Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
Canada	The Interview Process	Well that's what I was asking, if we should work on his response a little bit. My husband is VERY straight forward and tells it like it is, so I feel like his immediate response to 'why do you want to come here' would instantly be 'i don't' ...He's not really a people person... maybe i don't understand your question, this really isn't difficult. he can say "i don't" just add eight little words "but i want to be with my wife". i don't see how clarifying the "i don't" detracts from being straight forward. unless his reason is more to shut you up then to live with you... if that's the case - yeah, he should keep that to himself.	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-10-02 11:31:00
Canada	The Interview Process	why say he doesn't want to come to the u.s.? why not reframe (in a sense) the question with the answer " i want to be with my wife". i know that's the only reason orfee is here - because i'm here. i have a son from my previous marriage and even though i want nothing more than to get the hell out of this crazy place - we're stuck in the u.s. for the time being. i don't believe they ask that question to see if you're enthusiastic about the united states, they want to see if you're vested in the relationship..	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-10-02 10:11:00
Canada	Montreal Frustrations - Post interview	Tracking my visa and passport now yay congrats!	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-10-05 10:31:00
Canada	Montreal Frustrations - Post interview	whatever you do, don't ask for that passport back without that visa attached! hopefully your congress rep will hurry them along to put their hands on it. normally that's what it takes to get them to the mail room	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-09-28 15:34:00
Canada	ROC Evidence -	we've got the same evidence as you, but because we don't have joint insurance except for car and renters. i can't afford to put orfee on my insurance and he works two part time jobs, he isn't eligible for health benefits. i would think that there are plenty of people who are in the same boat as us.. hoping anyway..	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-10-09 10:50:00
Canada	Taxes and Duties on Alcohol	Hello my fellow Canadian travelers. I'm wondering if someone can help me with some possible tax & duty questions on alcohol. I may bring a small amount of alcohol to the US with me when I return for christmas next month with my husband. Given that I've been in Canada (when I'm crossing) for almost 3 months, I know that heightens the limit I'm allowed to bring back? At least that's how it works the opposite way? But I've NEVER traveled with alcohol, I don't even drink it. I will NOT be buying it from the duty free shop, and I will be driving it over. Does anyone know if I'll have to pay anything on it? Thanks! i brought back a twelve pack of different quebec brews to the u.s. and didn't pay any sort of duty. going into canada i've brought a full twelve pack and a gallon of vodka and was never asked to pay.	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-11-21 16:50:00
Canada	URGENT!! DHL opened DO NOT OPEN envelope with VISA information	I am the USC so I just contacted my Congressman's office in the city where I live. I am in Canada right now with my fiance until Sunday so if we have to make the trip, we will. Just don't know how helpful that would be with it being a holiday tomorrow. Hoping for a call back. Emailed Montreal and also put in an inquiry on their website. Something has to work one way or another. But I am seriously angry at the DHL guy opened it. I pounded into my fiance's head for 6 months DO NOT OPEN THE PACKAGE! He didnt. Someone else did. How does the DHL man think he has the right to open over people's packages? Thats what I don't get. I am not vindictive...but I am going to file a formal complaint with DHL. right?!? i wouldn't drive unless montreal gives you that option. i can't believe that dhl guy - why in the world would he open it?>! honestly, there's nothing vindictive about filing a complaint - the fact that he opened ANY package - let alone one that explicitly states DO NOT OPEN is completely insane. frankly dhl should be thankful if you file a complaint - this guy is a definite liability to their company.	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-11-21 11:02:00
Canada	URGENT!! DHL opened DO NOT OPEN envelope with VISA information	i agree with flames - get your fiance on the line with his congressman's immigration liaison. he'll have to sign an info release waiver so best to get the ball rolling now. i'd also start thinking about making that 7 hour drive. i would avoid mailing anything back to montreal like the plague. hang in there - this is just a bump in the road..	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-11-21 10:50:00
Canada	URGENT!! DHL opened DO NOT OPEN envelope with VISA information	No. Montreal is a 7 hour drive. man, the thought of sending that package back to sit in montreal's abyss of a mail room sounds risky. there is a phone number floating around here, i was able to call and speak with someone (a rude someone) back in 2010..have you searched these threads for that number? have you sent an email with the subject URGENT DHL UNSEALED MY SEALED DOCUMENTS or something to grab their attention? i was able to get a response via email - same day (again back in 2010)	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-11-21 10:37:00
