NOA1 received...now what?

[Ashlyn&Grevin 0]

I know everybody else said the same thing but be patient and enjoy the time planning your wedding. Trust me you think waiting now is hard... wait until you get your NOA2 and you are waiting on the embassy to call you... It is just torture!! But it gives your fiance and you time to pick up some overtime and start saving up for the wedding. It's a long hard process but totally worth it! Keep reading and researching and get the immunizations portion started. Good luck and welcome to the hurry up and wait club...

[Brit Abroad 166]

If you're going to be living in the US for the rest of your life, get out there and visit family, friends, contact old friends, take lots of photos, get addresses/phone numbers up to date to bring with you, encourage your loved ones to get Skype and spend time helping them set it up and become familiar with using it.

Start thinking about what items you want to bring with you and what will be too costly to be worthwhile. Check them carefully against the list of prohibited items.

Download the next lot of forms (see the Guides link at the top of the page) and read through them and the guide notes to make sure you're prepared for the next stage.

Go talk to your doctor about your vaccination record, check the CDC website for required immunisations for US immigration and get any you are missing while you're on the NHS tab, ask your doc if it's possible to have a printout of your medical history to bring with you (this makes life SO much easier than starting from scratch out here), ditto dentist.

Research the area you will be moving to and check if they have foreign food stores available so you can get familiar foods that you love once you get here.

Get your fiance to mail you the local driving test booklet so you can start researching for the written test.

If you're planning on working, get references from current/former employers and gather additional copies of your academic qualifications and start some preliminary searching for jobs in your new area so you can see what sort of wages you might expect.

Start looking at the police certificate you will need to get, but leave that as late as possible as they have a period of validity.

Get your eyes checked and update any prescriptions that you need. Replacing glasses/contacts is considerably more expensive here. If you're moving somewhere hot/sunny consider getting sunglasses or prescription sunglasses if necessary.

Ask your fiance to give you a list of his favourite foods and do some searching for recipes. Once you get here you won't be able to work until you AoS.

There are lots of things to do between now and when you leave England, trust me, but the most important is spending time with people. Once you get here it'll be all excitement, but the feelings of loss over what you have to leave behind may be acute, and you'll never regret having spent time with loved ones.