NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!

[Kim & Chris 0]

Thanks for the welcomes guys!

I have two more states to add to my list of " States I Have Been To".......lol (Illinois is just over the bridge from St Louis), and I just love the whole stadium atmosphere, so as I said, it was all good.

Omg I can't wait to start my "list"! How many states do you have on yours so far? I've only been to Washington & Idaho so there's only 48 more to go! Haha

Lol......... I now have seven. California - Michigan - Tennessee - Arkansas - Oklahoma - Missouri - Illinois.

We're moving to Portland Oregon either late this year or sometime early next year, (I can do another winter here but I refuse to do another summer ), so that will be a few more as we'll be driving there. Not sure which way we'll be going yet as it will depend on the weather at the time. Chris drove trucks across the country for years so he's been just about everywhere, I have a lot of catching up to do but the list doth groweth.....lol

Which state will you be moving to when you get the go ahead from immigration?

Congrats Cdneh.....one more hurdle been passed......you got transfered too didn't you so it should be plain sailing from here on

[cdneh 3,112]

Thanks for the welcomes guys!

I have two more states to add to my list of " States I Have Been To".......lol (Illinois is just over the bridge from St Louis), and I just love the whole stadium atmosphere, so as I said, it was all good.

Omg I can't wait to start my "list"! How many states do you have on yours so far? I've only been to Washington & Idaho so there's only 48 more to go! Haha

Congrats Cdneh.....one more hurdle been passed......you got transfered too didn't you so it should be plain sailing from here on

We did..we were sent to CSC...and boy do we ever hope so

[kiwibelcanto 3]

AP...arggg...lol...Administrative Processing, or Additional Processing...we were told both. It just means that they started sujecting K1's to extra checks at the National Visa Center. They hadn't done it in the past that often although Kim and Russ were stuck there for three weeks last year. The trouble was that as it was pretty much a new thing for K1's, there really wasn't much to read here about it. We started a thread which is 'stuck' to the top in the Visa Centre forum, and at least now if people get stuck there there is more on it.

We had our NOA2 November 18th last year, and Auckland were getting to interviews pretty quick so we had hope for Christmas. As it was, after 7 weeks that didn't happen.

I was lucky though in many ways, after I emailed the Auckland people a few times, which I suppose was good as they had heard of us, they did send out packet 3 based on me having the ACK number, So that way I was able to get the medical and the rest done while we were still in AP. WHen we finally got out we were ready to go!

More good news is that even if you get stuck there, times have come way way down, to weeks not months.

The lady that interviewed me in Auckland did say that she could see we were in AP for random checks for quite a while. Random...talk about the short straw

Oh geez, sounds frustrating! I really hope that doesn't happen, but if it does at least I'll know know where to go. It actually sounds pretty convenient to get all the medical etc done while you were still in AP and be all ready to go when the time for the interview rolled around. I'm really hoping my timeline ends up looking something like yours (minus the 7 weeks in AP of course lol). So it's basically just random extra checks they subject your petition to and does it happen to most of them? Glad your biometrics was a walk in the park

Lol......... I now have seven. California - Michigan - Tennessee - Arkansas - Oklahoma - Missouri - Illinois.

We're moving to Portland Oregon either late this year or sometime early next year, (I can do another winter here but I refuse to do another summer ), so that will be a few more as we'll be driving there. Not sure which way we'll be going yet as it will depend on the weather at the time. Chris drove trucks across the country for years so he's been just about everywhere, I have a lot of catching up to do but the list doth groweth.....lol

Which state will you be moving to when you get the go ahead from immigration?

Wow, awesome! The Tri-Cities in southeast Washington state will be my home, so I'll be pretty close to Portland

It'll be so much fun when you to drive to Oregon, one day I really want to drive all the way to the East Coast and then fly back to WA, but those midwest and southern summers must be unbearable! What's the temp gotten up to this summer? I just got back from the Tri-Cities a couple of weeks ago and it was about 100, it wasn't toooo bad because it's a dry desert heat. Seattle was a nice temp, but it's too similar to Auckland and I'm kinda over the big city living

[cdneh 3,112]

Oh not at all...most people go through NVC in a couple of days. That is why we were so freaked out

[kelzm 0]

Kelly - not sure what part of California you're in but there are a few different groups.

http://www.sfkiwis.com/ is the San Francisco group and the LA group is http://www.kiwisinla.com/

You might also want to try meetup.com to do some searching, I joined a San Jose based kiwi group and have met everyone for lunch, they also had a bbq over summer that I wasn't able to get to.

[Kim & Chris 0]

Which state will you be moving to when you get the go ahead from immigration?

Wow, awesome! The Tri-Cities in southeast Washington state will be my home, so I'll be pretty close to Portland

It'll be so much fun when you to drive to Oregon, one day I really want to drive all the way to the East Coast and then fly back to WA, but those midwest and southern summers must be unbearable! What's the temp gotten up to this summer? I just got back from the Tri-Cities a couple of weeks ago and it was about 100, it wasn't toooo bad because it's a dry desert heat. Seattle was a nice temp, but it's too similar to Auckland and I'm kinda over the big city living

It's been up to 102 but the humidity here is a killer and combined with the heat, put it this way, I thank god every night for air conditioning....lol

We chose Portland coz next to San Francisco it's Chris' favourite place, and the climate is more like Auckland which I can live with better than I can this heat we're having here. Plus it's really pretty by the Columbia River and not too far from the coast as I'm missing the ocean a bit. I'm an Aucklander born and bred but I was well over it when I left. Where we are is smallish, a bit bigger than Pukekohe and we live on the outskirts so it's been a nice change. We're looking around the outskirts of Portland too, I think we both prefer it a bit quieter now

[kiwiana 2]

Lol......... I now have seven. California - Michigan - Tennessee - Arkansas - Oklahoma - Missouri - Illinois.

