silvana.toma

What about scholarships? Does anyone know any good websites or any info regarding where could you look for scholarships?

My tuition is 40k, so i would not mind having a little extra help.

Tx!

Tx guys, i really apreciate your input...like always

We will try to pay bi-weekly, and also make one extra payment a year, the fastest we pay for this the better. You are right when you say we have to love the home and stay in it for a while, because i'm sure this house will drop in price even more this year; the previous owners bought it for 300k and now the home is worth around what we payed for it-180k, so no wonder they wanted to get rid of it.

I will put a picture up as soon as i figure out how..i am not really "21st century tech friendly" yet

Ok...SO we finally closed on the home last friday. We are very excited to start our new life in this house even if we haven't moved yet, we would like to paint first, since we already payd our rent this month might as well use it, right?

Our short sale took 3 months, so i am very pleased even if there were many things that didn't go the way they should have been, but looking at the big picture it's worth it!

The house needs a lot of paint as we have purple and hot pink and all sorts of interesting colors in it, but unfortunately hiring people to paint is very expensive and i wish we could do it, but this house has high ceilings, and a lot of crown molding and i am afraid it will look bad if we do it ourselves since we have never done this before...

Yesterday we got a phone call from a guy who was standing in front of our house aparently to give us a deck estimate(????)..we were 30 min away when he called, so we had to turn around and go back to the house as we didn't know what is going on.

SOO..this guy came to give us a estimate on a deck(but we never called anyone for a deck)so my hubby asked him if they do windows(at least we did not turn around for nothing) as we also need to replace windows so he started his almost 2 hrs pitch for a super expensive window..me and my husband we kept on interupting him and teling him we are in a hurry and not looking to replace the 2 windows in the house with something very expensive as it makes no sense especially because all the other windows in the house are not high quality windows...but he kept going on and on..it was almost like a time share presentation..it was horrible! 2 hours of my life i will never get back! He was a good sales person but he just didn't know when to stop, i almost felt like telling him to get out...The 2 windows by the way were 2k!!

Ok...so i am not sure what happened here, someone must have gave our information away, because we never called anyone for a deck, and the only people who were supose to come to the house are lowe's. This is very shady thing to do, pretend we called and set an appintment and then try to sell me a window for 2 hours...

Anyway...we did got the house, and hopefully we will live in it till we are very very old. our realtor told us if we pay twice a month on our mortgage(half and half) that will reduce our 30 years to 23 years. Is that true?

Owning a home is expensive but renting is not a soultion either, with more and more people renting- rent prices went up, and what you do is basically are throwing money out the window. Our rent got 810/month for one bdr apartment, so i am happy we got the house.

All in all it buying a home is a pain, looking for homes was the most fun, but everything else was just not fun at all. I'm sure every experience is different, some people are lucky and they get the best realtor, and that is also improving your buying experience.

I wish you all that are still looking for a home or thinking about buying a home good luck, and keep your eyes open at all times! Happy shopping!

Really!?!?

How does committing Immigration Fraud and helping him commit Immigration Fraud help him?

He can divorce now and remove conditions without her, not waiting 2 years for anything.

If he waits 2 years and USCIS gets wind that that are living apart it will sink his ROC...

I'm not sure he can get the green card if they get divorced. And IF he tells the truth, that means he just waisted all this time getting adjusted here in US for nothing. I think you are right, it wouldn't be a good ideea to stay together just for the green card, but i just feel sorry for him...it's not his fault and he should not loose the right to be here after what he went through...

You canb not just play with people's feelings, and lives like that, the guy made a huge comitment to leave his country, his friends, leave everything behind...get used to a new life, in a new country, just so that he can go back home...that sucks!

Few ideeas....

1.Volunteer somewhere..this way you could land a job, and make friends all at the same time

2.Buy a dog, or rescue one(in case you don't have one) not only dogs are adorable and give you great companionship, but you can also meet people while walking the dog...and some of those people might end up beeing your next BFF's...you never know.

3.Another great way to make friends is by making friends with your husband's friends, or work coleagues...

