usmcwife

I`m glad to see so many people have gotten their EAD`s and biometrics already. I still haven`t gotten either yet. I`m kind of starting to get worried that something may have been lost.

I still can`t check the case status of my EAD online. I called today but the lady said that I had to wait 60 days before they`d inquire about the Biometrics appointment and 90 days for the EAD. ( I might have that backwards but i`ll be calling on day 60 anyway). Is anyone else waiting this long for these things. anyone else have Raleigh as a local office.

I would email them and ask if it's possible to get the fingerprints done in canada. For some reason i'm thinking that might only be for residents of Canada. I'm hoping I'm wrong but for some reason it seems like a current canadian address is required.

I had almost the exact same thing happen to me. Only difference is that I was missing the police report from Japan. I had to go to the Japanese consulate and be fingerprinted (ink-not electronically). On the USCIS website it says that reports from japan can take 3 months but I got it in 1.5 months so that was good.

I guess I'm saying if it saves a significant amount of money, it might not take the full 4 months. I know how hard it is to wait for a document like that particularly when you know there is nothing to report on the report!

I still haven't gotten any notice on my biometrics appointment and still can't check the status of my EAD on the uscis website. I think I'm going to try calling again and seeing what's up.

sometimes people just mean a fast wedding, or a fast wedding because of a pregnancy. It didn't sound like the 'unwilling partner' was applicable in this case.

I recently took a trip abroad where I met a man and we fell in love. We are planning to get married, but dont know what that'll do since Im canadian and hes american. Is there any clause in immigration for love at first sight?

are you in eastern or western canada? there are only two embassys that process K1 fiance visas so if you are on teh west coast you are in luck because vancouver is a fast consulate.

If you are in ontario or east of that you will be interviewing at montreal which adds a few months to the process.

If you are planning on getting married before filing then you will be interviewing at montreal no matter what.

This could be a factor in your decision so keep it in mind.

As a follow up to our interview at the beginning of Aug, I sent to the MTL consulate some follow up docs they asked me to submit after my interview, along with our passports.

On Wed, my hubby's senator liaison is going to contact them to "gently" suggest they could look at the docs and issue our visas. It's been 53 days since our interview...anyone happen to have any experience with this sort of thing?

My hubby's deployment date draws nearer and nearer and everytime I call DoS they tell me there's been no update but they show we have expedite on our case. I'm so scared that we won't get our visas issued before he leaves, because I know that Montreal is sooo backed up. *sigh*

I would email them repeatedly with a pointed and catchy email topic line. something like "requested documents mailed in Military deployment on (date) pls reply." try a new one every day until they respond.

I had to send in documents after my interview and didn't get the visa until over two months later. They hadn't even logged the paperwork until 2 weeks before they issued the visa. Which means they have bins and bins of envelopes waiting to be opened.

When is he deploying? It's a great idea getting the congress person involved, they definitely helped us. We contacted his congress person and the following week they gave us the news that it was approved.

Good luck... Keep us posted.

btw what branch of the military is your fiance?

Why is the government so confusing!!! Well at least i know that it's not just me.

Weird... Last week my file was transferred to CSC and today I checked the status and it says:

The I485 APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS was transferred and is now being processed at a USCIS office. You will be notified by mail when a decision is made, or if the office needs something from you.

Do you think this means it's been transferred again? Maybe to the local office?

I still can't check the status of the EAD... so frustrating

we just used copies and since scanned copies look the same I don't see that it would be a problem.

Congrats! We all know how much of a huge relief it is... Have a great drive and great wedding!

That sounds like it would be ideal but, when you file a CR-1 they dont allow you to stay in the USA while the visa is being processed either right?

I wonder if you would run into problems while crossing back and forth across the border? Can US Customs even tell when they swipe your passport that you are in the visa application process? Can your visa process get banned?

I would take a look in the IR1 CR1 threads to see how lucky other people were on the visiting/ working in the US while waiting for their case to be finished.

Yes, I'm pretty sure customs can tell when they swipe your passport. Depending on how you cross. I've never been swiped while driving across. but they swipe every time at airports etc...

I think one of us has misunderstood...someone else told gap1 she is out of the black hole after NOA2 because she's in the UK. The discussion had nothing to do with Montreal...at least, that's how I understood the conversation.

