MENA CR1/K3/K1 filers

[MsMariah 0]

I use Nobel Enjoy Prepaid Diamond Plan, which I buy online and they give a pin number that you can register the number you call with to dial automatically when you call their access line. It's 11 cents a minute and the calls are so clear. Plus they charge by the second, and no wasteful extra charges like weekly or per call. His calls to me are about 20 cents per minute with Umniah. But he's still miserly. He likes to ring me and ring me and ring me so often but seems like he only lets me pick up when he wants to say meet me online! He says it's so I know he's thinking of me, I say it's just bein' a cheapy.

My Verizon line costs 2.59 to call to Jordan so I never use it, and it's 25 cents to send and 15 to receive international. I prefer to talk so we never text. I was thinking of magic jack, but it has to be a high speed internet line, and honestly, I doubt that my DH has ever had real high speed connection. Apparently you can set them up to forward to a cell phone, but highly doubt if you can forward them to an international number free of charge, once you register it with your own area code...... which is how the calls end up free. Now he could call your phone with the magic jack and you could have them forwarded to your cell for free I imagine. At least that's my understading of the set up. We going to get some to send to his sister in Canada but his father cut the net at their home again this last time I visited.... so we can't use it for him to call home anyway.

Childress, I never heard of a MENA man who didn't have at least one cell phone! Anyway it's not a real phone since most likely only you would be calling from US to it's US number, it has to be plugged into a PC, which means you could meet up on msn or yahoo anyway, and that's always free thank God for that.

[Y's_habibitk 2]

omg, we would be lost without texting like 10 times a day

and thank god for emails and webcams...they are your friend on this visa journey. heh

i'll have to check out the above mariah

[childress_london 3]

I use Nobel Enjoy Prepaid Diamond Plan, which I buy online and they give a pin number that you can register the number you call with to dial automatically when you call their access line. It's 11 cents a minute and the calls are so clear. Plus they charge by the second, and no wasteful extra charges like weekly or per call. His calls to me are about 20 cents per minute with Umniah. But he's still miserly. He likes to ring me and ring me and ring me so often but seems like he only lets me pick up when he wants to say meet me online! He says it's so I know he's thinking of me, I say it's just bein' a cheapy.

My Verizon line costs 2.59 to call to Jordan so I never use it, and it's 25 cents to send and 15 to receive international. I prefer to talk so we never text. I was thinking of magic jack, but it has to be a high speed internet line, and honestly, I doubt that my DH has ever had real high speed connection. Apparently you can set them up to forward to a cell phone, but highly doubt if you can forward them to an international number free of charge, once you register it with your own area code...... which is how the calls end up free. Now he could call your phone with the magic jack and you could have them forwarded to your cell for free I imagine. At least that's my understading of the set up. We going to get some to send to his sister in Canada but his father cut the net at their home again this last time I visited.... so we can't use it for him to call home anyway.

Childress, I never heard of a MENA man who didn't have at least one cell phone! Anyway it's not a real phone since most likely only you would be calling from US to it's US number, it has to be plugged into a PC, which means you could meet up on msn or yahoo anyway, and that's always free thank God for that.

Well he had a cell phone when I met him, but he couldn't stop himself from calling me all the time and his phone bills got so high every month he couldn't pay them. It was too much stress. So I told him he didn't need the phone and to get rid of it. Now he uses calling cards to call me or his parents and it's much easier that way for him to limit himself.

[Ahmed N Tina 2]

I used Teleplus platinum on the Callingcardplus.com site. No maintenance fees, they round to one minute instead of 3 and calls to Egypt were about .15 a minute. My verizon cost .25 to send texts and .10 to recieve. Wasn't too bad. We discovered the yahoo calling about 4 months ago and I wish we'd known about that a long time ago! Coulda saved a ton! Set up a yahoo account in your name with your card to charge here in the US and give your SO the sign on info. He, or she, can then call you from that phone on yahoo for .01 a minute! It has taken us this long to go through $10 and I don't think we have actually run out of time yet. Course, webcams and skype saved us!

[Y's_habibitk 2]

i tired mariah's phone plan today..i get way less time on the plan, but the benefit is the 'per second' charge i guess.

yazied uses yahoo calling to call me, but the us to jordan rates suck

goodnight ladies

[~Jackie~ 30]

nite lisa

[MsMariah 0]

Childress, yikes! But sounds romantic

Lisa, plus you don't lose lots of time/money with weekly or per connection charges and the line is clear.

Are you getting antsy about the interview yet? I am already, I even had to send the embassy a confirmation request email to make sure they know I'm like bees on flowers busy for Amer to get his visa. They responded and said he only has to bring his passport, his medical report, and two photos. And that they'll let him know immediately if he'll get the visa and it usually takes up to 10 business days to get visa in hand.

