lizroxy24

We speak primarily spanish at home. Using the origional poster's scale my Spanish is at about a 90 and I use it all day at work anyway so I feel comfortable enough to express my feelings and frustrations to my husband in Spanish. His English has improved greatly over the past year that he has been here but is still at about a 50. We ocassionally have the goal of speaking more English at home to help him learn quicker but it generally only lasts an hour or so. His work and school are primarily in English and I can tell at the end of the day a lot of times he is to tired to think in English anymore. I remember how exhausting it was when I first learned Spanish and sometimes you just need a break to be able to express yourself without thinking so hard.

When we do get on an English kick, what seems to work best is to say "we are going to spend the evening just speaking English" and that seems to be a more workable goal and turns it into kind of a game. It's a trick I learned from a friend who's mom raised her billingual in German, they would have "German game time" where for an afternoon they would just speak in German. I was a member of a billingual families list serve a couple years ago and from that it gave me a lot of ideas I hope to use with my own children to help them be billingual. We are expecting our first child next month and I don't know if I will speak to her primarily in Spanish or trade off. I expect my husband to speak to her only in Spanish and I would support that compleatly.

MD has always been of invaluable help in the forum and I hope he didn't up and leave like that.

One thing though on all those that say the poverty guidelines are too low for the process, etc etc. You forget about those that are just out of college, starting life, and don't yet have a huge income. You're forgetting the fact it IS a POVERTY guideline and not a middle class guideline or rich guideline and you'd be surprised as to how many actually live just on top or even below the poverty guideline. So it may appear too low and that anyone that can't make it shouldn't be marrying a foreigner but really, there are cases and there are cases.

I have to agree with the above post. Not everyone here at VJ is in the same life situation or comes from the same background. This may not be the board to discuss cultural issues related to immigration but they have a huge impact on how one sees being "unemployed" or being forced to depend solely on the income of your spouse. Frankly speaking for those of us who's significant others are male and come from societies where it is looked down upon to have your wife provide all the financial support it can be one of the biggest issues faced in this whole process. When my husband came a little over a year ago he worked his fingers to the bone trying to save money and still made it here with less than $100 in his pocket. We were okay, I did support him and meet that obligation but it was hard on him emotionally to always be the one having to accept from me and not being able to buy me the things he wanted to or show my family how willing he was to provide for me and our family.

I guess my point with all this is that the process is difficult already and I am against anything that makes the adjustment process harder and less humane. It is silly the idea of getting an EAD for 90 days in order to get a job you just have to quit at the end but my hope is that they would move in the other direction and make it possible for people to get an EAD with their K-1 that would last until they get the GC. Do I think it is fair that K-3s don't get this same benefit, no, but nor do I think that is justification to remove the benefit from those who now have it.

I am also sorry about MD leaving; I have appreciated his posts and information. I also understand the point of view of the girl who felt attacked by everyone saying that this is just a part of the process you have to plan for and deal with. Employment issues are a very hot button topic and a very real relationship barrier for many younger couples and it can come off as condescending for people to virtually pat you on the head and say "well that's just the way things are, you knew the rules when you started". We all complain about parts of the process that impact us personally but it is also important to see the other points of view to who these law changes are particularly hurting and have some sympathy. For example I was not personally touched by IMBRA hassles but I can see the inherent unfairness in the assumptions it is based on and be opposed to them.

I am sorry for the long winded post, it is just something I feel strongly about and wanted to throw my support on the side of those who are against this change.

I once heard that if you both have paypal accounts you can send money that way real cheap but I am not sure exactly how it works. It may be worth looking into.

quote name='KarenCee' date='Dec 21 2006, 08:16 PM' post='630830']

At least for 90 days

That's it...in a nutshell. After that, what will you do? File for the EAD? If you don't file, will you be honest and tell them at the AOS interview that yes, my wife has worked without an EAD? I seriously doubt that.

