Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
Canada	Medical Review - Calgary	Hey.... Good idea, Cassie... Thanks, Lance!!! Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-07-05 08:49:00
Canada	Medical Review - Calgary	Well... Picked up the Medical Packet today for all 3 of us... no issues there. She phoned me up indicating that they were ready for pickup, but there was a catch... I thought to myself "Oh... now what???" But all she needed was for my oldest to come with me and sign the documents, since he's considered an adult. Even was able to look through it and see what I was signing... in fact, my son was even more thorough in checking out the immigration document before signing than I was... Those xray envelopes are so large and unwieldy... don't even fit in my briefcase!!! Scott. Next step... The Interview!!!!! B)	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-07-04 19:14:00
Canada	Medical Review - Calgary	First of all, some background.... I have a 15 year-old who it totally fearful of needles... For his hep B shots for school, had to pretty much sit on him the first shot, and very much coerce him to get his second and third shots... So, when I heard over the phone from Dr. Viljoen's office from his medical assistant that he didn't have to go for blood test, I was ecstatic!!!! Even planned my day around that.... to say nothing of having the proper cash on me based on this... However.... Let me explain.... June 15th - Made appointment with Dr. Viljoen's nursing assistant. June 29 @ 1PM. I asked to confirm the price and if there was GST on the price. The price would be $260/Adult and $140/Child. She told me both boys would be considered children, so the boys at $140 each = $280 and me at $260 would be $540 with no GST. But it could only be cash. They don't accept credit cards for Immigration medicals. June 26th - Received phonecall from the nursing assistant (I don't know her name, and she wasn't wearing a nametag) of Dr. Viljoen asking if we could move the appointment up a day to June 28th at 12PM. Sure, no problem, I say.... June 28th - Day of Medical appointment. All 3 of us showed up at noon. Sat in the waiting room for about 10 minutes. The nursing assistant calls us into a small room with a computer where she, doing each of us separately, took down our particulars, asked for our AHC cards, asked for our passports, and then vaccination records. As she's updating this on her computer, she's doing a lot of copy/pasting within the immigration document (Word Document). She took the boys and checked the weight and height of them and just took my info from the driver's license. Also, as she was doing each one of us, we were told to stand on the opposite end of the small room and read from the eye chart. All in all, for 3 of us, it took about 45 minutes in this small room (imagine doing this with 2 bored boys...!). While we were in there, I asked her how many Immigration medicals they do in a month, and her response was "Oh, we do about 4 a day. We're booked right up until the end of July with Immigration medicals." Anyways, she put each of the boys in separate rooms where they had to remove their clothes for the medical check. In short, Dr. Viljoen goes into each of the rooms and does the check on the boys. After doing the oldest, Dr. Viljoen comes up to me and tells me that my oldest will have to do blood tests and xrays. I tried to explain to him how it's worse than pulling teeth to get the oldest anywhere around needles, to say nothing of his nursing assistant told me he wouldn't have to do the blood test and xray. Dr. Viljoen says, the choice is either he does the tests or he doesn't go... nothing like a good bedside manner here.... Leads me to think that he does this "on the side" and it interferes with his normal business... Now comes my turn. His nursing assistant tells me that I need to take pants and underwear off and to sit on the table. She digs out a big paper blanket for me to use then leaves the room. Twenty minutes later, Dr. Viljoen comes back apologizing about his delay, and then says "oh ya... forgot that I have to do something". He grabs something out of the fridge and disappears again. Ten minutes later he returns and completes the medical checks on me. Once again, with these delays, I now more firmly believe he does this "on the side" and is inconvenient for him. Once I'm done, we all head up to the wicket to where I'm told that I need to pay $660.00. Uh... what? I was told $540. Nope, the oldest has to be considered an adult since he's 15 and therefore has to do the blood test and xray. I only have $540 cash, since I generally use debit or credit for any purchaes. She says, well you could put $120 on Visa, which was fine with me. Of course, I'm thinking to myself, why couldn't I just put all of it on Visa??? GRRR!!! I then handed her the photos... in fact I wonder if she would have forgotten them if I didn't offer... Now, my intention before this day was, as soon as I was finished at the Dr's office, I'd just head over to Calgary Lab Services, Glenbrook location, as