October 2008 Filers With The CSC

[cutedolphinn 1]

Hi Nikki, nice to see you. I am Ita. I hope we all will get NOA2 soon. God bless us.

[K1researcher 0]

Hi Nikki!

I am Jim :-) I finally met my soulmate as people have decided we are :-) I am from all over but happen to live in Missorui now . I see my fiancee again on december 19th and I cant wait!

good luck to you all

[kenneme 2]

Hi Nikki and everyone! Nice idea to introduce ourselves.

I am 26, from the central coast of California, I'm in graduate school here...my honey is Algerian, he lives in France at the moment (that's where we met just over four years ago!). I'm working to graduate this December and applying for jobs - so things are all up in the air now...where I find work will determine where we live...but obviously the visa situation will be a factor as well and we don't want to get stuck apart for a long time! Maybe I'll go back to work in France which would simplify things.

Just curious if anyone else is planning their wedding already? I saw K1researcher said May? When we started this whole thing we thought “hey! Us international couples shouldn't be stuck with a tiny civil wedding service at the courthouse! (unless of course that's what you prefer) just because of the bureaucratic nightmare we have to go through to be together...!” So we started planning our wedding… I worried we had jumped the gun, but I hope (pray) we will have enough time to get his visa before our scheduled date of August 15, 2009! We went ahead and reserved the date because the beautiful place we are planning to have our eco-friendly, interfaith, intercultural, multilingual (lol!) shin-dig fills up fast and his family can travel most easily in August... Then we plan to have a second ceremony in Algeria in 2010 - if everything goes well and we're not completely broke by then!

It's a bit hard to get excited about the wedding planning when you're still not 100% sure that the groom will be here! I suppose we could always skype him in for the vows!!!!

Ok, I'm procrastinating to avoid my studies... sorry for the long ramble there! Gotta run!

Megan

[K1researcher 0]

Well we are being a bit complicated .. :-)

we are getting a Justice of the Peace right away so I can file the AOS.

Then our May wedding is an outdoor wedding and my best friend (who is a minister) is performign a custom ceremony.

Then in December we are roign to Russia to do an orthodox church wedding. so we get indoor and outdoor wedding :-)

I opted for the JoP early on so we dont have to worry about legalities during the wedding. Paperwork really bogs things down :-)

We are also doing 2 because her family can not come to the USA. Well we are hoping her mother will be approved for a tourist visa, but the rest of the family woudl be cost prohibitive and US visa rules are very cruel towards russians.

I am holding off booking anythign unitl NOA2 arrives at least but we have begun prelim plans. This process REALLY shoudl not take this long ;-)

[lazulineiris 0]

Jim, that plan doesn't sound too terribly complicated. I think it's great that the two of you are trying to make it work so everyone involved can share the happiness of the two of you finally being together. I hope everything is finished in time for your wedding. I don't know how long it takes for an interview date to be issued, but I hope you get one quickly following your approval notice.

It's definitely wise to hold off on booking anything, but as Kenneme said - It's hard to get excited about plans when you have no idea when USCIS will take your file out of the box they stuffed it in. I'm sure we've all gotten the "So what's the wedding date?/When are you going to do this?/etc" when you don't even know yourself. I don't know about any of you, but I get the strangest looks from people before I explain, "We can't do anything until the government approves us."

Kenneme, I think there's a pretty good chance that you'll be together in time for your wedding in August. Regardless, I'll keep my fingers crossed that all of this goes swiftly.

That said - We are trying to plan what we can while we wait for news. Nothing that requires booking a date, just small things like who we want in our wedding party, who we want to invite, food and other little things like that. We were going to be complicated, too, by having a second wedding ceremony in Holland for his friends and family that couldn't make it to America, but his mother thought it would be nice to have a traditional Vietnamese engagement ceremony around the time of his visa interview, and we both agreed. I think that'd be a lot easier than having to wait on Advance Parole, anyway, and I'm excited to be apart of a tradition that very likely means a great deal to his parents.

