mam521

We moved Kid1 into university residence in Alberta last Sunday. She was in rough shape, dealing with significant and severe GI issues. I nearly didn't get on the plane to come home. Her father did finally take her to the clinic and they got her fixed up...temporarily. She had another attack on Tuesday last week and ended up having to miss some of the orientation stuff she really should have been a part of. Things seem to have settled somewhat, but she is on a lot of medications and has been in contact with her GI here in TX to make sure everything sounds kosher. We returned Tuesday, only to head to the vet on Wednesday with our oldest cat. She had suffered with kidney disease for a couple of years now, but she was in full renal failure and I had to make the heart wrenchingly correct choice to end her suffering and help her across the rainbow bridge. She was my black n tan Siamese with giant marble blue eyes that purred like a Mack truck. I was her chosen person and we really were besties. I'm missing her purry head butts for pets and insistence on offering love bites when she wasn't being sufficiently worshiped. Terrible couple of days...both my 18 year old girls had to leave me in the same week. At least one will be home in November for a visit. Monty, the anime cat, is lost without his dominatrix telling him what to do. They had an interesting relationship - she took the mickey out of him a couple of times to put him in his place when he assumed he'd join the household as head cat. These were full on, Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner dust cloud battles with paws and clumps of fur rising from the fighting fury. He learned and accepted this role, but now he's wondering where the Boss went. The other boy cat isn't so bothered, probably because he moved into Kid2's room ages ago to avoid Monty the Monstesarus being a total jerk to him.

The face of her business is going to change once she has a little person to contend with. If you sit down and run the hard numbers and factor in things like cost of living, insurance (OOP vs NHS), and your salaries relative to that cost of living, how does it factor out? Can she afford to be off while she has the baby, afford the baby and afford you since you cannot work until you get married, apply to adjust status and for employment authorization and receive said authorization? You will be home with the baby, which is great, but is it something that is truly manageable? What is the contingency plan should something not go as anticipated with the pregnancy? My colleague just unexpectedly delivered her little man, via c-section, 6 weeks early, this past weekend. Luckily, she is in a country that offers proper maternity leave, so she is well looked after and her baby is too. Work colleagues are scrambling because they thought they essentially had a month for her to hand off activities. If your partner ended up in a similar situation or babe ended up in the NICU, is that manageable? Pregnancy is not typically grounds for an expedite, especially when the petitioner is the American living in the US. I'm not trying to sound pessimistic, but immigration is not fast, cheap or for the faint of heart. So much planning needs to go into it. I realize she'd be facing similar considerations moving to the UK, but honestly, as a person that had 2 kids in Canada and was able to take a full year of leave, I wouldn't change it for the world. The time I had with my kids to have them hit all the first year milestones and to not have to put them into daycare and expose them to all of the germs was a dream. It also taught me to slow down, enjoy them and realize the days might be long, but the years really are short. The US is very much a rat race when it comes down to work-life balance. She may have a real opportunity to join you and see "the other side" of things.

Didn't realize Kid2's lunch bag was still in his backpack from the end of school in May. 🤢 If you have anything requiring homegrown penicillin, I've got you covered...

The rules have changed a lot in recent times. I was able to self import my vehicles a couple of years ago, but many Canadian manufacturers won't issue a letter of compliance anymore and the registered importer thing has been pushed pretty hard since post covid, especially so in the last 2 or so years. The tariff thing is just more fuel on the fire.

Many things make no sense. When we started my GC process, hubs was a LPR. When he became a citizen and "upgraded" my petition, suddenly the kids, who were included as derivatives on the F2 application, needed their own I-130's. So, we go from one application, one fee with derivatives to needing 3 applications and 3 fees. If you actually take a step back and look at it, citizens pay more fees for some of these "privileges". It's bizarre. So, given how screwed up some stuff is, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't actually recorded in SAVE.

You can get scat mats on Amazon that may be just what you need. We got some clear ones. The initial shock taught Monstersarus to stay off of the counters. He eventually learned that the ones on the upstairs cabinets were more like a bed of nails...if you put even pressure on them, you could actually walk on them. But, it certainly helped!

But even $5K is a lot when you're already traveling from abroad. Maybe less so for Canucks and Mexicans because of proximity. I dunno...I suppose this could be argued as a put your money where your mouth is because many visas have the caveat of you're supposed to have access to $10k or around that amount to prove you can survive when you visit. What's another $5-10K on top of that?

Get Miu soft claws. See if there is a vet tech that will come to you and put them on since I know Miu isn't real pleased with pawdicures to begin with. The tech can trim the murder knives and then apply the nail caps.