told by the Dr's office and do the blood work. And as I provide IT support for CLS, as well, once I was done that, then I would do tickets that I have for there (one of which had to be done that afternoon). Now, I have a 15 year old that has to go there, and it would be considered unethical to bring the boys to work... employers don't really like that sort of thing. Anyways, I drop the boys off at home and went to CLS Glenbrook to do the tickets. Talked to the management there and arranged for a specific person who deals with reticent young teenagers the next morning to do my 15 year old. June 29 - I managed to drag my oldest son to CLS Glenbrook mid-morning where we got our blood drawn for the blood test. Other than the dragging him to the lab, he was done quickly. We then went to the Radiology Associates place to get our xrays done. Well... low and behold, the Dr's office forgot to fill in and sign my oldest's son requisition form. They can't process him until they have a signature from the doctor, but "beware, this doctor's office isn't known to be quick in sending faxes" and "they don't always answer their phone". Joy... (all the more reason why I think this is a side business for this doctor). They were able to contact the doctor's office and were given the promise it'll get done right away. Figured in the meantime, I could get myself done. So, I was done in 5 minutes and we ended up waiting another 30 minutes before the fax came in with the properly filled out requisition. My oldest was done within 5 minutes of receipt of the fax. Now we wait for the packages... So... in summary, as I've mentioned before, this seems to be a sideline for Dr. Viljoen. The way that the nursing assistant copied and pasted in this Word document, it's a wonder that they don't miss more details in their requisitions and forms for Immigration. Maybe my views are tainted somewhat by the frustrations of getting my son to do the needles, but it seemed to me that the medical offices of Dr. Viljoen are not run that well. He's probably making more money through the cosmetic surgery and spa side of his business, hence the more resources for that side of his business. I also think that if they have a macro in Word that prompts for fields (eg: Passport number, AHC number, Vaccinations, auto-dates, etc) it would cut down on the amount of missing details in requistions and Immigration documents. Maybe my expectations are too high, but.... Anyways.... hope this helps others in Calgary... Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-06-29 22:07:00
Canada	Pembina POE?	Glad he made it fine.... sorry to hear about no EAD stamp, though.... No.. I'd be going down through Lethbridge and the Sweetgrass/Coutts crossing.... Scott. Edited by mr_s_p, 05 July 2007 - 07:10 PM.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-07-05 19:09:00
Canada	Pembina POE?	Please do let us know if they give the EAD stamp there.... If so, then it would be more worth it to comtemplate travelling from Calgary to Winnipeg before crossing.... Since we're going to SW Kansas anyways.... Detroit was just too far away to entertain that thought..... Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-07-04 19:31:00
Canada	The Time Approaches.....	The fiancee and her son have been up from Kansas since last Wednesday, minivan is reserved (3 boys in the backseat of my car for 10-12 hours each way.... not an option!), interview is slated for Wed, July 11th at 1PM... Work today, pick up an accordian folder to organize the paperwork, fiancee needs to make some photocopies, pack tonight, pick up the minivan tomorrow morning and start driving... Looking forward to the trip!!! I just wanted to thank you all (y'all? ) for taking the time to help others out on this journey by posting your experiences here.... These "real time" experiences are much better way to go than anything an immigrantion lawyer can do to prepare anybody for the visa in my opinion... Thanks, again, Scott	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-07-09 09:09:00
Canada	Calgary Herald today Immigration Cartoon	LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There's some truth to that!!!!!!!	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-05-29 19:12:00
Canada	Calgary Medical	That was about it for the medical... I did mine a couple of weeks ago here in Calgary. Scott. I wasn't in the room, so can only surmise what was being done from what my husband told me. quick blood pressure, listen to heart and lungs, quick poke at liver and spleen, and millisecond grope of the testes. the medical is so quick that if you were trying to hide some condition, you'd probably succeed. it's just another pointless hoop to jump through	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-07-14 06:56:00