The original poster of the thread isn't Gap1, it's Moyo who lives in toronto and will be interviewing in montreal. hence the not out of black hole yet.

Hi guys,

I just got 1 of my police record check from Canada. it's sealed in an envelop. I wonder if I suppose to keep it sealed, or I can open it bring to the interview.

Please be advise

Thanks

XH

Does it say anywhere on the envelope not to open it? I'm not sure how it works when they mail it to you but the ones that are picked up at canadian police stations are generally open.

Generally the documents that were supposed to stay sealed were taped and said 'do not open' on them.

To be safe, I wouldn't open it. Bring it sealed to the interview.

Maybe somebody who's had it mailed to them knows more.

It seems like CSC is taking longer now than having an interview at your local USCIS office. Took just under 6 months for my AOS to get approved via the CSC office.

Darn.... Did you get your EAD sooner? I would love to go to work soon.... I'm going a bit bonkers. Plus, we haven't bought a car for me yet and we live in a really really small town!!!

Yeah...Biometrics FINALLY done!!!! Nothing like having to drive 3 hrs for a 15 min appointment tho!!! Since they say the office is sooooo backlogged I expected to see several people waiting , but there was only one other person in the office!!! They had a couple of issues getting a good print off a couple of my fingers (I have excema so have some patchy dry skin on my hands) but other than that it was smooth sailing. Hopefully my EAD and GC are not too far behind!

Congrats on the expedite and baby btw...

Yay, I can finally check my case status online, almost a month after filing! Although when i logged in it says that the case has been transferred to the CSC. Is this good or bad? Anyone have any experience with this?

What type of paper for employment did you include with your G-325A?

I just made an excel spreadsheet based on the already existing chart on the form. On the G 325a in the employment spot i wrote ' please see attachment "Employment last 5 years" ' then stapled the sheet to the form.

I think you need to step back a bit and think about who will be opening it. Try not to vary too much from what they request because if you were receiving it and had to wade through 70 pages of texts to get to the actual forms that might be frustrating.

I wouldn't worry about attaching every page together into one packet because they will just take it apart. We just made sure that the forms couldn't get mixed up by stapling them. for example I stapled the i129f together. I also stapled the g 325a with my photo, which i did put in a ziploc bag and had attached to a blank paper. They don't want the photo adhered to anything since there has to be writing on the back. Then I just put it in order of what was listed on VJ and mailed it in an envelope.

Extra documentation won't affect the decision but it might frustrate the person who is getting the packet. I suggest not putting something in unless they ask for it. It will just make the packet more confusing to the person getting it.

I had to attach a separate page for my G-325a for the employment and where i've lived, since i've lived in different countries and had many different jobs. It did not affect our petition. Are you the petitioner or beneficiary? If you are the petitioner you just have to be sure you meet the minimum income requirements or have a sponsor and you should be all good. I think that is more important in the interview phase but I can't recall since it wasn't an issue for us. That also applies to the criminal record part too. I don't believe the petitioners record would affect the application, only the beneficiaries.

Basically they only care about the USC's money and the petitioners criminal history. haha.

Also, at the application submission they only require proof of having met, proof of the relationship is for the interview part. So focus on sending the passport pages, flight itineraries, airline ticket stubs, and photos. We felt that anything more than 5 - 10 pictures would be overkill. We did put in a few emails, and phone records but only a couple of pages, they don't want to read a novel. And make sure there isn't anything too personal in them either.

Tonight we had a pretty delicious chicken pot pie from the cooking light chicken cookbook that my mom in law gave me for christmas. Then my husband asked if I could bake my famous chocolate chip cookies. When they were out of the oven he had the brilliant idea of putting some chocolate icing on top. Very delicious.

These are my cookies. I've made them so many times the recipe is ingrained in my brain.

2 1/4 c flour, sifted.

1 c brown sugar

1 c butter or margarine, softened.

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt.

1 pkg Chocolate chips. (semi sweet are best but milk chocolate is ok if you prefer)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Add slightly beaten egg and vanilla until well mixed. Mix together dry ingredients (except chips) and add to wet. Once it's completely mixed, add in chocolate chips.

Drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto cookie sheet, slightly flatten, and bake for 8 min or until lightly golden brown.

