silvana.toma

So i called the USCIS number to hear the latest news about my case, and the robot told me my EAD and AP are in production, and i should expect to recieve it in about 30 days...

Thank God i'm getting my EAD now because my husband can not file his taxes if i don't have a SSN, and the taxes are due in feb 15 i think. He will have to ask for an extension i guess or something.

I filed in nov 8th, so i have no complaints as it seems to move preety fast compaared to other cases. WEll, that's one good thing about living in Virginia

Thank you all again for helping me to do this, i would have never imagined i can do this without the help of a lawyer, so i am so happy and thankfull i have found this website!!

Just a small update...yesterday we went to talk to a mortgage consultant, and it took about an hour and a half. She was very knowledgeble, and very helpfull. I have no doubt she can represent us and do a great job. She told us the inbterest would be 4.8, and as far as i know that's about avarage. She said we can do VADH i think it was? where we don't have to make a downpayment...and for me, coming from a country that goes by "what's in your hand is not a lie", i would like to have my savings in the bank instead of giving it to them as a lump sum.

NOW...again...the same problem, i looked on realtor, and found a house i liked, called RE-MAX, obviously they said "someone will contact you....then i got a phone call an hour later just so that lady can tell me: what house are you interested in? i told her the home...then she was like:ok, let me look it up some more and i will call you back...well..guess what?she didn't!

What's funny is that RE-MAX and Joey Schlager are BIG, HUGE real estate bussineses and you would expect the best customer service...obviously they are big for a reason, right? No, not my experience, i just simply guess they don't need my bussines, and that's ok because i will take my bussines someplace else where they need it. AND no matter what realtor comes here and tries to fight me on this one, i would have to say to you sorry, you are wrong!!. WE have been contacted several realtors, i also did what you guys told me -tell them you are pre-aproved, and still we get the"i don't give a flying squerrel..."

When i was working at art auctions on cruis ships...the FIRST MOST IMPORTANT thing in sales that i learned was:NEVER JUDGE PEOPLE by the way they look, talk, or act...cause those could be your millionaires dressed like the hillbillies, that talk and act like them too.

I have been working in the ultimate customer service environment and i have to say- poor customer service it's like cancer for your bussines BECAUSE there is no bigger better marketing than "word to mouth"...and once you get that wrong...well..you're kind of ...you know the word ..it's starts with F..or S

For the longest time i thought America has the best customer service in the world, well...in light of recent events(and not just with realtors), i have come to the conclusion that maybe that is just a mith?

That is a lot of houses....and a lot of profit...

NOW IMAGINE YOU NEVER SOLD 1 HOUSE BUT JUST RENTED THEM OUT!!!!

You'd have 200 houses collecting at least $500 a month....You'd make $100,000 a month in rental income.

My goal is to have 10 rentals by the time I am 35....

The problem that i see with this is it can take a while to sell, as not a lot of people are dying to buy homes right now. That and also you would have to work full time into this to be able to take your time and look for homes and etc...but i have to say it's a great ideea. I wanted to do that in romania buy a ###### load of condos and then rent them out...but then in a year or so all housing market just sky roceked so from $10,000 a condo got up to 60,000 euro so that kind of ended that...

It is a great way to make money, i wish i would be smart like that and start my own bussines.

I used to buy and sell property and flip houses. Probably bought and sold close to 200 houses.

Find someone who is desperate to sell, or needs to sell. Pick the house up dirt cheap, if it needs repairs then make them while living in the house. Keep realator out of the loop, closing cost on cheap house will run about $1,000.

Live in the house a couple of years, Fix it up sell it then you made a $20,000 to $60,000 profit after expense, Find another house and do it again.

After a few houses you have a nice sum of cash, and then you can start paying cash for distressed houses from banks or individuals, and then you will start making big bank.

Lots of people who want to make money off you in the real estate game, and you can get rid of most of them: Realators, Home Inspectors, Home Appraisers, Etc...

yeah, but where do i find these houses??

It doesn't surprise me

Christians scare me and the more I know of them , there more there is to be afraid

They embrace the philosophy of 'Those who are not with me are against me', hence

shunning, keeping pregnant teenagers in the cellar or mental institutions, burning people at the stake, Spanish inquisition, North Ireland butchery of each other etc

Anyone who has looked at christian behaviors down through the ages will not be shocked and this is totally consistent and just at the extreme end of their spectrum at the moment

They even get all dark eyed about Ouija boards and when they get like that, anything can happen. I had a chief accountant like that and he was always getting dark about any signs of the devil - such as Ouija boards and magician shows

They are all smiles and daffodils until they get a sniff of the devil - and then look out !

WEll, don't you think it's normal to be like that? I mean if you are a christian it's only normal to reject any situation, or people, or shows eyc that have in some way connections to evil.

