piglett

hello all i am in the same boat

getting ready to send off my I-130 & G325a's

i hope i don't screw it up too bad

should i send any wedding pictures along with my forms , if so what size?

also is it best to go with a moneyorder for the $355 ?

thanks

piglett

Edit: oh also do i just make the moneyorder out to the USCIS???

hello all i am in the same boat

getting ready to send off my I-130 & G325a's

i hope i don't screw it up too bad

should i send any wedding pictures along with my forms , if so what size?

also is it best to go with a moneyorder for the $355 ?

thanks

piglett

sorry for going off topic...but does anyone know about midwifery in the philippines? all i know is that my would-be girlfriend has spent many hours on duty to fulfill the requirements, of which assisting in different types of births was one of them. she's now reviewing for the board exam in november, but i don't know if having that license will allow her to practice if she comes here to southern california. my assumption is that she would need a local certification or license first, which will require additional training. if that's the case, would it be better to be trained in nursing (since it's more common), then work on her midwifery credentials?

thanks in advance for your input.

Wow i just don't know, maybe check with the BON (board of nursing) in California???

good luck

piglett

To piglett!

yeah that's what my husband told me i need to buy a good warm jacket before we get there me and our baby. and he said its more cheaper here to buy winter clothes rather than there is it true?

and yes i will let you know if i will goin to get an exam's there but its just still a plan for now. and if ever i cant take a licensure exam's for nursing in buffalo am i allowed to work there as nursing aide or a caregiver if ever im goin to apply while i havent take yet my exam's?

thank's zeth77

clothes cost real money here even at a discount store.

I'm not so sure that you will find a good winter coat for sale in the Philippines

however you may find sweat shirts & they can sure be good to have in a cold climate

i myself like a good hooded sweat shirt for very cold weather & i then put my winter coat over it.

Clothing here in the USA is made to fit us fat Americans i sent my wife a small New Hampshire t-shirt & it was way too big for her. she was able to get it altered in Manila & now it fits fine.

getting clothing altered here will be costly & also be a real pain so i would say buy any cold weather clothing that you can find before you come to live in buffalo.

good luck

piglett

OH also very cute baby

thank's for the info, and about the newyork yeah that's what i know i need to take CGFNS first but dont know what kind of CGFNS i will take, coz im planning to take those exam's for nursing when i get there already in newyork buffalo.

Buffalo NY .......you better buy a good warm jacket , it gets cold & snowy there in the winter.

I have been there at that time of year & i was glad that i was dresses warmly.

please let us know about getting a California license after passing the NCLEX if it works i may have my wife do the same.

thanks

piglett

thank you.i just learned from my gf sister that my gf is suppoes to go to manila for 2 months to train to be a singer and dancer then move to japan.i wanna go to japan.so i might try to find work there and move in with her when she does go.maybe get married there as well depending on how much it cost and if we have the qualifications.to make a long story short.i sent my gf some money twice to move to cebu and to help her dad.but the money is being used to get her passport and paper work and to go to manila.she was scared to tell me the truth bcuz she tought i would say no.we talked about it b4 but months ago.i agreed to it as long as the job isnt degrading and she wasnt made to do something she dont want.(im very protective of her especially when it comes to going places when i cant be with her around other guys)but i become more relaxed and trust her a lot more.just want her to do the same for me.

its been over 3 years and i have gone thru so much with her.yet we still wont seperate after what we both put each other thru and what others say.so i really believe God has brought us together and we r meant to be.if that makes sense.all i know is that i love her to death and will do anything for her.she doesnt take advantage of me and only asked money from me once.but she is so determind to get a job thats y she asked and was so scared i would say no not to move or go.but im all for it and so excited about it.sorry if i got off subject.just excited rite now to know the truth and what she wants to do.

Dude i am going to shoot straight from the hip. I would be very very worried about my girlfriend going to Japan to be any kind of a dancer. i mite just smell a rat.

if there is any way that she can not go then that would be best.

sorry for the bad news

piglett

Hi piglet...

It's good that your wife has time to self-review for the NCLEX during the wait for her visa. That's what my wife did when she was waiting for her visa. She studied a bit every day while she was still in the Philippines, and also after she arrived here. Then, about a month or so before she took the NCLEX, she hit the books hard. She passed the NCLEX on her first try...75 questions in 75 minutes. I'm very proud of her.

She didn't even take a review class. She just self-reviewed. She mainly used "Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN Examination" Edition 4, by Linda Anne Silvestri.

She also used "Exam Cram NCLEX-RN Practice Questions" Second Edition, by Rinehart, Sloan, and Heard.

There was an online site which she used too. I think it was called something like NCLEX3500.

