mam521

Sorry to hear you're having so many challenges with your mom. It's always tough to deal with aging and decline. It seems she had a number of items in place already to help deal, but it's still a strain, as prepared as one might think they are.

Fingers crossed! There's US election dates for a bunch of States on Nov. 7th, Veteran's Day on the 11th (many places will observe on the 10th) and Thanksgiving on the 23rd. You might face some additional delays as a result.

Unfortunately, this is why you're told not to get rid of your living arrangements or make travel plans until your passport is in hand. If you read back, there was someone who waited nearly 2 years to get through the process.

Good luck! You'll be fine. The test seems daunting, but most immigrants are more versed than a number of Americans as a result of the civics test!

OMG, right?!?! US Politics is a farce at the moment! Yes, McHenry is the interim Speaker of the House.

Relatively speaking, 5 months between DQ and interview is a long time. The majority of consulates, it's like a month or 2 max. Montreal, despite being a neighbour consulate, takes a long time. It doesn't make complete sense, but it is what it is. I do feel really awful for all of you waiting. Like I said, we'd prepared to be in Canada for one Christmas, but ended up with a "bonus" second Christmas. The CBP and CBSA agents would just shake their heads because hubs had flown all of our Christmas tree decorations in extra baggage home after our first Christmas, anticipating we'd all be reunited at our US home, only to turn around and have to haul them back. It was disheartening, but we made the best of it. We took advantage of being able to go tubing in the Rockies (we were in AB), took a lot of photos of the beautiful snow capped peaks and the evergreen trees blanketed and tried to really soak in the White Christmas. The snowless Christmases in Texas where you can bbq in flip flops on December 25th is a bit weird when you've always had snow growing up. We tried to cherish it because it would inevitably be changing - it's easy to get hung up in the negative, but it's also important to live in the moment and find the small wins and silver linings.

If you enter on an L1, yes, your wife could still petition to adjust your status to a spousal visa. You mention family. Do you have children?

Please fill out your timeline: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=459088 Echoing @Rocio0010, more information required. Simple answer = every person needs their own I-90, IF I-90 is applicable.

As for everyone else, I know you are disappointed with the whole process here because Montreal is traditionally one of the slowest Consulates around. I was stuck in that cycle. I had to move from our family home in the US back to Canada and ended up with a "bonus" Christmas in Canada when our case took forever (as in 634 days forever). I was extremely lucky though as I had an interview on the last week the Consulate would offer interviews before cancelling all remaining interviews for March which turned into more than a year, thanks to covid. In hindsight, it was a small blip in time compared to the rest of our lives. The silver lining here is you can potentially travel to visit your spouses or them visit you during the holidays. Immigration is a privilege, not a right and sometimes we have to find the strength of patience we didn't know existed to navigate this challenging time. As a person who's made it through to the other side, it's finite. I promise. Even if you can't see it now, it is.

You can sell a car that has been properly imported. You cannot sell a car that has not been imported; you'd have to take it back to Canada. You should help us help you by filling out your timeline https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=460059

If you have full custody of the child, yes, you can bring her to the US. As stated above, your wife will have to submit a petition for you and another for your daughter.

Just an interesting musing for people who might be interested. We filed Kid1's I-90 when they turned 14, as required. This was nearly 3 years ago. We received Kid1's new greencard in the mail on Friday. The expiration date has been extended from 2030 to 2033, too. They won't need the 10+ years as we'll be applying for US passports in December after the kids complete some international travel next month. It just surprised us because we hadn't given it much thought! Kid1 is happy because biometrics meant an updated photo and although it's not super updated, the difference from the original to the most recent is pretty huge! The later is definitely more representative. Hopefully said child won't be disappointed in their passport photo 😂

Why is it untrue? CBP can essentially do whatever they want. Can they take your greencard? No, not unless you sign it away. But when they scan your card and look at what's on the screen, they have many options. They can see how long you've been out and whether or not you've keep your in "valid" status. If they don't like something, they can give you a NTA or they can send you to ICE if they think you've committed a crime or spent too much time in high crime areas. They can make your life a headache. You're still "just" a permanent resident and while you're afforded more rights than a visa holder, you're still not a citizen. Even naturalized citizens could, under extreme circumstances, have their acquired citizenship rights stripped.

Myanmar isn't the only place to travel. What if you want to take a vacation to London? Hit Mexico for a quick, all inclusive luxury weekend? Bump across the northern border into Canada? AP is required to do any of those things.

No need to question the maths - Kid1 is doing Pre-Calculus and Kid2 is doing Algebra I.

If Mini-TB has an iPhone, it can 100% be controlled down to an app level. Kid2 has no self control when it comes to technology. Said child, despite being a teen, has screen time limitations. iDevices are limited for certain hours BUT, even during those hours, we can specify certain things to be accessible. Text messaging to specific contacts is always available. Calculator is accessible (no homework excuses). Things like that. Was his homework finished?