Canada	URGENT!! DHL opened DO NOT OPEN envelope with VISA information	i wouldn't send it back without speaking to someone first. you're not near montreal are you?	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-11-21 10:22:00
Canada	Update on DHL/Loomis Opening Our Sealed Envelope	i agree with sweetcheeksss..my immigration liaison was the only link i had to the consulate for what seemed like the longest month of my life in 2010. try to stay positive (people saying that to me never helped me be less stressed but, what else can you do?!)	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-12-05 08:44:00
Canada	Recommend some good banks in the states.	we use our local credit union. they don't charge fees for anything and they're always personable and nice because it's a small operation. ultimately i suppose choosing a bank has to do more with what specific services you need..	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-09-26 07:41:00
Canada	AOS interview scheduled!	we don't have wedding rings or take many pictures either. we didn't have an AOS interview but rings and pictures aren't what they are looking for. with all the joint financials you have you should be fine!	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-12-23 00:16:00
Canada	Can you travel to Canada and back to the US after activating your K1 visa with Canadian passport ?	no, once you've activated the k1 you must apply for and receive approved AP before you can travel out of the US.	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-01-31 09:23:00
Canada	Reviews of POE - Champlain, NY?	Oh sorry, I definitely didn't make that part clear - no, my family doesn't know. Our little secret, although we're having our 'wedding' in March because the formality of it, and celebrating with close family & friends, is very important to me. That's what I'll do then - hopefully the mention of my IR-1 visa will curb the questioning at the booth. I'll then tell my family to stay in the car. Val, may I ask approximately how much it cost for you to truck your belongings down to Virginia? I don't have furniture or anything large to bring down with me so it's probably not worth hiring a company, I'm just curious. Thanks for the input guys! i can't remember exactly, but it wasn't more than $500..i think it was closer to $400. if i remember correctly our invoice ended up being less than the original quote. he rented a studio apartment sized container - he did have some furniture. we had a completely painless experience with upack. it was actually one of the few painless experiences we've had with this whole immigration debacle thus far lol : ) quote is free http://www.upack.com/ good luck and congrats! Edited by val erie, 28 December 2012 - 10:25 PM.	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-12-28 22:24:00
Canada	Reviews of POE - Champlain, NY?	Sounds like maybe her family does NOT know she is married. Most of the questioning (very basic questions usually) happen inside--When you drive up to the Window--let them know your entering with a CR-1/Ir-1 visa. Most likely tell you to park and then go inside....Just tell your family to wait in the car. i see, i wasn't getting that part... then yes, wantingmyhubby, take flames' advice and have your family wait in the car. no guarantee nothing will be said, but i don't think they'll question you at the window if you tell them the nature of your business right away..	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-12-28 10:32:00
Canada	Reviews of POE - Champlain, NY?	my husband crossed @ champlain - in the middle of the night. from what he told me, they knew what they were doing and it was a painless process. he ended up crossing three days before we had originally intended (i had hit a deer in jersey on my way to pick him up and was stranded in some godforsaken borough, my car totaled). he didn't cross with his belongings (we had his stuff trucked down to virginia). any way they'll have you and your family park and come in, where they'll do all your paperwork and then send you all on your way. i'm not sure why you think you'll be questioned - if there is some outlying circumstance with your case - but you are activating your visa. at this point in the game CO's aren't questioning your relationship.	val erie	Female	Canada	2012-12-28 10:20:00
Canada	Fellow Canadian VJers removing Conditions..	Hello everyone, I have to renew my driver's license in March (and obviously will not have my green card by then), is the extension letter all I need as far as you know? I know it varies a lot by States, but just thought I'd ask! Thank you! orfee renewed his monday and all he needed was the extension letter. now his license is valid for a full year, up to this point they'd only renew it for six months.	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-02-06 16:04:00
Canada	Fellow Canadian VJers removing Conditions..	Ya know..i thought i sent my marriage cert, just looked at the copy i made, and i didn't.. And i just spent the last hour scouring the instructions and guide here and no where did i see anything saying you had to send it. well, i guess i'm definitely getting a bloody RFE.. did they cash your check? if they accepted your package and sent out a noa1 i would think they don't care about receiving the marriage certificate (again). they sent my entire package back to me, never accepted it.	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-01-31 09:26:00
