Casper&Diana

Greetings Fellow December-ers!

Are there any of us left? It's nearing the end of February 2011 now, 14 months-ish since we started the paperwork journey. I'm happy to say that Diana and Dennis got their Green Cards in the mail last weekend! Yay! We can leave the country AND return now. To celebrate we're going to Mexico for Spring Break at the end of March.

So now, no more paperwork for 21 months. Then we begin the next phase but I think each one gets easier. The AOS interview in Portland, OR was a piece of cake. I expect the Removal of Conditions in 2 years will be as well. One year after that (in 3 years from now) we can do the citizenship thing. We definitely will since Diana and I are international travel-aholics and it is so much easier on a US passport than a Ukrainian (except to Russia!).

Like Meggy Mo, we also have a new addition to the fam. Dennis begged us for a dog and we got him a puppy for his 15th BD at the end of December. Cody is 1/2 malamute, 1/4 black lab, 1/4 blue heeler and now 4 months old, cute as can be! (though no slipper is safe from those sharp puppy teeth!)

I hope all is well for all who read this (and everyone else too).

~Casper

Greetings Fellow December Filiers!

So, possibly this is the last issue of our Great Month of December?! For fun I went back and read the first few posts of nearly a year ago and not surprisingly the first one was from Terri who, until now, was also the last poster here!

What a journey, huh? Wow. The ups, the downs, the stress, the waiting, and of course, the joys. I feel VERY fortunate to be one of the ones who started here a year ago (and quite clueless, I might add!) that ended the year with my new wife and son with me every day. My Love, Diana and I fit like a hand in glove, my new son Dennis, who also insisted on changing his name to mine, calls me Dad. It is a great feeling. Add that now is Thanksgiving (in America) and I have so much to be thankful for, most of all for my new family that with my daughters now numbers 5.

As to our current status, we filed the AOS 6 weeks ago and had the biometrics last week. Does that mean the next interview and GC are only a few weeks away??? I have to say that I don't stress much about the status and progress like I did before. Diana is here with me and always will be. The governement is now just one of the low-grade annoying things one must deal with from time to time.

To all that have shared a success like mine you know what I mean. To those who are delayed in your own journey I feel your pain and wish you speedy resolution.

To all who helped me with the endless questions along the way, I thank you. To any I may have helped (probably not many!), you are welcome.

In case our blogspot disappears soon with the fresh crop of new ('10) December filiers let me wish everyone a great and wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas to follow! Should anyone find themselves in Bend, Oregon for a vacation or just passing through, send me an e-mail at flyfast2002@yahoo.com and we'll get together.

Best of continued good luck to all!

Casper & Diana

Greetings Decemberers! 'Been out of action for a while. I think I left off planning the wedding with only three weeks to do it. It was great! Honeymoon in Maui with 4 kids. A unique trip. Now also doing the AOS. What a PIA (pain in the ####!). Hopefully send all the docs off tomorrow. I've been going over and over it. Just finished the -693 medical form today. Had to do the complete physical again for both the wife and son even though we did them in Ukraine in June but they wouldn't give us copies then so we had to them again. Sigh, another $600 day.

So, I have a question: In another couple months there will be a new group of December Filers. What will we be then?!

Good Evening Ladies (and any Gentlemen still about)! This will be my last post as a single man. In 25 hours the ceremony starts. Less than 30 minutes later I'll be wearing a ring for the first time in my life! (Didn't have one with the first wedding.)

Life now is an amusing combination of angst and joy as you can imagine. ALL of my immediate family is here (22) and the guest list is now up to 50 more. Good thing we changed the cake size to feed 80!

The new deck I am building should be done in 2 hours and the lights hung in the trees by dark tonight.

