akdiver

My god. Who ###### cares?

It's no wonder why we end up with a couple of idiots running for office. The smart ones are not going to put up with this BS.

I was hoping he was in jail.

Why?? If people are dumb enough to send money to a scam, I think they deserve to get ripped off. Think of it as the closest thing we have to a stupidity tax.

Obviously we disagree. Many of the people on this site come from other countries. They may automatically assume that it's legit.

You didn't read the OP.

I was hoping he was in jail.

I don't see how a couple can be together if they have more than a 45 day age difference between them. I just don't see how it could work.

If I go out and earn $100, and the government decides it wants to take half of that money and redistribute it to people who did not go out and earn their own money for whatever reason, my incentive to go out and earn money is much less. Eventually, I may just decide to become one of the people who has someone else's wealth redistributed to me via the government.

Well, DUH!!! Don't buy anything you see advertised on the TV or radio, if it involves dialing on the phone to place an order. Ever.

Thanks for that great post, I appreciate it. I'm curious though. How did your wife get the Master's Degree? Did her degree from Russia transfer directly over so she could jump right into a Masters program? My wife holds degrees from Moscow University in both Business Management and Medical Science. I've always had the impression that her degrees from Russia were not transferable. Your post makes me think I'm mistaken, which would be a good thing! Any info you have would be great. Thanks again.

The first step is to target a university and/or specific degree program you are (she is) interested in. Assuming you're interested in a graduate program (which I would be if I were her), skim through the university catalog and look for the section on sending transcripts from other institutions. Somewhere in there should be a subsection on foreign institutions. Somewhere in THERE it will say something to the effect of they need to be translated and/or evaluated by a credential evaluation service. It will also typically list (or provide a reference to a list) of approved evaluation companies for that specific university. I have attached the list for our local university to this post, so you can can get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Please be aware that these evaluation companies do not "transfer" anything to anywhere, let alone to "a degree in the United States." What they DO is "evaluate" your existing degree and transcript and determine their U.S. equivalents - and then issue a transcript-like document that indicates the results of that evaluation. They do not issue a degree, they do not transfer your credits to any kind of degree program, or do anything beyond an evaluation of your credentials.

It is up to you to do something productive with this evaluation. Your choices are basically:

1). Use the evaluation credential as proof of your education for employers who ask.

2). Use the evaluation credential as a basis for admission or continuation of education with a university.

Note that employers may or may not accept the evaluation as valid. They may have their own "preferred provider" for such services, or may not give any weight to evaluation credentials, no matter who they are from (although this strikes me as unreasonable).

Universities are experienced with this kind of thing and usually have a list of "acceptable" evaluators. If you think you may need to complete an education with a university near you, your first step should be to get their list and see who is on it, and then use someone on that list for your credential evaluation needs.

Note that companies such as ECE generally require a translation of the original transcripts into English!! The university on the other hand did not seem to care (but this may vary). To be successful in this process, I recommend getting at least 4 copies of all transcripts from all institutions. Get one of them professionally translated into English, and get 4 copies of the translation. This gives you one sealed transcript to send to ECE, one to send to the university, one for the licensing board (if necessary) and one to keep for yourself. If you need to deal with more universities or licensing boards, scale up accordingly.

FWIW - our local university had ECE on their list of acceptable credential evaluators, so we used them. We were very happy with the service they provided. Professional, efficient, timely, and useful. They evaluated my wife's foreign transcripts from two different institutions, gave a class by class U.S. equivalent, including title, # of credits and grade. They also evaluated her degrees. This information, along with the original transcripts from the foreign institutions, was sent directly to the university. Using this information as her basis for admission, the university accepted her as a graduate student in a business program, and credited her with having completed two undergraduate degrees and a graduate degree. Since she already had a graduate degree, she was not required to take the TOEFL or GMAT tests (which saved us more than we paid for the ECE evaluation).

She has recently completed the graduate program here at the local university and now the education portion of her resume reads like this:

Education (foreign degrees are U.S. Equivalent shown, as certified by Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc., Milwaukee, WI)

M.S. Subject 4, University, City, State, Month Year.

M.S. Subject 3, University, City, Country, Month Year.

B.B.A. Subject 2, University, City, Country, Month Year.

B.A. Subject 1, University, City, Country, Month Year.