Canada	Vancouver Consulate Review	Yeah, well... I was always lead to believe that a Certificate of Canadian Citizenship is the same as a Birth Certificate, particularly since I was born from Canadian parents visiting France... so it never occurred to me that it would not be good enough for Immigration to the US purposes... Oh well... It shouldn't impact my timeline where I'm intending to cross the border August 11th. Scott. Well, we had the interview last Wednesday... sorry I didn't post sooner, but was busy driving back Thursday and Friday was busy as well with errands and such, and this morning dropping my fiancee and her son off at the airport for their flight home (otherwise I wouldn't be up this early in the morning on a Saturday!!! ) Interview was on July 11th at 1PM, we were there at 12:35PM. It was very hot in Vancouver but where the consulate doors were, it was nicely shaded, so when we were told that we'd have to wait, it was no big deal. There were 2 other gentleman there, who I found out later that they were there for K1 as well. So, we went through airport like security... I made sure the boys didn't bring their electronics and that I left the cell phone and other prohibited items (Leatherman tool) in the van or hotel. We all made it through security no problems, even my USC Fiancee's son had no problem. I expected problems here as his passport still had not come before they came up from Kansas. We were escorted to the elevator and the guard ensured that we were going up to the 20th floor. Once there, we had to go through the security routine again, the metal detector even more thorough (I had to remove my belt this time) and let in through a locked door and told to sit on the 4 blue chairs. The first booth is where they check all the paperwork for completeness and such. They were just doing the first K1, he was finished about 10 minutes after we were sitting on the blue chairs. Then they called the other gentleman where that took about 20 minutes. Then came our turn. Well, this is where I found out that the Canadian Citizenship Certificate is not the same as a Birth Certificate. However, I had a Birth Registration form from France with me where I was actually born (I was born in France by Canadian parents, my father whom was with the Canadian Forces posted to NATO). You could have PM'ed a VJ Canuck by naturalisation (such as myself) to find out that last part. After all the paperwork was ascertained, we were told to sit in a larger square waiting area adjoining the 4 blue chairs and that the interviews were to start at 2PM. We got to talking with the other K1 people there. It was about 2:45PM when we all were told to sit on chairs in front of another set of interview booths, and the first gentleman was called up. He was up in the booth for about 45 minutes while they were working through some problems. Then I was called up. I mentioned that there was another gentleman who was here before me, but the interviewer told me that I should come up as I would be done quicker. So other than the standard questions and asked to show some pictures of us together, which he was getting answers from a conversationalist point of view, what came out of the interview is that my fiancee needed to get a certified copy of a court order regarding a previous marriage and that, while he was ok with not having to worry about the translation of the french birth certificate, the people at the border may have issues with it not being translated. So, since I would have to get that court order from the fiancee, he might as well mandate that there would need to be a translation of the french birth certificate. At the conclusion of the interview, he gave us our passports back. After the interview, we were told to go to the first booth and wait for our names to be called, and this is where we were told how to do the logistics of the actual submission of the abovementioned paperwork and passports to the Consulate. So, in summary, we weren't told we were denied, and the general feeling that I get, is once this paperwork is submitted, then we'll get the passports mailed back to us via prepaid expresspost envelope with the visas in them. The boys, my 2 boys and her son, were well behaved, though all were very bored. Still, it's an exercise when there's 5 of us there as a family. There's not even a lot of reading material, like magazines and such, at all. The people were nice in the Consulate, the interviewer was doing the conversationalist route, but I could tell that he's steering the conversation to answer the questions he was seeking the answers to... Hope this helps. Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-07-16 08:56:00