Canada	Fellow Canadian VJers removing Conditions..	I think it landed on the wrong desk! that's the super crazy part - they didn't even accept my packet, never made it to a desk! they put my pictures in a heavy protector, wrote some numbers on the ROC form, and stamped the check FOR DEPOSIT ONLY. seems to me like they were trying to accept it, but decided not to without the marriage certificate..maybe I got a newbie.	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-01-30 09:54:00
Canada	Fellow Canadian VJers removing Conditions..	the only thing i can think of is that we don't have the same last names...i also didn't include a copy of my driver's license because i had it stolen days before we sent the ROC off and was waiting for my replacement to come in the mail. anyway i have it now so i'll include that with the marriage certificate copy. i think i will go ahead and spend another 30 to overnight - we're getting so close! but goes to show, that's what ya get when you complain right off the bat. i should know better! I LOVE YOU USCIS - PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY THIS TIME	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-01-29 08:54:00
Canada	Fellow Canadian VJers removing Conditions..	received my whole package and check back today. they asked for appropriate fee ($590.00 that doesn't appear to be wrong), appropriate forms (only one that i know of and it was sent & signed) and a copy of our marriage certificate. i didn't include that because 1. the already have it (AOS, duh) 2. i read it wasn't necessary unless you're changing your name.. so, i guess i'm sending the whole mess back out tomorrow with a copy of our marriage certificate. i'm not sending it overnight again, what a waste of 30 bucks...	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-01-28 18:12:00
Canada	Fellow Canadian VJers removing Conditions..	I know I want to give the government just one more collection of money for my DH's citizenship. Now that ROC is over it just motivates me more to save that money and get ready to ship off naturalization paperwork asap. good luck with your ROC. Hopefully it will move quickly. thanks. i hear you about the citizenship. only i don't know how enthusiastic orfee is about filing. this past weekend he was pulled over for 'wreckless driving' because he swerved to get out of the way for a squirrel. in virginia a cop can't give you a ticket for "improper driving' only the much heavier 'wreckless' charge. so now he'll have to go to court to get the charge lessened. over a gd squirrel. for as much as he complains about america, he doesn't want to go back to canada either (i wouldn't mind at all) so i guess i'll just have to fulfill my wifely duties and nag him until he makes the decision to move forward with citizenship. i can't wait to be don't with it all..	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-01-22 09:07:00
Canada	Fellow Canadian VJers removing Conditions..	urgh. sending off our roc today, super close since his gc expires 2-8-2013. my wallet was stolen out of my car two weeks ago and i was hoping to get my replacement license in the mail in time to include it but no such luck. considering all our credit card info is in limbo (waiting on replacement cards) and we can't file our 2012 taxes till the end of the month, our package is going to be light no matter what. i guess i'll just prepare for an rfe. i'm sure the general consensus on vj is that roc feels like proving what we've already proved (some of us twice). seems silly to have to present so much evidence at this stage when it's possible for divorced or separated couples to file just the same. i dunno. i'm tired of giving the government money. done rant Edited by val erie, 17 January 2013 - 11:36 AM.	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-01-17 11:35:00
Canada	K1 Visa in Hand!	YAY!!! congrats	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-02-27 09:02:00
Canada	The Vent Part Quatre	I'm Catholic, and I believe in God, but I also am smart enough to realize that God has NOTHING TO DO WITH IMMIGRATION!!! haha vero! i try not to read such statuses because i don't want to get pissed but it's almost like they think god is reading their status updates going 'oh gee, so and so gave me a shout out on their vj status, i think its time for them to be blessed with an noa2! zap! - in the mailbox' its that same line of thinking that has sprouted up all these $$$$ driven churches, like - give every thing to god (i.e. preacher/church) and god will know you're genuine and he will bless you with a bmw, a mansion, a boat.. jeez.	val erie	Female	Canada	2010-12-15 09:28:00
Canada	The Vent Part Quatre	Seriously?! My last name is Walter! And YES!! Always. "Mrs. Walters" grrr. I find it pretty amusing we have the same last name. It's funny because my maiden name is Swords, and everyone would always call me Sword. haha. there's no escape for you ; )	val erie	Female	Canada	2010-09-17 12:30:00
Canada	The Vent Part Quatre	my last name is a different story.. it is pronounced different then it is spelled, LL in Spanish is pronounced like "ee".. so I usually have to spell it out which is kind of a pain in the butt i work for a wine importer and we do business in french,german,italian and spanish speaking countries. i've found that when we get new employees here in our virginia office who aren't sure how to pronounce something - they're very stubborn, insisting to pronounce things the way they feel they should be pronounced, instead of listening and learning the correct way. good ol'amurica.	val erie	Female	Canada	2010-09-16 10:52:00