Note the degree type and name for the foreign degrees is as evaluated and determined by ECE, not us (the second master's degree was of course one issued from a local university here in the U.S.). With this on her resume, she got a number of interviews and job offers before getting her current job and before completing her second M.S. locally. Now that she has finished this program and added the local degree to her resume (as shown above) she got plenty of interviews and eventually the job offer she accepted. So far, in no instance has any employer or potential employer questioned the foreign degrees, or the note about foreign degrees being U.S. equivalent shown.

Cheers!

AKDiver

IntlTransCreditInfo.pdf

For one there should be some sort of fairness doctrine in the education system.

Teachers in colleges should keep their opinions to themselves and certainly not victimize any student they disagree with politically.

Wait - which one is the terrorist? McCain or Obama?

So what's your point??

I am not a train."

i think there needs to be legislation against people using cell phones whilst driving.

So the bottom line is that I'm looking for anyone out there who has had POSITIVE experiences getting adjusted and beginning their careers in the USA after coming from Russia. I know that if she can see some positive examples of ladies who have transistioned successfully that will really help her outlook and hopefully she can get some constructive advice on what steps she can take to attain the success here in this country that she seeks.

She arrived in the middle of July. Fortunately, I was on top of the paperwork and process issues, and the day after she arrived (which was a Sunday), we went to the social security office and applied for her SSN and to the DMV to get a state ID card. Within 2 weeks she had the SSN, and had started working as a volunteer at the local library. This allowed her to get some local business environment and language comfort, and also kept her from getting bored (she volunteered there for about 20 hours per week). It also gave her a local reference to use for her job hunt when the EAD came along. Within a month after arriving, she had her driver's license. Two weeks after that, we got married.

EAD showed up about 4 months after she arrived. By that time, she had already received a couple of job offers (travel agencies and post office). Within a week of having the EAD in hand, she accepted an offer at the local university as an admin assistant. Job was nothing special, pay was nothing special (mid 30s), but benefits were pretty good. It was also a very welcoming, supportive environment - an excellent choice for her overall. She worked there for about two and a half years. During that time, she used the 50% off tuition benefit to earn a master's degree. I also used this benefit to earn a master's degree and used a 100% off tuition benefit to take two semesters of Russian. Within two months of graduating, she has secured a professional job at a major local company, with a substantial salary and even better benefits than she had at the university.

Recap: After 3 years of being in the U.S., she acquired 2.5 years of work experience, earned a master's degree, and acquired professional employment with substantial compensation. However, she was also very motivated and worked very hard. Although she was constantly worried about being able to complete the master's program and find a real job, it really wasn't any trouble for her at all. If your lady is also substantially motivated, I really don't think she should have any problems.

Hope this helps!

akd

We received the interview notice today, with an appointment date of early December. It's practically 3 months to the date of the "application priority date" on the NOA-1.

This is really old news....

What?

Generally, if you check your bags all the way through your final destination, you gain access to the international baggage rules. This can allow you to avoid extra bag fees as well as weight limitations (75 lbs for international vs 50 for domestic, much of the time). However, if you have a stop over and take your bags at some point (i.e. you don't check all the way through), then you're screwed.

I misread that topic as "I want my mom to come here and have my baby" - I was like, "woahh!!"

Anyway - lots of people travel to the U.S. knowing no English. It's generally not a problem.

I actually quite like the "big" one (500cc). Top speed of 90. I just wonder if it's classified as a scooter or as a motorcycle in Indiana. Scooters can't be ridden on the Interstate, is why I wonder.

FWIW, I've ridden my 250cc scooter from Alaska to Mexico, to Key West Florida, up to Quebec and back. I went on a lot of interstates in the course of that trip.

Cheers!

AKD

This is really old news....

CLEARFIELD, Pa. (AP) — A chef at a western Pennsylvania Italian restaurant ate a 15-pound burger with 5.2 pounds of toppings in 4 hours and 39 minutes.

Its been a while - but I remember explicitly that I had to present the EAD card before I could apply for an SSN.

Doesn't it depend on the State you live in when you apply for an SSN? For my K1 I couldn't get one until I had my EAD in my hand.

Too bad. If I have to have a SSN, then so should everyone else.

My wife had her SSN within 2 weeks of entering the country (before we even got married). If someone is too lazy/dumb/stupid/foolish/uninformed to get an SSN in a timely fashion, then too bad for them.

No SSN, no rebates, no sympathy. Go get an SSN. It's one of the few parts of the immigration process that is "free".

We received the interview notice today, with an appointment date of early December. It's practically 3 months to the date of the "application priority date" on the NOA-1.

This gives about 7 weeks of advance notice on the interview. We only had 3 days for the biometrics (: