patience-virtue

Thank you Greenbaum! I plan to accompany my mother on her interview, so i will definitely update you here on how it goes.

Thanks kenzo_gal! I guess you're right that she answered true and correct about the number of pregnancies. Only, i am worried that we dont have any adoption paper to provide and it may be a problem when it is time to petition my sister. I was hoping, there's VJ'ers here with similar issue and how they dealt with it.

Hello fellow VJ'ers, just needed to get some insights from you all about the dilemma that I am going through right now.

Let me give you a short background first about my family. When i was 12, a distant aunt passed away, she had a 3 year old daughter, and her husband abandoned them. With no one to take care of the baby, my parents stepped up and took her and now she became my little sister. She didn't have birth certificate at that time, as she was delivered by 'hilot' or local midwife at home. We were poor too, so the easiest and cheapest way to adopt her was just to file a late registration of birth being my parents as the mother and father.

Now, Im petitioning my mother (my father passed away last 2014), everything's going ok until the medical check up. My mother were asked on how many pregnancy she had, of course, on top of her head (being a little old) she answered 3, without including my adopted sister, now 19 years old. She was asked about it twice, once before they released the medical result, and she answered same thing, again without including my little sister.

So here comes the inconsistency, i filed all the paper works myself, included my little sister of course. I am too worried now that the consul will dig on it during the interview and i am not sure how my mother will answer the inconsistent info. Im afraid it will even affect the approval of her visa. Hope not, because no matter what, I am my mother's daughter.

Any insight about this, should we just explain this to the interview if they asked. She is my real sister, may be not by blood, but everything about her, paper works and all!

Salamat at Maligayang Pasko po!

Hello fellow VJ'ers, just needed to get some insights from you all about the dilemma that I am going through right now.

Let me give you a short background first about my family. When i was 12, a distant aunt passed away, she had a 3 year old daughter, and her husband abandoned them. With no one to take care of the baby, my parents stepped up and took her and now she became my little sister. She didn't have birth certificate at that time, as she was delivered by 'hilot' or local midwife at home. We were poor too, so the easiest and cheapest way to adopt her was just to file a late registration of birth being my parents as the mother and father.

Now, Im petitioning my mother (my father passed away last 2014), everything's going ok until the medical check up. My mother were asked on how many pregnancy she had, of course, on top of her head (being a little old) she answered 3, without including my adopted sister, now 19 years old. She was asked about it twice, once before they sealed and released the medical result, and she answered same thing, again without including my little sister.

So here comes the inconsistency, i filed all the paper works myself, included my little sister of course. I am too worried now that the consul will dig on it during the interview and i am not sure how my mother will answer the inconsistent info. Im afraid it will even affect the approval of her visa. Hope not, because no matter what, I am my mother's daughter.

Any insight about this, should we just explain this to the interview if they asked. She is my real sister, may be not by blood, but everything about her, paper works and all!

Thank you friends for your valuable opinion about this. Happy holidays y'all!

I use spinach to substitute a lot of veggies that I cannot find here. Like instead of malunggay and ampalaya leaves for monggo, i use spinach. Some of my Pinay friends here use it for tinola too. Mostly, I sautee it with every meat I can find in my fridge. Might sound different too, but I cook lettuce with ground pork or beef as well (like ginisa style) with soy sacuce. My hubby likes pouring it over with his rice. Catfish is good for paksiw too, just put a lot of ginger to taste better!

We use tony sacheres to substitute magic sarap or other Filipino spices!

Being the bunso (youngest kid), I was never responsible for cooking back in the Phils. I could hardly boil water (hehehe). But, I easily figured out cooking 'real' foods, when I first saw my hubby's fridge stuffed with hot pockets, pizzas and junkies!!!

Why do you want to visit the US if the marriage is off the table for now?

Depending on your answer, I'll give you my advice. It's not a trick question, by the way.

She might just want to see US of A, we have great places here to check out!

I can understand her concern not to enter US using K1 visa, since they have no intention of getting married yet. I think, 90 days is given so you can prepare for the wedding and what not. But not to figure out if the relationship will work.

If she will be approved for B1/B2, that is a good chance for them to figure out things about their relationship without the pressure of getting married. At least, longer than 90 days.

I do agree with Pinay Wife, notify the USEM if you're not using your K1. Pursuing your tourist visa, for me is not a bad idea, if you are still employed with PAL and got some cash in your bank, you might have strong grounds to get approved!

( sundin mo kung ano ang nasa puso mo... sabi ng kanta... hehehe )

Goodluck to you!

It greatly depends on the TIMING, my opinion! If you are getting married close to your 90-day limit, it is better to obtain SSN before the marriage. Never wait too long to get one.

