Jewel-8

We have a touch on EAD for today. This is good news as we have only had one of the three notifications that USCIS seems to do on AOS. Maybe we will get EAD before AOS.

I am no jokes when beer is involved.

Are you saying we would be better off drinking tequila?

Now ladies, let's all be clear: I called him out as my internet boyfriend first. I will be circulating the rota for personal attendance later this week -- check your PM box!!!

Don't worry Maven! I'm not moving in on your territory. I'm just saying *if* he's ever in town we (plural, and I mean it) will take him for the beer he deserves.

Same offer goes for you too.

ps he owes me a pint for this.

Yes, I'm understanding how everyone loves Alan now too. If you're ever in Salt Lake City, give us a call. We have a nice little movie pub nearby where you can get a LITER of Guinness for $6.

Looks like you do need to receive three (3) approval notices before you can expect to receive the card, either the EAD or the GC... So far we have only received 2 TEXT/EMAIL about the GC...

Today at 7:02PM EST, we received the third and hopefully the last TEXT/EMAIL notification that our EAD is approved:

We haven't gotten that yet. In fact, we have the same May 17th date as you, except they seemed to skip over the email on May 17 and just send the one on May 21st that you also received. I wonder if we just have a lazy agent working on our case. ARGH!!!

If we just have a lazy agent, or a broken bar code, then maybe the green card will just arrive in the mail anyday now.

I had to teach my wife to say 'please' when she ordered a drink in the UK. Americans just say 'gimme a shot of red eye bartender'. No please is used. It really grates on a Brit as we are please and thankyou to excess like the germans.

Are you kidding me?!?!?! I have to remind myself sometimes that my husband is not the biggest ### in the world because he doesn't say thank you. I only get 'Cheers!' or 'Ta!' and it annoys me!! Cheers is not thank you to me. I'll be in tears sometimes because I just spent 3 hours making dinner or I drove out of my way and took a lot of time to get him the perfect surprise. Then I have to remind myself to pull out the Weegie to American English translation book. If anyone tells me that cheers really isn't the equivalent of thank you than he's sleeping on the couch for a week.

In my past relationship, I felt the need to write in a 'blog' of sorts. I used a word document instead. Password encrypted, as well.

I like that idea! For a lot of us it's hard not to vent about the relationship.

In my experience, my family would all take my husband's side over any little argument, so I can't ever complain about him there. But if I ever was physically hurt by him then all hell would break loose. I hope it's like that for everyone posting on this thread... just saying.

Personally, I loved being "just American" during the 12 years I lived over there, and "just American" is how I continue to feel. One of the things I have hated since I returned has been strangers asking me what I "am" (human, I often say). I'm a big old mutt, and can look like I'm any one of dozen nationalities. Somehow this is like a red rag to people who want to know my ancestry, as if they somehow have a right to know. They simply don't, in my opinion, need to know where my great-grandmother hailed from or why my eyes are green but my hair is dark. I am more than the sum of my parts. I don't give an answer beyond "American" these days, as it sufficed for many years in the UK and it is, indeed, what I identify as being.

Your eyes are green but your hair is dark?

Anyways.. People in the US can be a bit small-minded. I find it interesting that papers outside the US have WORLD news in the front pages instead of local news. People in the US have a lot of peculiar traits and special ways of doing something I suppose.

I take cash, cheques and debit cards.

You're SOL then. I've never had cheques, only checks.

Oh yeah! He has to repeat himself a lot, and sometimes I have to repeat it. Honestly I think a good part of it is them being 'dazzled' by the accent - to the point where they're listening to it instead of the actual words he's saying. I notice this phenomenon most often with women. We literally cannot go anywhere without getting an 'I love your accent'. Luckily this never gets old to him.

Yes, there's that element too. He gets embarassed about it. The worst is when people come up to him at parties and tell him how great his accent is.

It's kind of funny that Americans get way more into their heritage than most the British do. My parents use to tell me I was part English, part Irish, a little bit Indian, etc. It annoys my husband because in his mind we are all just AMERICAN if we are from here.

