Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	I-134, retired joint sponsor	My father is retired, and is joint sponsoring my fiancé for the K-1 visa. I have two questions about my father's I-134. 1. Math word problem! My father gets income from 3 sources. His pension + social security = $x. $x + what he decides to take out from his 401(k) each year = $y. $x by itself is sufficient to sponsor (Above 125% the federal poverty guideline for a household size of dad's household + fiancé). He can provide statements for social security and pension amounts. However, his tax transcripts show his income as being $y, not $x. He would rather not provide bank statements. So he has statements to back up $x, but the only information to back up $y is the tax transcripts. For "I derive an annual income of:" does he put $x or $y ? 2. The verbal portion! For question 7. "I am employed as or engaged in the business of" Type of Business: "Retirement" (sounds better) or "Retired" (less ambiguous; 'Retirement' sounds like he may work in a company's Retirement Services division)? Name of Concern: "<The company from which he retired>" or "N/A"?	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-07-31 11:17:00
Canada	Family driving across the border to attend wedding	Hotel reservations, of course, thank you Wyatt's! HeatDeath, good point about them bringing my fiance's personal belongings. I don't think they will be since he'll already be here, but good to keep in mind. Thank you all for the reassurance!	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-01-20 11:15:00
Canada	Family driving across the border to attend wedding	My fiance's family (immediate family + grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins) is planning to drive down to CT for the wedding. He's telling them well in advance to make sure they have valid passports. If they bring the wedding invitations, and working adults bring letters from their employers, and retired adults bring evidence of a pension, they should most likely be good to cross to attend the wedding? Is there anything else they should bring? Some kind of evidence that children are enrolled in school, if this is during a school year, would a letter from the school office suffice? What if it's during summer break? Anything else they should bring that I'm not aware of? (This is all assuming no criminal records). Should they apply for visitor visas ahead of time? Should we provide them photocopies of any of our stuff from the K-1 visa process, and if so, what? I'd like to hear from others who've had relatives cross the border in automobiles to attend a wedding. Was anyone denied, and if so, why? :s Or was it fairly straightforward, with wedding invitations and proof of strong ties to Canada?	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-01-19 19:10:00
Canada	My POE Experience	Thanks for sharing your experience! Best wishes to you and your family!	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-02-08 14:29:00
Canada	Buying a vehicle in Canada that will be importable	There was 1 person that had those stickers on the car AND when they got to the border, the POE official wanted the letter! Getting the letter is not that hard for the most part! Good to know, thank you! So he'll get the letter no matter what, that's not a problem. The issue for us is that he has *no* car at the moment, so he's at a disadvantage for finding out info about a *particular* car or even brand of car. But now with the information from VJers, he has the advantage of being able to know what he's looking for when buying one. So the stickers will help at least, in locating a car for him to buy, and then he'll get the letter when he knows when he's going to move.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-03-05 09:10:00
Canada	Buying a vehicle in Canada that will be importable	(If the vehicle has stickers on the engine (EPA) and inside the drivers-side door (DOT) stating that the car was manufactured to U.S. standards, you will not need a manufacturers letter. Some vehicles are listed by make, model, and year on the DOT and EPA web sites as conforming. If your vehicle is one of those, that would also negate the need for a manufacturers letter Wow. I've seen this document before, but somehow missed these important points. Thank you, zenaxe! This is something the dealer can look into easily! =D	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-03-04 21:28:00
Canada	Buying a vehicle in Canada that will be importable	Please disregard my pessimism earlier today, I didn't know he already knew he'd have to pay duty on it. x) Ok I remember who it was now - Poprocks! LOOOOOOOOOL nice sleuthing! Here's the post, thanks! :} http://www.visajourn...howtopic=199675	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-03-04 16:55:00