Hi Moyo,

It sounds to me that you might need to file the I 130. If you file a K1, it might not be finished in time for the wedding. Also, you will not be able to work in the US until after you file for AOS and EAD. I just filed and it's already been a month with no word on either of those. Every case seems to be different though with some taking a few weeks and some taking a few months. You will have to wait to file the I 130 until after the wedding. If you do file the K1 and it isn't finished by the time you plan to get married, I believe you can go and get married, as long as they let you across the border. However, it will render the K 1 petition void and you will have to leave the states and file for the I130.

I have heard of people crossing the border successfully after having applied for either option. Although it seems that it is often at the discretion of the US customs agent, how they feel that day and how much documentation you have about your ties to Canada, your job requirements and possibly a letter from your employer stating you are travelling for work and expected to return to Canada.

Do you know if your employer has an immigration lawyer they consult with? A friend of mine had a similar situation and she worked for the film industry. They had a lawyer that handled any cross border questions or problems.

Montreal Takes forever. I don't know about any changes. But our case was finished at the VSC in less than a month and got to montreal in a very short amount of time, I think about 2 months. it then took 5-6 months to get an interview. Check out the Canada forums for current info on montreal times to interview.

i'm losing my mind. seriously.

if they printed the visa on the second, shouldn't he have it by now???

it took me almost two weeks after they actually printed it (not just when uscis said they did) before i got it. they seem to only actually mail stuff once a week so maybe you just missed the cut off. Just keep checking canada post. It will show up soon.

definitely send copies. You don't want to be stuck without the originals at the interview.

the copies are just for you to keep in case something gets misfiled or lost in the mail. We actually signed both the original and the copy instead of having a photocopied signature.

That being said, I don't think I was asked for any part of the I129f packet at my interview. Many people don't bring any of it. It is just for insurance I think.

Ok, so since we got his green card last month, I have been trying to ignore the two country thing for a few weeks (after 14 months of fiance visa and AOS, we kind of needed that break). Our religious ceremony is here in the US in a few weeks, and I thought I had done really well considering all the international aspects until now. I'm swamped at work this week so I'm hoping this thread can help with some information, since I don't have time to do any amount of substantial research.

His family is throwing a couples shower in Canada. I'm not quite sure what we do about bringing gifts back with us? What do I need to consider? Has anyone done this? They aren't really personal effects, because they're new? It's the first time we're using his green card to cross, so I'm a little sensitive about how that goes anyway but add bringing things back with us raises my level of concern.

Your worried about bringing the shower gifts back to the US? I woudln't really worry about it. You don't have to pay duty for gifts i believe and if people give you money, you're allowed to bring a few thousand over the border I believe.

Before we had our shower and wedding, since we had one in Canada and the other on the other side of the states, we politely asked people to give money or gift cards. Everyone understood we'd be flying or travelling pretty far and were very accommodating.

Those of you that had a civil ceremony first- what did you wear?? I'm at a total loss here..

A friend of mine got married at the courthouse in jeans. She was wearing sweats but her husband told her to at least put jeans on. haha

Yum BEER BREAD!!!

My mother in law gave me the recipe for beer bread a while back and i just found it again in my recipe book. She says he always asked her to make it whenever he was home on leave. haha. Super easy and very yummy if you like beer and bread. I tried it twice now using different types of beer. We've tried using an apricot ale which was yummy and sweet, and a guinness type stout which made a richer and darker loaf I just put one in the oven using a wheat ale and it smells pretty good. I love a recipe where just a different type of ingredient gives a completely different flavour!

2 1/4 c flour

3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

12 oz (1 bottle) beer

-Mix dry ingredients together

-Add beer and mix well. It will be pretty foamy but that's ok, leaving a few lumps are ok too.

-spread in greased 8x4" loaf pan

-bake for 35-45 min @ 400 degrees

-turn out onto rack to cool

Military expedites are generally considered if the petitioner is active duty and deployed or about to be deployed. Generally you are required to show proof of deployment with a letter from your C/O or copy of your orders etc... This can bump you up in line. I have heard that the expedite needs to be requested at each stage of the immigration process. Meaning you will have to send in the papers to the nvc, whichever service center you are sent to, and the embassy your beneficiary will be interviewing at. I don't know all of the details about it but it definitely warrants further research as i'm sure you're eligible.