I gave her a copy of "NCLEX-RN for Dummies" but she didn't use it much at all.

thanks for the input. her NCLEX will net be till after christmas but i welcome any & all information i can get ahead of time on the subject

piglett

i do agree its worth it.we want to do that.she said her sisters wedding cost around 1500 to 2000 dollars.i forgot exactly how much.ive only been to 1 wedding and it was a very cheap wedding.nothing special.just a few family and friends.and at a justice of th peace house.i never been to any ther weddings so thats y i am the way i am about the price of it.even her own family now is agreeing to a more cheaper wedding as long as i get there to be with her.but im just living day by day and praying about it.i just wanna get there now and spend some time with her....if u dont mind me asking.where were those pics taken at?i see the signs say romblon...but i dont know where thats at.i looked at quiet a few and i like the area.i dont know if all those people where with you or just some passengers.but i like the surrounding.great pics by the way.and beautiful wife if u dont mind me saying.

most of the pictures were taken in Sibuyan which is the last stop on the boat.

it's in the Romblon province & we also stopped in Romblon on the way there so i figured on getting a few pictures of the place. My church wedding cost about $1600 & my plane ticket was another $1475 from the northeast U.S. I had the same problem you are having I didn't have enough money to go see my sweetie. for a year & a half i just could't pile up enough cash. then i landed a contract for some side work & after working day & night for a month i had the cash & went online to get my ticket. I used http://www.cheapoair.com I also used a little trick & saved about $275 which was just fine with me. if you wait till after 12midnight on monday all of the airlines start to post their deals for the week, you have to act quickly because by Tuesday afternoon they will probably be all gone.

good luck

piglett

thanks every1.i really appreciate the replies.....then about 3500 dollars including plane tickets should be enough.and we dont plan to invite a lot of people.plus she moved to cebu.and she is from bayugan.so basically ill either be going back to bayugan with her family or staying in cebu and just having her sisters and parents come.but we will see when i get there.but for now i have a goal on how much to sav.and that goal should be reachable by the end of this year like i planned.again thanks all

I went with a church wedding & it cost more. however i felt it was worth it in the long run.....my wife will NEVER EVER forget that day that i gave her

http://s927.photobucket.com/albums/ad117/piglett2195/

piglett

Your wife as you said, already signed up for the review classes. So if she has already completed all the requirements of the PRC that will qualify her to sit in the Nursing Board exams this December or November, then she go for it- take the exams and be a Registered Nurse in the Philippines. Of course, her next step is take the NCLEX. Let her check the site of New Hampshire Board of Nursing on what are the requirements for a foreign nurse to have a license in the state. And let her comply with all the requirements.

While waiting for the visa processing and approval, she can utilize her time preparing for the NCLEX. She need not enrol in a review class for the NCLEX .She can either take the NCLEX in the Phils or in the US, whichever she finds convenient and taking into consideration the timetable to apply and be authorized to take the test and the time that she has to leave for the US to be with you as well as the cost.

In my case, I took the Nursing Local Exams in the Phils and have a license before I entered the US. As soon as I arrived here, I applied for the NCLEX. I did not enrol in any review classes nor online classes, just did the self review and passed the NCLEX on my first try.

Am glad that you're a very supportive husband to be the one checking and for all these. Goodluck to you and your wife.

I intend to go straight to the BON in my state in person once my wife passes her nursing exams there in the Philippines. & yes your rite she has time now while waiting for her visa that can be used to do a self study for the NCLEX. I will research what materials she needs & send them to her, i think someone already posted something about this & i'll have to go back & reread it

thanks

piglett

really it all depends on how many people U intend to have at the wedding.

also many people in the area will just show up at the reception...... so figure on lots of food, the more the better. your girl will not tell you but she has ALWAYS dreamed of a church wedding . if there is any way in the world you can give it to her & U really do love her then do it

good luck

piglett

I have posted all of my pictures from my trip on photobucket

http://s927.photobucket.com/albums/ad117/piglett2195/

have a look & tell me what you think

piglett

I'll let everyone in on the trick i use.

the airlines have a small number if discount seats every week

they post them starting at 12midnight eastern time every Monday

i used this little trick a couple of months ago when i flew to manila.

i saved about $275 & i paid with me debit card.( not sure if that is the same as cash)

also i found the best prices on cheapoair.com

good luck

piglett

Don’t for get to add a boat transmission to the shiny new Kubota. Reverse and especially neutral may be handy ya?

i am not sure that the smaller boats use a trans.

i will have to ask my farther-inlaw if one is needed on that size boat. but yes it would be nice to have.

piglett

I can't know your situation and people well enough to answer piglett.

But I've commercial fished - traveling over a thousand miles by boat down the Tanana and Yukon out to the Bering sea and catching up to a hundred salmon in a drift there. I looked into commercial fishing in the Philippines too and know enough to judge for myself how best to approach it for either my father in law or myself there.