Canada	Buying a vehicle in Canada that will be importable	You might consider renting a car for the duration of the visits and meetings. That way you got wheels and can just return them when your done. This was something I had suggested, and we'd decided against because it has some problems for us... but I guess we can still consider it since it may be the best available option... It seems like weekend midpoint meetings are out, then... and us being able to visit again before he moves here is looking less and less possible.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-03-04 10:10:00
Canada	Buying a vehicle in Canada that will be importable	The other thing you should take a look at - if the purchase is made less than 12 months prior to immigrating then you may be charged duty on the car even though it is personal property. That can add up to a pretty expensive addition. If this is so, then it's probably not worth it for him to import the car if he does get one. :/	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-03-04 09:45:00
Canada	Buying a vehicle in Canada that will be importable	depending on the make of the car....the letters are easy to get, or take a bit of time.... if he is worried that the car will not pass emissions test...perhaps he can request a compliance letter before purchase. It also depends on what state he is moving to as well as what the cost of import will be. Do a bit a research on VJ and on Google... Thank you.. we have done a bit of research, and found this http://www.nhtsa.dot...mvss/index.html but it's very long, we're looking for a more straightforward list that the dealer could check through quickly, if there is such a thing. We don't know the make of car yet... that's part of what we're trying to figure out, which ones would be good. The state is Connecticut. Regarding requesting a compliance letter before purchase.. again in VJ research, I don't know about other brands but Toyota at least requires the date of departure from Canada, which he wouldn't be able to provide were he to buy the car now. http://www.visajourn...h...t&p=2742916	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-03-03 22:11:00
Canada	Buying a vehicle in Canada that will be importable	A question from my fiance: There may prove to be problems with the import of a vehicle through US customs from Canada, as I will need a letter from the manufacturer stating that my vehicle is up to US standards. Are there any key areas I should watch out for, or any locations / people I can contact within the province of Ontario to have my vehicle regulated for the US standards to make this task more simple? I have not purchased the car quite yet, however I am debating on the budget because if it costs too much to import, or I am simply unable to import the vehicle, that I don't want to be stuck trying to sell a car I bought in Canada for far less than I paid, have no income, and be stuck trying to get a new car for cheap in the US, or just having no car. Can anyone refer me to a website with a list of requirements for imported vehicles to send on to the dealer? I'd like to add to this, that one reason he doesn't want to wait until moving here to get a car, is so we'll be able to get around if I get a chance to fly up to visit him in Ontario; and so we can both drive out to meet halfway for weekend visits. Edited by Kukolka, 03 March 2010 - 09:52 PM.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-03-03 21:51:00
Canada	One letter from employer as proof of ties to Canada on short visits?	Thank you both for your replies. I'm sorry we get.. hastily negative about being able to visit. We know coming from Canada is easy compared to many countries, and many couples have it a lot harder than we do. There's usually a solution, for us, to any problem that in the moment seems impossible. The Mondays wording makes sense, especially if he can get a Friday off to come here for the weekend. That sounds like a good option. Also, he realised he can get his direct supervisor to sign a letter, that it doesn't have to be the boss who signs his paychecks, so that makes it a lot easier. x)	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-03-20 11:18:00
Canada	One letter from employer as proof of ties to Canada on short visits?	Ok.. will they accept a signature that has been scanned? He never goes to the office, has never met the office lady, and very rarely sees his boss, so can't easily draft up a letter at home and ask for a signature in person (besides which only the office has company letterhead, not even his boss does). They could write up the letter and sign it, and fax it to the shop, but what he's concerned about is if they won't accept a faxed signature at the border, that it has to be a solid signature on the paper. He doesn't want to annoy his boss with multiple requests, because then he may lose his job. No one's in the office by the time he gets out of work, so driving to pick it up wouldn't work. If they leave it in the shop, somebody could take/move/destroy it. Do you think one letter for the whole duration of time he's expected to work, if the visits are on weekends, would suffice? If so, then she can send him the one letter by mail now and be done with it.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-03-20 09:28:00
