and said that she might be able to delay the visa up to 2 years. I hope we don't need that much time! It does seem like her court case will take a lot more time, so I guess you guys are stuck with me for a while.

I will post the "facts" from the US Consulate when we get the email.

Good luck everyone in your journey!

That is good advice. Thank you. Sometimes I should practice what I preach!

It appears that Gabriella will get permission to take her son with her when she leaves Brazil, just not in the time frame we thought it would be possible. We are looking at 3 - 12 months more before we get the authorization from the Judge. Her interview at the US Consulate is 3/24.

Should she go to the interview anyway (without her son), and hope that she will receive the authorization for her son sooner than later, then apply for her son?

Should she ask for a delay in interview?

Thank you for your advice.

22s

a 9mm

a 1911

SAR1

AR15

M.N. M44

20 GA

as in the .22? 1940's vintage?

He's talking about a Mosin Nagant 7.62X54R infantry rifle. The M44 is a carbine version of the 91/30 rifle, with a side-folding cruciform bayonette. The M38 is similar, sans bayo. The 59 is nearly identical to the 38, but not often seen. They are all fixed box fed 5 shot bolt guns with full stocks and upper handguards, similar in utility, application, and function to a 1903 springfield or K98 mauser.

Biggest difference is that they use a rimmed cartridge nearly identical to the 303 british round, which can actually be fired in the MN guns to good effect, but not the other way around, as the 54R is a slightly bigger case in the shoulder area. Some credible sources indicate that the 7.62X54R was actually designed so that british ammo could be fired in the russian gun as a war time expediency. In the 1890's such thinking was not unusual.

They are great rifles, and i have 3. The ammo is recently $.20 a shot, but i bought 7-8K when it was $.04 a round a few years ago. Most of the ammo available is 50's to 70's surp hardball, but sporting ammo is available, and sporterised conversions are easy to arrange, as there is a support industry with drop in synthetic stocks and scope mounts.

I prefer the mauser types, but the MN series is stout and utterly reliable if kept out of serious mud.

I agree. You cannot beat it for the initial price, ~$100. A friend of mine brought his Mosin Nagant 91/30 to the range. It appeared to be a beat up POS, but was a tack driver once we got it sighted. It is a great value in terms of fun/cost of round.

the springfield XD series is overrated and a recent fad. they are OK, but not very good guns. look in your local shops for a beretta 92F in used condition. these sell all day long for $400, and are what the US army carries. the italian made guns are very nice and the guns made in marlyand are made in the contract factory that produces for our GIs.

I have to politely disagree. IMHO the XD is an excellent gun and not overrated or a fad. I have shot the XD9, XD40 and the 92F and have found the XD to be a gun far better for me. With that said, I think that "justashooter" makes a good point.... We can give you a ####### load of advice, but you need to go to a gun shop and try them out as best you can before you buy one. A great example.. I was assisting the qualifying portion of a pistol class. We provided the pistols the students were using. One of the students came up and told me that he was going to use his pistol, a 2 1/2 inch Ruger SP101 in .357 that he had just bought. I was reluctant, but the lead instructor gave me the okay. The student took aim and fired his pistol. His shot removed the target retainer from the target carrier. The recoil and report scared him and he lost control of his pistol. He never shot it before and did not know what to expect. He put the Ruger back in it's case, and continued with the range pistol in a new booth in much improved fashion.

Regarding the changes in the XDM.. Springfield did an excellent job listening to user feedback on the XD, and came up with the XDM. The XDM is a refined XD and has several improvements:

• Improved trigger travel
• Improved trigger reset
• Match grade barrel
• Customizable grips

The XDM also comes with a nice case, a holster, a magazine carrier, and two high capacity magazines (for now).

Anyway, that's a whole lot of blah, blah, blah from me. Good luck on your search and let us know what you decide on.

Happy shooting!

I am watching the Discovery Channel, "The Science of Sex Appeal". Good stuff. You would be surprised what makes women and men hook up!

We crowded the Bairo in the "Address" section and had no problem. She received her packet 3 without any issues at all.

Good luck!

She has children in the car. she is talking on the phone, AND breastfeeding? She clearly is not distracted enough.

What is she going to do when Timmy in the back seat drops his juice bottle and starts screaming that he is hungry too? Crawl in the back seat and steer with her feet?

What if little Jasmin throws her dolly at mom and knocks the cell phone out of mom's hand, startling baby Bart causing him to bite mom's nipple?!?!

Some people!

I have always wanted to do three-gun competition so I have my AR15, my Remington 870 Shotgun, and my Springfield XD40 pistol.

If you have not done it, you should consider taking a hunter safety course, NRA Rifle, or NRA Basic Pistol course. I know we already know how to use guns, but it NEVER hurts to have a refresher.

Be safe and have fun!