I know I will probably open myself up for criticism here as well but I figure I should share what happened to us. My husband (then fiancé) came in on a k-1, and we specifically entered in JFK for the work authorization stamp. Knowing my husband as well as I do, I knew from the beginning that he would go nuts sitting at home feeling like he couldn't contribute without working. He got the EAD from JFK, got his Social Security number and soon got a job. As soon as we got married we filed the AOS and paid for the EAD but unfortunately it never came, (the paperwork for it was sitting at our local office when we had our AOS interview several months later). We hid nothing from his employer, and explained that we were in the process of adjusting status and hopefully soon he would have his green card. We also hid nothing from the individual at our AOS interview. We had copies of his pay stubs, and declared his income on the requested income forms. The worker never asked if he had been working but we had previously decided to be completely honest and take whatever consequences were required if he was asked. It was a risk and I won’t pretend that it was completely legal but neither will I be apologetic for trying to follow all the rules, and ending up working for a couple of months out of status due to processing delays. Nor will I judge and criticize others for what choices they decide to make during the immigration process.

Looking at the K-1 process as a whole, you can see when it was initially conceived it was meant to be a visa that someone could hold and be permitted to work throughout the process till being granted a green card. What throws a wrench in the system is processing time frames that don't make that possible. I think most of us going through this process at one point or another had something in their file that they held their breath about and said "man I hope they don't look to closely at that", be it income issues, health issues, past transgressions, or previous immigration filings. None of us are perfect let's try to be kind.

I suppose theoretically if you can find such said employer who will look the other way....

I am a Spanish speaking social worker in the western part of the US and work with hundreds of families that are here illegally. What is one of the most interesting things to me is that when you ask for income verification the majority present actual paychecks with Taxes being withheld automatically. The points being made about immigration and IRS being completely different agencies is very obvious when you consider that the IRS will give just about anyone a taxpayer ID number and let them pay taxes regardless of their immigration status. A taxpayer ID number is completely different from a Social Security number and has nothing to do with work authorization either. I once had a accountant friend tell me that there are tax codes written to allow people to pay taxes on all sorts of illegal income if they want to, most crooks obviously don't take advantage of it because it would be self-incriminating. What generally ends up happening with individuals working here illegally is that these individuals end up having their taxes withheld but rarely file tax returns out of fear of involving themselves with any sort of government agency. In most cases I have seen, if they would file they would be eligible for a refund and are in fact paying more taxes than your average citizen.

As to the comment about "theoretically" finding an employer who is willing to look the other way, there are thousands of employers doing so currently. They are caught so infrequently that most simply accept the risk for the benefit of having workers to fill their positions. From an employers perspective, if you have a job that you need filled and you have an applicant who is qualified, (especially in the case of an applicant with a K-1 where there is a good chance they will have a green card within 6 months to a year) I can see there would be tons of employers willing to take that risk.

Legal vs. moral, right or wrong can be debated forever but the realities of our system can make it very difficult to play by all the rules and realistically survive.

You don't need a new card, you will just have to show your EAD along with your current SSC if you are using it for work purposes. Later on you will just show your GC with this card for work purposes once you have residency. If you really want to spend the day at the social security office just to have the words removed from your copy of the card I assume you can, but it isn't required and there is no real benefit to doing so.

We applied for an EAD for my husband and never heard another thing about it till the date of our Green Card appointment (filed in Feb, GC appt in August). At that appointment they had the application for the EAD in our file and the worker stated that he was just going to deny it as there was no need for him to have it with an approved Green Card. I'm assuming if he needed additional information at the GC appointment or if there was some reason to delay the issuance of the GC he would have approved the EAD in the meantime. In your case my guess is that the issuance of the EAD was just an oversight. I've heard of individuals having to turn in their EADs at the Green Card appointment if they get approved just so it is not out there floating around.

I have to admit I was a little frustrated that they sat on his EAD application for several months when it could have done him some good previously. Truth is my husband kept working with his expired 90 day EAD during that time frame and we felt kind of justified as we had paid the money for the EAD, were trying to follow the rules, and my husband would have been stir crazy just sitting at home for 6 months.

Anyway that is my 2 cents,

I sent another email to them requesting information about filing an I-130 for a spouse with the consulate. I'm crossing my fingers that I can file directly with them!

I don't mean to burst any hopes you may have about DCF but when I when through the Uruguay embassy I was never able to get any information about if it is allowed or not. I lean towards not because being a South American country that recently lost its visa waver status (2003), they generally are more strict on processes to getting visas in general. Ask anyone from Uruguay that has recently tried to get a tourist visa without a ton of cash in the bank. The good news is that they are not really considered a high fraud country with people commonly using marriage fraud to get into the US so the process for mariage based visas goes fairly quickly and smoothly. They only process a handful a year (hence the reason you don't see a huge Uruguay contigent on visa journey) so you don't have the huge processing backup and long wait times when you get to the embassy stage (like you may see in Venuzuela or the Dominican Republic).

