HAPPY STORIES....

[Wyld Blu 35]

Just wondered if we could post a thread with actually HAPPY, SUCCESSFUL stories. These sad stories are interesting (yet very sad) to read. So, I am wondering, if we can start a thread with success stories. Mod, I am hoping to keep this thread here to show that not all "major family changes" are sad ones. If this is appropriate, I will post my story too.

Edited January 25, 2014 by Wyld Blu

[skysofialila 45]

Great idea! I will post mine, too, as soon as my husband arrives... hopefully by May 2014!!

[Wyld Blu 35]

Great idea! I will post mine, too, as soon as my husband arrives... hopefully by May 2014!!

What an exciting time for you Sky! Here is my story...

I met my husband on an online on a program called Second Life. Neither of us were looking for a new relationship and in fact we were both at the end of our long term relationships. I was about to be divorced from my husband of 25 yrs. and he from his girlfriend of 23 yrs. We started hanging out together online, spending every available moment together. Now, while I felt I knew him VERY well, I was still suspicious of online relationships and he said he was in Holland. I was in California. I googled his name, and came up with nothing. Good I guess. lol. Hours and hours of online conversations lead to a few expensive cell phone calls. Funny though, I didn't really notice any foreign accent! Then I discovered Skype. Finally, I got to actually SEE what he looked like and he me. We spent many more months and every possible hour on Second Life and Skype together. Finally, we decided to meet in a Daytona, for Daytona Bike Week. We are both bikers and never went there before. I set up a "safe call" person..JUST IN CASE. I guess one could never be too careful, but figured we would be in huge crowds of people most of the time. I got there first and picked him up at the airport. It was truly a WONDERFUL first face to face meeting. The 10 days went too fast. On the last night, we were at a local bar dancing and listening to a band. At this point, I should mention we are also both musicians. This is one of the reasons why he has very little Dutch accent. Most of the songs he sang in Holland with bands were in English. And while he speaks fluent Dutch, German and English, he also works on losing any accent in the language he is speaking.

While I was in the bathroom, he had asked the band if he could do a few songs with them. They called him up during their next set. He strapped on one of their guitars and did a few songs on stage. The whole place was on their feet dancing! After he was done, the band stopped and he got on his knees, ON STAGE, in a packed bar and proposed to me! Of course I said yes!.

Watching him go back to Holland was hard. But over the next year, I want to visit there twice and he came here one more time, this time to California. We worked hard on his K1. When it was finally approved, I met him at LAX and he moved in with me. We have now been married going on 4 years. We have our disagreements at times, but we have an amazing and strong marriage as well. My adult kids like him and he is even friends with my ex-husband (we are all still friends actually). We have gone through some major changes in the last few years. We moved from California to Texas (to start a new life together..and sort of as an adventure, lol) and decided after 3 years of THAT to move back home to California. We are both still unemployed (we JUST moved back) but VERY actively looking. We are basically staying with family at the moment, until we have jobs and start on building our house on property we own here. There has been some stress involved of course, but we know how to lean on each other instead of attacking each other in stressful situations. He does miss family, and even some foods from Holland that he can't get here, but he Skypes with family and we try to make foods when possible that he misses.

All in all, we are loving each other and life in general.

So, that is my long-winded story...what's yours?

[waitishard 2]

that is our story

- we met in June 2008

- we got married on my wife first visit to morocco in march 2009 ( the first red flag married in first meet)

- we filed K3 in April 2009

- first interview December 2009 it was about 40min and my wife have been interviewed too cus i told the officer that my wife is with me and he asked to see her and interviewed her too

- second interview after couple days after first one it took 30min and the officer give me 221G fraud relationship and was used that i didnt now somethings about my wife and that was not right.

- case was send back to uscis.

- got letter of intent of revoke September

- February 2011 revoke.

- start new CR1 june 2011 ( with out cancel the K3 other red flag)

- Mai 2012 interview date and got 221G cus uscis was mattching the K3 case with new CR1 and the officer in the consulate said that is illegal even uscis approved the officer said that we had K3 and CR1 in same case and she cant make decision that why she need send it back to uscis.

- July 2013 intent of revoke this time we hired a lawyer.

- August 2013 the case reaffirm

- December /5 / 2013 interview

- December/6/2013 visa issued

- December /10/ 2013 visa in hand

that is our story with visa journey it was really so hard and difficult but when you believe in Allah and be patient and faithful and in love you dont give up even we have about 20 yrs age different. ( big red flag) but hamdolillah we believe in allah and we have been patient and pray and soon we are going to start our new life together.

for all the people trying for visa now the advice is to be faithful pray believe in allah and everything will be good.

Im in US one month now, we are happy and enjoying our life together. Hope happy luck for everyone, just be patient and faithful and all will be good.

[Hotter Otter 1,211]

This thread is a good idea as the nature of bad stories always attracts the most interest and comments due to peoples love of drama. The other day 3 out of 5 of the top threads on VJ were about failed relationships which was kind of depressing. So It'd be nice to read some good ones! Will post mine once I arrive in the US :-)

[ChelseaKate 3]

Met my now husband online. He came to London for the first time to meet me, that was valentines day, he came again the second time and asked me to marry him, I said yes! I came to the US to meet his family at first then my second visit I came to choose my gown at David's bridal. So we got married and after 5 weeks I got pregnant. It's our first marriage and our first baby! I was a little depress when I got here because I can't drive and he's working so I'm very determined to get my DL. I took my road test when I was 6 Months preggy, my husband taught me how to drive, I failed at first but, I went again to take my road test the next day, well the state trooper probably felt sorry for me with my big belly, (I'm almost too big to sit at the drivers sit !) She let me pass the road test! I swear I made a LOT of mistake, I didn't even park right! They gave me 4 years DL surprisingly when I was still on my Conditional GC! So I started driving around town by myself, it feels good to be able to go out without relying on anyone to give me a ride. Now, I have a 2 year old baby and on my last journey with USCIS, going for my Biometrics tomorrow for my N-400 and hubby took a day off work to accompany me. I feel blessed to have a loving, caring, supportive, hard working and faithful husband!

