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mam521

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mam521 last won the day on November 21 2025

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Profile Information

  • City
    SPRING
  • State
    Texas

Immigration Info

  • Immigration Status
    Naturalization (approved)
  • Place benefits filed at
    Local Office
  • Local Office
    Houston TX
  • Country
    Canada
  • Our Story
    I lived in the US on an L1B visa for 5 years, 2 months. I met my husband in that time and we married. I left the US to prevent a visa overstay.

    Initially, DH was a PR. He received his citizenship in Jan 2019. We upgraded our petition at that point. After I-130 was approved, we endured 89 days, 22.5 hours of waiting before my I-130 magically showed up at NVC. The CEAC website was undergoing maintenance when I was trying to fill out the IV. After some frustration and losing data more than once, I learned how to manipulate the system to work and got the forms filled out. RFE setback for my CRC and a request for a marriage certificate for my Littles and we were finally DQ.

    We narrowly escaped the covid Consulate closure - our interview was the Monday, the Consulate closed Friday. We were approved and finally headed "home" on April 1, the day after our 2 year anniversary.

Immigration Timeline & Photos

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  1. He's male and insists on learning the hard way. We've been friends for over 20 years...his listening skills are subpar sometimes 🤣.
  2. We fixed our washer. It was a $12 water inlet valve. I was so relieved it was a $12 fix and easily done by us! I'm with @Ontarkie - new appliances seem to suck! We had our microwave go out 2 weekends ago (the "old" one was only about 18mo old!) and the dishwasher (only about 4 years old) go out last weekend. The dishwasher was repairable - we replaced the pump unit. Savings vs buying the same unit new: $1100. The microwave - not fixable - seems to be the magnetron. At least we got the replacement on sale. Still though - appliances just aren't what they used to be. I have a friend contemplating replacing his refrigerator over the ice maker. I told him dude, just don't even bother with the refrigerator ice maker. They all seem to be junk. Just buy a countertop unit and if it goes sideways, it's less of a drama to replace. He won't listen. He's male .
  3. It's a shame you don't have an Airrosti location nearby. Hurts like a SOB, but it gets it done. My shoulder was so jacked at one point and no amount of regular chiropractic and massage worked. Went to Airrosti and I think I had full range of motion back in 2 sessions. Subscapularis was the issue. We had a neighbor that got approval to paint their brick. They painted and then the HOA rescinded on the approval, saying painting the brick wasn't part of the approval. They tried to tell the neighbor that they had to remove the paint from the brick...HAHAHAHA yeah, didn't happen. Needless to say, there are constant reminders posted, reminding people that painting brick is strictly prohibited. The HOA's latest thing is sending nasty-o-grams about grass and telling people in JAUNARY that they need to lay sod. I can see it backfiring as this is the second year of this garbage and people are just going to start xeriscaping. Texas law prohibits HOA's from outright banning of xeriscaping, and the longer the HOA drags out approving a xeriscaped landscape design, the longer the yard looks not how they want it.
  4. If the Trump administration is going to cancel permanent residency, they will cancel it. Endorsed or not, they'll cancel it. By social benefits, I mean exactly that - health care is a big one. As for your Canadian visa, I am not an immigration lawyer so I cannot comment to that. I would definitely check on eligibility requirements for Canada as a US PR, though.
  5. You can, but remember that you officially become a permanent resident of the US at time of endorsement. This will impact income taxes and potentially have impacts on Canadian social benefits. It's best to consult with a well versed cross border accountant. If you think you'll clear up your affairs before the expiration of your visa, then plan to tie up loose ends and make the move before that expiration. No need to endorse just because.
  6. This constantly causes issues. The following link has an embedded image of the correct type. When he goes into the Commissionares or wherever he decides to go, he'll have to specify that this is for the entire records holding. It won't have fingerprints when he receives it and looks like the most unassuming piece of paper, yet it's vital to your immigration journey. https://www.fickeymartinezlaw.com/immigration/consular-processing/canada-police-certificate-us-visa-document-requirement If you search back on the forum, there have been MANY questions asked about this and lots of examples, as shown in the link, of the same thing. I initially ended up with the wrong check myself, but The Fingerprint Room in Calgary rectified the situation. That said, it slowed us down 3 months, so yes, definitely take an example in to ensure its the correct version he'll get! Good luck!
  7. Exactly this. When my Venezuelan colleagues put it this way - that Maduro and Flores were arrested as heads of the cartel - it makes sense. The fact that he wasn't the elected president and there was proof presented on paper, shows he's not. Even if you did want to argue that he is, Flores is not. Flores is a deputy in the national assembly.