I was even already discussing what he should wear... he has these fav jeans which are .... so big old school skaterish that he thinks are so stylish, and in my eye looks like "druggie" pants so I was saying really please wear dress pants.

Anyone else OCD like about stuff like this?

[childress_london 3]

Childress, yikes! But sounds romantic

Lisa, plus you don't lose lots of time/money with weekly or per connection charges and the line is clear.

Are you getting antsy about the interview yet? I am already, I even had to send the embassy a confirmation request email to make sure they know I'm like bees on flowers busy for Amer to get his visa. They responded and said he only has to bring his passport, his medical report, and two photos. And that they'll let him know immediately if he'll get the visa and it usually takes up to 10 business days to get visa in hand.

I was even already discussing what he should wear... he has these fav jeans which are .... so big old school skaterish that he thinks are so stylish, and in my eye looks like "druggie" pants so I was saying really please wear dress pants.

Anyone else OCD like about stuff like this?

Oh yes, OCD here. We don't even have our NOA2 yet and already are discussing all the details of what we should and should not do, what we need, what to wear, etc... We are so anxious for that interview and we want it to go perfectly so we can get our approval!

[Amoon 0]

NVC got the last piece of info they need from us, the DS-230, on Friday. Of course they say the usual 2-4 week to process....and so far they have always been much faster than that....so I am praying for a case complete this week and I don't know if we are still in the window to have an April interview or not. NVC says they schedule the interviews the second week of the month. So does that mean we have to wait until the second week of April before they schedule our interview? ( I hope it comes sooner than that!!! I'm going nuts!!

[ARALB 0]

NVC got the last piece of info they need from us, the DS-230, on Friday. Of course they say the usual 2-4 week to process....and so far they have always been much faster than that....so I am praying for a case complete this week and I don't know if we are still in the window to have an April interview or not. NVC says they schedule the interviews the second week of the month. So does that mean we have to wait until the second week of April before they schedule our interview? ( I hope it comes sooner than that!!! I'm going nuts!!

Unfortunately yes sweetie-- Our status was case complete on December 3rd, 2008 and that was the first week in Dec- I thought for sure we'd get a Jan Interview, but the 2nd week of Dec came and went and I called NVC like EVERY DAY! while they were scheduling... We didn't get an interview date set till the 2nd week in Jan, and then it was more than a month out... So good luck, but keep your chin up--- the journey is almost complete! A couple of months and your habibi will be with you forever! The arrival is the BEST part of this whole journey!--Talk to you soon-Amy

[Y's_habibitk 2]

Mariah,

OCD, heh! I think Amman recognizes my email address now from the many many I have sent in the last year and a half.

well, the line was certainly clear on that plan, but the 20 for 3 hours was almost gone just from sat/sun. I think calling cards work fine as long as you use them all at once. I can get an hour and 10 minutes for a 5 dollar card and as long as we talk that whole time(which we do), we dont lose any minutes.

I might try another plan and see next weekend.

Amanda,

Im glad they got everything and hopefully it wont be the full 2-4 weeks. I also hope you get a faster interview than what aralb experienced. Although, we were expecting two months, and were just pleasantly suprised with the date we got. here's to hoping.

(((Jackie))))

everyone else waiting for SOMETHING to happen...

Edited March 23, 2009 by Y's_habibitk

[Amoon 0]

Mariah,

OCD, heh! I think Amman recognizes my email address now from the many many I have sent in the last year and a half.

well, the line was certainly clear on that plan, but the 20 for 3 hours was almost gone just from sat/sun. I think calling cards work fine as long as you use them all at once. I can get an hour and 10 minutes for a 5 dollar card and as long as we talk that whole time(which we do), we dont lose any minutes.

I might try another plan and see next weekend.

Amanda,

Im glad they got everything and hopefully it wont be the full 2-4 weeks. I also hope you get a faster interview than what aralb experienced. Although, we were expecting two months, and were just pleasantly suprised with the date we got. here's to hoping.

(((Jackie))))

everyone else waiting for SOMETHING to happen...

I am trying to to get too excited because most of the time when we get good news, immigration-wise, it just means more wait. So we get all excited and then have to wait again. I am keeping the faith though...it won't be as long as it has been.

[~Jackie~ 30]

sigh. hi.

[childress_london 3]

sigh. hi jackie.

[~Jackie~ 30]

i forgot to call today. i have called every day since the beginning of Dec. The slip he got at the interview said approx 4 months. wow. I hope so.

jJ