Not targeted at all...🙄 I get it - reduce visa overstay, but wasn't this administration just crying that tourism is down and the financial impacts are being felt? Las Vegas is REALLY hurting. This certainly isn't going to help if it expands further. I'm surprised "mean and nasty Canadians" aren't on that list, too 🤭

This. How did you come to the US in the first place? How old were you when you naturalized? How much time did you spend in the US, including discontinuous time? If you fill out your timeline, you'd avoid many of these questions. https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=482876

Exactly this. But I also think that history may prove invaluable if the OP chooses naturalization in the future. This is so bizarre that the records are needed because it's nearing Rocky and Bullwinkle Fractured Fairy Tales status!

When you checked for the I-94 history, does it show how you entered on that date, last year? If you still have an I-94 record, I'd definitely download that history, print and archive because you'll need it in the future. Also, don't forget to file your US taxes now!

You do not. Make sure you look at the instructions for the I-9 form if you do land gainful employment and haven't yet received your SSN. Some HR departments don't understand the instructions which state you can begin work without it. Good luck!

@mopekmez you can avoid some of these questions if fill out your timeline here: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=468693

So....have you remembered to do this yet today?

Food for thought, but why a K1 versus a CR1? Takes a longer, but it's cheaper in the long run and means you enter the US with a greencard in hand, able to travel freely back to your country, should you choose, and able to work, get a driver's license and really begin your life.

A quick google search says a MRIV is, but my inference was to the fact that it is affixed to a passport, which definitely serves as proof of identity.

No. Your endorsed I-551 in your passport serves as proof of identity and status for up to a year. You can get a SSN with it.

As @OldUser said, expect 90-120 days. If you don't see it after 120, submit an inquiry. Ours took closer to 180 days and one of the 3 were incorrectly statused. When you do receive the card, check it over for any errors - spellings and status. If anything is incorrect, file an I-90 immediately to have it corrected. It won't cost anything as long as the information provided to the DOS was correct at the interview.

What's NEXUS got to do with your K1? FYI - some airports have interview on arrival. If you're flying into HNL, they have that option. Another option is to go to a Trusted Traveler office at the airport and do your TT interview. You don't have to be traveling per se. You can do it after you enter the US on your K1 - like, later date entirely. I don't know where you're leaving out of Canada, but chances are it's a major airport and you'll use your K1 there. If HNL is your final destination, I'm guessing you'll potentially connect in LAX or SFO. They also have Enrollment on Arrival. So, plenty of options to get the interview done and sorted.

I suppose with the citizens vs naturalized or derived citizens. But, a birth certificate is a lot cheaper. SAVE exists, so if the authorized acceptance agent can verify your identity and take a copy of the original certificate, there's no real reason to provide the original for it to get lost/stolen/damaged. Those people should be or, perhaps, could be required to be notaries. No passport reps at mine or the kids' ceremonies. I think you're right about the post covid slim back. I had to get an expedited passport as I had travel within 2 weeks of the ceremony. I had to call DOS and they basically said you have to suck it up and go wherever we have Passport Office appointments. Luckily, they had one in Houston but I did have to waste 2 days of my life in the Passport Office. It was nice to have my certificate back in hand because I needed it to update my NEXUS (apparently my passport wasn't good enough?). The kids we did through the Post Office and the agent stapled my CoN. I was NOT happy. They weren't supposed to and that was reaffirmed at the kids' CoC ceremony. The USCIS agent and judge cringed when I told them that's what had happened. Technically, the certificate should be replaced because it's supposed to stay pristine, or so I'm told. That's a nope from me.

I found it intriguing. I think another challenge is wording. "Evidence of" and "proof of" are not the same thing. So you get a passport - the DOS says it's evidence of, not necessarily proof of citizenship. Is it a loophole for the government to get outta dodge? So strange. In general, it is interesting to me that there's still a lot of "manual steps" one must take after getting citizenship. It doesn't make sense that, if SAVE exists, that I have to go update my status with the SSA. My kids also have to be done separately. Same with my state DL - they use SAVE verification, so why do I have to turn up with these documents to update my status? Work authorization - same thing. Proving identity, sure but if the status is in the system....

At some point, most people find their status says "refused" at some point. This is while AP is taking place. It doesn't apply to only those that have received a 221(g). As for the social media - the applications have been asking for that information for a long time now. Many years. It seems to be investigated more thoroughly now though. The bigger issue is your fiancé is a dual national of 2 countries that are under additional scrutiny. The approval will likely come in time, but the AP checks will dig into the past as well as the present. If he was missing documents, then yes, it will come after those documents have been reviewed.

Congratulations and good luck with the move!

Food for thought - what about her coming to you? I can't verify, but it looks like typical spousal visas are 8-12 weeks for the UK. Courthouse wedding and apply. The US has non-existent maternity benefits and she'd have to go back to work pretty quickly. That's tough. You could still apply for a CR-1 for the US in the meantime.