I also have to second the comments that have been stated with how unhelpful Uruguay's website is for this kind of filing. The one useful part if you can find it, (it's kind of hidden) is the wait time for visa interviews. They seem to be fairly accurate reguardless of what kind of visa you are applying for. If you write to the consulate they will answer e-mails and if you call and get to the right department you can get good information but it can be a hastle. The question to ask is if a Uruguayan marries a US citizen who is not currently a resident of Uruguay, can they file for adjustment of status at the local consulate. That is basically what can happen in DCF cases if the host country allows it. Other countries allow it if the US citizen is considered a current resident of that country but each country sets its residency requirements (ie. time living in the country)

It would be interesting to get a difinitive answer to this question for future individuals filing through Uruguay.

Good luck,

Liz

Our interview was yesterday and everything went like clockwork. The interviewer didn't really ask any personal questions. He wanted to see my IDs where I had changed my name and that my husband's name was on the lease and my insurance. He asked about kids and prior mariages, and he had my husband to state our complete address. The only thing that kind of threw me was after stating I was pregnant, he asked to see an apointment card from my OB/GYN. I started scrambling through my purse trying to find it, and just came up with a business card which he accepted without a problem. My Husband had applied for his EAD in Feb along with our filing the AOS but we got a RFI in March asking for a copy of his birth certificate that we had left out. We sent that in and waited and waited, and never heard anything more about it. I noticed yesterday in our file that they had the letter I sent (I actually saw the envelope)but had never bothered to aprove it. I have no idea for how long it has been at the local office but I guess they got it and just decided to give us the Green card apointment instead of bothering with the EAD paperwork. So glad we spent the money. Anyway the interviewer said the green card should be arriving in 1-2 weeks so we are very excited. Thanks for all your help VJ people, We couldn't have gotten this far without you.

Liz

Please copy the latest version of the list so that you do not delete people who have added their name previously.

TO ADD YOUR NAME: COPY AND PASTE (including these instructions) AND PUT YOUR NAME IN THE APPROPRIATE PLACE OF WHEN YOU FILED YOUR AOS/EAD/AP.

.........................Sent AOS/..........................Biometrics.........EAD...............AOS

Name...................EAD/AP............NOA..............Appt...........Approved........Intvw

____________________________________________________________________

Steffi..................09/30/03.......10/23/03.......11/29/03........02/04/04.......11/10/05

KTKV..................12/10/03...........02/17/04......04/03/04........10/18/04...07/27/05

Karenina108 ....... 03/30/04 ...... 05/03/04..... 05/27/04 .......06/30/04......

UK_geezer..........08/21/04........08/30/04.......11/03/04........11/09/04

Stina&Suj............10/09/04.......10/20/04.......11/19/04........12/09/05......10/19/05

BeverleyFL.......... 10/12/04.......12/3/04.......12/20/04.........12/21/05

PixiePooh...........11/02/04........11/15/04.......12/10/04........12/30/04......10/04/05

Janvier882...........01/15/05.......02/04/05........02/24/05........03/24/05.......

eau_xplain...........03/17/05.......04/06/05........05/26/05........05/26/05....approved w/o interview 11/17/05

ladybird_216........04/11/05........04/15/05.......04/30/05........06/09/05......07/29/05

Shirqing..............04/24/05..........04/29/05......04/26/05........04/27/05.....12/13/05

chdv2001............04/30/05.........05/31/05.......06/04/05.......06/24/05......11/17/05

darth bangkok.....05/01/05.........??/??/05........09/29/05..........N/A............03/22/06

Sara535..............05/07/05........06/02/05........06/19/05.......10/19/05

Civic Girl.............05/9/05.......06/06/05.......06/7/05...........07/15/05........11/02/05

Kezzie................05/12/05........06/06/05.......07/27/05........08/12/05......11/09/05

luv2teach77........ 05/24/05........06/18/05.......07/26/05........10/17/05.....01/18/05