It's not easy to make friends especially that everyone is someone else's bff, and it takes time to get to know someone, then you get the culture differences, so all in all it's not a walk in the park making friends. It also depends on the type of person you are: if you are "very" sociable, "so and so" sociable, or "not so much" sociable...for some people it's easier than for others to make friends...

It's a slow process but you will get there, it just takes a little bit of time...

To tell you the truth pinching pennies helped us save a lot of money...

Sorry but when you get sc##ewd by "profesionals" no wonder you don't know jack. No wonder you get confused. It's a very frustrating process, and with our experience i don't believe or trust anything i hear.

We showed them our bank account, we showed them that if we wanted to we could put 50%, but i guess the mortgage insurance doesn't care how much money you have..it's probably standard to charge you for it anyway.

We started the loan process in feb 18, the underwritter took 5 weeks, and the week before we were suposed to close we are told usda takes at least a month to aprove. I'm just saying ...i know our mrtg people haven't worked with usda, but when you know you have a time line should't they have checked to see how long does it usually take these days to get aproved by the gov?

We already asked for an extension-and we got it, now we will have to ask for another extension for at least another 30 days?? Our lease expires this month, and hopefully they will let us stay another month.

If we loose this house, maybe it's a sign that we should stay here until we save the rest of the money and then buy the home cash...

I think i got confused with the word private. We were told NO MI, so i assumed there is no mi at all. I am a first time homebuyer, i didn;t know the difference between private and mi. first time we talked to a realtor we were told the usda loans are great they save us $100 monthly( for 6 years )as we don't have to pay MI...now we will be paying $30 over 3o years in MI.

I guess my biggest frustration is the fact that buying a home requires so much to take in, there is a lot of new stuff that you need to get familiar with in a short time, and then you have the experience with a really bad realtor, then with a so and so realtor who didn't really spent much time educating you...and that's just a perfect receipe for disaster. 80%of what i know is from the internet, and sometimes that can also be misleading.

When i asked our loan officer about the MI he said he doesn't really know much about this type of loan to answer most of my questions...

We were suposed to close on our short sale house next week, but we got a phone call from our bank saying that the gov(it's a gov loan VHDA) will take at least another 30 days for aproval.

We started this loan process on feb 18, got a radified contract on april 1st, so if they will take another 30 days that means the loan process took 4 months....isn't that a long time? Just the underwritter took 5 weeks.

Also our bank wants us to put carpet downstairs(around 3k-huge rooms)and paint, before we close, but i told them i am not putting anything until i know i am aproved from everybody.

I can not believe that we are not closing because of us, the short sale part was perfect so far, they were on their game,it's us who can not deliver as we established.

Maybe i'm ignorant in this matter, but our loan officer said he never done this type of loan, so he didn;t know it will take 30 days or more, and i am wondering ...ok so he never had to deal with this type of loan, but he knew we are doing this loan, should't he get a bit informed on how long does this take, especially that we had a time frame we had to be in? we had our closing date since april 1st.

And when you think of all the billions US put in this country...shame...well...maybe now we understand that no matter what we do we we always be the infidels aka-their nr.1 enemy!

Yay, Silvana, almost there!Congrats!

Tx iuliana, tx for all the support and help!I'll send you some pics once we get the house... I wish we would have the nice garden, but we can plant and make it our own in time, right?

Whilie I can definitely see why there was no option but to kill the guy after he was portrayed as number 1 terrorist in the world, the whole notion of making terror suspects this notorious seems to create more problems than it solves. I am not glad that he is dead, I would rather he had been put on trial for his actions even while I know that was never going to happen. I don't think this 'solves' any problems and nor do I see any instant troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in the wake of this; it's not as if the terrorists are going to suddenly decide that as a result of this death their cause was lame and they'll all shuffle off home and be 'good' people now. Indeed, the opposite is probably true, it will fuel the extremists who use the US as an excuse for their home grown problems and poverty. So, no, I am not rejoicing that he is dead.

I'm glad i'm not the only one thinking about the side effects of this action. While i am happy for his death(never thought i'd ever say something so horrible)and i'm sure a lot of 9/11 families got some type of closure with his death, we have to be prepared for what's going to happen next.

