SupportGeek

I went for my Titer blood test yesterday; the nurse at my doctor's office said it may take 4+ weeks to come back...I will likely have my medical exam booked by then.....does it really take this long ? DANG !!

Was about 10 days for my results.

They had long since destroyed my vaccination records when I went hunting for them, so I also got by on just a titers tests.

You can still book your appointment, you will have the results and the requisite boosters you need by the time you have to go, the doc can give them to you when they go over the results of the tests with you, the shots are a stocked item.

Finally got my 10 yr GC in the mail last Saturday SOOO glad that's over!

Thats awesome you have it!

But Damn! over a year?!?

Mel and I went to two separate DMV's and were told by the head supervisor at both that an EAD wasn't enough, despite what their website says. As to whether a police officer can look up your immigration status, absolutely they can.

Out of curiousity, do you work for the state,(CHP?) or County LE?

Im surprised they can look up immigration status considering the requirement AZ has now for all immigrants to carry proof of status with them, my assumption being that LE had no access to DoS files.

OK..As someone who works for a police department, you are telling me I am not allowed to drive with my Canadian Driver's License?

Because my I-94 is expiring, I have to wait for my AOS to arrive, right? My EAD is not validation enough?

I am very confused about all of this. I certainly do not want to break any laws, or condone illegal behaviour, but I was under the impression that Canadians are allowed to drive with their Canadian license in California.

Is my best option to not drive until I am able to get a California license? This whole area is so unclear. I wish it had been in the little welcome letter the USCIS gave me!

Anyway, I hope to visit the DMV soon.

With regards to driving in CA, when visiting from Canada, you can drive as much as you want. After arriving in CA with intent to stay or become a resident (coming on a visa), you can drive on your Canadian DL for something like 10 days legally, after that time Law Enforcement considers you a resident in so far as how you must be licensed. In other words, 10 days after arriving, they require you to be driving on a CA issued DL, or not at all.

If you had applied well before your I-94 expired, your CA issued DL would have had the same expiry as your I-94, so max 90 days after crossing in the case of a K-1 fiancée Visa, since you are a few days from expiry, they wont even look at you at the DMV office.

While the CA motor vehicles website says EAD is enough, Ive heard of a few places that require the GC before they will issue a license, its probably up to the supervisor, although if you want to try with EAD it probably wont hurt, just bring the relevant page from the DMV website where it says EAD is enough to support your argument.

If you drive on your Canadian DL, and get pulled over, its going to completely be up to the LE officers discretion how to handle you, as Rob said, anything from advice not to drive and a warning, to having your vehicle towed and impounded, or anything in between.

Im not sure if a patrol car LE has any way to know if you are here on a visa or not, Rob may know, but I wouldn't condone any illegal behaviour.

Do we find out if we are approved for the K1 visa on the day of the interview?

Or do we have to wait for the letter to be mailed to find out?

how long to wait after the interview?

Also, do they keep any of our proof of meeting (letters, photos, boarding passes) from the interview?

You will be told at the interview if you are "Welcomed to the United States" or not.

The Visa will be mailed out within 2 weeks (10 business days) if approved

They keep anything you sent in your initial application package (the I-129) but anything you bring with you the day of that is additional, will likely not even be looked at unless you have a case with some doubts to it. They dont keep it.

I do not consider engagements any less important - my frustration is directed toward the way this system is set up, NOT at the K-1's on here. You guys are the lucky ones as far as a quicker process.

We thought of going K-1, but my husband's kids live in Victoria and he picks them up every two weeks for a 2 day visit. With the K-1 he couldn't have seen them for maybe 3 months until AP was approved. His ex would never have taken the time to bring them to him here. His daughter is disabled with a seizure disorder, so it's important that one of her parents be with her and it would have been difficult for me to pick them up on Friday's in Canada after work at the ferry and make the 8 hour round trip on Sunday's to take the kids home crossing the border and taking the ferry to the island and back.

We knew and understood the IR1/CR1 process would take a year to do and I have no problem with that but I just don't see why it's so much longer than the K-1 process - that's all.

In answer to this, its mainly because you get your ability to cross back and forth freely, and and immediate Green Card upon activating your VISA, the K-1s have about a 9 month wait to get their VISA, then another 3-5 month wait to obtain these priveledges through EAD, AP, and AOS process, as well as paying yet MORE fees to get them. Factoring that in, the CR-1 is actually faster overall, as well as cheaper.

Seems that the Islamic clerics are at it again, issuing fatwas against anyone burn or insult the Koran.