[Jim and Myrewen 0]

Welcome, alocalguy! 193 pages? Wow. And I thought mine was huge. It always makes me happy to hear about people who tend to do that, as I totally did it as well. I know that the officers probably won't think I'm totally crazy, lol. Have lots of fun on your end of the year trip. Nothing makes me happier than sharing that new year's kiss with my sweetheart.

Anyway, I was thinking.. since we're still at the beginning of this process and probably won't be hearing any news too terribly soon, I was thinking maybe we could all get to know each other a little bit better.

I'll start -- My name is Nikki, I'm 22 and I live in Northern California. I'm engaged to a wonderful man from The Netherlands named TamTu, who is 24. We've been together 4½ years, with our anniversary in March.. which is around the time VJ estimates we'll hear something from USCIS. I'm excited.

I suppose you don't have to share things you don't want to, like names or ages or whatever, but I think it'd be good to get to know everyone, since we're all in this together for the next few months.

Hello, thanks.

My name is Jim and my fiancee is Myrewen. I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. Myrewen is living in Manila.

November 19 will be the one year anniversary of our first meeting.

I spent a month with her in the Philippines in June/July. Got to meet her fmaily and do some sight-seeing.

As I had said, I will be going back on December 19; taking my daughter with me. We'll be in the Philippines 3 weeks.

Yes, my application was probably overkill at 193 pages, lol. I included more of everything that was requested. Guess we'll see whether that was a good idea.

Now, we're just playing the waiting game like everyone else.

[SnS 0]

Hi all, glad to see the October thread!

I've sent our package on Oct 7, USPS certified with e-delivery confirmation; it got there on Oct 9, signed by V. Semegi. Still waiting for the NOA1, and since it's Columbus Day I know it won't come today - USPS is closed.

I'm looking forward to a really short timeline for all of us!

Hi there!

Im one of the Oct filers too. My Fiance Sent the package on the 7th and receive NOA1 on the 21st. Keep looking online but did not see any "touched" yet. I am not sure why?

For all Oct Filers I wish everyone of us best of luck and everything is going smoothly!

Thanks everyone!

[lazulineiris 0]

Hello and welcome, SnS!

To answer your question: Being touched doesn't necessarily mean anything. Often times, people will receive their approval notice without having any touches at all, while others will be touched multiple times. If you don't get one, it's nothing to stress over.

[Vegas Dolly 0]

Hey October filers....

ha ha...i made it in by the skin of my teeth! we mailed our I129F on 29th oct by certified mail......however...no word, check not cashed and definately no NOA1 so far!

however after various strongly wored emails to the USPS, i was told today it got there yesterday!!!!!! like #######? lol!

fingers crossed our NOA1 comes soon!

good luck with all your journeys!

[cutedolphinn 1]

Hello SnS,

I am from Indonesia too. I keep praying so NOA2 will be in hand soon!!

[SnS 0]

Hello and welcome, SnS!

To answer your question: Being touched doesn't necessarily mean anything. Often times, people will receive their approval notice without having any touches at all, while others will be touched multiple times. If you don't get one, it's nothing to stress over.

Yes you are right! but just not sure why some have been touched like couple time while the other have not at all kinda strange though.

Hello SnS,

I am from Indonesia too. I keep praying so NOA2 will be in hand soon!!

Yes keep praying is a good thing! When was yours filed?I guess in Oct too right..just dont see your TL.

Thanks everyone!

[Fred N Emilia 0]

You October folks are doing well over here, keep on talking about everything! and I mean everything to pass the time, a perfect example is our August thread, its a great way to kill the stress as well and makes TIME FLY!

Goodluck to all of you!

[K1researcher 0]

yeah .. everything

ug waiting sucks so bad!

at least we see each other for christmas

[Fred N Emilia 0]

yeah .. everything

ug waiting sucks so bad!

at least we see each other for christmas

Hang in there my friend! At least you get to see each other for christmas.

[cutedolphinn 1]

@SnS

Yes, October filers too.