December 19th, was our 3 year wedding anniversary! We just had a laid back anniversary this year.


I took F.B. to see The Hobbit for his anniversary gift. We didn't get home until close to 1am. (The movie wasn't my cup of tea... and it's very long, 3 hours!) We went Tuesday evening and the movies are quite empty on a weeknight!


We decided to stay home on our anniversary and order Chinese Takeout from one of my favorite places, King Wok. (We got an updated menu and it looks like they only sell Chinese now, no more Japanese. The picture below is of their old menu). We ordered so much food though, I think we have leftovers for 3 days now! :-)


So let's talk about immigration again. They received our paperwork and sent F.B. a notice. The paper he received is his 1 year extension. He also got his biometrics appointment for January 10th. Where he gets fingerprinted and his photo taken for his new permanent resident card.

But... our lawyer said the USCIS Vermont center is so backlogged with paperwork it is taking 8 months to 1 YEAR to process paperwork. So we will not know if F.B.'s conditional status removal was approved and he will not receive his new updated resident card for up to 1 year....

I asked our lawyer what happens if it takes Immigration longer than 1 year to process our paperwork and she said in that case his status would be extended but he would have to go to a USCIS center with his I-797 notice and his passport to have it stamped for an addtional year.

Immigration is just so complicated. I thought we were almost done and had no idea it could take 8 months to 1 year to receive his new resident card. Wow... Ugh...

NOTE: Our lawyers Peter J. Gonzales & Shanna Stanton have changed firms. They are no longer with Kahiga Tiagha. They are now with Green and Spiegel LLC, but still located in Philadelphia.

To leave off on a more positive note here is a few of our Christmas Decorations!

Our "Christmas" door. It's already green, so the bow works, lol!

These are our Christmas trees. :-)

Christmas sock monkeys! Just a few of the holidays stuffed animals I have.

This was the 1st year F.B. and I had Thanksgiving together in our own place. (Last year was at my parents, but we were in the process of moving, so I don't think I blogged about it.) We had an early dinner with just the two of us and later on Thanksgiving evening we stopped by my parents to visit and for dessert (Though all of us were so full, we didn't have any, lol!) We took them an Edward's Desserts cookies & cream pie. (AMAZING!) 

I don't like regular turkey meat so much, I like processed turkey though, lol. (Like turkey lunch meat, etc.) Every year we've always gotten a Tofurky (Which I love). But I was sick for quite a few days this year (Sinus infection, I think...) and really dizzy so we shopped at last minute. We got a Jennie-O turkey roast this year instead.

Thanksgiving goodies!

No table is complete without Martinelli's sparkling apple cider!

Martinelli's; The two Thanksgiving's I happened to be in the Philippines, F.B. & I celebrated by having dinner at Gerry's Grill and then having Mashed potatoes (From KFC) & Martinelli's sparking apple cider for a late night snack. Haha! I was so estatic they actually sell Martinelli's in the Philippines, because we always have it on our table at Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years on my side of the family.

Our Thanksgiving table this year in our apartment! Yum! Turkey roast, gravy, cranberry jelly, green bean casserole, homemade mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes in brown sugar, stuffing, corn, & croissants. We had leftovers for 3 days, lol! F.B. ended up getting a rotisserie chicken from Shop-rite though because we didn't have anymore Turkey roast for the leftovers.

Other Blog Links:

• Thanksgiving 2010
• Thanksgiving in the Philippines 2009
• Thanksgiving in the Philippines 2008

Now onto immigration; As you know we have to file to remove the conditional status from F.B.'s permanent resident card. We are working Gonzales & Tiagha again.

F.B.'s paperwork for the I-751 cannot be filed before December 5th or else it could be rejected. Last Thursday we mailed off our stack of evidence for immigration. It cost $14 to mail express. We also had to write a check for $590 for immigration to file the form.

This is just some of the stuff we needed to submit as evidence:

1) Filing fee of $590 made payable to the Department of Homeland Security; (Can be personal check).

2) Two passports size photos of both you and spouse;

3)  Jointly filed tax returns (Federal & State);

b. Lease/mortgage with both parties listed;

c. Utility bills;

d. Bank statements for joint bank accounts;

e. Declaration page for insurance policies (car, life, and/or health);

f. Collage of photos with friends and family members.

g. Affidavits from friends and family members attesting to the nature of your marital relationship. The letters should include the person’s name, contact information (address and phone number), relationship to you & spouse, and a brief description of what they know about you both. The letters should be notarized.  You should try to obtain at least six affidavits (three from your side and three from his friends and family).