Going to Hawai'i (Maui) for the Honeymoon. Turns out we can get RT airfare to Maui, 8 nights in a condo on the beach, and a rental car, for almost the same price as airfare alone to Cleveland--our first choice 'cuz the kids wanted to go to the rollercoaster park in Sandusky (Cedar Point). So, yes, there will be 6 of us on the combo Honeymoon/family vacation and Diana and I are both fine with that!

Glad to hear everyone is still doing well and Angelo is not suffering for lack of nursing attention!

More after Hawai'i.

~Casper

Hello Ladies!

Sorry, I've been gone for two weeks. Alas, I had a nice long letter written and as I was about to send it, VJ hiccuped and the letter disappeared! *sigh* All good here but super busy. Wedding in 8 days. NOT small! I've had 49 "yes" replies to the invitations and I haven't heard back from another 50. We told the caterer to plan on 50 max. Oooops!

Building a deck too...

Gotta run! I'll try to get some photos up after the event.

~Casper

Get well Angelo!

We paid the $700 (for Diana and son) in cash at the consulate. After you check in at the window in the immigrant visa section inside the consulate and they go through the document check list they will send you down the hall to pay the money and return to the visa section with the receipts.

Diana and I did have updated letters of intent to marry but like Gary, maybe our smiling faces were enough as we were not asked for them either. But I'd take 'em anyway.

Good Morning Ladies,

Sorry for the hiatus, just can't seem to find enough hours in the day lately! Once in a while I'll zoom in and read a post or two and think, 'oh, that's interesting I must answer' and then I get drawn away. I imagine my experience is not unusual though.

Still panicking about the wedding. I know we should just relax and let it happen but it's hard not to get all wound up in it. No, it won't be a small semi-private affair. I have ~20 family members flying in from the 4 corners of the country and at least that many friends from half a dozen states wanting to come. Sheesh, you'd think we were 22 and it were our first marriage or something! Hardly a day goes by that I don't get a lovingly-angry letter or call from someone berating me because we have been back in country all of two weeks and I haven't called/written to update them on how things are going. Then there is this business where the employees wonder the owner went...!

But, I am happy to report, all is good in the world! Everyone is happy. Steph you asked about the boy(s). I don't know if you mean mine or yours, sorry! My new lad is just happier than a clam in mud! Yesterday Mom made some kind of potato thing with various stuffing things in it. Quite tasty but there were only two plates. I asked Denys why he wasn't eating and he announced he no longer likes Russian food. He's an American now and he likes only American food. Tops on the list are Pizzas, Hamburgers, French Fries, and Sodas! Oh boy.

And talk about eating! Steph I'm not sure how many boys you have (is it 5?!) but if they eat like my teen you're going to have to spend their college money on food. And drink! Denys will drink 1/2 to 1 gallon of juice every day! (Call it the better part of 4 liters.) Thank goodness for Costco.

Life continues on the path of happiness.

Yay, good news from Ecuador! (finally!)

All good here in Oregon. Sooooper busy. Took one daughter to Univeristy of Oregon over the weekend for orientation over the weekend. Sigh, another little bird flies the nest. Today I need to call the high school and talk about bringing in a Ukrainian lad as a freshman.

Still no routine to life but everyone is happy. Well, almost everyone. The ex-, who would call the son only monthly when he lived in the same city, now calls every day. Annoying but I'm sure he will lose interest in that soon as he did when he was married. Denys really wants nothing to do with him and is very happy in his new life.

Wedding is one month from today. Have done NO planning!

Hey casper

I am so happy to hear everything is goin great on ur end! The heat yea I have never felt anything like this! Just craziness but as u said thank goodness for the ac. What a coincidence Angelo is playing hookey today as well. We thought hey we have waited so long why not just go shoot some pool and have a few beers! So that's our awesome plan for today. I am so happy to get on here and read about everyone's happiness with their new lives. Hey casper have u and Diana set a date for the wedding?

August 14th at our home in Bend, Oregon. All December Filers are Welcome!