As with any business, maximizing profit requires minimizing cost per unit product landed. In a large number of situations what the fishermen are doing with the tiny boats and no motor at all, let alone a small one, is the most rational business decision. Adding more footage or horsepower increases capital costs, operating expenses, and maintenance in an amount that does not bring sufficient increases in catch to justify the expense. I worked a little 20 foot boat with two twenty-five horse mercs on it because anything bigger than that was wasted money. If we went bigger we would have to be seining instead of drift gillnet and that would have required an extremely expensive entry permit instead of the $10 K for a drift gillnet.

So to answer your question with the information you need to make the decision, ask what the $5k earns you in an alternative investment. Just for easy numbers lets say you can make 5% in the market, so the return per year on $5K us $250 a year, and you don't have to do a thing other than invest the money and there is almost zero risk of losing the capital.

If you spend $5K on the boat and motor, it also means more gas, more oil, more maintenance, possibly more hands, etc. You have to go observe boats with the bigger motors and hulls to see how much more they are catching and then calculate the new expected profit per year along with the larger loss if the ship goes down. (Commercial fishing is the most dangerous common occupation there is.)

Is it better than just parking money in an essentially riskless investment with a small return?

The answer might be yes, but it might be no. In Iligan I would not buy a bigger boat. I wouldn't buy a boat at all, in fact. I would avoid fishing like the plague. But on Palawan I could see the merit in a power motor and a ship with more hands over the typical village one or two-man outrigger. Getting out past the paddlers in that case will indeed bring enough fish to justify it and you don't have to jump up to a monster ship in order to reach fishing banks out in the boonies. A modest addition to capital will do the job just fine.

My farther-inlaw has been fishing for more than 30 years , it's all he knows.

he was forced to quit school as a young man because his farther got sick & wasn't unable to work. So he is the only child from that family that didn't have the chance to go to collage.

he has high blood pressure & mite drop dead in 5 or 10 years for all i know.

At one point this man was the captain of a HUGE fishing boat i'm talking 100 feet long +/-.

this is how he put his oldest 3 children through collage. the boat was damaged in a typhoon about 4 years ago & the owner was too cheep to want to pay to have it fixed. I know the boat was making good money because my farther-inlaw got paid on percentage after the boat fuel.

so here is the deal i am not really looking at "investing" money into a fishing boat.

i know what ever is spent on the boat is gone forever, never to be seen again.

Also i am not looking at buying some huge ship that sucks up fuel like a pig.

i am looking at a somewhat larger boat powered by something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Kubota-2-cyl-Engine-great-generators-APU-/270600106567?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f0105f247#ht_2282wt_930

this little baby only uses 2 to 3 tenths of a gallon per hour.

I think once my wife gets here i will talk to her farther & get his input.

if he thinks it will work & he can catch more fish then i may just go for it.

I figured on setting aside between 5% & 10% of my wifes wages & use that money not to give to her family but to invest it into something like a slightly larger fishing boat or a ice maker or maybe a coke cooler for her moms store that she owns.

thanks for everyones input

piglett

My wife is already signed up for a review class that starts on Aug 9TH

this will put her in a position so she can take the nursing boards in Dec.

the review class is only p13,900 & we have already put a deposit down on it so why not just get that out of the way. If there is a delay in her getting her CR-1 visa atleast she will be able to earn money & support herself.

I don't expect her to be here with me until next July. (I just today received her G-325a & the affidavits from our sponsors) so why not use the remaining time there to study for the NCLEX?

at that time if she feels really good about taking the NCLEX she can take it there. If she still feels that she needs more time to prepare then I guess she waits until after she arrives here.

I am the kind of guy who likes to get things out of the way so i really want her to have the NCLEX over & done with if she can, but i will try to read between the lines when talking to her about it so that i mite understand how she really feels about it.

thanks

piglett

i think i'll try to teach them to fish instead of handing them fish.

if at that point they wish to sit on their @sses then that's on them.

piglett

The NCLEX costs $200 in the States. In the Philippines, it costs $350...plus the cost of the trip to Manila

she lives in Manila so the cost for the trip is p14 for the jeepney.

i will talk to her about how she feels about taking the NCLEX there.

It's just that i will never forgive myself if she doesn't take the test there & then she has to work as some kind of nurses aid for years here because of problems in getting her certified here as an RN.

I would really rather just have her take the test even if she has to retake it a second time & the when it's done there is just 1 less thing that could cause her problems in becoming an RN here.

thanks

piglett

Piglett, We can all offer suggestions but why don't you just let your wife decides what she wants to do as far as testing. You want her to be prepared for the test and you want her to be in an environment that doesn't add stress. Tallcoolone's wife is an exception. The NCLEX pass rate in the Philippines is hovering or below 40% Stack things in your wife's favor. Even if you have to shell out a few extra bucks here and there you will quickly recoup it when she starts working. Look at it as an investment

you make a good point , thank you

also she mite be able to take a practice test & see how she does before taking the NCLEX there.