Our lawyer will file these forms around December 6th. Hopefully we have supplied enough evidence. F.B. will have to get his biometrics done for his resident card when they contact us. So hopefully we are near the end of immigration stuff for awhile!

I also included a letter statement about my blog. I figured since I have been blogging since 2008 and have written about all of my trips to the Philippines and our immigration process; holidays, birthday's, marriage, etc since F.B. has arrived in the USA, it may help. Fingers crossed this step goes as smoothly as when F.B. arrived in the USA back in March 2011!

NOTE: Our lawyers Peter J. Gonzales & Shanna Stanton have changed firms. They are no longer with Kahiga Tiagha. They are now with Green and Spiegel LLC, but still located in Philadelphia. 

It was F.B.'s birthday yesterday. It's the 2nd birthday he's spent in the USA. We went to a Chinese Buffet near Franklin Mill's Mall for lunch.




September 28th, I contacted our immigration lawyers again. It will be time to remove the conditional status from F.B.'s permanent resident card soon. Last August I asked how much it would cost to rehire the firm and was quoted $1,200. So that's what we saved towards. I also know it will cost $590 to file the form with immigration.

When I heard a reply back a week ago I was told the cost to rehire the firm was now $1,950. Wow... $750 dollars more than we were expecting. I really love our immigration lawyers and they did an amazing job last time, but that price jump definitely made me feel a bit sick in the stomach. So, I found the email where I was quoted the $1,200 and forwarded it just to ask why the fee's had increased so much. I wasn't really expecting much, just an explanation. But thankfully, (and this is why they are great lawyers!) They changed the paperwork to reflect the $1,200 we were quoted last year. (Save your old emails!)

In mid November our lawyer will begin all the paperwork. Immigration will not allow the forms to be submitted early. It has to be submitted 90 days before F.B.'s permanent resident card expires or else immigration could reject everything. Rules... rules....


We've also had to collect paperwork that proves our marriage is valid and that we live together. Some of the paperwork I've gathered is:

• Federal & State Tax copies filed jointly.
• Bank statement copies with both of our names
• Copy of our lease for our apartment in both our names
• Copy of insurance declaration in both our names
• Copies of our driver licenses showing our current address.
• Photos with family.
• Letters from Family/Friends

Speaking of that... you wouldn't think collecting letters from family & friends with a short statement saying how long they've known you & your spouse, how they've interacted with you & that your marriage appears to be valid, etc; would be that difficult to get... but it was like pulling teeth. Literally. I let so many of our friends and family know 3-4 months in advance that we would need these letters and still they've trickled in... I'm grateful for the ones who have written us letters, but we definitely expected a lot more support and a lot more letters... but enough about that.... blah. Rant over...

Anyway that's where we stand right now with immigration. In mid November our lawyers will prepare the paperwork and by December 5th, 2012 the form should be filed with immigration and then fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly so the conditional status will be removed from F.B.'s resident card. (Ugh... he will also have to get a new driver's license in March because that expires when his resident cards expires). I just can't wait until we are finished with immigration!

(I know he will have to renew his resident card every 10 years or so, but that won't be as bad compared to all the rules and paperwork over the past 3 years!)

NOTE: Our lawyers Peter J. Gonzales & Shanna Stanton have changed firms. They are no longer with Kahiga Tiagha. They are now with Green and Spiegel LLC, but still located in Philadelphia. 

Photos from my birthday weekend/week. (The big 3-0). These are all Instagram & cell phone photos.


 
 

I love picking up stuff for our apartment to decorate. I visited Pier 1 Imports this past Friday. I saw this Elephant Teapot on their website before and it was 20% off in the store. It was just $12. I'm using it more for decor than for drinking tea though, hehe. It's currently sitting on one of my living room tables. I love it!


I also got some new dishes from... Dollar Tree! I saw these on their website, (but not wanting to buy in bulk- 24 bowls would be a bit excessive...) My husband checked a few of the Dollar Trees around us and was able to find the plates & bowls. Can't seem to find the matching mugs at any of the stores near us, but oh well. They are really pretty dishes and only $1 each!