Gary's right about the extra cash goes a long way toward finding tickets on a "sold out" train! Two weeks ago Diana and I had no trouble getting tickets on the train from Donetsk to Kiev but Kiev back to DOK was full. #######? Fortunately, Diana has a friend at the main office in Kiev and for a mere 25% extra fee (~$20 to reserve the whole 2nd Class car for the three of us) we were on our way.

Diana says that the workers in Kiev pay a small amount of money to reserve the seats and then sell them off for a premium. Gotta love it!

One more funny UA story: So, we had three boxes full of Diana's stuff to ship back via UPS (through my company I get a great rate). The courier shows up to fetch the boxes and I have all the forms filled out and my account number for payment. The courier asks for another 500 Hrv (~$65) for 'customs.' I asked whose customs? US or UA? UA the courier says. I said that's ridiculous. You don't pay customs duty leaving a country, only entering. He was insistent. Fine, I said, put it on my account. No, has to be cash. I see, can I have a receipt? No.

And Last--Tuesday went to the Social Security Admin to get Diana an SSN. While we are filling out the forms Diana leans over and whispers, that's the first government worker I've met in my life who smiled! Yeah, I said, and we don't even have to pay an handling fee!

Two weeks ago in Kiev I used "Yes, with work authorization" for Q32 which is the truth, and sailed right through the interview with nary a question about it.

Jeff, I know it is hard not to get wrapped around the axle on these things (jeez, I was just there myself!) but I wouldn't worry at all until Monday. Call every day to the NVC and check and if not there Monday ask for a supervisor. The first-line operators can only look at a computer monitor and tell you what it says. If you need someone to dig it's going to take someone a little further up the food chain.

All good here on the Left Coast, I'm happy to report! Diana is adjusting well and Denys could not be happier. This is a 14 year old boy who yearns for some male adult attention. We get along great and I have started teaching him how to throw an American football. He loves it all. This morning Diana is out looking for plants and flowers for my, uh, barren flowerbed while I'm at the office. Denys is sleeping in (surprise). While getting ready for work this morning I told Diana, do you know it is just 2 weeks ago today we were sweating bullets at our interview in the embassy in Kiev?

93 here in Oregon today (or 34C for those of you not from the US or Myanmar). Fortunately the AC is working and I think we will play hooky tomorrow and take the boat to the lake. Mm, yes, good idea!

Emma, hang in there! Your story is not unusual from what I have read. In fact for some women I have even heard they cried every day for the first year! (But it did get better after that) As the USC I can only imagine what it must be like to give up almost EVERYTHING just to be with the one you love. My hat's off to all you ladies who have made that choice.

I think you just need to give it a couple more days, Jeff. It took me 8 calendar days to get from the CSC to the NVC and be checked into their system. And yes, when I called the first-line NVC operator was able to find my file and give me a KEV number.

On a less happy note, and I hope this doesn't happen to you(!), when I got the NOA 2 letter saying that the file had been forwarded from the CSC to the NVC it in actuality had not. For reasons that are still a mystery to me, the file was held for 3 more weeks at the CSC AFTER the date the NOA2 said it was sent to the NVC. Though I have inquired several times, I was never able to find out why the file was held. Fell on the floor? Lost? Dog ate it? All I know is that after 3 weeks of calling CSC and NVC (and my senator's office as well) I got a 1-line email saying that it had been forwarded on this (new) date 3 weeks after what the NOA2 said.

But try not think of such things!

Sometimes the government will use .com addresses (just to be confusing?) so you have to be careful to know if it is official or not. However, the .gov URLs are reserved exclusively for the US Government. So, if you go to a .gov site, it's official.

Yeah, bummer about the fees. I just paid the $700 for Diana and Denys and 'can't wait' to pay the $1k+ each for the AOS. sigh.

A quick update from Oregon: All is Well! Diana, Denys, and I made it to Portland on Friday night. Spent the night in a hotel and then drove to Bend (Central Oregon) Saturday morning. My girls were waiting for us and had the house full of flowers and even a "Welcome To Oregon" sign in English and Russian!