Canada	One letter from employer as proof of ties to Canada on short visits?	My fiance and I know that for him to visit me in the US while the I-129F is in process, he has to provide proof of ties to Canada. His best option is a letter from his employer. I'm currently seeking employment, so we don't know whether we'll be able to visit after Dave gets a car and before I get a job in which case we could visit for a week; or if I get a job before or around the same time as he gets a car, we'll have to make do with weekend visits. (If I'm not working weekends.) Will the POE likely accept a letter that is written around now, that says he is to return to work until around September, 2010.. are they likely to accept that each time he is to cross the border? If his boss provides a phone number at which they can reach him, to verify? He doesn't want to inundate his boss with requests for ten or fifteen letters, once or twice a month... that seems a bit much. Dave will need to get the letter(s) from the lady in the office instead of directly from his boss because his boss doesn't do his own paperwork. The office lady will need to mail him the letter, because both Dave and his boss work out of the shop or field offices, not the main office. So this means we need to plan ahead. And if we plan a visit, and my job calls me in for that weekend, we've wasted a one-weekend letter. >_< And we could have a planned visit, but the letter could have gotten delayed in the mail, and ruin our planned weekend visit. If having one letter would work, that would eliminate the need to plan ahead for weekend visits. So our main question is whether or not he could use one letter for every cross-border visit he makes if it states he is to return to work until roughly September?	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-03-19 20:15:00
Canada	Questions asked when crossing border for visit after I-129F filed	Dave and I are together for a week.. we both drove out yesterday to meet halfway between where we live. For proof of ties to Canada he brought a letter from his employer, and the NOA1, NOA2, and entire duplicate packet I'd sent him of the I-129F to show we're going through the process legally. For reference, here's the outline of the letter from his employer: Re: [Mr. David Xxxxx] To Whom It May Concern This letter is to verify that [Company], from [Date] to present, employed Mr. David Xxxxx as a [job title]. Mr. Xxxxx is currently employed Monday through Friday, 7:00am to 3:00pm. Mr. Xxxxx is expected back to work each Monday until September 2010, with the possible exception of a one-week vacation, after which he is expected to return the following Monday. If you have any questions or require further information, please contact me at 519-###-#### or my cell 519-###-####. This is what the border guard asked him: - Passport? -- [handed over passport] - Citizenship? [Dave thought he was talking about a card. The guard laughed and said most Canadians think we want a card, we just want you to state your nationality.] -- Canadian. - Purpose of trip? -- To visit my fiancee. - Where are you going? -- [town where we're meeting], New York. - Where are you from? -- Ontario. - Where in Ontario? -- [named small town] - Where is [small town]? -- About [proximity to city] - Where in New York is your fiancee from? -- She's not from New York, she's from Connecticut, but we're meeting halfway in New York. - Oh OK, what do you do for a living? -- [job, company name] - [Asked to pop trunk to search it.] -- [popped trunk] - Have a safe trip, enjoy. The questioning was about 5 minutes total. He didn't ask to see any of the proof, the letter nor the petition paperwork. I was SOOOOOO happy to get the text at 09:03 "im thru border" =D That made the rest of my drive so much easier! We went to Timmie's for breakfast this morning, it was my first time even though there is one in my hometown, LOL. And today we're going to Bed Bath & Beyond for registry shopping. xD And the rest of the week.. just yay that we get to spend it together! ^^ Edited by Kukolka, 19 April 2010 - 10:03 AM.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-04-19 10:02:00
Canada	Help with P3 Plz	Hey guys, I just finished filling out all the forms for P3. What else do i have to send back with the P3? Do i have to send any passport photos, birth certificate and Criminal record? Thanks Nope, you just send back what they ask you to send back for P3. The stuff on the checklist, you bring to the interview.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-04-26 17:33:00
