carrie_a

Hey guys! First and foremost, huge congrats to the Dizzy Family!!!<3
Things have been pretty hectic for us here! We had a lovely thanksgiving and Reilly's family have all been so warm and amazing to me, I am truly blessed to have 2 amazing families. I get days where I am so homesick I will just fall into myself, presently my husband is working 3 jobs to keep us afloat, so I'm to my own devices for a lot of the days and evenings. The upside is for the first time ever I am discovering I am a pretty awesome cook (with the time I've had to occupy myself it's been a blessing to find something I like to throw myself into!) and am getting quite reknown for this with my husbands work friends! Although the cabin fever can get to me as I can't really go anywhere without someone to drive me. That said - I did get a learner's permit soon after I came, and have had a fun time learning how to drive, though today at the DMV I went in to get them to extend the expiration (the same date as on my I-94, I was told I just needed my I-797 for the I-485 and they can extend it a year) only to have a bit of an arguement with the receptionist who said otherwise. If anything though it makes me feel more American to moan about the DMV on the ride home!
Biometrics was a breeze - we got to the Alexandria branch in VA half an hour early and I got whisked to the fingerprinting & photo booth straight away - in and out in under 10 minutes!
We were hoping for a nice calm first christmas together in our new home, but hubby got a job offer for a Linux position he's been studying for all year so on Christmas eve of all days we are driving our little Toyota with all our worldly goods in it down 5 hours south to Virginia Beach! We're very excited, not only does this equal job satisfaction for Rei and an exciting adventure for us but we'll get so much more time together! Best Christmas present we could recieve
Having our family Christmas portrait tomorrow with his parents and brother, very blessed to have the love and support of them.
I wish you all happy holidays! My fellow 'aliens', make sure to throw in a few native dishes at dinner time and everyone make sure to start some fun family traditions!
xxxx

Hey guys! First and foremost, huge congrats to the Dizzy Family!!!<3
Things have been pretty hectic for us here! We had a lovely thanksgiving and Reilly's family have all been so warm and amazing to me, I am truly blessed to have 2 amazing families. I get days where I am so homesick I will just fall into myself, presently my husband is working 3 jobs to keep us afloat, so I'm to my own devices for a lot of the days and evenings. The upside is for the first time ever I am discovering I am a pretty awesome cook (with the time I've had to occupy myself it's been a blessing to find something I like to throw myself into!) and am getting quite reknown for this with my husbands work friends! Although the cabin fever can get to me as I can't really go anywhere without someone to drive me. That said - I did get a learner's permit soon after I came, and have had a fun time learning how to drive, though today at the DMV I went in to get them to extend the expiration (the same date as on my I-94, I was told I just needed my I-797 for the I-485 and they can extend it a year) only to have a bit of an arguement with the receptionist who said otherwise. If anything though it makes me feel more American to moan about the DMV on the ride home!
Biometrics was a breeze - we got to the Alexandria branch in VA half an hour early and I got whisked to the fingerprinting & photo booth straight away - in and out in under 10 minutes!
We were hoping for a nice calm first christmas together in our new home, but hubby got a job offer for a Linux position he's been studying for all year so on Christmas eve of all days we are driving our little Toyota with all our worldly goods in it down 5 hours south to Virginia Beach! We're very excited, not only does this equal job satisfaction for Rei and an exciting adventure for us but we'll get so much more time together! Best Christmas present we could recieve
Having our family Christmas portrait tomorrow with his parents and brother, very blessed to have the love and support of them.
I wish you all happy holidays! My fellow 'aliens', make sure to throw in a few native dishes at dinner time and everyone make sure to start some fun family traditions!
xxxx

Hey guys! First and foremost, huge congrats to the Dizzy Family!!!<3
Things have been pretty hectic for us here! We had a lovely thanksgiving and Reilly's family have all been so warm and amazing to me, I am truly blessed to have 2 amazing families. I get days where I am so homesick I will just fall into myself, presently my husband is working 3 jobs to keep us afloat, so I'm to my own devices for a lot of the days and evenings. The upside is for the first time ever I am discovering I am a pretty awesome cook (with the time I've had to occupy myself it's been a blessing to find something I like to throw myself into!) and am getting quite reknown for this with my husbands work friends! Although the cabin fever can get to me as I can't really go anywhere without someone to drive me. That said - I did get a learner's permit soon after I came, and have had a fun time learning how to drive, though today at the DMV I went in to get them to extend the expiration (the same date as on my I-94, I was told I just needed my I-797 for the I-485 and they can extend it a year) only to have a bit of an arguement with the receptionist who said otherwise. If anything though it makes me feel more American to moan about the DMV on the ride home!
Biometrics was a breeze - we got to the Alexandria branch in VA half an hour early and I got whisked to the fingerprinting & photo booth straight away - in and out in under 10 minutes!
We were hoping for a nice calm first christmas together in our new home, but hubby got a job offer for a Linux position he's been studying for all year so on Christmas eve of all days we are driving our little Toyota with all our worldly goods in it down 5 hours south to Virginia Beach! We're very excited, not only does this equal job satisfaction for Rei and an exciting adventure for us but we'll get so much more time together! Best Christmas present we could recieve
Having our family Christmas portrait tomorrow with his parents and brother, very blessed to have the love and support of them.
I wish you all happy holidays! My fellow 'aliens', make sure to throw in a few native dishes at dinner time and everyone make sure to start some fun family traditions!
xxxx