But if you're like us, who were very excited to TIE THE KNOT (got married after 19 days of arrival), you may want to consider applying SSN after the marriage to save you time and trip to SSA (my hubby can't easily take off from work during those days). We never had a problem obtaining one. In fact, in my case, it worked out great! Even though my I-485 application is taking so long (2 years, 7 months and counting), i was able to get Driver's license* with my married name on it, file taxes with hubby, get bank accounts, etc.

I think, if you are just lucky, either getting it before or after marriage, can work fine. But, both ways can also be a pain if misfortune comes.

Good luck to you! May you have a smooth sailing USCIS journey.

* Obtaining driver's license for K1 visa holder varies from state to state.

Thanks ya'll!!!

Finally received an email case update from USCIS regarding my I-485 application, says, current status: CARD PRODUCTION ORDERED. Woohooo... I literally jumped up from my seat after I read it! Didn't sink in for a while, I had to checked the email a couple of times, making sure it is REAL! Still, it would be the sweetest when I actually got the shiny 10-year card on my hand.

It was a long ordeal and giving us no reason for the delay every time we set an appointment through INFOPASS did not helped! I must look at the brighter side of the coin, though. Since I applied before the fee increased last JULY 2007, we only paid $395, I did not applied for Advance Parole, neither for EAD. And also, because I got approved after our 2nd wedding anniversary, that makes me eligible to automatically receive the 10-yr green card (at least, I don't have to deal with them for a while :dance: ). Adjusting of status plus removing the condition for that much I think is not bad at all... But I know, the agony of waiting sucks!

Looking back, I realized now, Im not the most unfortunate individual in the whole world (well, that was I felt when I see people who applied before me, got their green card while mine was years delayed already). Im still lucky because as resident of Louisiana, K1 visa holder is eligible to apply for Driver's license even without green card, as long as you present them the proof of Biometrics from USCIS, and show them that your AOS is pending. I was able to enjoy my time being idle and drive around when hubby's at work, such a wonderful thing! Didn't have problems obtaining my SSN as well, so, bank accounts, filing taxes and etcetera, were not a pain to deal with for us.

Once again, I proved to myself, patience is indeed a REAL virtue!!!

For those people who are experiencing or might experience the same thing, please do not loose faith, it could be difficult to understand but everything happens for a reason.

yah.. may buy 1 take one kasi eh. sayang naman saka may sakit si dady eh.

hi, saan mo nakuha yang 'buy 1 take 1' promo? planning to visit home too... thanks

What's taking so long with your AOS? Over 2 years is a bit much to wait.

I know! it is horrible. Got me 2 biometrics and tons of infopass, but they gave us no clue why it took so long.

I already passed that sentiments though. looking to brighter side of the coin. at least, they said i'll automatically get my 10-yr gc, saving some fees (i applied before the fee increased last 2007, it cost me $385, if im not mistaken). also, i don't have to deal w/ 'em for a while once i get my 10-yr.

Good thing as well, i got my SSN straight beforehand, so i never had a problem w/ our bank accts, tax etcetera.., i got my driver's license also, even without EAD or GC.

Not bad! just the agony of waiting sucks!

thanks for all your response!

so, as k1 visa holder, we start counting our LPR from the date we got approved (date printed in GC), right?

but in my case, my I-485 application is pending for 2 years and 7 mos. now, i had my interview last week.

let say i got approved, does it mean, my LPR date starts FEB. 2010?

We'll be married for 3 years on May 2010.

when will i be eligible to apply for naturalization?

your response is greatly appreciated!

'In every LAW, there is FLAW' my professor in college used to say in our class.

I heard the story about a 19-yr old man who's having consensual sex with his 17-yr old girlfriend, charged and labeled as sex offender after his mom's girlfriend reported him to the authority.

She just got pissed of with her daughter one day and want to scare her, that's why she did it. She wanted to withdraw the case but failed.

Now, the two are married w/ kids, but the past always haunts the unfortunate man. his name will be 'publicly urinated' (as 1 VJ'ers here said), his kids will be subject to mockery for having a SO father, he's being turned down for a job for being labeled one, and more repercussion shadows him.

The question is, who is the real victim here???

Certainly, there are loopholes that needs to be fixed.

And sometimes you wouldn't understand until you deal with one.

Let's condemn and incarcerate the real offenders and liberate the innocent.