Crazy busy since getting back as I had some out of state guests until this morning and we are even back to this time zone yet. We got to enjoy the 4th of July celebration in the park during the day, a Bar-B-Que at my house in the evening, and fireworks (ours and the city's) at night.

Diana and Denys continue their English lessons at the local community college starting Tuesday. There there is the bank account thing, getting a social security number, and planning for a wedding in 5 1/2 weeks!

Still crazy busy but lovin' it.

I hope you've been working on getting those police reports!

Now it starts getting exciting!

As for me, I'm bringing Diana home in 32 hours.

And don't forget that in Ukraine an "expedite" fee can make things that might take several months, take several days! When you apply for the passport, if they don't mention the fee, you can ask about it. But yeah, get started now. The USCIS seems to be moving very quickly lately.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are probably your best days. The 13th won't make any difference to the airlines!

Sorry to hear the loss Terri. I'm sure Eric is just glad you are with him now. Guy's may not say much and when asked what you can do for them answer nothing, but they are comforted just to have someone important near to them.

Diana flew up to Kiev this morning to actually fetch the visas. FedEx called and said they had them yesterday but we knew they would likely not deliver in time for our Friday morning flight so planned to just go fetch 'em! Besides, Diana and I are both a bit controlling that way. :)

T -46 hours. But who's counting?

Good trip Emma! Sheesh, you and Meggy have the connections from he**! We'll be coming back from Ukraine on Friday and it is also quite long, 2 layovers and 23 hours of travel before getting the hotel in Portland and then a 3 hour drive back to Bend on Saturday.

It will be fine though, except of course the airlines in their infinite confusion don't have our seats together. We'll try and change at the airport. Our drive back should be nice as we'll go through the Cascade Mountains and maybe go up to the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood for a quick sidetrip.

Happy Travels All! We leave in 70 hours.

Thanks all for the warm congratulations! It's funny but with all the work that went into getting to this point, the visa approval almost seemed anticlimatic. Probably just me or there was no emotional energy left. I'm sure if we hadn't been approved the feelings would be VERY intense.

Gary, looks like we'll just miss you as I just missed Alla here in Donetsk. We get into JFK on Friday at 2:30 pm and leave @7:05 pm.

And now, back to packing!

Sorry for the hiatus but all is good. Diana and I had our interview on Thursday and got the excellent news the same day. I'll post more details on the Kiev embassy review but suffice to say, it went quite smoothly.

We came to the consulate the day before so that we could verify the location, where to pay, ask 'do we put the photos on the DS-156 or do you?' (the consulate does). Our appointment was for 9 am Thursday and we were wired for sound so got there at 8:15 fortunately there is an enterprising young lad Starbucks wannabe with a latte machine so all was good.

8:55 we went in, the immigration lobby was already nearly full. We checked in at the window, handed over the endless mound of documents, did the finger prints, waited 3 more hours then got called up for the interview.

Diana, son Denys, and I went to the window together. I was asked (mm, more like told) 'you have met several times' (yes, 5) 'traveled a lot together' (yes, 8 countries in 8 months) 'you make more than enough money to support them' (I've been fortunate). Then I was politely asked to beat it.

2 minutes later Denys came out, no questions to him were asked.

5 minutes later Diana came out beaming ear to ear! The questions were mostly about the children-Denys & my daughters, how/when/where did we meet and that was about it.

Everyone else we talked to was approved as well. It was a good day at the House of Dreams!

Now 5 days of packing left before heading home to Oregon. POE JFK.

Let me add my Best Wishes as well, Alex!

FWIW, Diana and I will be married in Oregon on August 14th with my family and then travel back to UA (and thence to Babushka in Rostov, RU) for a church wedding with her family next summer. In our case, that seems the easiest thing to do. (And it's what Diana wants so who am I to argue? )