Another Pier 1 Imports find. They had these large turquoise plastic tumblers (23 oz.) for $6 each. I thought the color would go well with the above dishes. They are made with a heavy durable plastic.



Other things on my to do list:

• Find a cute kitchen mat for in front of the sink. 
• Find dining chair covers or cushions (white, black or aqua).  
• Keep bidding on vintage/antique salt & pepper shakers on ebay until I win a set, lol.

 

F.B. & I got to see an NBA game on Saturday here in Philadelphia. We got to go watch the 76ers play against Orlando Magic. I got the tickets for F.B. as his Valentines Day gift. He loves basketball, but he's never gotten to see an NBA game live, until now. We did get to watch a Philippine basketball game together in 2008.



I've never been to an NBA game either. It was super crowded and our seats were really high up, but you could still see the game pretty well. We did decide to leave at halftime though since the game started at 8pm. We wanted to beat the traffic. (Good thing we left early anyhow, the Sixers lost! They had been in the lead before halftime). We went to IHOP around 10pm and had a late dinner. (Yum pancakes!)

We had a quiet Easter dinner at home this evening. I cooked a roast beef in the crock pot and we had it along with onions and mushrooms. We also had baked potatoes & green bean casserole. Yum!

Happy Easter Everyone!

I never took pictures of the floral Target placemats I ordered. When they arrived, instead of being black & white... they turned out to be black and frosted clear; (That was not mentioned on Target's website) Clear did not work with our dark wood dining room table. The design did not show up well at all...

I didn't want to return them because I really liked the design, so I've been trying to find something to go underneath them. We finally found white contact paper at Dollar Tree. So I sat down and put contact paper onto the back of each placemat. (Was that ever tedious, lol!) Now the color is showing up how I wanted it to. Black & White. Plus the contact paper can be cleaned with soap & water. :-)

March 6th was F.B.'s 1 year anniversary since he came to the USA. We celebrated by getting Chinese Takeout for dinner. :-)



We still have a ways to go with immigration though... around September I have to contact our immigration lawyer again. We will need to rehire him. It's going to cost around $1,500 to finish everything- (That's including our lawyer's fees). We have to file to remove the conditional status from F.B.'s green card which expires March 2013, but he needs to file for the I-751 90 days before his 2nd anniversary in the USA.

Evidence that will need to be submitted when we file our Form I-751 to remove the conditional status off F.B.'s permanent resident card:

1. A copy of the Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Card (both sides);

2. A copy of the Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Card of CR children included in the petition (if applicable);
 
3. Documents establishing joint ownership of property and/or joint tenancy at a communal residence;
 
4. Financial records showing the commingling of financial resources and liabilities, e.g., joint bank accounts, joint federal and state tax returns, insurance, utility bills, joint installments and/or loans;
 
5. Birth certificate(s) of child(ren) born to the marriage (if applicable);
 
6. Affidavits of persons having knowledge of the good faith of the marriage; and
 
7. Photographs of the couple taken during the marriage.

NOTE: Our lawyers Peter J. Gonzales & Shanna Stanton have changed firms. They are no longer with Kahiga Tiagha. They are now with Green and Spiegel LLC, but still located in Philadelphia.

I have a theme when it comes to our apartment. Black/White & Aqua colors. Our Sofa is black. Our end tables & coffee tables are black. And my 2 favorite armchairs are black & white floral. There are small bursts of aqua around in the throw pillows, baskets on my coffee table, etc. I recently bought black & white damask dishes to keep on with my theme.

Now I finally found the perfect place mats for our dining room table. And finally found the perfect coasters in an aqua floral color for our living room. For some reason, it's REALLY tough to find coasters at the store! Plus it was a great price for both! 

Turquoise Flower Leaf Tile Coasters $6 -Etsy

Torre & Tagus Floral Print Placemat Set of 8 $9.99 -Target

I really would like to check out Ikea during my long weekend. (No work on Presidents Day yay!) I've never been to our Ikea. It's downtown in Philadelphia.

I really want to get a few of these realistic plants for our apartment:

Artificial potted plant, grass $3.99 -Ikea

Artificial potted plant, House bamboo $3.99 -Ikea

Roses from Hubby

The gift I got my husband!

From hubby :)