NEWS FLASH: My Ukrainian Wife is gone!

[MarkLeftTX]

Hey all.. big news here.

I no longer have a Ukrainian Wife... My wife is now American.

Pictures attached... news at 11 ;-)




For those of you who don't recognize the seal... Same Wife -- new citizenship... President Bush was too busy to make the service they say... I was disappointed... what else is he doing these days?

[Diplomacy]

Great News!  Good to hear your story.  You should both be very proud.  This is what America is all about.

[viking]

Mark

Congratulations to your wife. This is a great day for both of you. Bush could not make it? Not even Cheny or Rice? what is this country coming too. Well, the heck with them. I think you guys are more important anyway. 

[Enot]

Congratulations Mark.  How long did the process take from the time she arrived in the US?

[OlgaH]

Congratulations to both of you!

Olga & Robert

[dispozo]

Congratulations!!!

[jj]

congratulations Mark and the Mrs.(now American with Ukrainian ancestry!)  The waiting seems so long, especially the first 2 years after getting here with interviews, forms , petitions etc.  -jj

[Chicagoguy]

Congratulations.

I like the way you put it.  " My Ukrainian Wife Is Gone"

[Ooooops]

Congrats!   No more dealing with INS!   

[BillyB]

Congratulations to Mark and Mrs.Mark. Did the American flag come free with citizenship? If so, where do I got to go to take the test? Just kidding, I already have a big American flag hanging outside my door.

[Shadow]

Congratulations.
Did you ask her if she hates all those foreign immigrants yet ?

[John K]

Congratulations!  One less headache to deal with.  :-)  Now that there is no visa restrictions between the US and Ukraine, I think Marina may break down and do the naturalization route.  Not sure though.  Marina wants to keep the door open to go back to Ukraine if something ever happens to me...

[Maxx2]

Congratulations. Pretty wife!

[Bruce]

Great - Pennsylvannia is a key battleground State.  Tell your wife the country needs another McCain vote!

[MarkLeftTX]

Thanks for all the well-wishes...

@Enot, she came here in December of 2002. But we lost some time on a technicality... Not sure how this works any more, but when Viktoriya came over on the Fiancee visa, we had 90 days to get married, or she had to go back.

Once we were married, we had to file a "Change of Status" form (about $500) which said that she was married and could stay. This action is what resulted in her first green card.

In Texas, it took about 2 years to get the change of Status through. You fill out the forms, and wait. They send you requests for more information, etc. After a little over a year, we got our appointment. We got to the interview, and found that we didn't have everything they needed. For example, she needed a physical within a year of her appointment... since it took them over a year to get to us, her previous physical was no longer good. So, we got a list of things they needed and were told we'd have to wait about 6 months for a new appointment. That would have put us in January.

Instead, we get a call in Spetember telling us: Good news! We could get an appoinment in Novemeber instead... did we want it? Hell yeah, we wanted it, so we met in November...

Here's where it gets infuriating... she passed the interview, no problem... but BECAUSE SHE HAD NOT BEEN LIVING WITH ME FOR 2 YEARS, SHE COULD NOT GET A FULL GREEN CARD. She had to get a green card "with restrictions" and we had to wait 18 months before we could ask to have the resrtictions removed.

That's when the clock started for when she could file for full citizenship.

In other words, if we had kept our January interview date, she could have had her citizenship 18 months sooner!

GRRRRRR!

The INS is -- by far -- the worst agency I have ever dealt with. It makes you long for interaction with the IRS!

@SHADOW -- she hate illegal immigrants, I can tell you that. And don't get her started on those people who have lived here for years and still don't speak English... I tell you, on the political spectrum, she is somewhere to the Right of Rush Limbaugh...

@Bruce -- yep... but we're still in Virginia... so she has to make due with lobbying her friends in other states to vote right.

[AnastassiaAsh]

The INS is -- by far -- the worst agency I have ever dealt with. It makes you long for interaction with the IRS!

@SHADOW -- she hate illegal immigrants, I can tell you that. And don't get her started on those people who have lived here for years and still don't speak English... I tell you, on the political spectrum, she is somewhere to the Right of Rush Limbaugh...

@Bruce -- yep... but we're still in Virginia... so she has to make due with lobbying her friends in other states to vote right.

   So right!  I like Rush Limbaugh too and don't like illegals...

Congratulations on your new American wife! 

[Jet]

So, you've got yourself a genuine Amerikonka 

I haven't been around much lately, but wanted to congratulate both of you! Regarding INS, just be glad it's all behind you, it could have been worse, and isn't worth losing any more sleep over!

It's nice to hear about the "good stuff" now and again.