wow second thread! amazing. can feel the december love in this forum! <3
we're still waiting on an interview date as it stands; i had my GP write me up a short report after the visa medical and that's delayed us a couple of weeks but it SHOULD have been faxed to knightsbridge yesterday, might have to phone and check it's all going to plan though, but one thing i've learnt is if you ask someone to help you ASAP, and it's their job... they're going to make you sweat just for the fun of it. lol.
oh well! all on track. little more waiting now.
got our wedding rings yesterday though!!! i keep getting them out and looking at them. lol.

mari & all who have been discussing the evidence, thanks a lot for the ideas. sometimes when you think about providing evidence to strangers about your relationship it makes you think 'oooh that's not convincing enough they won't accept that!' and i have to stop and realise i am in a bloody legitimate relationship so i have nothing to worry about and of course it counts but all this talk of proving it makes it feel almost competitive! LOL
i hope everything pans out right, fishernyalew. the process is stressful. i'm looking forward to putting behind us all the tension bickers that we've been having because of visa stress and missing each other. just laighable, petty things. like last week, we were streaming together a documentary on the theory of parallel universes, and it erupted into this ridiculous argument because he believes how feasible they are and i don't see enough evidence yet, it was very tense and i think we were both feeling a bit overemotional for debate and it turned a bit venomous, cut to the chase at the end i said which i am shamefully still proud of ' WELL MAYBE YOU'RE RIGHT, IN SOME PARALLEL UNIVERSE'. which to date has been my best summer-upper yet. hahaha. we laughed about it after.
it is hard! emotions are so high, especially if it's been a while since you've seen each other. that's why we had to arrange another trip before the k1 process. i pick him up tomorrow at the airport!! i don't know what i'm more excited about, giving him a cuddle, or being at an airport LOL. it's a magic feeling place!!!

What are you insinuating about the December K1 Filers at CSC? That they're doing ours and stopped working on Dec I-130s? If so, I would appreciate you not use the Dec K1's as an excuse for your waiting pains. TWO DIFFERENT CATAGORIES. That's like saying, the Dec B1/B2 Filer's are getting approved and they stopped working on the Dec IR1/ CR1's... blah blah" Nonsense.
Are you aware of the November 2010 transfer of 36,000 cases of immediate family petitions (IR-1/CR1) that were transfered from CSC to TSC and then some back to CSC in Feb 2011? Those filers were from LAST SUMMER: June, July and August IR1/ CR-1's 2010 --- some of them waited over 6-7 mos for their NOA2. That backlog seems to be catching up now and you should be glad you didn't file in those months; your wait would be much worse than it is today! Ask any of them what it was like.
Need Reference?
1. http://www.usvisa.com/delayed_immediate_relative_petitions_40form_i13041_at_texas_service_center.shtml
2. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/294698-uscis-admits-problem-with-csc-to-tsc-transfer/
That's where the backlog is and what got your group stopped up. Not us. Further, you should be happy for anyone who gets an approval and congratulate, instead of a seemingly negative nancy attitude towards our group specifically as you pointed out, because you do not have yours...YET!
By the way, we have many K1's still waiting, just like you. Doesn't matter to us whether they be from VSC or CSC, they're still Dec K1's. Everybody waits. USCIS says their goal time is 5+ mos and that is not a promise, it's an estimate.
When you do get yours, you will see many people from the VJ Family congratulate you and it won't matter which category or service center they come from either.
So take it easy and hang in there!!
IT IS COMING and PROBABLY RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!
Good Luck,
Mari

thanks for the warm welcome :D
and thanks for the super useful links. i'm wondering if i should be getting all this stuff together before we receive the noa2, or what the chances are if i get police checks and medical recs and such, when the time comes they might be deemed outdated.
i have a bad case of ants in the pants. lol.
all i know is when we hear back next, you're going to hear my screeches of joy from wherever you're sitting! uk, usa or otherwise!