Canada	Vancouver Consulate Review	Well, we had the interview last Wednesday... sorry I didn't post sooner, but was busy driving back Thursday and Friday was busy as well with errands and such, and this morning dropping my fiancee and her son off at the airport for their flight home (otherwise I wouldn't be up this early in the morning on a Saturday!!! ) Interview was on July 11th at 1PM, we were there at 12:35PM. It was very hot in Vancouver but where the consulate doors were, it was nicely shaded, so when we were told that we'd have to wait, it was no big deal. There were 2 other gentleman there, who I found out later that they were there for K1 as well. So, we went through airport like security... I made sure the boys didn't bring their electronics and that I left the cell phone and other prohibited items (Leatherman tool) in the van or hotel. We all made it through security no problems, even my USC Fiancee's son had no problem. I expected problems here as his passport still had not come before they came up from Kansas. We were escorted to the elevator and the guard ensured that we were going up to the 20th floor. Once there, we had to go through the security routine again, the metal detector even more thorough (I had to remove my belt this time) and let in through a locked door and told to sit on the 4 blue chairs. The first booth is where they check all the paperwork for completeness and such. They were just doing the first K1, he was finished about 10 minutes after we were sitting on the blue chairs. Then they called the other gentleman where that took about 20 minutes. Then came our turn. Well, this is where I found out that the Canadian Citizenship Certificate is not the same as a Birth Certificate. However, I had a Birth Registration form from France with me where I was actually born (I was born in France by Canadian parents, my father whom was with the Canadian Forces posted to NATO). After all the paperwork was ascertained, we were told to sit in a larger square waiting area adjoining the 4 blue chairs and that the interviews were to start at 2PM. We got to talking with the other K1 people there. It was about 2:45PM when we all were told to sit on chairs in front of another set of interview booths, and the first gentleman was called up. He was up in the booth for about 45 minutes while they were working through some problems. Then I was called up. I mentioned that there was another gentleman who was here before me, but the interviewer told me that I should come up as I would be done quicker. So other than the standard questions and asked to show some pictures of us together, which he was getting answers from a conversationalist point of view, what came out of the interview is that my fiancee needed to get a certified copy of a court order regarding a previous marriage and that, while he was ok with not having to worry about the translation of the french birth certificate, the people at the border may have issues with it not being translated. So, since I would have to get that court order from the fiancee, he might as well mandate that there would need to be a translation of the french birth certificate. At the conclusion of the interview, he gave us our passports back. After the interview, we were told to go to the first booth and wait for our names to be called, and this is where we were told how to do the logistics of the actual submission of the abovementioned paperwork and passports to the Consulate. So, in summary, we weren't told we were denied, and the general feeling that I get, is once this paperwork is submitted, then we'll get the passports mailed back to us via prepaid expresspost envelope with the visas in them. The boys, my 2 boys and her son, were well behaved, though all were very bored. Still, it's an exercise when there's 5 of us there as a family. There's not even a lot of reading material, like magazines and such, at all. The people were nice in the Consulate, the interviewer was doing the conversationalist route, but I could tell that he's steering the conversation to answer the questions he was seeking the answers to... Hope this helps. Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-07-14 07:33:00
Canada	Vancouver Interview 12 July	Sounds like you got the same guy we did... our interview was July 11th, day before yours... Slightly darker skin, has glasses... very slight accent, though I couldn't place it. He was very thorough in our interview, as well, and it sounds like we got away relatively unscathed with just an french birth certificate translation (of which I'm still waiting on) and certified copy of a court order from my fiancee... Don't worry... all will go well... Scott. Hi everybody. I had my interview last Thursday, 12 July, but still don't have my visa in hand. The interview itself took me longer than I expected. It lasted about 30 minutes, and I was asked a lot of questions - about how we met, when, and then what, when we decided to get married, what do we like about each other, what I did when I lived in my country, my education, details of my job in my home country, why I came to Canada, when, where my son is, with whom, what I do in Canada, when I applied for my permanent residence in Canada, about my previous 2 marriages years ago, why I am sure that this one will be better, why we decided to be in US and not Canada, if I met his parents, when, if J had siblings, if I met his brother, if I ever was refused entry to the US, what J does professionally, how often we visit each other, how we decided to get married if we don't know each other well enough (we know each other for about 3 years and met about every second month last year and we lived together for 2 weeks, then for 1 month, when I was visiting the US) . The officer asked me to show him pictures of us