He has been in pakistan for 6 years and no gov officials from pakistan knew about it? The US funded this country with billions of dollars...and for what?? This is a clear example that US should not trust anyone, and maybe the leaders of this country should turn around and start for once stop donating money left and right to countries that don;t even appreciate it, and start focusing more on it's own peole who so desperatly need the help.

Last time not too long ago, 9 people died because of the quran burning, 9 UN people died!!.No matter WHAT WE DO we are "the infidels", and if they blow us up they get 40 virgins in heaven. OK. ENOUGH SAID! Now you understand why i am scared for what's going to happen??

Hi all. USCIS received our AOS package on 4/4. Monday will mark 4 weeks since we have sent out package. We have received the NOA on 4/18. I'm just curious as to whether or not it usually takes this long. According to the website, our AOS has not been touched since 4/9. Should I make a call somewhere, or am I just being impatient as I tend to do?

Some people waited 5 months for biometrics, so 4 weeks is not too bad. I waited 2 months later, then a month later i got my interview letter. So just because your biometrics arrives late doen's mean your interview is pushed back, it can come right after biometrics is done.

Good luck in your journey!

Since she has put you through this nightmare, at least she should stay with you until you get your permanent green card. It's not your fault she to got with another guy.

It almost seems like marriage is a joke these days.

We are suppoosed to close on our house next week, and i was friking out because i thought they will charge us a per diem fee in case for some reason we can not close.

They just called us and told us to relax, the bank extended us with one week, and if it goes beyond that than not to worry about the 100/day charge

Aparently they told us short sales are not how they used to be(at least here in va)the banks are more flexible and they are willing to work with you more...

We will be closing soon, and our time frame will be around 3, 4 months for a short sale, not bad at all.

I will never be able to thank you guys enough for all the help you have given me, i have to say without you i would have been lost, not just with the house, but with the green card journey as well.

You saved me money, gave me great advice, you were there for me, TAHNK YOU!

Sometimes, if you have multiple insurance policies with the same company they will give you a reduced rate. We have State Farm for our life, auto and home insurance. If we had just the home insurance with them, it would have been $900 a month. But because we have multiple policies with them, it's now $500.

Hope this helps!

If not...

I think it also depends on many factors when they calculate your insurance. For example some friends here at vj told me that all state charged them 500, and when we called they wanted 1200. I know one of the problems that we only have a fire station like 7 miles from where we live and aparently that's a negative point for us. Also the house is a 3,300 sq foot home, so i'm sure that's not helping either. But hey 660..it's not that bad, it could be a worse.

thanks for your input!

You know deina....it's one thing to express your feelings towards an ideea, or belief, and it's very different to imply something so dirty, especially since you don't even know me.

And for the record, just so you can sleep tonight, no, i didn't marry my husband because he is a us citizen. I just happen to believe and like the choices i made, at least it's better than beeing here and bit##ing and moaning about it.

Ok...so all state said $1200, so i guess we will stick with liberty only 660.

Geico told us they do not insure properties themselves. we figured since we already have car with them house would be a bundle deal, but they gave us rates for travellers and it is in fact travellers that is responsible not geico. they sort of work together i was told.

Yes you are right, it was something along those lines what we were told by geico.

No, it's not. If you are talking about the I-693 form that the doctor has to fill out then no, they dont do x-rays.

Finally, we got the pink. It's been a long time going through the process. Now we both feel very relieved and happy.

She'll be getting the visa on May 16th.

I want to thank everyone on the VisaJourney.com forum for all the support here.

Have a fantastic day!

Michael and Kha

Awsome! congrats!!

Wow...why are you here then? I just don't get it. If you are so dissapointed with this country and excercise patriotism so much... what are you doing here?

is america perfect? Hec no, there is some dark stuff here too, there is dark stuff in every corner of the world.

wow...again....when was the last time you were home? do you have anyone home? how are they doing with all the cuts and unemployment? To say the drunken guy who used his power to get everbody in their mother in the politics(daughter-who can't even speak romanian language yet she represents romania at the EU, then the minister of tourism-his mistress, and i can go on and on)then he stole money to buy villas in monte carlo,buy her other daughter a million dollar condo, got elected because he promised the teachers a 50% raise that obviously never happened, got elected the second time because he stole votes. Last year 90% of the people went on strike, and few comit suicide because of the new cuts 25% of $200 salaries.

