chapstick

Hello fellow visa journey-ers!

Any of you live in the Tucson, Arizona region? My husband and I are going to be moving next month (job relocation) and are currently searching for neighborhoods and apartments to live in, although I have no idea where to look!

We unfortunately know NOTHING about the city/area, as far as what's safe, what area to avoid, what's popular etc.... so I'm hoping one of you could help!

We are two adults in our late twenties and early thirties (no kids) and one dog , so we'd prefer to be away from all the college parties and such, but would still like to be close to shopping/food etc.

Any information is greatly appreciated! If you live there now, or used to live there, I'd like to know if you have any suggestions about what to do in the city and what you loved/hated about it.

THANKS SO MUCH!!!!

Is there already a topic on this? I wasn't 100% sure.

I would just like to know if anybody has had any experiences with transferring their college/university credits from Canada to a school here in the US?

What kind of evaluation services did you use?

I guess I could just briefly give you all a run-down on my situation.

I graduated high school in BC with almost a 4.0 GPA and made it into a great university. During my 1st year in university, however, I did poorly and completely bombed all my courses. I don't think I was quite ready for the transition at 18 years old, especially when I practically lived my entire high school life "winging" my courses and just doing well with very little effort. University was a totally different atmosphere, unfortunately, I had to actually "study" and complete homework assignments to succeed and pass. Long story short, I was put on academic probation and then got kicked out of university.

You would think that getting kicked out of university would be considered a wake-up call, right? You know, I would just enroll in community college, take a few classes to boost my GPA, transfer back to university and finish up with a degree... easy! NOT!

Well, I guess I'll just sum everything up for you all now ------ my efforts in pursuing a post secondary education followed me even to community college. YES. That's right. Community college isn't exactly "cake" like everybody assumes. I ended up taking a bunch of courses, failed a few, withdrew out of a lot, couldn't decide what I wanted to take etc etc etc. I also think my decision not to take out any kind of student loan had somewhat of an impact on my post secondary experience, that, and sheer laziness. I was working a part time job to pay for part time school, juggling boyfriends and trying to have a social life. Ugh, regrets.

I did finally manage scrounge up enough credits to graduate with an Associate of Arts Degree (with a specialization in psychology) from community college a few years later with an embarrassing GPA of 2.24!

Nonetheless, I felt minimally satisfied with this accomplishment, like, "Hey, at least I have some kind of piece of paper to show I'm not just a high school graduate!", right? (not that there is anything wrong with that, but I feel this is considered the absolute minimum to today's working standards)

Plus I can finally add something else to the education portion of my resume beyond "high school" ---->

I consider myself very lucky, I am married to a well educated man (currently he's one course away from obtaining his Masters Degree) with aspirations to pursue his PhD, makes you wonder why he picked me, right?

Despite my education level (2 year college degree with a pathetic 2.24 GPA), I did manage to find a great job here in the US. I work full-time 40 hours a week with a decent salary, my husband and I are very fortunate that together we are surviving very well financially.

I have been tethering back and forth these last couple of years trying to decide if it's worth it to go back to school and get my Bachelors Degree. I mean, I know I'm being ridiculous here, because the answer is obvious:

HIGHER EDUCATION = MORE OPPORTUNITIES!

To be completely honest, I have a great job, but I know it's not something I want to be doing for the rest of my life. I want to be able to do something that I LOVE, but unfortunately, those jobs require a BA.

I feel now, that 10 years after high school graduation and a more mature mentality/outlook, I would be better suited to pursue a BA at this time in my life. Plus my employer would pay for a great deal of my tuition no matter what kind of post secondary education I pursue (doesn't have to be work related).

Do you guys feel with the information I have disclosed above (2.4 GPA community college, getting kicked out of university), would it be even POSSIBLE to get into any schools here in the US to pursue a BA? I already know that I would not get into a State University with my 2.24 GPA, should I even bother trying to transfer any credits? What about trying to enroll into a community college here in the US? Do you think it's worth paying an evaluation service to evaluate my Canadian transcripts? Should I just enroll into a community college here in the US (now that I'm a resident), and start from scratch? Could I retake some courses to boost my poor GPA? Pretend I never got an Associates Degree in Canada and just try and enroll based on my high school GPA? Is that allowed?

With the educational turmoil I am in, I feel like this whole "going back to school" idea is now a lost cause. Any advice for me?

Thanks to everyone in advance who responds and took the time to read my story

I am an August filer myself, (my current 2 year green card expires soon, Nov 19, 2011!), filed my I751 as soon as I was eligible.

- I sent my package to the VT Center, their receipt date was 08/24/2011

- My cheque was cashed on 08/26/2011

- Notice date for Biometrics appt 09/07/2011

- Biometrics appt 09/28/2011 10:00am

- waiting..............!

I had mailed in "evidence" of our marriage with the original package, copy of our marriage cert, copy of our home deed showing joint ownership, copy of our joint bank accounts, phone bills, utility bills, insurance policy info, copies of our DL showing our home address.

After reading the forum, it sure sounds like a lot of you had mailed in pictures, I didn't include any!! To be honest, we've been married two years now, we've settled into our married life haven't taken a lot of pictures together (not like before when we were dating). Sad, I know, but most of the pictures on my camera were all of our DOG, since we don't have any kids! I mean, is this weird? Will they deny my application because I didn't send in any pictures??? I'm worried now because I REALLY don't want to have to resend an application and fork over another $590.... ugh!

Is that reasonable??? I mean, all my husband and I do is work all the time, we haven't gotten a chance to go on any vacations, we're total homebodies, when we go out with friends, nobody takes pictures! And we're definitely not the type of people that like to publicize our relationship and post everything on facebook etc, does that make sense??

Am I just dumb for not sending pictures in??? Should I have taken a bunch of pictures the day before sending my package in, just to have in the package???

Hi all,

I've been a troll on this forum for a while now (meaning that I lurk, but never post.. hehe), and I decided to come out of hiding today to ask a few questions

I have been approved for my K1 visa and will be entering the US next week. As far as getting married is concerned, we will be doing the whole civil/legal marriage paperwork stuff as soon as possible and having the whole big wedding ceremony for friends and family sometime next year.

My questions are:

1) Are you able to do any volunteer work (say, at the hospital or what not) while you wait for your EAD?

2) For those who apply for advance parole to leave the country prior to getting your status changed (lets say I want to go back to visit home), how long does that take to approve and is it only valid once or can I go back home several times? On a side note, I hate that they call it "advance parole"... it makes me feel like a criminal sorta. Yeesh!

Thanks for all the help!