One guy was so excited about Dave being Scottish that he pulled off his shirt to show off his tattoo and screams, "Yeah?!?! I'm CLAN CAMPBELL!!! This is my family crest." In Dave's eyes the guy is just American. It still didn't stop him from sharing the bottle of whiskey the guy brought to the party... that's my hunny though

My husband just called from the 99 cent store (shut up, everyone goes there) and there is a gigantic display of Heinz Baked Beans. I had him check the label and they are indeed made in Middlesex. He's coming home with 10 tins.

So not an irritating thing at all.

I love the dollar store for cleaning supplies. Sponges and lavender scented floor cleaner especially. I really can't get myself to spend $3 a sponge and $5 for brand names like Mr. Clean/Muscle. I'm slightly OCD and have to throw them away after I finish scrubbing everything down. It's the LAST step to cleaning the house, really.

I will have to check our store for Heinz Baked Beans. My buying him Galaxy and Irn Bru to cheer him up is getting a bit old. He'd really prefer Jack Daniels, but you know.. watching our pennies and everything

Well, well, well. The Kraken rears his head at last. Fanciful imagination my #######.

I wish I lived closer. I would contribute to the 'getting Melissa drunk' fund.

Here's another little gripe that my husband has.. not getting what he ordered in restaurants. It's getting better now, but in the beginning I had to order for him otherwise they misheard him. His accent was mainly developed in Glasgow, and sometimes it sounds like he's gargling rocks.. but whatever!

Anyone else have experience with waitstaff not understanding you or your fiance/spouse?

Thank you SO much! That has helped tremendously! When you went to the SSA office, did they keep any of his travel documents or were you able to keep them? I was afraid they'd keep the originals until they sent the temp card which has had me nervous.

They didn't keep anything. In fact, there were not pens there so we didn't even get the app filled out. The guy didn't care and entered all of his info off the passport. He couldn't understand what Dave said his mother's maiden name was, so I had to translate for him.

I haven't gotten a chance to change my name on anything yet since we've been married. Do I need to do that before we fill out the forms, or will it even matter?

No, I haven't changed mine yet and plan to do it after the vow ceremony.

He doesn't NEED his SSN right now does he? From what I've read he doesn't. Can we wait until later on to get his SSN?

I don't think it's required, but it's really nice to have it. Both Dave and I went to the SSA office and got his. The guy at the counter went off his I-94 and 2 weeks later they mailed one that said,, "Not valid for work without blahblah approval." (EDIT: If you want to get a social security card soon to put him on benefits or bank accounts,) you MUST do this before the I94 expires.

When his greencard arrives, he will go down to SSa again and request a normal SS Card. Then with a normal card and a driver's license no employer will ever have to see his greencard. I think it helps put employer's minds at ease if they don't see the expiration date on the green card.

I just don't want to send that in and they think that he didn't get all his shots because he actually had MORE than he needed.

If you feel confident with that, then send it in. If you want piece of mind, call around to the civil surgeons and find the cheapest that will fill in and sign the vaccination part of the I693. My Dave got two more shots at the health department, then took all of his records to the CS> This form only cost us about $25.

I know I have other questions, which I'll have to ask later because they escape me at the moment! Thanks for your willingness to listen! I searched for about two hours last night around the website and just didn't find what I needed.

I hope I helped by providing our experiences! If I'm wrong on anything, feel free to set me straight.

Today we received letter from usics that our Green Card might have been lost and we will have to fill up form I-90.

I am heartbroken. Not sure what happen. I called post office they said they don't have any mail on hold. it might be either missed delivered or send back.

Not sure what should i do now. I am spouse of USA citizen and came to usa 2months back on IR-1. I-90 form has fees of around $290. :S

If you include a copy of the letter USCIS sent you, will they waive the fees?

Ooookay, so I've been gathering stuff together so we can sit down and get our AOS paperwork filled out this week. Yeah, I have quite a few questions that I'm not finding the answers to! I don't want to post a bunch of questions on the forum and get yelled at. lol I hate this....

What??? Just post right here!! This is the perfect thread to post any questions!! As long as one of you is british

I guess I was less concerned with the split marriage/wedding thing than with the notion that if we have a close friend perform the marriage, and also submit an affadavit for evidence of the bona fide marriage, that it would look suspicious somehow. Sounds like that won't be an issue, which is good news, because now we don't have to hire anyone!

You don't need to submit any affadavits. It might not even help you to send in any proof of relationship with the AOS. If you want the friend to complete an affadivit then get it, but take it with you to the interview.