Born and raised in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City and lived there all the way until petitioned by my fiancee (hubby now) last 2007. There's not much in my hometown, just miss all the foods na nilalako, from pandesal, puto at kutsenta, at taho sa umaga. kakanin, toron at banana-que sa merienda. and of course, fishballs and kikiams, b-b-q isaw, adidas etc. sa gabi with balot at chicharon.... yyyyuhhhmmmmmm...... getting so0ooo hungry!!!!! How I wish, i can find it here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, my hubby's hometown.

hi, i'm just here to vent really and wondered if anyone else has a similar problem. my husband and i got married within the 90 days, my k1 expires on july 20th so im sending off the AOS next week. my vent is that we tried to lodge our marriage papers on july 3rd only to find out the court was closed because of july 4th celebrations, therefore i couldnt do it until the following monday (being 6th july) then i went to the Social Security office to change my last name to my new married name on my SSN card ( which i needed the marriage certificate from the court house) to do, only to be told by them that my visa expires in less than 14 days so they cant do it. now today i tried to apply for a drivers licence in Louisiana but they told me seeing that im technically still a K1 i'm not allowedto get a driver's licence until i get my EAD, ugghh this is annoying, i cant work until i can get my ead i cant do anything until i get my EAD, i feel so bad for my husband that he has to work so hard, i think the laws need to change to allow people like us to be able to work, esp seeing that we arent allowed to apply for welfare (not that i want to or need to) but at the same time we cant work, anyone else feel as frustrated as me???

Well girl, I am as frustrated as you. I've been here in Louisiana for more than 2 years now but received NO GC! And the worst thing is I did not apply for EAD (don't want to pay 340 bucks and get screwed more!). But, maybe I'm a bit lucky because i got my driver's license already.

Please check this out, that is OMV Louisiana website about driver's license issuance for aliens living in LA

http://dpsweb.dps.louisiana.gov/omv1.nsf/5...8f?OpenDocument

It is stated there that:

Fiancee of US Citizen (K1): once married to a US citizen MUST provide the Passport, Marriage License Certificate and Notice Of Action I-797 for change of status to be issued a DL/ID.

If in case you have not yet receive your EAD, you can still apply for license as long as you have your biometrics done. Just make sure you print out a copy of the above document. I needed to argue and showed them the document because they are not aware that I was qualified as I am in pending stage for I-485 application.

I will send you my email just in case you have any questions, I want to help because we share the same sentiments and i know exactly how you feel!

Good luck!

I am positive that my husband has no criminal record. But if in case he has, am I to suffer for the consequences of this? We are too willing to submit for fingerprinting, but as of today, we haven't receive any biometrics appointment for him. Also, he was in the navy before, couldn't they check his file on his military record or some sort? It is really strange, but we'll probably get an infopass next week, I will let y'all know what they'll say. So others who might encounter such similar dilemma will have an idea what to do.

With regards to the EAD, I am not qualified for the 'no fee' since I applied before the fee increase and my application receipt date was July 23, 2007.

I appreciate all of your valuable responses!!!

I hope somebody could bring some light on my depressing AOS application journey. As you can see on my timeline record, they received my I-485 application July 23, 2007. Had my biometrics taken Sep. 2007 and transferred my case to California SC same month. On Oct. 2007, I submitted my vaccination record after receiving notice requesting for it, and as stated in the online case status, they received the said document Nov. 2007. And darn, my case status was never been updated on their website since then!

After tons of phone calls and inquiries to their Customer Service, on May 2008 we received another notice which was adressed to my husband for biometrics appointment. Since, I already had my finger prints taken and my husband as a natural born US citizen, we got confused and verified this to Customer service, which they claimed an error and advised as to disregard the appointment. And so we did!

Again, after numerous calls to their 1-800freakin' number (sorry really got carried away!) and couple of visits to nearest USCIS office, we received no answer of the delay but the surge of the USCIS application because of their fee increase last July 2007.

On December 2008, we wrote a letter to the USCIS Ombudsman and we were contacted by them. Unfortunately, they informed us that the reason for the delay was the 'NO SHOW' on my husband's biometrics appointment. They said, it was NOT an error and it is a 'NEW' procedure (which im not sure, how true it is). Lesson learned: their CS dont know a damn! so if you have an important question, get an infopass and talk to the USCIS officer. Anyway, we recieved biometrics appointment again for March 2009, this time it was two separate notices named to each one of us. Sadly, we needed to reschedule because of my hubby's unavailability. Adding more to our confusion, I got reschedule last May for my second biometrics but received no appointment for my hubby. So, do they changed the 'NEW' procedure??? As of now, it's almost two months since my 10-finger prints re-taken...

Please, anybody here could say something, at least just to calm me down (just kiddin'). All I need is my two-year green card so I could start working. My bad, I did not applied for EAD, and no plans of applying neither, dont want to get more screwed and pay 340 bucks!

Please if you have any idea, let me know what I can do next, aside from waiting....

And thanks for the time reading my long post.