  8. Many of these are pretty much exactly what my Venezuelan colleagues are chatting about in office today and are essentially in agreement with what they are saying. One colleague pointed out that when the government is the cartel and vice versa, there's essentially limitless resources available. This is helped by the fact that the government cartel has been in operation for the better part of 3 decades and that usually cartels only get about 10 years or so in before something interruptive happens. They say a lot of focus is on Maduro when it should be on Flores. She's the actual commander, chief decision maker and power holder. The king and queen have been removed from the chess board, so it will be interesting to see what plays out. Oh, and I've never heard a single one of them refer to Maduro as "president". They say he is no such thing. He wasn't elected.
  9. Many will do them in office, but it will be an out of pocket cost and that cost is often higher than if you get the vaccines in advance. Hopefully your GP, a travel clinic or supplemental insurance would help minimize that cost.
  10. Gift, by definition, is something voluntarily transferred, without compensation. Bribe, on the other hand, is to provide something of value to persuade or influence a judgement or the conduct of a person in the position of trust. How is a required gift, voluntary? How, also, is it without compensation, if one receives a golden ticket? Under the FCPA, one is permitted to "expedite or secure the performance of a routine governmental action which is routinely and commonly performed by a foreign official" which includes processing of paperwork to obtain visas and/or paperwork to allow a person to do business in a foreign country - that's covered by the $15k application fee, but the million dollar "gift" cannot influence the decision to issue or guarantee a visa. It states on the Trump Gold Card website that a successful applicant will be vetted by DHS and will be subject to available EB-1 and EB-2 visas. USCIS falls under DHS, but DoS is a separate agency that works with DHS. Can you imagine? Pay $15k, get an I-140 approval, pay your $1mil and the DoS says "nah bruh, sorry, we're not issuing your visa". 👀 As others have said, at least an EB-5 requires some sort of capital investment as well as a business plan to prove economic benefit to the US, which seems less sketchy and probably a lot easier. I'd wager dollars to donuts the "platinum card" is a no go thus far because of the "gifting" as well as the benefit of 270 tax free days per year on foreign income while living in the US. Any non-resident alien for tax purposes, PR or citizen's foreign income has always been subject to US taxes, period. Getting past those sketchy benefits is instrumentally more challenging as it's multiple laws to challenge with those bad boy promises.
  11. Our district's policy was pretty clear and sensible too, but we also have 72,000 kids plus teachers and not enough classroom tech available. So, they flexed and caved until the law was made. My kids are also in high school and I'd guess a 135lb, 5'4", female teacher trying to tell a 17 year old, 300lb football player to put your phone away comes with some challenges. I've talked to a couple of teachers and they say they love hearing the chatter among kids again. It was lost when everyone was devicing. Real conversations, real interactions, real relationships and interestingly, less fights it would seem.
  12. The worry is the wording. Unrestricted and gift do not equate to taxes. Sounds like free invitation "appropriate funds for personal gain". Unrestricted or not, I wanna see where these funds are going.
  13. Most companies would classify this as bribery, no? There's laws against that...
  14. I wouldn't either. I don't have social media accounts set to public to protect myself as it is. If you're dumb enough to leave them open publicly, you subject yourself to too much scrutiny. I don't post ridiculous things anyway, but it's my business. I don't need an HR person rooting around in my accounts, etc, let alone the government. I'm actually annoyed that our company wants you to have a LinkedIn profile and HR do check it. To me, it's just Facebook for adults and there is nothing in my contract that states I am required to use social media on behalf of the company. I don't know about the rest of you, but we have to do yearly training on data classification and storage so we don't violate laws internationally by collecting information and mishandling it. Hubs and I work for the same company and when we got married, we only told HR, as it was a requirement for personnel profile updates, benefits and beneficiary information. We kept our work relationship professional and our personal lives at home. When my boss found out a year after we were married, she was like "why didn't you tell anybody?" and I just said it was none of anyone else's business. She knew at that moment that based on our data security policies, she couldn't say anything more than that. She could have been fired if she shared personal information that wasn't hers to share. The US, in general, is far too lackadaisical with people's personal information.
  15. Considering how much more in depth personal data protections are in the EU and UK, I can see a lot of people pumping the brakes on a visit. It's pretty invasive and some e-mail accounts, etc are corporate owned and protected, so that information, despite being required, cannot be shared.
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