together, and was asking about other people on the pictures. I am glad I had pictures together with J's parents and a picture of him and my son together. Didn't ask to see any emails or letters or phone bills or plane tickets or boarding passes or hotel receipts, which I had tons of. Didn't ask for a fresh letter of Intent or NOA2 copy, or any J's documents except for documents to do with finances. They took everything I had about finances though, I-134, 167, letter from employer, letter from the bank, tax returns for 3 previous years, recent paystubs. I don't know why my interview was so long, but maybe because I am not a Canadian citizen and not even a Canadian permanent resident, I've been in Canada on a work permit for 3 years and I was refused a tourist visa like 4 times before they finaly gave it to me (refused all 4 times because of insufficient ties to home country), and I was divorced before, and my son is in Russia right now, and I changed my last name twice. Though I never overstayed anything anywhere, or broke any laws, or anything like that. I was well prepared with all copies and translations except for one thing: my son's father's notarised consent that he didn't mind my son moving to the US. I didn't have it as they didn't have it on the checklist, and my son is not even in Canada now, and we will not be applying for his visa in Canada, but in my home country -right away. So I thought I would need everything regarding him later. At the end of the interview the officer finally said it was alright, and they gave me 221g saying "insufficient information" and scary "additional administrative processing" and the list of documents to bring, which consisted only of the consent and the passport, and the letter was dated incorrectly, like a month ago. They also gave me my passport back. I spent half a night calling Russia to get the father's consent - it had been ready, and the next day I got a copy of it by email and translated it at a translator and brought it to the consulate. They took my passport then and told me to wait for their phone call on Monday, which is today. They told me that the visa should be ready Monday, or Tuesday at the latest - didn't mention anything about administrative processing. Nobody called by 2 p.m. today so I called myself and was told that the visa is still pending, that they will call tomorrow, or if i don't hear from them, to come tomorrow by 2:30 to pick it up. I am just trying to breath in and out and calm myself, I have a plane ticket for Wednesday, the day after tomorrow, 7:45 a.m. But we decided with my fiance that there is nothing really alarming, they took my passport, don't need anything else from me, said it is alright, told me to come tomorrow even if i don't hear from them...	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-07-17 21:44:00
Canada	Calgary's Broo-ha-ha over Support our Troops Decals	Just to give you an idea, I'm ex-Canadian Forces... The point of the decals really has nothing to do with whether the war is supported or not, it says "Support Our Troops"... where on it does it say "Support the War in Afghanistan"??? As someone pointed out, the Canadian Forces personnel are over-worked and under-paid for the amount of risks they take, to say nothing of the toll it takes on family members, I've been there, done that. Also think of the after deployment, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental ailments that afflict the troops after a deployment such as like Afghanistan. This is not only hard on the peacekeeper, but also hard on the family, as well. Bear in mind, these Canadian Forces personnel who participate in peacekeeping duties are also the same people who help civilians out when there are national emergencies or natural disasters and such. Personally, my thoughts are... If you're a patriotic Canadian, then you should support our troops. Thanks, Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-07-26 20:01:00
Canada	How did you guys meet?	Ah!!! We're also talking about engagements, too, eh??? For about a month before we (My boys and I) went down to Kansas for Christmas, my lady, Kris, and I were perusing engagement ring websites... We were going to go the fiance(e) route, but had not formally proposed yet. Generally, we were going to go through the motion of putting the I129F application in for the K1/K2 visa, not really thinking about the actual engagement process. She really wasn't expecting me to do anything about it, what with some impending costly financial endeavors still to come later in the new year, and such. Anyways, last November we're going through engagement ring websites (ice.com, zales.com, etc), of which she would say "this one's nice", "that one's nice", "I really like that one". Anyways, while she was going through rings on the websites, she was always coming back to this one ring on zales.com, of which, there was a Zales Jewellry store in Liberal (a small city in SW Kansas). So, about a week before we were to fly down there, I phoned Zales in Liberal. They didn't have this engagement ring in stock, but they