Saturday, July 19, 2008
We’ve booked the tickets and fly out on August 10th, landing at LAX 2 hours and 10 minutes before we left our home town of Invercargill. I honestly don’t know who’s more excited, whether it’s me, J, or the boys who keep coming out with things like “Not long now!“, not to mention TJ’s endless barrage of silly questions.
“It’s 40 degrees in Vegas, TJ”
“That’s too hot. How am I going to sleep?“
“Well, you probably won’t want to use any blankets, plus we have air-conditioning.“
“What if that’s still too hot?“
“Then we’ll buy you a fan to put beside your bed”
“But what if the fan makes too much noise and I can’t sleep cos of that?!“
Of course, we’re doing things the crazy way. We have a total of one hour and forty-five minutes worth of layovers before we exit New Zealand. We’ll basically be getting off one plane and hot-footing it to the next. It’s what I wanted though. The lengthy layovers we experienced when we traveled to Auckland for our interviews were painful enough with the boys diabolical alternation between love and hate and my not being able to escape. The one time I managed to wander off for five minutes of peace, they both followed within a couple of minutes, sparking an ‘abandoned bag’ scenario ...
J is meeting us at LAX and we’re driving back to Las Vegas. Not only was it the cheaper option, but we thought it’d give the boys a chance to see a little taste of the scale. Like me, they’ve rarely been out of their home town, and if a city of 1 million had them floored, imagine what their first experience in a place like LA will be like?
Friday, April 11, 2008
We’ve been approved at long last and are now just one flight away from being Legal Permanent Residents of the USA!
Our passports and the Mysterious Brown Envelope will be landing on our doorstep either tomorrow or Monday, and we can leave as soon as the house is sold.
J should also be signing off on the Vegas house any day now, after a couple of delays caused by the first loan company giving us the royal shaft and changing the conditions constantly. We wound up getting a much better deal elsewhere.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
So yesterday was particularly shitty. Not long after I posted the last entry, I discovered that my next door neighbour had passed away. He was a lovely man, and he will be missed.
This afternoon I called the clinic again to learn that our files have been forwarded to the Consulate, and this evening, the doctor called. We are somewhat concerned because of TJ’s history of mental health problems, including a few brushes with the police. He has no convictions and hasn’t been in trouble since he was 14 and she informs me that she’s worded it all as nicely as she possibly could, and has stated that he now appears to be a normal, settled, amiable teenage boy.
Of course, I won’t rest until we get our visa’s in hand. Which blows, because I’m physically and mentally exhausted at this point.
Monday, April 07, 2008
With just 2 days left to the 5 week mark after our interview, the medical still hasn’t been forwarded to the Consulate.
It turns out they were waiting on notes regarding TJ’s ADHD/CD (which he has since outgrown). Notes that when I called, they already had. The doctor called me back last Tuesday and told me she needed to ‘clarify’ a few things with him and asked that he call her back on Thursday. We did so and there was no clarification. She informed him of what was in her report, and that was that. While we weren’t happy with what she had to say, we were glad it was over and that she could finally sign off on it.
So imagine my surprise today when I call and it still hasn’t been signed off or sent on. I was told that ‘extra requirements take time’, but I don’t buy it. They’re just fucking slack.
I would not recommend CityMed in Auckland to anyone. I’m told the doctor in Remuera is cheaper and less invasive.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
2 weeks has come and gone since our interview, so I called the Consulate who are apparently still waiting for our medicals.
So I called the doctor’s office in Auckland and was told that the only thing they were waiting on was TJ’s vaccination history. I informed her that we hadn’t been able to provide a full history for any of us, so we’d all had to have the jabs we couldn’t prove we’d had. TJ had MMR, Polio and Dip-Tet injections. She looked it up and sure enough, there they were. So the only thing we’re waiting on is for the doctor to sign off on it, and the doctor’s not in the office today. $1281 and they can’t offer a timely service?
Hopefully we can get it sorted tomorrow, but considering we’re about to start our Easter break, odds are, it’ll be another couple of weeks before we get our passports back.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
It’s been a week since we made the trek more than halfway across the country to Auckland for our interviews, so it’s about time I updated!
We left on a 6.30am flight last Tuesday morning, arriving at our hotel at 12pm. We basically had time just to dump our bags and try and find the medical clinic, which thankfully was just a couple of blocks away. We were poked, prodded, full histories taken (any surgery reports sent the doctor hunting for scars) and we all had to have a chunk of injections. I came out of it the easiest, only having to have MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) and tetanus, while poor Jesse got pretty much the works. 4 1/2 hours and $1281 later, we went back to the hotel and collapsed for a while before going in search of food.
I’d like to say we got to see some of Auckland night life - I’d planned to walk the boys up to K Road to show them just how different Auckland is to our sleepy little hollow - but we were all too exhausted after such a long day. We booked a movie and it was lights out by 9.30pm.
The next morning, we were up at the crack of dawn, showering, getting dressed and in my case, making sure our paperwork was in order.
Continue Reading D Day (aka The Interview) »
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
We got the house! News came through this morning that our offer was accepted as is, with no amendments or extra conditions. Phew!! (More photos are here).
Closing is March 25th, 3 weeks after our interviews, for which the flights, medical appointments and hotel are all booked.
After sitting around on our arses for so long, suddenly, everything’s a whirlwind.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
We have our interview date. March 5th. Just under a month away.
I’ve booked us in for our medicals the day before, as they have to be done in Auckland too.
Time to go book some flights and a hotel. Another 2 1/2 grand down the drain ...
Thursday, February 07, 2008
I’m house sitting for my parents as they left to visit my sister in Australia today. The farm needs a bit more attention and it’s easier to make one trip back to our place than four trips here a day. This time I’m hoping there will be no embarrassing toe-sucking stories for me to never live down like last time.
It also gives us a chance to do some of the stuff that’s needed to our place to get it on the market, something which needs to happen soon. I sent back our police check forms last week, along with the form to say we were ready for our interviews. I’m hoping to hear by the end of the week our exact date.
We haven’t heard back about the house. For all our rushing to get the offer in, the seller’s agent didn’t present it until Monday, along with other offers that came in over the weekend. Of course, being bank owned, it has to go through more people than weekly underwear changes. The longer it takes, the more nervous and stressed I get. I’ve fallen in love with this place, and I know exactly what furniture is going to go where even though I haven’t actually seen it in person.
As our agent says, forget the crossed fingers ... she’s going straight for the rosary beads.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
So we’re about to put another offer in on yet another place. We’re just not sure which of the 3 that weren’t filled with filth and cockroaches we’re going to do it on. Either way, this takes our total to 5. That cardboard box - or if we want to get fancy, a double-wide in the trailer park opposite J’s work - are starting to look tempting.
J also got a response from the Consulate. They have our electronic file, but not the hard copy. They’re currently scheduling interviews for mid March.
To quote my husband, “Meh”.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
I couldn’t sleep, so I cranked open the lap top and discover the following in my inbox:
Hey! Hey! Hey!
I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to check the NVC status. The cases were completed on Jan 11.
Call the consulate on Monday!
I can actually picture his face as he listened to each message, and I’m willing to bet he’s still awake! 
Saturday, January 19, 2008
I have been terribly slack.
We didn’t get the house. BPO came in higher than we were willing to pay. We haven’t had any luck since. J and I are getting rather sick of house hunting (yes, me too, even though I’m doing it from a distance), sick of dealing with banks and are considering looking in to the possibility of a cardboard box.
We sent in our DS-230 Part 1’s prior to Christmas. We’d hoped the NVC would’ve reviewed them by now and forwarded our files to the Consulate here in Auckland, but to no avail. We check weekly and the message remains the same. We’ve gone past the 13 month mark now and there is still no end in sight.
I’ve gone from feeling quite upbeat in the New Year to feeling all blah.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Our DS-230’s arrived at J’s. I don’t understand why they don’t send it straight to the beneficiary, given that they’re the ones that have to fill it out to return to the NVC. Either way, this is the last of the paperwork that we need to send back to the US before they forward our file to the Consulate here in New Zealand. If only our passports would arrive so we could do it.
J’s stepped up the house-hunting in order to have a place before the boys and I get there. Our biggest hurdle is that although there are a lot of foreclosures and the like in Vegas, the investors are snapping them up fairly quickly. You can’t afford to dawdle, and it appears you can’t afford to play hard ball or enter in to any sort of negotiations. We’ve lost out on a couple of great places already as a result.
Anyway, we’ve put an offer in on a really decent place that has everything we want - separate living area, more than a postage stamp for a back yard and in a good neighbourhood. The good news is that it wasn’t selling, and has been reduced a few times, so we’ll be getting it for about $90,000 less than the original sale price if the deal goes through. The bad news is that it’s a short sale, so it means that it has to go through all sorts of funky red tape for the sellers bank to approve it. There’s one other offer in play, but ours is higher and means the owners will have enough from the sale to cover both the balance of their loan and their closing costs. They’re keen to see it approved before they go in to full foreclosure, and hopefully the bank will feel the same way.
After this place, we are looking at some seriously slim pickings. We will most likely have to sacrifice some of our requirements. We don’t want to do that, but we are running out of time.
We’re told we’ll hear by Monday, so fingers crossed for tomorrow and for a yes!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
A recent post in an immigration forum I read highlighted what J and I have long thought - that the biggest cause for illegal immigration is that it’s a simpler and faster way for families.
Take Jake’s case. She entered the US in 2004 on the Visa Waiver Program, married her American boyfriend and didn’t bother returning to the UK after her 3 month visa was up. In July of this year, Jake finally applied for legal status and she had her Green Card in hand by the end of October. She overstayed by 3 years, and was granted permanent resident status within 4 months of finally applying for it, with no penalty. There was no forced separation, no fine, no nothing.
Unfortunately, her story is not that unusual. Even if she had been caught, there are so many waivers and appeals that can be filed, it would take years to wade through it without the US government being able to deport her. She would’ve stayed in the US with her husband until eventually, she would have the same end result, legal permanent residency.*
Now look at my case. Going the legal route, J and I have been living in different countries for 11 months. Odds are good that we’ll remain separated when our 9 year wedding anniversary rolls around on November 30th, and it’s highly likely we’ll be spending Christmas apart. There is no end in sight for us, no telling when we’ll finally be together. We are completely at the mercy of the NVC (National Visa Center), and it’s taking a huge toll on our marriage.
I ask you - if you were looking at ways to get your ‘alien’ spouse in to the USA quickly and without much fuss, which story would be more appealing to you?
* This assumes that the ‘alien’ has entered the country legally and has become illegal by overstaying. The same options are not available to those who entered without inspection and are undocumented.
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