ForumTitleContentMemberSexCountryDate/Time
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

AOS is finally going in the mail today. Back to worrying about whether I did everything properly or not... :wacko:


Woo, congrats! :)
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-12-15 11:19:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
Pocheros: :( I'm so sorry to her that, what a crummy thing to happen at the holidays. *hugs*

Went to the Social Security office today to change my name... and the lady didn't know how to do it. She called over another guy who said I couldn't do it without EAD which I pushed back on and they said they'd have to ask their supervisor who wasn't in... so they photocopied all my stuff and said they'd call me later. Sigh.
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-12-13 12:22:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

The guy had a serious attitude problem. He said since I am 'not in the system with my married name' as I hadn't sent out my AOS papers yet that there was no way I could put it in my married name. I think this guy just didn't want to do it for me., or he just didn't know and didn't bother asking. I did ask him if there was someone else he could ask about it, he just said 'Are you implying that I don't know how to do my job?', which made me tear up (because I am a baby). So now I have to make another trip down there once I get my EAD so I can change my name, and waste another 3 hours sitting and waiting.

s&c1, I am in Maryland.


Maybe try again with your NOAs and hopefully get less of a jerk?

and I would've teared up too. I totally cried at biometrics when they started getting on my case about the name stuff, so I'm all red-eyed in the picture. *facepalm*
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-12-12 16:12:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

Wow that does suck ralyse!

I just sent mine out last Wednesday and it was SUPPOSED to arrive on Friday. I guess cuz it is Christmas it is taking a bit longer. Mind you, I got notification that it is currently out for delivery and should arrive today! *crossing fingers*

I did have an issue with my SSN though. I thought when you applied for it after marriage, you could get it in your married name, which is why I waited. I didn't have an issue getting it on the K1, just in my married name. Is that normal? He said I have to have my green card or EAD card to get it in my married name.


I saw someone mention they took their NOAs for AOS with them, since those showed the married name? That's what I'm going to do tomorrow, take the NOAs and the marriage licence and hopefully get it changed.
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-12-12 15:23:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
We sent a certified check from the bank too, its fine! :)

And yeah, given that I did POE in August and didn't file AOS until nearly 2 months after we were married, I hear you on the expenses thing. Husband's car crapped out and pushed our AOS back longer than we would've liked.

As for the name thing... just ugh. I guess it comes down to our officiant being wrong about what name I was supposed to sign to the marriage licence, but truthfully It just looks like I signed "Laura C" and then a squiggle, so it could've been *either* name... We're going tomorrow to change it on the SSN so hopefully if they *do* issue the green card in the wrong name, I can gt it changed? When I called USCIS they seemed confident it would come in my married name, but I'm just not sure at all... ugh.

At least they're reviewing our RFE now? :)
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-12-12 13:39:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
Just once I want something to go smoothly that's supposed to. Had a big kerfuffle at biometrics today and now USCIS can't tell me for sure if the idiot supervisor has ###### up which surname will be on my Green Card. (Details are on the AOS forum but basically its stupid)... Between the stupidity I went through with my medical and this I'm wondering why its the supposedly easy parts that keep going wrong for us? I don't want my green card issued in my maiden name, I want it in my married name and I did everything properly to make sure it would be yet some idiot supervisor at the ASC here may have screwed everything up.

*headdesk*
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-12-09 15:30:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

So how many sent in the AOS without the 1-693? I am going to chance it by just sending in the DS-3025 and pray it will be fine..


We sent without it!
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-12-06 22:31:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
Just got the hard copy of the RFE. They want proof of my mother in law's citizenship since she's our joint sponsor. So we're going to stop by there tomorrow, photocopy her passport and birth certificate and get them in the mail. So relieved it wasn't the medical, you have no idea...
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-12-05 15:16:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
We're marked on the site for getting an RFE on the AOS, we'll have to see what it's for, I suppose. Hopefully not the medical stuff :\... haven't even had biometrics yet.
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-12-01 16:22:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
Got our biometrics letter today, December 9th :) My birthday is the 16th, so I was hoping to have it done before then as a present :D
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-11-19 17:56:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

I'm so confused. :lol:

I have no other vaccinations to get. I've received everything except what's "not age appropriate" .. I even got the second MMR shot. What do I need to do? I was under the impression that my vaccination history and DS-3025 would be fine, but now it won't be?