were able to order it in. So, the following week the boys and I flew down to the US and a few days before Christmas, I was able to borrow Kris's vehicle and drive to Zales, where I bought the ring (Ouch!!! When you think about the conversion between CDN and US dollars, a big hit there). I wrapped the ring up and placed it in with the electric blanket that I had also bought for her for Christmas, which was also wrapped. Just a reminder at this point, no one knows that I have done this.... not my boys, not her kids, nobody!!! Christmas morning comes... family gathering... her daughter, Monica, and boyfriend, as well as her son and my two boys all in the living room, her daughter is video-taping the opening of presents. Kris is ready to open the electric blanket. I indicated to Monica to video-tape her unwrapping the electric blanket. I tell Kris to open it up, see what she thinks of the blanket. She opens it up and this small wrapped box falls out... Well.... you could hear a pin drop!!! The whole room was silent. She opens up the box, and then I get on my knee... "Will you marry me?". She broke down, started crying, and said "Yes!!!!". So, this was a very special Christmas for all of us... Scott	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-06-10 23:06:00
Canada	How did you guys meet?	She was coming up to Banff on a trip she won through her business, bringing her son. She was on Match.com, I was on Date.ca, both websites owned by the same company. She messages me out of the blue (I was a the top of the list when she searched for guys in Calgary) wondering if she can drive rental cars in Canada on a US license, but was also saying how she hates driving in strange cities. See, her son loves WWE wrestling and by coincidence there was a WWE RAW tournament here in Calgary that weekend and she wanted to surprise him by taking him to it. So, figured rather than having her paying lots of money to rent a car and such, I decided to play tourguide. So I showed her the sites of Calgary, and oh ya, won big brownie points with her son, too!!! From that point forward, we clicked very well with each other, fallen in love and we've been visiting each other 4-6 times a year for the last couple of years. So, there's our story. Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-06-10 20:41:00
Canada	The Move...	Yeah... I'm having issues adjusting to the heat... Liberal... 3+ hours west on the 54. whereabouts in Kansas? i'm here in Wichita, sweating my a** off (by the way, hope you enjoy heat!). i am SO glad we have a/c; with temps well over 100F every day the past couple of weeks, i hope yours works well too. welcome!	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-08-14 23:54:00
Canada	The Move...	Whew!!! Don't scare me like that...!!!! Yup.... have I-94s in all passports! Congratulations on your entry and safe arrival. Hmm, if they forgot to charge you the processing fee, they did remember to put the I-94 into your passports, right? The one that gives the 90 day validity date?	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-08-13 21:32:00
Canada	The Move...	It has been a very busy 3 weeks... giving notice at work, arranging for a friend to buy the house, packing the items I'm taking and selling/giving away/turfing the items and furniture I'm not. So, as a result of the packing, selling the house, arranging for the move, moving and dealing with issues in the house that was discovered after my friend arranged to buy it, it has been very busy these last few weeks. So busy in fact that I wasn't really able to check VisaJourney on a regular basis. I tell you... at 41 years of age, I'm not as young as I used to be when it comes to lifting boxes and such <ouch!!!>... So, I rented a 5x8 U-Haul Trailer and had a hitch put on my car. Hitch was installed Monday, August 6th and picked up the trailer Wednesday, Aug 8th. Packed the trailer Thursday and Friday, worked my last day of work on Friday and left in the late afternoon... crossed the border at Coutts/Sweetgrass at about 7:45PM Friday evening. I approached the booth and told the CBP gentleman that I was activating a K1 Visa... he took the passports and packages and told me to park around the corner and go to secondary clearance, which I did. They were somewhat busy at secondary clearance and it took this other CBP gentleman a while to process our file... by the time we were done, it was after 9PM. It was interesting, at the end, I asked for the EAD stamp, and while he told me that I was work authorized, he avoided the question about the stamp itself. I also asked him if there was anything else and he said nope even though I felt we were forgetting something. We were on the road for about 20 minutes before I realized that they had forgot to ask me for any processing fees (I think it was supposed to be $8.00 a person). Oh well... I will tell you... Pulling a 5x8 U-Haul trailer full of stuff with an Olds Alero with a V6 can be interesting, to say the least. I was watching that temp guage with a hawk's eye as I was watching it climb slightly more and more as I was going further south. By the time I got to Kansas and went through a small gully, it almost went into the red...so the last hour of the trip ended up taking longer as I was going slower. So, anyways, I'm here... been here since yesterday afternoon and the boys and I have been settling into our new home. Just wanted to let you guys know how we're doing... and that we've made it!!! Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-08-13 15:38:00