Canada	YAY...FINALLY	Wonderful news, Coralie! Congratulations!!	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-04-28 11:52:00
Canada	Packet 3 Montreal DS-156 photos	Thank you! Yay, Packet 3 ready to go!	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-05-11 21:58:00
Canada	Packet 3 Montreal DS-156 photos	The Packet 3 letter from Montreal says, in the list of things to gather but not send: Five identical photographs taken within six months of the date of your visa interview, each two inches square. Three of these photos will be used for your medical exam and will be requested at the time of medical examination. Two of these photos will be used by the US consulate in preparing the visa and will be requested at the time of the interview. The requirements are the same as those of Canadian passport photos. On the printed out DS-156 (of which Packet 3 requires 2 copies), there's a space to attach a passport photo. My question: Must the Packet 3 mailed back to Montreal ALSO include two passport photos, to go along with the two copies of the DS-156? And if so, must they be identical to the five photos required for medical and interview?	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-05-10 14:56:00
Canada	How do you pay duty on vehicle?	I had to go to work and couldn't find out right then; the POE is Lewiston Bridge Complex in NY. This page https://help.cbp.gov..._id/238/kw/duty is... informative but bleh (don't have debit as an option) So I called CBP today and the man I spoke to (at Vehicle Importations NY number) asked what kind of car it was, and said that kind of car would have been made in the US, Canada, or Mexico, and not be dutiable anyway. He said people entering on K visas don't need to pay duty on personal belongings, and asked if the car is in my fiance's name. He says there's no ATM at the POE. I kept badgering him with what-if's and he said if I'm that concerned about it I should be with my fiance. I thought, duh, I *want* to be with him, that's why we're getting married!! Then realised he meant be with him *when* he POEs.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-07-02 18:52:00
Canada	How do you pay duty on vehicle?	OK, thank you for your answers.. He already does know about the letter of compliance, the exact fee for it from his vehicle's manufacturer, and plans to request it soon. I should have mentioned that. I have read on this site that most people don't have to pay duty on their cars. A few have, and we want to be prepared. He may not have passed the six month mark by the time he POEs. My real question is: if he has to pay duty on *anything*, *how* do they want it paid? I don't have time to find out the POE now, will later. It's one of the ones to Buffalo, NY. Edited by Kukolka, 02 July 2010 - 04:32 AM.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-07-02 04:28:00
Canada	How do you pay duty on vehicle?	Suppose a Canadian is entering the US on a K-1 visa, and importing his car. Suppose when he gets to the border, it is determined that he needs to pay duty on his car. How do they want this paid? Cheque? Debit Card?	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-07-01 19:50:00
Canada	How Long till Packet 4 in Montreal?	How do you find out when your Packet 3 is "logged in"?	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-07-24 17:56:00
Canada	I need a DS-160 pro (Montreal)	As for the picture, I never did upload one. Well I uploaded one that it didn't accept (just a pic of a flower, because I didn't have a pic of myself on the computer lol). And then I managed to get past the picture uploading part and made it to the end. I understand that I can just bring the pic to my interview, right? Or do I need to send it in with the DS-160 and the other forms they requested? Yes, you can just bring 2 identical passport-style photos to the interview instead if you're unable to upload them. You do not need to mail the photos with the DS-160. You just need to try to upload some image in the test (like you did with the flower) and have it fail in order to get through the form.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-07-29 21:02:00
Canada	I need a DS-160 pro (Montreal)	We had loads of trouble getting access to a working printer, that's why our timeline has so long between receiving and sending back Packet 3! We'd probably have our interview scheduled by now if Montréal would've accepted hand-filled forms. They do need the barcode, it has all the information in the form encoded in it. Don't worry about any applications you've done where you didn't print the barcode, they'll only look at the one you print.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-07-29 12:31:00