That's what I though, and that's all I attached... we'll see what happens, I guess.
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-11-15 16:43:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

The fees! No wonder so many people immigrate illegally. And the daunting paperwork...ugh! I got word that they got my AOS pkg and I should receive word in 7 - 10 days. Sure didn't take them that long to cash our check (notice, American spelling) though!!


Ugh the fees. That's the main reason our AOS was so delayed, as soon as we had the money we had to replace the radiator in the car!

And can I just say the I-864 is easily the most confusing thing we've filled out in this entire process? At least, I think so!
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-11-15 16:07:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
Finally got the NOA emails tonight for AOS. I was starting to worry!

How's everyone else faring? Let me know if the chart needs any updates :)

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ralyseFemaleCanada2011-11-14 18:32:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

Did you file your AOS in your maiden name as well?


Nope, married name. I read some threads here that it's a lot easier to just change the name on the SSN afterwards, so that's what we decided to do.
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-11-08 17:24:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
I looked into this and filed with my SSN in my maiden name. I'll change it when I get my Green Card.
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-11-08 13:59:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
I hope it's just me, that's all I sent! :P
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-11-03 14:22:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
We finally sent our AOS today! The stress of delaying it was making me crazy, oh my god. We had some fun times with my husband's car and some expenses there, but it's finally sent! It feels really good to feel like things are moving along again, but I'm back to being super paranoid I did something wrong on the forms, alas.

I know I'm missing some dates here, so let me know and I can update accordingly:

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ralyseFemaleCanada2011-11-02 11:11:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
I think this is as up to date as what we have in the thread, so if anyone can let me know if I'm missing any info? :)

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We have not yet filed, even though the finished package is sitting on my desk. Just needs passport pics and, yknow, the cheque... ;) I'm hoping this week.
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-10-18 10:31:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

I haven't really looked at AOS yet because we won't be filing it till late November/early December :( And 3 weeks later I'm still waiting for my SSN because I wasn't updated in the system yet (even though I waited two weeks after POE) and they sent a request to USCIS >_< When I suggested we wait and come back in a few days the SSN lady insisted it wouldn't be any faster... Hmm I'm starting to doubt that! I'm wondering if Toronto Pearson is really slow sending out the folder that you give them at POE (because they send it to USCIS, right?) So I'm without health insurance till then...

I had so much luck with everything earlier in the process so I figured it finally caught up with me :lol:

Just a quick question, for AOS is a photocopy of the marriage certificate acceptable, or do they want an actual "official" copy of it?


I've read it's best to send an actual certified copy so we're sending one with the AOS packet... it was only 11$ to order from the country clerk and we got it two days later, so that made that decision easier.

And that's silly about your SSN, I say go back! I must've gotten a girl with experience with K1s or just generally good at appearing to know what she's doing because she had no questions or confusion and processed me really fast.
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-10-14 00:52:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
I'm still worrying about my medical/vaccinations and wondering if its worth it to find a civil surgeon to transcribe the vaccination sheet... Everything I've read in the AOS forum seems to imply people often get RFEs over that... but on the other hand, I really don't want to spend the money if I can avoid it.

Argh.
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-10-14 00:16:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

Tentative wedding date is October 25th. It all depends on if we get our rings back from being sized in time!


Oh, ring sizes. My husband's seemed a little big to me when we got it back at the end of August. I asked him multiple times if he thought it needed resizing, he kept insisting no. He wore it around the house for a day and claimed it was perfect, so I dropped it. What happens the day after our wedding? His ring slips off while we're opening presents at his mom's place and in front of a dozen friends and family, we have to go through the garbage bag full of wrapping paper to find it! It's now out being sized down :P

And my mother in law's printer just ran out of ink about 50% through the AOS stuff so I'm sitting here waiting for my husband to finish helping her with her garden so we can go get more, sigh.
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-10-13 11:33:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
FInally doing AOS today and I have a couple of questions.