Now what that lady did was obviously stupid, and you can not judge christians or the whole christianity because of a crazy lady.

Your quote refers more to islam then refers to christianity. I noticed there is a huge amount of people judginf other people's religion when in fact their knowledge in the matter is little to none.

I am a christian and i love harry potter, but obviously i know to make the difference between fiction and what might be considered a sin...like killing my dog.

SO i went back to the library(it's like 2 min away from me,and it's walking distace too)to get the GED book...but obviously they don't have it, so i ordered it. The librarian ordered few of them ..there are meny versions..and she looked at me and she asked :should i ordered GED for Dummies as well? behind me was an older lady and she smiled ..i smiled ...the librarian smiled...ok what the heck..i got to start from somewhere, right?

BUT meanwhile i started studying the ACT test book(is it good?), it's not as bad as the GRE book, but it's not super easy either. I need a book to teach me again the basics, as obviously i forgot most of it, and unfortunately the only math i used lately is the calculator from my iphone to calculate the house down payment and stuff like that...

Of course now that i want to go to nursing school everywhere i go i see women in scrubs. As i was walking my dog i realised my neighbour is a nurse or going to nursing school as she was wearing scrubs...and i never even seen her before(we live here for 8 months). I was dying to ask her questions, but i'm a bit shy, and i don't want to look like the crazy neighbour... not that i am not crazy ..but that's just for me and you to know..

sweet!!

I had a lot of Philipino colleagues while working on cruis ships...and if there is one thing that i can say about them is that they are very hard working people, and are an example for most countries on how we shoud treat our families.

SO i called yesterday this j sargeant reynolds school, and i have to say my feeling was that they are as helpful as a nail in the head. They passed me around like a ping pong ball. when i got to speak with the advisor i asked her a question that wasn't her expertise and she just connected me straight with the admisions, instead of asking if i have any questions that she can help me with before she transferes me to admisions. They all seemed that they were in a rush. Also when i asked the admisions lady if there is a book or something that i can prep myself since i haven't touched a book in 11 years...and she was like:"no, there is not,it's just a placemrnt test to see where you stand, and there is no fail, but if you don't score a x amount of points you have to take some type of x classes" So how am i to even do this if i haven't touched a book in sooooo many years...how can you say: no, there is no book???? what the fun??

I was so pissed off yesterday that i might look into VCU or some other collage....because this is b.s. I thought they will be helpfull because IT COST MONEY TO DO IT, IT'S NOT FREE!!!

So i went with my hubby to the library to get a book to start studying for the placement test. My hubby got the the GRE test, and yesterday all day i smashed my head in the wall, it was that hard. so when my hubby came home i told him it's too hard for me, and he said if i can't even do the GRE then there is no pointy even thinking about nursing. Thank god my neighbour(who is in grad school now) came and she told me i need the GED book and not the GRE, as that is for grad school.

what can i say...it's an amazing start...

I'm wondering if there is school every day when you are in nursing school? My hubby not even to think about geting a job, as this school is very time consuming.

I was doing some research online and some people are saying it's good to actually get a buyer's realtor, just to make sure he has your best interests at heart. We are meeting with the bank people on friday to get a pre-aproval..by the way...does anyone know how long it takes to get pre-aproved? I listen to your advice and we are geting pre-aproved first and then look for a realtor.

It's true, and i am very aware of housing costs that vary depending on the state. We originally wanted to move to michigan where the housing market was amazing...also florida has amazing deals too...

I will let you know of our process, and i hope no bumpy rides..

Thanks again guys for all the info, and tips. I really appreciate them.

I am scheduled to arrive Domodedovo Jan 28!

Chances are you will be safe...i'm pretty sure they doubled and quadroupled the airport security...and chances are for another attack in such short time it's not very likely...

be safe!

The job market differs from city to city, state to state!! It is NOT so good for new grads in the DC area, and many others in the USA. Peoples 401K have crashed, so the nurses that were retiring---have had to keep working. As well management has been thinned--so those nurses go back to working the floors!! One will eventually find work, just have to be patient. Just in yrs past, new grads would have multiple job offers, usually not the case now. Before the New grad was in the drivers seat, they could pick, now one has to take what they can find!

Yes one gets a fair amount of "hospital" time, it varies from program to program!! Ask questions and do, do, do!! But still, you will learn more once you graduate then you ever did in school!. I have found staff (which turn into ur friends//colleagues) are for the most part eager to help you out!! The people I work are great!!

I ment to ask you this for the longest time..are you from Virginia? I see falls church, va on your profile...so i was wondering if you are from around...everyone is from other state, you would be the only one i talked to from Virginia!!!!!

I live close to Richmond VA, and i am so lucky to have a school so close. IF you are from VA, maybe you know the school it's called J Sargeant Reynolds aparently they are in every city in Virginia...