Canada	Getting Interview Date?	I've been calling DOS and they've said: "Your fiancé is eligible but has not been scheduled.", Packet 3 hasn't been logged yet. Not scheduled yet. Then today: "There are no available interview dates." LOL. So I checked recent Montréal VJ timelines and saw: A batch of K-1's got their P4's mid-April. The next batch of K-1's got their P4's the last week of June. There are K-1 interviews scheduled throughout August. No one on VJ timelines yet has an interview scheduled for September. Of people who *got* their P4 in this *last batch*, the longest wait for it was 13 weeks from sending back P3. Not that we can deduce anything from this about when they'll schedule their next batch of K-1 interviews. We can stay hopeful, though.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-08-02 18:02:00
Canada	MONTREAL INTERVIEW DATE!!	Gratz!! Go Go Montréal, you can do it!	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-08-06 18:12:00
Canada	Montréal Consulate and shoes!	Thank you both for replies. Not when I went last year. That would suck especially in the winter. I was thinking the same thing! Or if you had lace-up shoes and someone behind you in line outside got though security faster because they had slides! Didn't have to remove my shoes and regretting wearing the ones I did as nobody except the other people waiting ever say them anyways! Everything is done at a window....frankly I doubt anybody ever noticed what I was wearing from the waist down (higher even, I'm short). You walk up to the window they are busy looking at papers, after you are there they look up to talk to you. I seen a lot of women in dressed in high heels and skirts...I was glad I hadn't gone to that extreme. I wore business casual, blouse, heels etc. I'd have went for the more comfy shoes if I had known, my feet were killing me after walking to the consulate and being in there for hours and then walking back. hehe, I'm short too. I may wear a skirt anyway, but based on your experience, I'll wear comfy shoes. :]	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-07-17 11:06:00
Canada	Montréal Consulate and shoes!	I haven't seen this in reviews and yes I obsess over every little detail! 1. At security at the US Consulate in Montréal, do they have you take off your shoes? If so, is the floor there carpeted? 2. As far as I can tell, everything past security happens at one window or another--is this correct? (If so, it would follow that no-one who's going to pass important judgment on you is likely to see your footwear anyway!)	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-07-17 09:53:00
Canada	Completely Terrified about Monday	So many reviews of Montréal say the people there are really nice and the interview itself was quick and easy. Nervousness and nightmares are understandable, totally normal. You are well prepared, you'll do fine. After your interview you'll wonder why you ever worried.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-08-07 11:35:00
Canada	DS160 Questions....	The OP is asking about the field where the DS-160 only accepts a numerical value and days/months/years like Erin said. My fiancé put "90 days", because that's the length of stay allowed on the K-1 visa to either get married or depart. The form where you answer this question by typing in words is the DS-156.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-08-10 10:27:00
Canada	I was denied...	LOL Vero, I knew it had to be a joke! Gratz!!!	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-08-09 19:00:00
Canada	How did you meet?	Ooh, now I don't feel so badly about writing a long story. I enjoy reading these threads, too. Over the summer of 2007, the coworkers I ate lunch with started getting really into this MMORPG called Rappelz, talking about almost nothing else. So in August I finally decided to try it out, but I soon discovered a 10GB HDD wasn't big enough for both the game and WinXP (all my other computers were running Linux). But I'd already gotten it in my head to try Rappelz--just try, mind you; I had no idea whether I'd like an MMORPG. Being extremely stubborn, I went out and bought a 160GB HDD. Left to myself, I would've made a healer first, but my coworkers needed a tank in their parties, so my first char was a Knight. A month or so later, I made her little sister, a Cleric; Kukolka. One day when level 20-something Kuko was farming just outside town, I recognised the name of the Chaos Mage riding by as someone my coworkers had mentioned, who used to be in the guild my chars were in at the time. Bartuc was kind of famous for being one of the highest level chars on the server, so when I said hi, I didn't really expect him to acknowledge some random noob. But he turned around and came back to buff me. I was impressed. :} I think the next time we talked was when I saw his photo on the player picture thread on the Rappelz forum. I thought, "dang, he's hot!" and messaged him in-game, "Wow, you look like an Asura irl :-o" (Asura is the race of his