RichardS............. 05/25/05.......06/15/05........07/15/05........09/21/05

RhondaRoss........ 06/07/05........06/27/05.......08/02/05........10/06/05

Statman78...........06/09/05........06/23/05.......07/08/05........08/18/05.....11/16/05

lzxx4x.................06/15/05........06/30/05........08/17/05.......10/07/05.....02/15/06

friedicecream123..06/16/05........06/28/05.......08/13/05........08/29/05

darrenandkari.......06/17/05.......07/01/05... ... 07/08/05

SoFarGone...........06/23/05........07/07/05.......08/18/05........10/05/05.....02/27/06

Melchet81.............06/21/05.......07/21/05....... 07/28/05........08/08/05

Autumnal..............06/27/05.......07/18/05........08/24/05....... 09/15/05

Moonika................06/27/05.......07/08/05........08/24/05........09/07/05

ScorpioGirl68.........06/27/05.......07/11/05.......07/18/05

Katand7................06/28/05........07/12/05.......08/24/05........09/13/05

waiting_honey.......06/29/05........07/12/05.......08/25/05........09/13/05

kpbc.......................07/01/05............................08/03/05........09/14/05

NatalieC................07/08/05........07/15/05.......08/03/05........09/22/05.....GC Approved 12/15/05 no interview

Annelizabeth......... 07/11/05........07/18/05.......07/29/05........09/14/05.....GC 11/25/05

BookWorm............07/12/05.......07/14/05........07/23/05....... 10/13/05.....03/08/06

lynzm22................0713/05.........07/25/05.......09/16/06........09/21/05

rightd....................07/14/05........07/25/05.......07/28/05........09/19/05

DianeJason.......... 07/19/05........07/26/05........09/28/05........10/07/05

Moonlite................ 07/20/05.......07/27/05

Debra&John.......... 07/20/05........07/27/05...... 12/1/05........09/19/05....12/16/05

rabie007............... 07/28/05........08/02/05.......11/22/05.........11/29/05(card)

Katehuber.............07/28/05.........08/01/05.........12/07/05

Daisy....................08/02/05........08/08/05.......11/16/05........11/16/05.....03/30/06

Carolyn.................08/02/05........08/08/05.......11/30/05.......11/07/05 (Interim EAD)

ssalburo................08/05/05........08/10/05........11/15/05.......09/30/05

stifanoam..............08/05/05........08/11/05........10/22/05........10/24/05

soumyas_v........... 08/05/05........08/13/05........09/27/05

dani_christine........08/08/05........08/15/05

slimjimxpl..............08/12/05........08/17/05........12/08/05.......12/09/05

MyFellah................08/13/05........08/25/05........11/25/05......11/29/05....01/26/06

Doodle..................08/15/05........08/18/05........11/17/05........11/19/05

1LadyInRed...........08/16/05........08/17/05........11/26/05........11/28/05

Bonny...................08/19/05........08/25/05........none so far......11/23/05 (Interim)

Kiwib99.................08/20/05........08/27/05

taja.......................08/23/05.......08/26/05........09/02(walk-in)..11/07/05...04/05/06

agapi....................08/25/05........09/01/05

Nautilus.................08/26/05........09/03/05

ChuckAndKim........08/31/05........09/07/05......11/12/05.......11/21/05...03/08/06

Thndrdancr............09/01/05........09/07/05......12/05/05.......12-11-05.....3-3-06

pilot's girl..............09/02/05........09/13/05.......11/19/05.......11/28/05 (card)

Lau.......................09/02/05........09/13/05.......01/04/06.......01/05/06.....03/28/06

tdegrenier.............09/03/05........09/09/05........10/22/05......11/14/05.....01/25/06

Jaaaaamas............09/08/05........09/19/05.......10/28/05........11/14/05...02/15/06

AKDiver..............09/09/05........09/14/05.......10/17/05........11/16/05.....11/18/05 (for 01/18/06)

ptrober.................09/09/05........09/15/05.......12/12/05

Ephesia.................09/10/05........09/17/05.......12/16/05......19/12/05.....02/09/06 (approved)

not24get...............09/12/05.........09/27/05.......01/11/06

Onwa....................09/13/05........09/20/05.......09/23/05......11/21/05

jasman0717...........09/13/05....... 09/23/05.......10/18/05

not24get................09/13/05........09/29/05

tnh9479................09/14/05........ 09/22/05.......12/28/05.....12/29/05

gag54611..............09/15/05....... 09/23/05.......12/28/05......12/29/05......03/08/06

mwfaith1971..........09/16/05.........09/22/05......11/10/05......12/27/05.....02/14/06

lilshe.....................09/18/05........09/29/05

kazanit..................09/20/05........09/27/05......10/18/05......????????.......02/02/06