We're moving to Portland Oregon either late this year or sometime early next year, (I can do another winter here but I refuse to do another summer ), so that will be a few more as we'll be driving there. Not sure which way we'll be going yet as it will depend on the weather at the time. Chris drove trucks across the country for years so he's been just about everywhere, I have a lot of catching up to do but the list doth groweth.....lol

Which state will you be moving to when you get the go ahead from immigration?

Congrats Cdneh.....one more hurdle been passed......you got transfered too didn't you so it should be plain sailing from here on

I have only three states to my 'states i have been to' list... California, Arizona and Nevada lol!!

Good to hear that the biometrics went smoothly cdneh! The lady had trouble with fingers on one of my hands too. Maybe you are right and they are wearing off as we get older!! The process is going along quite quickly, which is a welcome change as i remember when your case was stuck in AP. At the time, I was like 'it must be getting released from AP next week.... week after that.. definitely the week after that.. I couldn't believe they kept your file in there for 7 weeks or more!!

But they have definitely picked up the pace with AOS which is great to see!

Thanks Kelzm for giving the links for the kiwi san fran and LA groups!

[Kelvan 0]

Kelly - not sure what part of California you're in but there are a few different groups.

http://www.sfkiwis.com/ is the San Francisco group and the LA group is http://www.kiwisinla.com/

You might also want to try meetup.com to do some searching, I joined a San Jose based kiwi group and have met everyone for lunch, they also had a bbq over summer that I wasn't able to get to.

Thanks for those links kelzm! We were originally planning on moving to SF, but for now we will stay in Kansas cos Evan has his job there and it's the recession, and I won't be able to work until I get my work permit. But it's nice to know that Kiwis are actively getting together in parts of the US If we end up in SF I will definitely join the club

Kelvan - The NZ Embassy in USA sight has a part for Kiwi's living in the U.S. where you can register I think. I'll put the link below. As for Kiwis in your area I'm not sure if there's anything on the Embassy site for it, but if you play around on google with the words Kiwi or NZ and your town or state, you may well find something. If you find a proper site for it let us all know

http://www.nzembassy.com/topic.cfm?CFID=27...p;l=86&s=nz

Thanks, will definitely register there! I did a google search yesterday and actually found a few Kiwis in Kansas City! Couldn't believe it

[rubyred 0]

APPROVED!!

really lovely interviewing officer - she told us she was recommending us for approval within about 3mins of the interview!

[ivannnaloveskiwi 0]

Kelly - not sure what part of California you're in but there are a few different groups.

http://www.sfkiwis.com/ is the San Francisco group and the LA group is http://www.kiwisinla.com/

You might also want to try meetup.com to do some searching, I joined a San Jose based kiwi group and have met everyone for lunch, they also had a bbq over summer that I wasn't able to get to.

Thanks for those links kelzm! We were originally planning on moving to SF, but for now we will stay in Kansas cos Evan has his job there and it's the recession, and I won't be able to work until I get my work permit. But it's nice to know that Kiwis are actively getting together in parts of the US If we end up in SF I will definitely join the club

Kelvan - The NZ Embassy in USA sight has a part for Kiwi's living in the U.S. where you can register I think. I'll put the link below. As for Kiwis in your area I'm not sure if there's anything on the Embassy site for it, but if you play around on google with the words Kiwi or NZ and your town or state, you may well find something. If you find a proper site for it let us all know

http://www.nzembassy.com/topic.cfm?CFID=27...p;l=86&s=nz

soon to be a new kiwi in kansas city!! that's where i'm from .!!!! yeah!!

Thanks, will definitely register there! I did a google search yesterday and actually found a few Kiwis in Kansas City! Couldn't believe it

[cdneh 3,112]

APPROVED!!

really lovely interviewing officer - she told us she was recommending us for approval within about 3mins of the interview!

Congratulations!!!!

[Kim & Chris 0]

Ana - I know you haven't got your US licence yet, I found this site that has free online tests you can practice with if you need them. I was going to go for mine the other day and wasn't overly confident as there's so much to try and remember in the book, when I found this site I put it off and have been doing the tests. I feel alot better about it now and hope to go for it soon.

http://www.drivingdirectory.com/test/index.php

Cheers

Kim

[kiwiana 2]

Ana - I know you haven't got your US licence yet, I found this site that has free online tests you can practice with if you need them. I was going to go for mine the other day and wasn't overly confident as there's so much to try and remember in the book, when I found this site I put it off and have been doing the tests. I feel alot better about it now and hope to go for it soon.

http://www.drivingdirectory.com/test/index.php

Cheers

Kim

Wow! This is soo cool Thank You! I have bookmarked it. They have some practice driving tests on the DMV site but this is much more thorough! Today we are going to phone about a few used cars for sale I put the 'looking for cars' saga off the last few days as i had a few bad experiences with some really rude sellers on the phone and it really upset me.

I am sure the older i get, the more sensitive i have become lol!

APPROVED!!

really lovely interviewing officer - she told us she was recommending us for approval within about 3mins of the interview!

Congratulations!!

[Kelvan 0]

soon to be a new kiwi in kansas city!! that's where i'm from .!!!! yeah!!

OMG! For reals? We should so meet up, it'd be awesome having a Kiwi friend over there. We can help each other preserve our accents

Edited July 31, 2009 by Kelvan

[Kim & Chris 0]

Another "touch" on my I-485 today but no change of status as yet....... Hmmmmmm

Did you find that car today Ana .......