Seriously Happy RS, you have to review your history...because of people like you we are in the big doo doo.

90% of people in romania want our current president dead, and you are telling me he is the best president romania ever had? I don;t want to call you ignorand because i'm sure you are not, but you have to get informed before you make such coments. And i said 90% because the rest of 10% are rich people who got rich because of the current president.

And one last thing, people if you hate beeing here, nobody is holding you here by force...i'm just saying...

Correction:ignorant, with a t, not a d

Oh...and i think i know why they were fighting what luggage goes where...i think it's because they had green onion(praz)in their luggage and they didn't want anyone to steal it

ok romanian people will get the joke(unless they are too upset with me), it's from an old romanian movie.

And before i get more country loving people to rail up against me let me make a disclosure. I love my country, i love sarmale, and the sights. BUt love has nothing to do with beeing realistic about current events.

Just an example: Young people have no future in romania, talk to your friends and ask them how they like their $300 salaries, when a pair of jeans starts at $50. You can be unrealistic all you want, but you know i am right.

It's so easy for us to be patriots, because it's not us who have to deal with the shortcomings of the country.

That's just the financial and political part, but then we also have the fact that some of us are not raised well, like for example when i go home, and i have a straight flight from NY to RO, God save me, everyone is squeezing in, like the plane will leave without them or they get a prize for geting in their seat first. Then they fight about the luggage, what luggage suposed to go where, last time our flight had a 30 min delay because my fellow citizens had to fight about where their luggage went. And i don't want to talk about garbage they left on the floor, etc etc, or when they go camping all the garbage remains there...everywhere...

And when you think you have tough times here, just think about all the people in romania who would do anything to have your problems.

Ok...so for the country loving people...please let;s just agree to disagree. we don;t need to agree on everything.

It's amazing how Americans can take pride in their country despite all the shortcomings (and, boy, they are many!)... while Romanians are the first ones to throw the stone and point the finger to their own country and nation. Anyway, let's keep politics and personal opinions out of this (I am one of those who voted for the "drunken" sailor or whatever --the best president we've had so far in my opinion, so I'm not gonna discuss this further).

Back to the topic of this thread... I was never one of those who could not wait to leave their countries to get to the "land of promise" bla bla... I was never in love with America, American dream etc... I had my prejudices coming here, I had my concerns... Do I love it here? No. Do I miss home? Absolutely! I was surely not impressed to see more homeless people than I had ever seen, drug addicts...

There are good and bad parts about moving here...I suppose you all experience this. We just have to make the best of it.

Wow...why are you here then? I just don't get it. If you are so dissapointed with this country and excercise patriotism so much... what are you doing here?

is america perfect? Hec no, there is some dark stuff here too, there is dark stuff in every corner of the world.

wow...again....when was the last time you were home? do you have anyone home? how are they doing with all the cuts and unemployment? To say the drunken guy who used his power to get everbody in their mother in the politics(daughter-who can't even speak romanian language yet she represents romania at the EU, then the minister of tourism-his mistress, and i can go on and on)then he stole money to buy villas in monte carlo,buy her other daughter a million dollar condo, got elected because he promised the teachers a 50% raise that obviously never happened, got elected the second time because he stole votes. Last year 90% of the people went on strike, and few comit suicide because of the new cuts 25% of $200 salaries.

Seriously Happy RS, you have to review your history...because of people like you we are in the big doo doo.

90% of people in romania want our current president dead, and you are telling me he is the best president romania ever had? I don;t want to call you ignorand because i'm sure you are not, but you have to get informed before you make such coments. And i said 90% because the rest of 10% are rich people who got rich because of the current president.

And one last thing, people if you hate beeing here, nobody is holding you here by force...i'm just saying...

Ok...we are checking all state now.I'll let you know.

TX!