Well, there's bad, grandma'esque scented grossness or craptacular scented grossness. I don't care for either, but doubling it up makes it 1000 times worse!

I find the lightweight stuff gets tracked even worse than the regular! Is there a lightweight one that isn't scented to high heaven?

If your mom was issued her I-551 and went through the US border, had it stamped and returned to Canada, her greencard has been activated. That endorsement stamp in her passport indicates she is a US permanent resident now and as mentioned, her Canadian social benefits may have been ceased and she'll need to look at purchasing health care and other coverages. The expiration date on that visa itself doesn't matter once endorsed - she is a permanent resident of the US and the endorsed visa serves as a temporary greencard for up to a year. If she plans to be outside of the US, she needs to apply for a re-entry permit to remain outside of the US for any length of time beyond a visit. If your mom hasn't yet entered the US, that expiration date listed should be 6 months from her immigration medical or interview, whichever came first. She will need to enter the US before March 2024 to activate her greencard, irrespective of whether or not your father has made it through extended AP. The unfortunate reality is that immigration sometimes separates people. Your mom may have to come to the US without your dad until his AP is sorted or you file a WoM and a decision is made. It's challenging, but it's not an unheard of or unusual part of the immigration process.

You have to factor in other repercussions of flag poling. The whole idea of a green card is to become a permanent resident of the US. You activate that visa, that is the assumption by both the Canadian and US governments. Depending on the province you live in, you forfeit your provincial health care and other social benefits provided by the Canadian and Provincial governments because you are a permanent resident of the USA. If there's a reason to flag pole, go for it, understanding there are consequences. If it's just so you activate - I'd wait until you're actually moving. You can work in the US with your stamped visa while waiting for your SSN. You can get on with life as intended. If you need a bank account, I'd look into cross border banking and open an account and get a US credit card account prior to even leaving Canada through one of the Canadian parent banks that offer the services (RBC and TD have comprehensive packages).

We don't do allowances, either. Case by case basis - you work (we had Kid1 tiling with us last weekend - said child learned how to use the wet tile saw), we'll pay. Lazyitus is a real thing though! I was ready to make a bathmat of the Siamese last night. Hubs sent me to bed early because I was falling asleep on the sofa. Bad cat apparently didn't appreciate the choice for dinner so was in, annoying me until hubs came to bed. She will "love bite" hands and headbutt. I'd be just about in a deep sleep and she'd wake me up. I wasn't conscious enough to figure out what was going on and assumed it was her being a lovey pain because we were in office rather than WFH yesterday. She's lucky I love her!

I have an old skool LR3 (before the LR3 Connect). It doesn't like too much litter and it likes it's catchment drawer emptied 2x a week. Otherwise, it has a battery back up when the power goes down and just chugs along. My friend bought a LR4 and it's quieter than the 3, but my chonk cat probably would refuse to use it because the opening seems smaller than the LR3. I contemplated "upgrading" but the reviews are either you get a 4 and it's perfect, or you get a lemon. My Siamese is 16.5 years old and the Batcat is 14 and has kidney issues and LR3 is still working fine, so I don't know that I can justify the cost. The other issue seems to be if you have a litter "digger", the liner is easily torn. Mine have been digging in this liner for forever and I have just noticed a tear recently. Not too shabby for the amount of use it's had between the kitty pair! I had a Smart Scoop box before and it pales in comparison to the LR. It's better than nothing, but a lot of headache. I also had an Omega Paw Roll n Clean litter box and I didn't mind it for a manual box. We still have it in case we have to travel, if that says anything. Any other litter box has been tossed. I've never tried the crystals. I'm sure these boomer jerks would reject them because cat.

My friend had a Devon Rex (Canadian cat, actually, interestingly enough). She says her current cat is a Devon, but he's a Cornish Rex and a lil weirdo. His nickname is Stinky - because he's the smelliest pooper there is! When she got him, he actually had ringworm and had to have lime baths. He was outfitted with a "sweater" aka a modified sock with holes cut for paws because he was such a little dude. Confession time: with the LR3, I rarely dump the litter. It cleans after every use and I know it goes through the litter because I add the equivalent of one of the 4 bags that come on the Costco 42lb flat (10lbs) per week. There ain't no litter that sits there for any length of time for me to justify a full dump. That and the bloody cats track probably half a pound of it in their damned paws because why walk across the litter tracking mat when you can leap over it?!

If you guys fill out your timelines, it's helpful to others to better assist you.

Because it was on arrival, you're probably going to have to wait then, until the card arrives unfortunately. People with a machine readable IV visa in their passport can. I don't know if the SSA can do a SAVE Verification for your kiddo or not. That would be the other way they can verify status.