Edited January 27, 2014 by ChelseaKate

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

These are indeed happy stories but they don't really fit the description of this subforum.

[Wyld Blu 35]

These are indeed happy stories but they don't really fit the description of this subforum.

Well, maybe not. If a mod wants to put it somewhere else, that's ok too. But, I just thought that in this subforum it's always so much doom and gloom. Does this mean that ALL major family changes on immigration benefits are negative? I guess I just wanted to show people who might be new to VJ and this forum that not everything is a sad story. However, JMO, when your petitioned fiance or spouse actually arrives in the USA, isn't that also a major family change? I guess it's up to the mods if this thread remains here or not.

Blu

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

"Major Family Changes" for the purposes of this subforum are sadly all negative -- separation, divorce, death of a spouse or sponsor.

On the other hand, it does tend to keep it all in one place, so if people don't want to read difficult narratives this subforum can be avoided easily.

Edited January 28, 2014 by the maven

[Mela17 36]

My husband and I started corresponding in 2008. we finally decided to meet in 2011. I filed for him in April 2012. Our one year wedding anniversary was two days ago and we are now 7.5 weeks pregnant. I'm not someone to say things like "I couldn't be happier" but I really do love him. He's kind and hardworking not to mention I think he's really hot!

[Ontarkie 14,498]

~~Thread moved to Moving Here and Your New Life In America, from Effects of Major Family Changes on Immigration Benefits - This is a more appropriate forum to have this topic as Major Effects forum deals with different circumstances if you do not like the threads in that forum it is easily avoided. ~~

[Udella&Wiz 325]

I moved here 6.5 yrs ago to marry the hubs. Brought my then teenage daughter along as well. We'd been dating cross border for about 2 yrs before that and had met a yr before that even. Online, playing a video game in 2004/2005 !

We are a happy ending story - married life has made both of us extremely happy, we make laugh stupidly on a daily basis. We've been through the terrible teenage yrs 3times over with his 2 and my 1. Everyone has lived to tell the take!

[markonline1 11]

Met my wife 13 years ago when she was studying in the UK. When she returned to the US, we stayed in touch. Circumstance bought me out to visit 3 years ago, we got back together, I moved out 11 months ago, we got married and I love it out here. Happy story.

[indiana_sweetie 120]

My husband immigrated last spring. He spent the summer fixing my house (something we both talked about before he came here). My first husband had started many projects, and then because of illness, he couldn't finish them. Working on a wood frame home was a whole new adventure for my new hubby. In his country the houses are framed in concrete reinforced with re-bar. The German engineered windows are secured with 9 inch screws. He was used to using the force of a bull, which resulted in nearly breaking some of the things he was trying to work on here. He finally learned to be more gentle with my house. I really think he thought it would just blow away in a wind storm. This summer he wall-boarded the entire living room, installed a window, and patched a very bad spot in the ceiling. He also painted and patched outside. In the fall he got his first real job as a tile setter, which is what he did in Kosovo.

Driving has been an adjustment. Although they drive on the same side of the road in Kosovo, they really have very few road signs, only a few stop lights, and rarely any stop signs. They also don't rely on addresses. Instead, people live on this hill or that turn in the road, stuff like that. It's flat as a pancake here---no landmarks. He studied all summer for the driver licence exam. There was a language barrier. He needed to take the test 3 times. There have been a few times where I've blurted out, "No! You can't do that!" But he's getting much better.

In the Balkans everyone "gets a headache" from open windows on windy days. It doesn't happen here. I think he mostly forgot about it. Diversity was something he wasn't used to in Kosovo. He has enjoyed meeting and talking to different people here.

This is a hard, cold winter and not much work, but we are doing fine. My hubby enjoys my cooking. Last summer he grilled outside almost every day. He is fun to be around. We have lively discussions. We shop together. He is my best friend.

[rlogan 2,036]

We met in person first and lived together for four months building a house for her family before even deciding to do K-1 fiancé visa.

So when we did and she came here it was exactly the opposite of all these stories about huge adjustments getting to know one another in person. We were grateful to get back to full time nooky.

Her Philippines environment could not have been more different from a cabin in fairly remote interior Alaska. We rarely see people and just do supply runs to town. She could make up this story about what a big adjustment it was suffering through 60 below zero, having to hike back home in deep snow because of snowmachines breaking down, four-wheelers busting an axle or whatever... But instead it has been one long series of exciting adventures for her. Me too, having her along.

In contrast to all the negativity you see about the transition, she was not just well prepared for the transition, but the whole reason I married her was because this lifestyle was definitely what she wanted. I just don't get the idea of marrying and then learning about the culture and environment of the person you are marrying later. Our approach was to pick the person who had the environment and culture you liked.

I've been here in the Philippines for four months too by the way and could whine about how awful it is and what a sacrifice it is being away from all of my machines and wilderness but instead I am digging the whole scene here. A lot about life is dictated by what kind of attitude you have and you can approach a new country and culture as an exciting opportunity or you can approach it with a negative attitude just because it is different from where you came.

Edited February 12, 2014 by rlogan