So exercising one's First amendment rights will now get you put on a hit list

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-13/iran-ayatollahs-issue-fatwas-against-koran-burners.html

Because the FBI wouldnt contact the individual themselves or anything....

Must be new USCIS and HS policy to use word of mouth through a third party to tell someone they are banned for life rather than issuing a letter from the US consulate to the person in question to be clear on the issue.

Fox news, reporting on an article from The Sun, seems like a chain of real credible sources

Yea, I call utter BS on this one.

Is the English Sun similar to its Pigtown-HQ'ed Canuck namesake?

Are you referring to the Vancouver Sun? Toronto Sun? There are a few "Sun" labelled newspapers published in Canada, most are real news sources, unlike the National Inquirer or the British Sun.

Good luck with the move, I was just thinking on who hadnt been posing recently.

Im glad he got a job, Frontsight is supposed to be top notch firearms training so it should be a lot of fun for him.

Stay in touch, even though I know you are gonna be busy!

Doesn't look that bad, I read the forms, its just a pain in the #### to get some things again.

MEh, Im here, Im not leaving, this part isnt so stressful other than Id like to work

I thought Red Robin burgers were just ok. They aren't that expensive. The best burger in the world, hands down is a place called The Hitching Post. It is in Buellton California, which is like 50 miles north of santa barbara. It is a fairly expensive steakhouse and prime rib restaurant and they are good. What makes their burger exceptional is that their burger is made from the scraps from filet mignon steaks. It isn't on their menu and you can only actually order it if you sit at the bar on Monday or Tuesdays.

Cat Cora even chose this as the best burger shes ever eaten on that Food Network show "The best thing I ever ate"

Its not far from me actually (20-30 min drive), I should go there sometime...

Poor trigger discipline

So yea, on the weekend, this happened...

Took place in Hollister, CA, at Bolado Park

It was a lot of fun and work, but that fulfills the terms of my K-1, on to the AOS!

Needless to say, this last month has been so frikkin busy, heres hoping it settles down some

You can expect the higher level of scrutiny to continue on any future visit you attempt to take to the US.

Anecdotally, this is not accurate.

I was pulled into secondary with a lack of ties once before we started the petition, in a very similar situation, I wanted to stay longer, but was given only one month.

I was not questioned or picked on more than usual any other time after that, no evidence was asked or anything, despite having it on me. I think as long as you comply with the rules (leave in the month they gave you) they wont even blink twice at further visits. I was never taken to secondary again after that time (except to activate my K-1 of course)

this was posted in the OT...

http://www.visajourn...very-cool-deal/

I just made one for my SIL... it only cost me 9 dollars for shipping.. today is the last day though..

I used to work for the father of the creator of the Picaboo app/site, I wouldnt get one of those albums from them even if they paid me. Arrogant, self centered, pompous jackholes, they had a lot of money, and treated everyone that worked for them like they were less than human and far beneath them, they disgusted me. Its a good thing I didnt work in the main office, dealing with them daily would have made me go all stabby.

Ok, so now I'm stressing!!!

We're getting married on the 9th of September, and my I-94 expires on November 17th... That leaves me 68 days on my I-94 if I want to apply for my SSN under my married name... What should I do? I mean, it all depends also on if I get the marriage certificate right away, doesn't it?

Should I just go ahead and get it? I wanted to wait so that I could fill everything under that name, SSN, driver's license, AOS... How long for a name change anyways?

What do you guys think?

(ok ok, not stressing, it'll be ok!)

You really dont have to worry

You will have the marriage certificate well before November, heck, probably before October, you might only have had a problem if you were going for SSN within 2 weeks of the I-94 expiry

Alright, well made a bunch of phone calls, and here's the deal:

- Gotta apply for your SSN asap (10 days after your POE for the system to be updated)

- You need the marriage certificate to change your name to your married name (duh)

- In Virginia, it takes 3 weeks to get the mariage certificate back

- Then you can apply for a name change...

Gosh, this is complicated... I thought i'd be able to file the AOS relatively soon after we got married, but looks like it'll be in mid-October at the latest...

I applied for my SSN 21 days after arrival, they still didnt find me, most people say 14 days min

Can we stop talking about my accident?

But....We're concerned!