When it refers to the DS-3025 for vaccinations, is that the "Vaccination Documentation Medical Worksheet Two" that was on the outside of my medical? Under results, the following is checked off for me: Applicant may be eligible for blanket waiver(s) because vaccination(s) not medically appropriate (as indicated above)" And "not age appropriate" is selected for some of the vaccinations. Is this all I have to submit? It doesn't have a form number written anywhere on it.

This is probably really stupid... Where did you find your Non-Immigrant Visa #? On my visa there's a number in red that's printed overtop of the end of my husband's name so I can't really read it too clearly, is that it? or is it the "Control Number" at the top? (Which is basically just my case # with 0001 on the end)
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-10-13 10:12:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
Glad to see some people have gotten their AOS filed!! :D We have to wait a couple of weeks to save up before we can send ours, but I've been looking at the forms. Seems easier than the K1 stuff, at least?

CONGRATS to Coconuts & Sherrybaby for making their long-awaiting POEs! :D

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(Let me know if I've missed any updates!)
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-27 13:18:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
I'd be wary about sending originals of *anything*, really... but hopefully someone else will chime in here. We're going to need to save for a few weeks before we can file AOS so I'm procrastinating on looking into that stuff. Which is a terrible attitude to have, but after stressing over the wedding for so many weeks I'm giving myself a small break, at least :)
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-20 13:32:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

Oooh! Can I be part of this? I, like coconuts, have had my visa for a little while approved May 4th), but due to other responsibilities (overian cyst surgery ugh!) I had to hold off on my POE, which will be Sept 25th (a day before hers). It would be awesome to follow along with a group for the AOS process as I am at a loss!


Of course you can! I've updated the graphic :)

Sure we'll add you! Or rather Ralyse will once she is a Mrs. I'm sure she has a busy weekend ahead of her :)


I had a fabulous weekend! Aside from my husband forgetting his shoes and delaying pictures while someone ran around to get them, everything went really smoothly and we had a wonderful time. I'm really tired and never want to do anything like it ever again, but it was a fantastic time! :) I hope the rest of you have as (relatively) painless weddings/celebrations as we did :)

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ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-18 22:37:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

Hey guys, how are y'all doing? I was without a computer for a few days- I missed it here :) Finally made my POE on September 9th and we're getting married on the 17th :D No wedding but it'll be a relief to finally sign the papers. One year from now we can all celebrate our anniversaries together in a new thread :D Congrats coconuts, that must've been a grueling four months but the wait is almost over. And congrats to everyone else!


Congrats on your POE, pocheros! And yeah, it looks like a bunch of us will end up with the same anniversary :) I'm wishing we weren't bothering with a wedding, but that's probably the stress talking. I can't imagine organizing and planning a big one! (My fiance's sister is getting married in June, 300 person guest list. I just... I can't even imagine trying to figure that out. We have 50 and I'm stressed.)

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ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-13 09:22:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

Sure! Wasn't an August filer, but my POE is around the same time because of stupid responsibilities .. :lol:


Well, you're POE-ing around when we do, so... honourary it is! :D Have to say, I doubt I could've been that responsible once I had my visa... congratulations on the restraint!

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ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-11 19:41:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

I'm glad you guys are doing this :) My POE is in two weeks, wedding nearly right after, so I'll be glad to have people to follow who have recently been through it.


Want to be an honourary part of our group, coconuts? Timing is about right :)

(I just realized the image says 2001... fixing, LOL)
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-11 17:12:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

Can you add us please? Our interview was August 29.

We don't have a visa yet, but POE is hopefully going to be 9/20, as our civil ceremony is tentatively scheduled for 9/29 .. and we will be filing AOS immediately after.

Thanks!


Updated! :D I hope your visa shows up promptly!

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ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-11 11:36:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

Psst - we were actually married on the 10th. :)

Other than that, though, I love the chart!


Haha, whoops! Updated it :) Congratulations!! :D
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-11 11:28:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

I'll hop in wherever y'all decide to start posting. :)


Allrighty, I'm shamelessly copying last year's August thread and stealing their chart. I filled in everything for those who've said something, if anyone else from around August wants in just say so! And correct me if I got any dates wrong, I stalked people's timelines :) Just an image file of the spreadsheet for now, too scatterbrained to format it for the forum right yet.

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ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-11 05:13:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
I saw Tileeka mention it on last years August AOS thread, but we should totally do an AOS thread for everyone our little group! Or just continue it on this thread.