Not sure why. It has a very happy ending. We've had two wonderful years now because of it, with a beautiful son and not one problem with the family since the law was laid down.

I've learned from reading a number of books that the main technique they use is called the "double bind" - they put you in a situation where you lose no matter what you do: if you don't give them the money then you are made to feel bad. But if you give them the money, you are a victim of extortion and that feels bad even though you gave them money to pay the bill. You'll be miserable if you allow them to continually engineer double-binds.

One way to defeat the double-bind is to shine the white heat of attention on their motives. With the electric bill for example, they'll say they were "too shy" to bring it to your attention until the electricity was about to be shut off. Then it's an "emergency", so it's OK to spring it on you.

Call them on it. For a whole month they hid that bill from you, knowing full well that they had no plan for paying it, and with instead the intentions of creating an "emergency" to extort it from you. So it is an outright lie to say they were "too shy" to ask for the money. They proven it's a lie because in the end they asked you for it like they intended all along. They just need some plausible deniability, and the emergency they created is how they attempt to cover their tracks.

It's cruelty, not "shyness". This is a hard thing to say frankly to your wife about her family. But if you don't then you'll face the same thing over and over and over again. This is an elementary technique that children use on their parents, and parents who allow it end up with problem children.

In the long run people have no respect for themselves nor dignity because they know exactly what they are doing more than anyone else. Our family has that self-respect and dignity now because they're working.

Do you feel it's a good idea for my wife & I to buy her farther a new fishing boat once my wife gets here & is working as an RN ? The boat her dad has now is tiny & it's engine is only about 4hp. i figured a boat in the $5000 range with a small 3 cylinder kabota diesel engine.

good plan?, bad plan? what say you?

piglett

woops double post

Only if you let the family, run you over like a steamroller?

it's a fine line between being a cheep @ss & never sending a dime to your wife family & getting taken advantage of when they start to "invent" emergency's every couple of months.

piglett

I'm not sure if this will help but my former housemate didn't take the the Philippine board, she applied to take the NCLEX exam here in New York, she passed and now she's a nurse working in one of the hospitals in Queens. She did a self-review, went to the library for additional books and resources and took the online review tests.

I hope everything works out just fine for both of you. Best of luck!

I would really like her to take & pass the nursing boards there 1st , just in case.

then with the rest of the time that she will be waiting maybe study & take the NCLEX

thanks

piglett

The other suggestion I have is to have your wife search some of the Filipino nursing websites. She can probably find good information on studying and licensure.

I wish your wife the best of luck

I will also have her check that out herself.

the way i look at it is like this

she has a year so why not put it to good use & get the NCLEX out of the way???

or she can just keep working for $182 a month 6 days a week 12 hours a day.

i think it's a no brainer unless there is some reason that she should not take the NCLEX over there & i have yet to come up with that yet.

thanks

piglett

i will insert a post that i received on while on another forum (it's more of an advice on dating foreign ladies type forum) it sort of ends where this site picks up.

anyhow here is the post from a member named Howard who parried a nurse from the "PI"

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I just wanna pipe in on the Nursing License. No matter what else you do you need to make sure that she is licensed in the Philipines BEFORE she gets here. My wife got her batchelors, but didn't want to talke the test in Manila, because she would have had to stay a while longer to get in on the next exam. I WISH I could do it all over again! Between her school delaying transcripts, always needing some new fee in addition to the ones we have already paid and CGFNS fees and requirements, I am now resigned to the fact that she will never - as in ever - get her nursing license. This has caused us no end of hardship financially and emotionally. Finally, recently, we just agreed to let it go for the sake of our marriage and move on.

If no one here learns anything else from my triumphs and failures - mostly triumphs - learn this one lesson:

If your honey is a nursing student and she intends to work in the US as a nurse at any point in the future, GET HER LICENSED IN THE PHILIPPINES!!! There are still a few hoops to jump through to get her licensed here, but they are WAY less painful and expensive

Good Luck Man!

Keep the Faith!

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So knowing that the risk exists that my wife mite never be able to work as a nurse here if i don't do this rite i think i'll contact the new hampshire BON & just ask them.

the web site almost looks to say different things things in different areas ???? strange

In fact they are little more than an hour away so i think i'll just go see them the next time i get a rainy day here & have a little face to face time with them.

that way i know for sure what they really want/need from my wife do she can be an RN here.

however i wish to thank everyone that offered advice on this subject.

piglett