char, they look like goths. All chars in this game are built like swimsuit models, so it was a compliment without being too obvious.) In January 2008, he confided in me, and I said if he ever needed to talk, I'd listen. This was still all in-game chat. In March 2008 I made a video of Rappelz. A player who liked my video invited me on his guild's Ventrilo (voice chat) server. Who else was on vent? Bartuc aka Dave! =D He didn't talk much (mysterious silent type, lol), but I kept talking to him and trying to get him to talk. I liked Dave a lot, but convinced myself it was just that my character had a crush on his character. One day while driving and listening to Emily Autumn's "Shalott", the idea for a video came to me, the complete video from start to finish, featuring Bart and Kuko. I was sooo nervous to ask him to help me film, but he was happy to help. As a bonus, I got to spend time with him in his private vent channel. After that we talked every day, often alone. I was planning to move from New York to California in May and wanted to meet Dave before I left, but that didn't work out. So I moved, and over the next three months we became best friends. Sometimes I thought about what would happen if he quit the game. Would I ever hear from him again? The thought that he might just disappear from my life made me very sad. In August 2008, Dave told me he was thinking of quitting. I asked if he would help me with one last quest before he left. He asked what quest? and I typed out a quest given by the "ghost" of my Cleric, for resurrecting her, in the style of the quests in the game. Bartuc completed the objective of the quest, and I completed my objective: convincing Dave not to quit. A well-meaning mutual friend thought Dave and I wouldn't work as a couple, and told me I shouldn't try. Have I mentioned I'm stubborn..? Since this isn't a "chronicle our entire relationship" thread, fast forward through becoming a couple in June 2009, to the first time we were able to meet irl, in October 2009. We met in the baggage claim of SFO Airport. My first impression was, he was adorable; taller than I'd pictured; and *very quiet*. I thought, "Does he always speak this softly? I've always had his volume turned way up in vent..." It turns out that was just a side-effect of the noise of the airplane, and we had a good laugh about that later. At first I was also worried he wouldn't like me enough to want to stay the whole week. We got lost trying to leave the airport, then went to Chipotle Mexican Grill for lunch. Within half an hour we were so comfortable, we felt like we'd known each other in real life for years.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-08-08 13:23:00
Canada	Shoutin' from the rooftops!	Gratz! =)	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-09-03 19:53:00
Canada	Any good news on Interview Dates?	Sometimes Montreal takes a month or more to actually log your P3. So unfortunately you could actually be in the September group. Best to call DOS and find out! C'est vrai. According to Canada Post, our P3 was received 17 May. According to DoS, it was logged in on 2 July. >_<	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-09-04 20:47:00
Canada	August Interviews in Montreal - K1	So nice to see all these 'Approved'! Gratz, all!	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-08-26 17:21:00
Canada	Question about online scheduling for interview	Ahh, thank you! The "Continue" was missing form the guide I wrote up 2 hours after the fact. I knew I must've missed something! Maybe someone can go through the whole process *not* rushing and write up a real guide to be sticky'd. ^^	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-09-17 10:16:00
Canada	What is this new Montreal online scheduling thing about?	Snags = choose "Permanently Immigrate to the US (Ready to Schedule)" instead of K-1 visa. You will also need to pick the DHL branch where you will go to pick up your passport. List of branches is here: http://csc.public.s3...L_Locations.pdf	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-09-16 17:08:00
Canada	September Packet 4 recipients - BEWARE!!	Did any of you pay the 350$ fee before schedualing your date? No, K-1 applicants are able to schedule online without having paid the fee; we still bring it in person to interview.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-09-17 08:59:00
Canada	September Packet 4 recipients - BEWARE!!	ooo now what? the next available date came up for me as well which wa oct 13th 8 a.m, i never got the calendar and I dont remember another page to cofirm the appt.? what do i do? should i try it again? Helppppppppp...i knew i got over excited...ooo gawd more stress! Thanks guys If you didn't get the calendar and didn't get an e-mail it sounds like you didn't really get an interview date. Log in and try again.	Kukolka	Female	Canada	2010-09-17 08:54:00