mam521

We like Hawaii. My preference is Hawaii Island (the Big Island). It feels more authentic and less touristy than say Oahu. We usually stay on the way less touristy Hilo side, but plenty to see and do on the Kailua-Kona coast. The last time I was there, I coffee tasted across the island. It was lovely

Wait until as close to the expiration as possible to activate if you have things to tie up. Remember, as soon as you activate that greencard, you are subject to US taxes. If you sell your Canadian home, the capital gains will be taxed from the US side. Canadian investments like TFSA's are subject to taxation in the US. It's in your best interest to speak with a cross border accountant to manage these things in advance of activating your greencard. You may find the plan to save more actually negates itself.

Probably 5 months until an interview! Good luck getting your preparations underway

K1 is a fiancé visa. You still have to get married, pay to adjust status, pay for work authorization, pay for travel authorization and wait for a long time to get a greencard in hand. You can't work or travel outside of the US and are completely dependent on your partner until work authorization is issued. On top of that, you'll have to wait to remove conditions. CR1 or spousal visa will allow you to apply, go through consular processing while in Ireland, still working, still making money, and with time to make proper plans on how you intend to enter the US. When the time comes and you do enter the US, you will already have work authorization and be able to travel cross border freely. If you haven't yet been married for 2 years when you do cross with your visa, you will still have to remove conditions. You could do a quick courthouse wedding to get the ball rolling and plan a ceremony and reception at a later date. You guys have to factor in things like has your fiancé filed US income tax for the last 3 years? Who will be your financial sponsor? How are you going to take care of business back in Ireland if you can't travel? What property do you need to dispose of back in Ireland? What job does your fiancé have in the US to support the 2 of you? Where are you going to live? Do you have enough savings to pay first and last months rent and utility hook ups in the US? How are you going to afford health insurance in the US? How are you going to afford a vehicle and insurance in the US? Does she have a bank account and a positive US credit history? Et cetera... From what it sounds like, in your current situation, you are together, you're working, you're living life in Ireland. With a CR1, you can remain together, save money, plan a proper move and be prepared. Most people who come from western countries who are used to independence have a really hard time becoming 100% dependent on their partner. This can become taxing on the relationship and possibly lead to it breaking down. Immigration is not cheap, fast or for the faint of heart, so you really should take the time to consider everything before diving in head first.

Your premeditation of her coming and adjusting status is immigration fraud. Do not do this. Mexicans already have it hard enough. You do not need to draw additional scrutiny to her immigration case. If her plan isn't to come for a year, why not get married and start the process immediately. It takes about 2 years, all told, but then you're half way through your initial plan anyway. Consular processing will take longer, but it will ensure she enters the US with greencard privileges in hand, can participate in unrestricted travel in and out of the US and she can get a job and work straight away. A K1 (fiance) visa may take less time, but it it will mean she cannot travel outside of the US until her AP is issued, she cannot work until her work authorization is issued and will ultimately end up costing you more money. You will be required to provide your income tax returns for the last 3 years, irrespective of whether or not you have a joint sponsor. Please get your tax situation sorted out before you get too carried away.

That's the thing...some of these appliances aren't actually that difficult to repair!

Perhaps self employment/contractor work?

I did it through MyUSCIS account and I think it was case inquiry because the last update was a "card will be issued" and nothing more. When they issue the card, it will say that and then you'd have a case for non-delivery.

UGH! For real? That's so strange!

Yep. Verifying your identity, making sure you are who you are and that there isn't someone else with the same name that's done dodgy things. Verifying your that biometrics match. It's more challenging for people who come from countries where public records keeping is poor (think Pakistan, for example) and where people can frequently have the same name. You should help the community out by filling in your profile : https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=485696

This drives me absolutely bananas. I was in there last week, on the hunt for meat and of course, there were 3 of them parked right in front of the meat cooler I needed into and during peak hours of the store. Really, that personal shopping should be an off peak hours thing because it ruins the store experience. That depends if you can actually get in. We have passed the one in Madisonville a couple of times where the lineup on the offramp to get into the place is backed up all the way onto I-45. Hard pass. I'll mosey on up the road to Centerville, make a pit stop and hit Woody's to buy jerky that Buc-ee's would have charged 3x the price for. I'm perturbed that I have to go into Houston proper to hit a Central Market. They carry St. Viateur bagels, direct from Montreal, under some exclusive agreement. The regular, old HEB's don't. It makes me sad. Hawaiians would be proud!

The waiver is issued by USCIS. Interviews at the Consulates are handled by Department of State. Logically, you'd think they work together, but yep...that's not necessarily the case. That may also be why the CO was confused by your process and not adjusting status - lack of familiarity due to it being a USCIS jurisdiction, not DoS. Everyone goes through some degree of AP. Hopefully yours is short because you would have had some sort of AP after the K1 interview and before that visa was issued. As others said, it's a good sign they asked to keep your passport. Hopefully your IR-1 will be issued soon!

If you do have short term coverage, I'd recommend finding an insurance broker that understands the plans and can shop for you. Navigating it all can be challenging and then you have relentless solicitation calls and e-mails from the companies that will continue to annoy you long past the time you've chosen a plan. A talented broker will deal with that garbage and break your choices down into something palatable. I'm sure you've seen the jokes about "we're calling about your vehicle's extended warranty" - yeah, you get the same for health insurance, too.

I call BS. The Bosch dishwasher I had was the biggest POS on the planet. The thing never washed the dishes properly and even though it wasn't recalled, it had one of those junction boxes that tried to set my house on fire. The only thing that was arguably good was that it was quiet. My parents also had a Bosch dishwasher and complained relentlessly about it. It didn't do a good job washing. Now, we replaced that headache inducing Bosch with a KitchenAid (Whirlpool) and it's miles and miles better, equally as quiet and actually washes the dishes! It dries them, too! The LG washer and dryer have been fine other than we had to replace the water inlet valve on the washer last month. It was a $20 part on a 12 year old washer. I don't think this "fine, quality" Texas water does any favors for appliances here, either. Our Samsung fridge has the busted ice maker but whatever. I don't have the fight in me to get them to come replace it. We put a 24" Insignia (Best Buy) fridge into the laundry room for drinks like 2 years ago. Not sure how it will do, but the price was right. We had a KitchenAid gas stove in Canada when I was on immigration hiatus and it was awful. The oven didn't keep temperature and was uneven. The KitchenAid fridge hated the freezer being greater than half full. The Samsung laundry pair there was horrible about twisting up clothes and bedsheets. I've never had such issues before. We recently had an LG TV go out. It started with continually losing it's connectivity to the internet, then losing the passwords for Netflix and Hulu and then one day it just black screened. It was 6 years old. Things are just industrial engineered to the n'th degree and brought down so dramatically in cost that it's cheaper to chuck it and get a new one. Honestly, it's sad and wasteful to me. Despite apparently being cheaper to chuck, I don't believe it's actually cheaper for the consumer to replace things every 10 years. But, that's how they get you...refuse to repair and force you to buy new!

I was coming to say exactly this. Get the Titres test done. No need to try and muster up jabs if you don't actually need them. Narrow the list and go from there.