Canada	The Vent Part Quatre	I have a vent!! The new damn dhl site that you have to sign up for now instead of bringing a evenvelope is majorly confusing. It wants me to book a interview date but I have a date already. soooo confusing, its hurting my head! grrrr ooooh, its a dhl site? jeez. what #######. do they have a help line?	val erie	Female	Canada	2010-09-16 10:48:00
Canada	The Vent Part Quatre	minor vent so I don't think my name is that difficult to spell especially when it is right there in front of you someone on Facebook responded to one of my posts and spelled my name like this, "marylynn" my SIL always spells my name, Marylin.. I am pretty sure I have corrected her before too haha. my last name is walter. and more often than not - an 's' gets added to it!	val erie	Female	Canada	2010-09-16 10:43:00
Canada	The Vent Part Quatre	Well, I mean it was Mathew's fault totally, but the mailman KNEW Mathew lived there. And it's an apartment building with like 6 tentants, and their names are on the mailboxes. It couldn't have been that hard to be like "Hmmm...Mathew Gervais....AH! Mathew Gervais! Box 6!". But noooo, he had to send it back to Montreal and we just so happened to get a hold of the dumbest Congressmans Aide alive. I felt so crappy for calling the Consulate and using the death of a US citizen as an option to get to speak to someone, but that lady was so helpful. I really believe that if it hadn't of been for her we probably still wouldn't have it. And after being told by DOS a thousand times that we were in AP, or that the visa wasn't printed has made me totally lose my faith in them having the right answers all the time. That visa had been printed and mailed way before I ever called for the first time, and we STILL got told a billion different stories. i dialed the number for the death of a citizen - but chickened out. i was afraid they'd get pissed off and throw the whole thing in the garbage and be like, uh we don't see your case number here - you don't even exist! i've sworn off calling dos, as of yesterday they were still saying we were in processing and the visa hadn't printed yet. if it wasn't for mark warner's office then i'd still be a total stressed/depressed wreck. i'm voting for that guy for anything he runs for from here on out that's for sure.. i just want to make plans for that ten hour drive to go pick orfee up!	val erie	Female	Canada	2010-09-10 08:50:00
Canada	The Vent Part Quatre	Let's just hope you don't go a month without your visa like we did after Mathew's interview. I'm sure it'll arrive soon, Canada Post kind of sucks so they may just not be updating it. girl, i know. i think i've read that thread of yours a dozen times since this began! and i thought USPS sucked Fairly often, it does NOT show up on CP!!! It just arrives at ur mailbox!! Lets hope thats the case!! i'm hoping hoping.. too bad orfee works all day and isn't there to greet the cp man! 'where you been brah???'	val erie	Female	Canada	2010-09-10 08:40:00
Canada	The Vent Part Quatre	I can't believe how much trouble you've had since the interview. That's when things are supposed to get easier, not more frustrating! I hope everything works out for you, and soon. thanks! as long as i can still get married 10/31 i'll be ok..november 27th will mark the one year of sending the 129 off. i'm really glad we decided not to get married first, seeing as how long montreal is making those poor people wait for an interview..my mom and i had an hour long b*** session last night about how absolutely crazy this whole process is! worth it, but totally crazy!	val erie	Female	Canada	2010-09-10 08:35:00
Canada	The Vent Part Quatre	That's good news, at least! it is, you're right. but we'll feel much better when he actually has his passport and visa back. as of this morning - its STILL not showing up on the canada post website.. good god, when can we be done with all this and move on to actually moving!	val erie	Female	Canada	2010-09-10 08:26:00
Canada	The Vent Part Quatre	ok, my senator called and said they printed it the 2nd. canada post has no record of it but that's besides the point. least it was printed. i take my vent back.	val erie	Female	Canada	2010-09-09 11:46:00
Canada	The Vent Part Quatre	hi. i'd like to vent. where's our gd visa montreal? at least an explanation? hello?	val erie	Female	Canada	2010-09-09 11:19:00
Canada	sole custody	since the wording on your custody order isn't verbatim, i would get the judge to revise so it meets the consulate's requirements.	val erie	Female	Canada	2014-03-21 18:09:00
Canada	August Interviews Crew - AOS Journey	i decided to check the status online this morning and apparently orfee's card was ordered for production yesterday, hot damn!   edit to say -congrats everybody Edited by val erie, 25 June 2013 - 09:28 AM.	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-06-25 09:27:00
Canada	August Interviews Crew - AOS Journey	received bio appt 2/28..	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-02-12 08:43:00
Canada	August Interviews Crew - AOS Journey	User .......... ROC sent .... I-797 Rcvd ...... Bio. App. ..... RFE .... Interview .... ROC Result...... Card Rcvd. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nickbits ...... 9/17/12 ..... 09/25/12 ........ 10/23/12 J&J ........... 12/4/12 ..... 12/07/12 ........ 01/02/13 Vero and Chris. 1/03/13 ..... 01/07/13 ........ 02/08/13 Val erie ...... 1/29/13 ..... 01/31/13 received extension letter today.	val erie	Female	Canada	2013-02-04 15:52:00