JamesNatasha........09/25/05........09/29/05......10/29/05.....12/01/05.......02/28/06

k&m.......................09/29/05........10/04/05

Absolutgoddess......09/30/05........10/06/05.......11/3/05.......12/12/05

tsunamihart............10/03/05.........10/12/05..........12/22/05.......1/31/06....04/04/06

Kearinne...............10/03/05.........10/11/05......11/22/05......12/07/05......GC 01/11/06

Shari....................10/06/05.........10/14/05.......01/12/06......01/19/06.......04/13/06

Ceriserose............10/07/05.........10/17/05.......12/14/05.....12/19/05

lolie......................10/06/05.........10/14/05.......11/15/05.......................12/20/05

Bradfordplip..........10/10/05.........10/17/05..........................12/19/05(AP)

Irehs123...............10/10/05.........10/21/05.......12/03/05......12/15/05(AP&EAD)

Karotte.................10/11/05.........10/20/05

den_y2005............10/11/05.........10/25/05.......11/15/05......12/22/05.........03/14/06

ElizabethnHenry.....10/12/05.........10/24/05.......12/15/05.....12/20/05

Babsi....................10/12/05.........10/19/05.......11/17/05......12/20/05.........03/23/06

bobo.....................10/13/05.........10/25/05.......11/15/05......12/19/05.........03/15/06

irachka..................10/13/05........11/09/05........01/31/06

cmdruitt................10/18/05.........10/24/05.......11/22/05......01/31/06.........06/12/06

buddhist_virgo.......10/20/05.........10/31/05.......01/11/06...01/12/06(email)

babonsi ............... 10/20/05 ....... 10/31/05 ..... 12/22/05

Canindian..............10/21/05.........10/31/05.......11/16/05

Ann87...................10/21/05.........10/31/05.......11/23/05......12/30/05....02/21/06

Abby82.................10/21/05.........11/02/05.......12/03/05.......01/06/06...02/07/06

Dakotalimey..........10/22/05.........11/02/05.......11/23/05...01/14/06...03/30/06

Peter.....................10/29/05

Helen....................10/29/05.........11/12/05.......12/29/05

MiniBee.................10/30/05.........11/10/05.......02/01/06....02/08/06.....03/24/06

Ange1313..............11/01/05..........11/10/05......01/20/06.....01/26/06

acucag..................11/15/05..........11/26/0

ONE_COOLCHIQ 11/18/05 12/03/05 03/11/06 03/09/06

gavin_55...............11/21/05..........12/05/05

elly.......................11/22/05..........12/16/05

intramuros.............11/26/05..........12/06/05.......1/06/06.....2/10/06.....

skoopie.................11/28/05..........12/05/05......12/27/05.....?????..........03/15/06

govols...................11/29/05..........12/08/05......03/01/06

Quantril.................11/30/05..........12/05/05

Lisa71...................12/01/05..........01/18/06..

pink_roses.............12/02/05..........12/08/05......02/22/06

anya-D..................12/07/05..........12/13/05

Mand......................12/08/05.........12/20/05........1/06/06.....?????........04/10/06

Jme3584................12/12/05..........12/19/05.......03/02/06

grrltraveler.............12/15/05..........12/21/05........3/03/06

sarina....................12/10/05...........12/21/05........2/09/06

sbys......................12/17/05

araz87...................12/19/05..........12/31/05........02/08/2006

twellspeak..............12/21/05..........12/29/05........02/17/06

anxious..................12/31/05

Ania79...................12/31/05..........01/13/06

.........................Sent AOS/..........................Biometrics.........EAD...............AOS

Name...................EAD/AP............NOA..............Appt...........Approved........Intvw

____________________________________________________________________

mandolinv ...............1/9/06

Fetaria.................. 01/17/06..........01/31/06........03/15/06......n/a...........

Perfect (K2 son)......01/18/06

Doudis2..................01/12/06..........01/24/06........02/21/06.........N/A.......?????

Mel_Lee..................01/18/06..........01/30/06

John_and_Marlene...02/03/06..........02/09/06

Anastasia................02/09/06..........02/17/06

lizroxy24.................02/17/06

It's nice to hear that things went so smoothly for you guys as we are also going to be going through the SLC office. Congratulations and good luck.