Canada	US Dollar Accounts at Canadian Banks	Thank you all (y'all? ) for all your insights... The RBC US account thing sounds similar to what I'm thinking about... Mine would be with TD Canada Trust. It's accessible by bank card in the US, though from what I understand even TD Canada Trust has accessibility in the US by affiliated branches, but of course, in small town Kansas, this is not an option. I do realize that every time I withdraw cash using my TDCT bank card through a US bank machine, this will incur bank fees and ATM fees. So, for that reason alone, there's merit to the thought of opening a US Bank Account (Probably Bank of America) and transferring the money to there.... (I think there's even means to do it via online banking transferring to other banks.) Colin has a good point, as well... I'd have to transfer this money over to a US Bank account, anyways, so it could be used as part of the assets on the I-864 form, come the AOS. Thanks, Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-06-17 14:50:00
Canada	US Dollar Accounts at Canadian Banks	Just wanted to get all your thoughts about US Dollar Accounts through Canadian Banks.... Specifically, I'll be selling the house soon, and for those of you who are aware of Calgary's housing boom, will have a significant amount of money sitting in a Canadian bank account when I head down to Kansas in August... Would you just transfer using online banking to the Canadian Banks' US Dollar account and draw from there until I am able to open an account at a US Bank? In other words, is this a good way to convert from CDN to USD? Or are there better options? Thanks in advance for your responses... Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-06-16 22:07:00
Canada	Getting permission for son to immigrate from ex-boyfriend	From reading previous threads and such, as well as my own experiences, even having Sole Custody is still not good enough to have the ability to move a child to the US. You have to have either the permission of the child's father or, in my case, the court's permission to move the child to the US. I do not know if morning chambers would be a sufficient venue for the court to grant this permission... I did it as part of the final Corollary Relief and Matrimonial property trial (the trial for the Court of Queen's Bench that resolved everything relating to custody and matrimonial property), very expensive in it's own right, so adding permission to move the boys to the US was only a small addition to this trial. The USCIS officer who interviewed us in Vancouver was very appreciative that we have this court's permission as part of a court order. Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-08-27 09:33:00
Canada	Tried to use my CDN Sears Card today	I was just thinking while I was reading this post... I'm doing everything as fast as I can to convert money to USD and have it transferred through Custom House down here to my bank account at the Bank of America. I now do my day-to-day banking through Bank of America using the VISA "Check" card. Of course, I have no US credit yet, but plenty of Canadian credit on hand if needed in an emergency, but at this point now, I have no need for US credit since I am unemployed waiting for my AOS/EAD. The reason why I'm doing that is that all my CDN credit cards were charging service fees up the yin yang... lousy exchange rates compared to Custom House, etc. So, as a result, once I had money down here, I paid off the CDN credit cards with what I left in Canada and leaving them at 0 balance. I would think, and given my history with the Sears card, that using a CDN Sears card in the US is fraught with expensive service fees and lousy exchange rates? Just a thought... Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-09-05 16:19:00
Canada	Which documents can I expect they will keep at the interview?	Every piece of documentation, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce certificates, Court Orders, Police record check, everything, I have 5 copies of them. I have clipped the original documents with the copies so that way they can see the original and take the copies. Well... I hope that's the way it works out anyways.... Better safer than sorry. Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-06-29 22:40:00
Canada	Local Police Certificate or RCMP?	Had mine done in Calgary... Went in to the RCMP office, asked for a PRC for US Immigration purposes, had it in hand 10 minutes later, and the best part... free!!! Scott. PS: No picture but stamped with a seal that imprinted the paper.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-07-15 22:04:00