Thoughts? :)
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-08 18:28:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

We had our on Monday and didn't get an email like that. The visa site isn't even showing a Status Update that the passport was picked up in Montreal!

Should I be worried (my biggest fear is being stuck in admininstrative processing!)? Did anyone else not have an update show up until it was actually available for pickup at DHL?


I never got an update on the site at all, I wouldn't worry yet!
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-02 13:52:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

Yes, apparently they're are new threads to check now..like "moving here" ...got so use to the K1 thread, didnt' think anything else existed :blush:


I still love this thread though, we should keep it alive :)
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-01 23:08:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
Well, August is over and I'm glad to see aside from some delays we all got approved! :D Lots of POE and AOS stuff to deal with now, though!
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-09-01 18:07:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

i did my poe last week at the rainbow bridge had to wait 5 hours but once i got in it was only about half a hour to do the k1 and import my car. I waited too long to get the letter from GM and there was a recall notice on my car I had to take care of the day before I moved so yall should do that more in advance lol other then that it all went well. I went to get my SSN today and they told me I had to wait 10 days after my POE :unsure:


Yeah, ten business days for SSN is what I've heard. We're going tomorrow morning to get mine, hopefully!
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-08-29 19:20:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

He is finally home with me! :)

We crossed yesterday at the Ambassador bridge in Detroit. It was kind of busy so we had to wait for about an hour but otherwise everything went smoothly. The only thing he was asked is if he was considering that to be his official move and when we were getting married. So glad this is over even though it feels like the stress is just beginning. :blink:


Congrats!! :D
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-08-29 14:57:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!

As several of you know, we talked of a Vegas wedding. The logistics made sense as it's cheaper to fly my adult children there and I didn't want anymore stress in our lives....this whole process was stress enough. Then Jeff suggested Disneyland (LA) as he and his kids love it there. We toyed with that. Now that the dust has settled and we've enjoyed our 18 days of bliss together, it looks like we may be doing a small wedding afterall (and his mom's comment about wishing everyone could be together for it...gotta love guilt lol). We own a beautiful home in Washington with a perfect courtyard for a wedding. It looks like he's going home to freshen some paint, possibly build a gazebo and let the planning begin! lol We're looking at an October wedding (trying to coordinate 4 adult children is not an easy task) and possibly themed. As of this hour, we haven't chosen the them yet, but costumes are abundant that time of year...I may see the bride of Frankenstein in my future hehe.

All I know for sure is the calm in my soul now. We've been 'married in heart' since the day we met and this is a mere formality... so we're going to have some fun with it :)


Oh that sounds awesome! Absolutely let us know what you end up doing!! :D
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-08-26 16:41:00
CanadaMontreal August 2011 Interviews!
We're more than halfway through August, I've got to ask the K1ers amongst us: What are your wedding plans?

We were initially planning on marrying as soon as possible and doing a reception or first year anniversary party or something else separately. Alas, my fiance's family joined forces with my roommates and convinced us to have a small wedding. Fortunately the timing worked out, though I fought tooth and nail against confirming dates in case there was some sort of horror-story situation getting my Visa back. (Don't plan until Visa in hand and all that). So on September 17th we're having a small ceremony/reception combo at a hotel with my fiance's friends and family here in Grand Rapids, some of my friends driving over from Kitchener (since I'm so fortunate to have only moved 6 hours away) and some of our friends from the site we met flying in from a few places (which is a huge surprise, I'm so touched!). All told, it's turning out to be 50ish people, which is so much more than I ever imagined we'd be able to do in our situation.

That's just us though and I know my situation is a lucky one all things considered. I'm curious what other people are doing for their weddings? :)

Edited by ralyse, 19 August 2011 - 12:56 PM.

ralyseFemaleCanada2011-08-19 12:55:00
CanadaAHHH DOS

call back and if you get the same lady, ask to speak to a supervisor. Some of the government workers seem to forget they are there to serve us.


Yea, if you get her again I second this. I'm a call centre manager and that sort of attitude is completely insane, you at least have a better shot of "true" information if you speak with a supervisor/manager. (If DOS even has an escalation process, sigh.)
ralyseFemaleCanada2011-06-14 15:51:00