Done with my biometrics yesterday..!!

Also my husband is leaving this June 6th to work in Philippines again..

My problem is what uf I get my interview letter and he wasn't here????

And his job is permanently, I mean he can only travel back here to US every once in a year..!!

Ugh!! But since they transfer my case to CSC im hoping I won't have interview anymore..

WIsh me luck all VJ's filers..

Tehey probably won't interview you then. Congrats on getting biometrics done!

On the one hand, it would make sense that the person performing the ceremony should be able to attest to our relationship, but on the other hand, I worry that it could look like we're trying to pull a fast one. That, coupled with the fact that her parents won't know about the marriage until the wedding (that sounds funny, no?), might be asking for trouble.

We've been together for 6+ years, and should not have any trouble compiling enough evidence to support our case, but anything we can do to avoid extra hassle, we'll do. Ideally, if we file in early June (concurrent I-130/I-485), we're hoping - somewhat against hope, I suppose - that she may be able to make it home for Christmas, as she hasn't been home in almost 11 years. In order to make that timeline, we'll need everything to go smoothly.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advice!

We had our friend get ordained online and sign the papers for us. That qualified as a minister in our state, hoorah! The state gave us a marriage license, and we used it to file and get approved for AOS. Since we are completely out of cash we plan to have our ceremony on an Australian beach in Nov 2011. Exactly how I wanted it!!

If you are doing everything by the book in regard to state law I don't think USCIS will have any problem with it. A lot of us are having to do the civil and religious/ceremonial weddings separate.

I just wanted to mention something that just happened to me with regards my I-765 application for EAD. I applied for this along with I-485 A.O.S. from K-1 on February 28th 2010, NOA receipt March 5th. I have since been waiting for the EAD having received an excellent job offer a few weeks ago. I decided I would chase this up today. I called the 1-800 USCIS number, entered the EAD case number and the system advised me the status, exactly as it appeared on the USCIS site, received and pending. I hung up the call as it was outside of the advisor hours. Five minutes later I got a text message from USCIS saying that my EAD card production was ordered This is surely not a coincidence??!

I'm going to try it!

All it said was card production ordered on May 17. I'm not sure I can do anything to speed it up as it seems green cards are delayed due to the new format

In hindsight, she should have sent the checklist with Packet 3, but what's done is done. Can the folks at Grosvenor Square be trusted to not lose anything? How long before they realize they have 3 copies of her checklist and grant her an interview??? Are we being unreasonably impatient?

Thanks for reading/listening/responding.

/rant

It took them about 2-3 weeks to log anything that was sent them on our case. They will probably process the email within the next couple of days, but they might not schedule interviews until mid-June. I hope I'm wrong and you get the interview date soon!

Hey everyone.. I hope everything is going smoothly for you all. I am very much loving being with Sarah now. We had a fantastic wedding although my groomsmen and family had problems making it because of that stupid volcano!

I am just trying to sort out my AOS and a little confused what I need to do regarding my medical. I obviously had it done in the UK but still required to have 2 injections of which I have had done now. I have looked at the guide but I am a little confused still how I need to proceed with this. I understand I need to complete part of the I-693 and I have proof I have had the injections. What are my steps from here. I have the rest of the forms and photocopies completed ready to send off. I just want to make sure this is done correctly.

Thank you!

Sean

We paid the civil surgeon's office $25 to give us a sealed envelope that had secion 5(or was it anothing section?) filled out and signed by the doctor. You just need to take your immunization information. Good luck!

i get a little bit worried of my upcoming interview becuase my husband cannot include me in the house and other major stuff becuase i dont an SSN yet,, i only have water bills and dentist bills,, could this affect my interview?

Don't worry about it. I'm sure the interviewer knows about mortgage and banking processes. Do you have pictures? Gone on any trips? Does he have bank statements showing how he supports you?

The K visa increase was just announced to take place on June 4th from $131 to $350...EEP!

But they announced it back in December and they haven't announced the AOS increase yet...so hopefully we'll be okay!

c'mon David, let's go!

Have there just been rumors of an AOS increase then?

BTW, Got text message about approval less than an hour ago. Husband already seems less depressed and I've only spoke to him on the phone. I can't wait until I get home and tacklehug him. A working husband is (hopefully) a happy husband!