ZedbraGuy

They check the money, maybe that the obvious forms are there, but thats about it. But it does mean it's in the pile and waiting to be processed, so its all possitive news

Its a tough thing one way or the other, if you have the money I'd just go for whichever you feel happiest with. I personally didn't want to get married and then be apart, so I took the K1. And yes you can enter on a VWP and be okay, I know someone that did that and was fine. But I wouldn't take that chance. If you get in trouble and get deported you might never be allowed back in again. I know people who have got banned for far less.

K1 is tough though, takes about 9 months to be approved

Then once you get here you're stuck on your ####### for at least 2-3 months, and believe me it's boring as hell

Once you're a legal resident it gets better

Your call at the end of the day

And in any case... SAVE SAVE SAVE you need as much money as possible before you come here, with the cost of shipping my stuff, plane tickets, AOS and K1 I've gotta have spent 4 grand

I sent in copies of the visa, bio page and any pages with entry stamps. Although to be honest why they'd need the entry stamps is beyond me as they already have that information

You don't need it, but theres no harm getting it. One less thing to do later

That helps, any idea how long I might be there for?

Typical that we get our appointment on a busy day, if it'd been a Tuesday we'd be free all day

I got my biometrics appointment letter in the post today

There's not too much to the appointment right? Just finger prints and photos? I hear you have to fil out some forms, what sort of information do you need to provide?

But the main thing I need to know is, how long does it take?

We've got to plan the schedule for the day as my wife works around that time and she needs to move some appointments so she can take me down there.

It seems every civil surgeon has his or her own ideas, what you actually need can be irrelevant if you can't find one that will sign the paperwork.

So you either have to keep asking different ones are just bite the bullet to get the paperwork sorted. The one we used was okay, but wanted proof of vacination history in more detail than was available on the DS-3025. We could have found one that would have just given me the one shot I needed, but we decided to just get it taken care of. It wasn't a huge amount of money in the greater scheme of things.

That said, don't let them talk you into getting a full medical, thats taking the piss

I'm a little confused by the whole work authorisation process

So you file for EAD along with AOS and once you get the EAD you can work

Now, isn't this replaced by your 2 year green card once it gets approved

Or do you have to renew your EAD after a year?

Am I right in thinking if you do need to renew the EAD there isn't a filing fee?

I've read through all the instructions on USCIS but it's not clear

Kinda thinking ahead as I'm only filing AOS now, but i need to know where I stand

Well at least you know its there, what day did it arrive? Mine took a couple of days after it arrived before we got the NOA1 email

Did you fill out the G1145? Have you had an email or text message

Did you send the packet signed for post?

Has the cheque cleared?

We posted ours on the 27th August, it arrived on the 29th, NOA1 date was the 30th and we recieved the NOA1s in the post today 6th September

You'll want to think about this as borrowing the money to file AOS and get the immigrant into work might pay for itself if you can find a job.

If as you say he earned between 3k and 15k over the last three years I don't know how your visa was approved, but never the less, your husband needs additional income, second job or whatever, or you need a co-sponsor, because at no point during the past three years has he met the 125% level

There are supposed to be processes in place to stop this sort of situation happening, so you've been let down by the system, but now you just have to focus on the problem and take the hit together to achieve what you need to get to the next step, all other considerations are secondary

From what I can see you only have the one option, your husband needs to be earning the required poverty guideline level of income, if he's not he needs to find another job(s) as otherwise no AOS will be approved, and you won't be able to work. I think once you accept that and start focusing your efforts on sorting that problem things will get better

You need to look up a local civil surgeon on the USCIS website, and go and see them. They can do a full medical to replace the old one. A lot of people need to get some elements added when they AOS anyway, I did myself. Just in this case the full medical as detailed on the I-693 will need to be done. Be careful of expensive civil surgeons though, some are scammers

Submitted AOS 27th August

Looks like at least a two months

No point worrying about what they did or didn't send now, it's sent. I can't wait to send mine

At least I'm not the only person in this position

I'm watching my TB skin test like a hawk now as I had the BCG when I was school age and the doctor said it may or may not cause a reaction. But didnt have a skin test done as part of the original medical

The CS is using the i-693 btw, so no issues there.

Hopefully I can put this behind me on Thursday, got half the AOS packet printed out, going to do the rest tomorrow and hopefully get it in the post Friday or next week.

Gotta say, my opinion of America really has changed a lot since I got here. More red tape than I have ever seen, and I thought the UK was bad.

For anyone else moving here I think take as much documentation about you past as you can.

You x-ray disk, childhood vacinations as well as the DS-3025

Or if at all possible get everything done before you medical as a completed DS-3025 would be a god send right about now

I live in Fresno, CA

They need to sign me off against a number of things, which I have already been tested for. But I dont have any documentary evidence.

Without the TB it'd only be about $80 all in, but like I say..... I read on VJ that you dont need the disk with the xray

But I don't care at this point, I just want my EAD

I'm not happy sponging off my wife

The A number is on the back of the I-94, its also on the NOA2

Back from the doctors

They said they needed to do the test for the TB, and follow up shots for Tetnus. They said I could probably get away without the other MMR as I don't come from a high risk area, but we didn't want to take any chances

Assuming the TB test comes back negative it should be $235

$60 for the MMR

$25 for the tetnus

$150 for the TB test

the rest to cover the blood work I had today

They had to re-do some of the stuff from the medical, but the doctor seemed pretty honest

The other doctor wanted

$120 for MMR

$240 just for the appointment

$120 for chicken pox which i don't even need

$500 odd for the full medical which I don't need

I'd love to have it done for as little as $50 but to be honest I'm not going to go to every civil surgeon in town trying to get a bargain

We had a similar problem last week with the actual CS, so we're going somewhere else

We've spoken to another place now, as well as the USCIS and apparently there's another form I-693A which isn't on the USCIS website, but the CS should have which is for extra shots for when you've already had the medical.

I'll have a better idea once I go to the doctors. I have my first appointment today

Also a note to others.... bring you CD with the x-ray with you. I'm having to pay for a TB test as I dont have any evidence of that. I'd read on VJ that you didn't need it..... unfortunately it seems I do and I shipped the bloody thing.

Still, the first CS wanted over a grand, so its way better than that

We're hoping to file on Friday, would have done so already but the civil surgeon we went to was a money grabbing *insert random expletive here* so we had to arrange to get my last injection somewhere else

So its okay to include one of those and one cheque, and duplicate up the other stuff?

Thats not too bad, just got to get married and get my last injection done and I can apply before you know it

According to your link it's all stuff thats already in the package, copys of passport info and i-94, etc

So much for reducing unnecasary paperwork, the instructions for the forms make a big deal of reducing paperwork. I'd read you only need one G-1145 for all three forms.

Either way, it's not a big deal printing out a few extra pages.

I'll probably do a single covering letter and spead the forms into 3 sub-packets