Canada	OK , Im getting run around about my car =/	In don't know if your particular make and model of vehicle is on a watch list, but I had heard that there is no discrimination with US and Canadian made vehicles as they were made to specs of both countries. Anyways, I dug up my Vehicle Conformance letter from GM. The department is "Vintage Vehicle Services" and the number is: 1-888-467-6853 or 905-440-7697. When I phoned last March or April about it, it seemed that this was a small department with the sole purpose of doing these letters, so hopefully, you will do better with this than your previous attempts. Thanks, and Good Luck! Scott. P.S.: Sorry, it was actually May when I did this... Edited by mr_s_p, 01 November 2007 - 09:14 PM.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-11-01 21:13:00
Canada	Letter of compliance experience please	I have no idea what the issue is with Chrysler... I asked for one from GM and they asked for my Make and Model and VIN. From that and my credit card, they did up a compliance letter that I received in the mail a week later... though the option was there if I wanted it faxed right away somewhere. Thanks Scott.	mr_s_p	Male	Canada	2007-08-27 20:19:00
IMBRA Special Topics	Will IMBRA affect third time filer?	QUOTE (Waitlisted @ Oct 20 2007, 06:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I can now answer my own question... NO! I just recieved my NOA2 on the 16th! CONGRATS!!! I read through all of the replies and just saw that you were approved. I'm really glad this all worked out for you. Good luck on the rest of your journey. Safiya	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	2007-10-20 18:18:00
Waivers (I-601 and I-212) and Administrative Processes (221g)	Approved 601 Waiver!	Congrats!!! Now you can plan for the rest of your lives together. May your future be filled with happiness and love.	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	2007-09-09 19:52:00
United Kingdom	I'm finally here	Welcome to the US. Glad to hear everything went so smoothly for you.	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	2007-07-31 09:12:00
United Kingdom	Wedding Photos	Congrats, thanks for sharing the pics with us. I love your veil and train. The cake was beautiful. You did it, this is the day that so many of us are waiting on. I wish you two much happiness. Safiya	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	2007-10-13 18:15:00
United Kingdom	I had my interview today in London 2nd Nov	Congrats!	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	2007-11-02 18:37:00
United Kingdom	Got the visa........yaaaaay!!	CONGRATULATIONS!	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	2007-11-27 20:39:00
United Kingdom	At last NOA 2!!!	CONGRATS!	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	2007-12-15 09:17:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	K1 visa approved!!!	CONGRATS!!!	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	2007-11-04 22:33:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Interview date set!!	Congrats!	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	2007-12-24 21:40:00
Asia: South	JFK POE	Hello ELW. Thank you so much for your response. I know the EAD given at JFK is temporary, but right now I'm thinking that would be a good idea. He would be able to work to save up for the AOS, I won't have $1,010 extra. I wonder if others that have gotten the EAD at JFK found the EAD useless. I wonder if it was hard to find a job with that. I know you said your hubby had a hard time. We are still waiting on our NOA2, so we still have lots of time to decide.	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	8/28/2007 6:04
Asia: South	JFK POE	Hello. I am now wondering about the EAD stamp. We are thinking that it would be best to go through JFK as the port of entry because of the EAD stamp. I looked on the uscis website and saw the amount. Would he pay that at the port of entry? I know that within 90 days of his arrival we will be filing AOS and the EAD is included with that. It seems that paying for the EAD at JFK would be a waste of money since we would have to file again soon for the EAD, but at least if he comes through JFK and gets the stamp he would be able to work immediately and save up the $1,010 for the adjustment of status.	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	8/27/2007 12:31
Asia: South	VISA APPROVED WOOOOOOHOOOOOO	Congrats and best wishes to you for your future!	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	9/20/2007 10:51
Asia: South	Fiancee's K-1 Visa Approved	Congrats, I am glad it all worked out for you two. You deserve it as you are very helpful here on VJ. Best of luck to you on the rest of your journey.	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	9/20/2007 11:19
Asia: South	Visa Approved!!	CONGRATS!	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	10/15/2007 19:43
Asia: East and Pacific	packet 3 came today!!	Congrats to you both! Now you guys are a step closer to being together, good luck on the rest of your journey!	Imran's Wife 2B	Female	Pakistan	2007-09-20 08:34:00