My vent is all the Bieber videos taking over this thread

Also, apparently we don't have health insurance coverage until September 1st, so I can't go to the dr. about my neck hurting from yesterday. And the stupid dude that hit me hasn't replied to me or my insurance agent yet. Oh joy. This is turning out to be fun. lol

Ashen,

I had a quick chat with my fiancee today about your accident, she said essentially the same thing as Huggles, go to the doctor, tell them you were in a car accident, health insurance wont matter, they wont even want to see anything to do with health insurance coverage, everything will be billed to the insurance companies involved.

Go get checked, head/neck is kind of important

Reminder that you have to wait roughly a minimum of 2 weeks (or a little less/more) for your border paperwork to be processed into the system so the SSN folks can find you.

Don't go too early either

^^ This

Actually I went into the SS office after 3 weeks and they still couldnt find me, I was going to leave and come back but the lady told me shes seen this happen enough and knows how to "Skip a few steps" to get it completed.

So I left the application with her, and 2.5 weeks later I had my SSN

#######? There is no such thing as job security!

No argument exists with that, not sure why you are trying to create one.

Read where I said employers eliminated it, in case you missed that.

So if you had 10 employees and you could only pay 5 you would be loyal and keep them all? no matter what? (time passes) Now 10 people are out of work and your bankrupt!

Way to look at the big picture

The point was that if employers had not eliminated job security then more spending and less belt tightening would be happening and they wouldnt NEED to scale back because of lack of spending.

Oh, and if the wages of 5 people would bankrupt you, you shouldnt be running a business anyhow

No it isn't. People without jobs cannot spend because they don't have any. People with jobs worry about losing their jobs in today's market so it would be foolish to spend money they may need later to survive. This isn't about the people not doing their "jobs" and spending like a sailor on leave and to hell with tomorrow. The way for business to overcome the uncertainty and start hiring again is for the government to create conditions that reduce that uncertanty. If they think higher business taxes are on the way and more regulation is on the way they will not hire. This is 100% the governments fault, not the people who are trying to survive.

Seems more like its the fault of business and employers for creating an environment where jobs are scarce, and people are afraid to lose their jobs for any reason whatsoever. No loyalty to good workers, no commitment to them, and in return, no reciprocation, stop treating employees like office supplies. They bred this situation of fear and economic uncertainty, no one else.

Businesses want more people to spend? Commit to your employee, give them reassurances that they will still have a job a year from now, or 2 years unless they #### up horribly. People will spend money if they know they can eat next month....

Very good point HeatDeath. I hadn't thought of the corrections and all on the 1-94, as I went through Vancouver airport, and the guy there actually had me fill out my own! (which I didn't like doing as I don't have that great of penmanship)

FYI: mine wasn't "stapled" to my passport. I just kept it in there so I knew where it was. I think they staple it to assure that it doesn't get lost, as you do need it for AOS, EAD and AP applications.

I think the reason its stapled to the passport is because one of the directions they have to follow is one of the stamps for it needs to be half on the I-94 and half on the passport where the I-94 is affixed to the Passport. I had like 3 officers reviewing the instructions while I was being processed

(I really should actually post my POE review, even though its 6 weeks later, I suck

Are you flying, or driving? If flying, the cost of the I-94 is included in the price of your airline fare. If your driving across the boarder, then you will have to pay for it, $6 I believe.

I crossed by land and imported my car, I was not asked for one red cent, so I think this is wrong, or possibly only implemented at some crossings to recoup administrative costs perhaps.

They talk about them having rights...what rights do they have if they are not us citizens?

Basic human rights, thats about it IMO, and if they are criminals in the USA, or their own countries, they should have THOSE rights forfeited as well.

I could go on and on...but its too early in the morning for ranting.! Has President Obama even produced an birth certificate yet? Is he in the US legally? hmmmm

Are you effing serious?

Do you have zero concept of the background checks a presidential candidate has to go through or something? Obviously birthplace being one of the most important checks, since its about the ONLY political position where you MUST be a naturally born USC in order to hold it.

The department of records in Hawaii has actually had to start denying public requests for copies of proof of his birthplace/cetificate, because they are being flooded by the other idiot "birthers" who question where he was born, all because they disagree with the fact he was legally elected. Its extremist nuttery.

Illegals, Id like to say that they dont affect me, but really, they do, the visa process is long, needlessly expensive, and fraught with errors and problems because of them primarily.

I strongly feel that if they want to be in the US, they too should have to go through the legal process and immigrate, to me, its no better than cutting in line because you dont want to wait your turn.

If the authorities were to ask me during a traffic stop or whatever for proof that Im here legally, I have no problems at all with proving it, my rights arent being infringed, its a red herring to complain that it is.