I'm so happy for you! Now you can sit back, relax and enjoy this beautiful ride that life gives us. Good job!!

I should also mention that during school, you will have clinicals at the hospital and other clinics! As well, most offer what is called a preceptorship during ur last year, quite often last semester where you go by yourself and work one on with a RN!! Very valuable training as you get far more hands on training there, then one would during a normal clinical! As well the staff get to see you, and if they like ya, it may end up with a job offer, thats how i got my job!! Don't worry, you will get the training. 1 doesnt come out of nursing school knowing everything, just enough not to kill anyone!! Normal to be worried, but it all works out!!

You are so funny! "1 doesnt come out of nursing school knowing everything, just enough not to kill anyone!!"..

So i guess it was easy to find a job after you finished school...that's awsome. I am going to school tomorrow to see what i need in order to start this program. Also i don't have a green card yet so i will also have to wait for that before i do anything. But at least i want to start studying for my placement exam instead of waisting precious time. Did you do a lot of training in the hospitals while in school?

I am so excited to do this mostly because I don't know what i'm getting myself into, and hopefully by the time i will realise it will be too late

Thanks again for sharing your experiences with me. It sure helps me a lot!

I graduated in 2009 and have worked on a cardiac unit since then! AND I'm much older than you,lol You would be suprised on how many older people are back in school. We had people in their 50's!!

I think (been awhile now) that one required a basic chemisty and bio---wasn't that bad!! I found I was a much better student now then in high school! I was a "c" student then, but finished as an "A" student in nursing

Best to ask EACH schools advisor on what is required as they all differ. And ask them who they recommend to evaluate your high school or other classes. My school gave me a list of acceptable companies!

Sure Nursing school was difficult and yep, a lot of people flunked or quit!! BUT I found those that struggled did NOT do all the reading!!

Best of luck,

Thanks for sharing the info with me.

As much as i want to fool myself ...deep down i know it's going to be hard, it's a good paying profession, it's normal to be competitive and hard..otherwise everyone would do it. But no matter how hard it is there is only one factor that can either make you or break you in this school...and that is how bad do you want to do this?

SO when you are done with school...do you start some sort of trainning? Or you can get a job right away? Were you nervous to start working? I know you trainned but still...

i am afraid of emergency rooms..i am not as big fan of people coming in without legs cause someone just chopped them off and stuff like that...i could probably get used to it...but i don't really want to.

i will go to school next week and see what they tell me. Were your grades back home 1-10 or A-F ?

again...thank you so much!

I am also a november filer(nov. 8th). And i have waited and waited and i decided to call uscis. they told me about the RFE, then i called again ...they told me i will recieve my biometrics. I have already completed my biometrics last week. So now when i call uscis, there is a robot that tells me the latest update on my case. There is also the option to speak to a person, but lately the robot has been good enough for me.

SO if you don't see your case status call the number below where it tells you "your case can not be found" and press the number 2 i think..where it says "to get the latest update on your case or to report a problem press 2 or something like that.

They made a mistake with my address so it's a good thing i called otherwise i would have never known that my RFE letter was undeliverable...(because they messed up my apt number )

Good luck november filers, good luck all filers...!!!!!

Same with me, i applied on the 8th of nov. and i still can not see my case status. But if you call the number below where it tells you your case can not be found they will be able to tell you what's up with your case. Before you even speak to anyone there is a robot that tells you the latest info on your case.

They had my address wrong(their mistake) so if i would never called i would have never known. So if it's been more than 30 days since you applied i would call uscis. It can't hurt.

good luck!

Many Nursing programs make you take an exam--there are many different formats, the one my school used was called "TEAS" Consisted of math, science and English questions. It got scored. As wel one wants to do well on your pre-req courses as most nursing programs are competitive to get in. There are some programs where it isn't competitive, but then it costs big $$$$$$$$

I asume you finished nursing school, or you are still in school? How was/is it? It's been 11 years since i finished high school, as my journalism doesn't count since we didn't do any math or science courses. So i have to say i am soooo nervous starting this. Sometimes i feel it's easy, but sometimes i feel it's going to be really hard, especially that i have to take math and bio and chemistry from scratch as i don't remember much.

I have to say it might be harder to start at my age(29), but i feel i have more motivation now than i ever did, and also now beeing more mature i have a better understanding of things.

When i go to the school to bring my diploma and stuff, would they let me know what books i should buy to start studying for the admission test or that is something that i have to figure out on my own?

hopefully next week mu husband will be able to bring me to this school i'm planning to go, and maybe i will have a better understanding of this whole process.

Thank you so much for all the info you gave me. I appreciate it!

Has any of you done a placement exam? Is it different from school to school? I have to do that and some other stuff i can't remember right now, and take a year of pre-requisite before i even get accepted into nursing...