[MarkLeftTX]

@AnastasiaAsh: Hey, I loved the Partiotic colors on your post! You know, it's sort of funny.... here in America, the Liberals keep trying to push us to a more and more socialistic agenda ("Spread the Wealth anyone???") But my wife -- who was a former member of the Communist Party -- wants NO PART of socialism... Hmmm wonder if all these people who actually lived under socialism know something we don't... eh?

@Jet: You are right. It could have been a lot worse. For one thing, I don't have to go through it with Stas. Since he is under 18, Viktoriya's citizenship gives him status as well. Now all I have to do is get them both passports.

Never thought I would be looking FORWARD to dealing with a well run machine like the US Post office! But the INS sure sets the bar low...


PS: Viktoriya wishes to remind me that she was never actually a member of the COmmunist Party. She had to take a test at a shool assembly in school and she failed one of the questions. I asked her if she remembers which one, and she said: "Yes. The asked me how much a loaf of bread was worth and I replied with how many kpeks it cost at the time... I was told the answer was: It is priceless." So she was never actually a member...

[Bruce]

Virginia is important too.  Glad to see we have a fellow right thinker!  You and Victoriya had it easy.  My wife was married for three and 1/2 years before she received her temporary green card!

[AnastassiaAsh]

PS: Viktoriya wishes to remind me that she was never actually a member of the COmmunist Party. She had to take a test at a shool assembly in school and she failed one of the questions. I asked her if she remembers which one, and she said: "Yes. The asked me how much a loaf of bread was worth and I replied with how many kpeks it cost at the time... I was told the answer was: It is priceless." So she was never actually a member...

hahaha, Wow! That's good, but i suppose she wasn't laughing then. I was never a member of any party, but I definitely don't want any socialism any more. The whole US is based on anti-socialism, work hard, earn more, make your dreams come true, most of the people with diligence and smarts can become who they want in life and achieve the level they are comfortable with. That's the beauty of the US, that's the meaning of 'possibilities', that's the very reason everybody wants to move to the US. And now these values are under big question. I saw interview with Rush recently on Fox, he said exactly what I said a week before him - Obama mastered the skill of saying lots of words without absolutely any idea or some practical thoughts behind it. He can talk and talk and say nothing. Being a professional linguist, I noticed this at once. He says and acts as a lawyer, and he is a lawyer. Gives promises that will never be materialized at least the way people understand it, says only a tiny part and leaves the main, most important part, unsaid. What I don't understand is why in the world McCain wouldn't talk about his suspicious connections with the names that we know... the whole thing is just frustrating.... it will be a catastrophe if just because of lack of knowledge people would choose Obama at the end. Scary Halloween for you.

[MarkLeftTX]

What I don't understand is why in the world McCain wouldn't talk about his suspicious connections with the names that we know... the whole thing is just frustrating.... it will be a catastrophe if just because of lack of knowledge people would choose Obama at the end. Scary Halloween for you.

Well, I don't want to yank this down a political line... but John McCain has run the worst campaign I have seen since Bob Dole's. I wonder if he really wants to be President. Maybe he just feels he needs to run because it's his last chance, but at the end of the day, he really doesn't want it.

Obama was quite beatable, but not by McCain.

At the end of the day, if Obama loses, it will be because America didn't quite trust him... I think it is interesting that the same thing that happened in the Primaries is happening now... Obama rushed out to a lead, but when he becomes a front runner, and people really start looking at him, he falters.

He just can't quite seem to close the deal.

-Sigh!-

Here's hoping anyway...

[Frenchdude]

Anastassia,
I really find your post bizarre and almost offensive to the majority of people in this country who have voted for Senator Obama without mentioning those who are not even American. You sound like you have never lived outside the US and the FSU. There is another reality out there between unfettered capitalism and Marxism of which you seem not to be aware.

[Admin]

Anastassia,
I really find your post bizarre and almost offensive to the majority of people in this country who have voted for Senator Obama without mentioning those who are not even American. You sound like you have never lived outside the US and the FSU. There is another reality out there between unfettered capitalism and Marxism of which you seem not to be aware.

And I find your pattern of judgmental posting equally bizarre and almost (maybe NOT almost) offensive.

>>the majority of people in this country<<

Exactly WHICH country are you referencing?

- Dan

[GoodOlBoy]

Congratulations....to both of you ! I start the paperwork in April for my wife to get hers.

[MarkLeftTX]

Thanks GoodOlBoy.. and good luck on yours!

FrenchDude, I'm not sure why you were offended by Anastasia's comment, but I hardly saw it as insulting or inflammatory. Yes, the will of the majority has spoken, and we will get 4 years of an Obama presidency... but that doesn't mean the 46% who did NOT vote for Obama have to be happy about it.

My opinion is that we are heading into unchartered waters as a country, and this is no time to have a Noob as President... but, a (slim) majority of Americans don't agree with me... so I will batten down the hatches and pray for our survival. It's going to be a bumpy ride...