I actually looked at condo's first. But they are 180k!!!This is insane!!I have to say I can not wait to start house hunting. Can you guys give me an ideea of a median home mortgage here in us? Some people say is 1,300 is that true? What is the procentage from your salary that you should spend on the house mortgage every month?

I am going to apply for a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology, specialization would be School Counseling. It just makes sense to me as I worked in school setting before as a teacher and Special Ed teacher, and I have a BA in Psychology. Hopefully things would work out.

Have you decided when do you want to start? I wish you all the best, and hopefully few years down the line we can still writte here on VJ with all sorts of success stories

The other thing is when you get your student loans and grants you won't have to worry about how you will pay them back. You'll have a great job and be able to work as soon as you get your degree.

Even the University of Phoenix has quite a few Nursing Programs.

My degree, which I'm not done yet, is very broad...I'll be very lucky to find a job when I am done.

thank you for the encouragement, i have to say unfortunatelly i am such a sucker for what other people say. If i get negative coments like: to be a nurse it's sooo hard and etc, i get down,and i start doubting my decision:(

Yesterday my hubby went to a comunity collage-very popular here, and got me the book with all the programs and the pre-requisites...OMG it is hard, the nurse program had the most pre requisites , but I already decided, this is what i want to do...help people+get paid to do it...it can't be that bad, right?

I have to go to the school and ask them where to "convert" my high school diploma.

Silvana - how about working towards getting a position in Medical Administration or becoming a Paralegal? I read yesterday an article on yahoo and they were mentioned as very well paid jobs nowdays.

Funny you mentioned paralegal..cause i was looking into that as well. And to be a paralegal= lawyer assistant you have to have a 4 year degree and at least 4-5 year experience. I looked everywhere. So chances are i will be a secretary then after a while maybe get a chance of becoming a paralegal, while beeing a nusrse is not only in demand but you know for sure you get to be a nurse right after the RN program of 4 years is done.

And medical admin is beeing a hospital admin when you are done with school? that is what my husband wants to do, but they will not even look at him without his MBA. It's really good money-i mean 6 figures a year, but it's a lonnnggg way to go.

Even 4 years of nursing i thought it's long, but as someone once told me, the time will pass regardless if i do the school or not, and in 4 years i will look back and say:what did i do in the last 4 years except nothing or maybe a very very low paying job that even for that one it's a fight aparently .

HAve you decided what you will do?. It's great that at least you have a collage degree from romania, so now all you have to do is a masters, and you're good!

I remember you were the first one who inspired me with "going back to school" that was long time ago when we were still talking about AOS package...and you told me without a degree it is hard to get a good job...and it was like an awakening for me. thank you for that! I needed it.

Can you guys give me a better ideea what a pre-requisite is? I know there are some courses that you have to take to be accepted into the program. I guess my question is how long do they last? So let's say math...how many courses of math do i need to take? i would assume after you're done there will be a test.

Coming from Romania, it's so hard to understand TOFEL, GED, Pre-requisites, grants, and etc...i am

also one more question...has any of you done their MBA? my husband is planing on doing his next year, and he has to study the G-MAT. How hard is it?

ok one more question and i promise this is it. Is it true that most collages test their students with multipole choice tests???? If that's true it's awsome!

Thank you for all of your insights. I have to say i still don't know for sure what i want to do. I always knew though that i want to do something where i am helping people as part of my job. But in the same time, i would also like to make money doing it.

Trust me i also thought long and hard if this is for me-nursing i mean, because as you mentioned:beeing a nurse, or a doctor IT'S NOT FOR EVERYONE. i could not agree more. Now the big question is how do i find out if it's for me or not?

As i was saying earlier, i was thinking either radiology tec(but they don'y have schools close to where i live), or ocupational therapist...but now i also have nursing in my head. I like chalenges, and i am a very hard working person(on ships i used to work 7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day...sometimes even 14 or more...for 10 months straight...and i did it for 7 years)SO, i am not afraid of working hard, i am afraid that i would start school and then realize i don't like it. I also thought i would like journalism so i went to collage in romania dropped out of that after 3 years, i ended up hating all the bs in the media...all the lies and the coruption...

the fact that you said chemistry is not that hard ..gives me so much hope. Chemistry in romania was brutal...

Also, i want to coment on tallcoolone post and say thank you for warning me. To be honest i never went into that section, but now that you mention it i have to check it out . That's so silly and imature, those kind of people who have nothing better to do then judge, and criticize other people they must be some frustrated fellas..

P.S. my spelcheck doesn't work, so pl bare with me.

YES! It is.

I sent my AOS package on Nov.8th 2010, and i still can not see my case status. I get the same response you get. I called them up and they were able to give me the updates of my case. I already got a RFE and i have completed my biometrics and on my case status it says the same thingg :my case can not be found.