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

[Michelle Kauffman 0]

wow cdneh you are close

and i'm sorry guys i have some more questions

on the I-129F for the usc on question 10, rob was born in the us, do i need to put in his cert number, date and place it was issued?

and i've managed to print rob's G-325A but i've had to write out mine, can i just fill out the first page and photocopy it 3 times, i know i have to sign the four pages seperately, but i'm so nervous i keep making mistakes writing it out so i'm really hoping the photocopies will be ok

michelle

[Kelvan 0]

Hi cdneh! What part of Auckland are you from? I reside in Bucklands Beach

Hey guys, we changed our username on here to more accurately represent ourselves, so I'm no longer Lux. I just paid for my tickets to go and see Evan in September! Hope the immigration officer lets me in!

I'm in Blockhouse Bay, and I work in Mt Wellington. Bucklands Beach is lovely!

I had leave booked for July, and was thinking about going over to VA then....but as we were meant to be filing in April, we decided to be sensible and wait it out. However, we struck a paperwork glitch and didn't get filed until a couple of months later....I so wish I had just gone ahead with our plans and visited. It's looking like next year now.

Heeey you're quite close! I work in Freemans Bay so it takes forever to get to work everyday :X Yeah it takes a while to save up days for time off doesn't it! BUT when we live in the US, it's going to take even LONGER! Evan only gets like 2 weeks off a year! We get about 4 weeks + 10 public holidays. We really have it great working in NZ. That is one thing I will miss

Michelle.S I don't think you need to do that as long as you check the box. I downloaded the example form on the VJ website and I think it was the same, just check the box Can anyone else clarify this?

Edited July 22, 2008 by Kelvan

[KimandRuss 0]

Michelle,

On the I-129f Q.10... Check that he was born in the US and leave the field you are referring to blank. Here is the link to the Example Form to help you out.

The 4 pages of the G-325a look the same but they are not. When you fill out and/or print the form it will automatically fill the others and print all 4 pages. You need each of these pages for each of you. There is also an example form for this that you can use for reference.

Take a deep breath, perhaps a glass of wine ... go over the information on your forms.... print out the checklist in the Guides and cross each off as you add each item to your package.

Very cool that you folks are so close to each other!

[gshennen 0]

Michelle - when we filed our documents at the Consulate they only took one copy of the G325a (even though we had all 4 of them all filled in). We asked if they wanted all 4, and the lady said, that 1 was enough.

However, in saying that I like to be prepared for everything, and would still fill in all 4 (and in my case will take the remaining 3 copies to the interview anyway).

Cheers

Grant

[KimandRuss 0]

I've heard some rumors about them going to, or needing, only one page but we all know the problems rumors can start!

Because your fiance is filing with the uscis here in the States and the process is a bit different I'd still send all 4 pages (signed originals).

If you fill the first page it will repeat the information for you.

[Kelvan 0]

and i've managed to print rob's G-325A but i've had to write out mine, can i just fill out the first page and photocopy it 3 times, i know i have to sign the four pages seperately, but i'm so nervous i keep making mistakes writing it out so i'm really hoping the photocopies will be ok

michelle

Don't do that! At the bottom of each copy in the PDF it has a name for who it is for. Page 1 has IDENT. Page 2 has REC.BR. Page 3 has C and page 4 has CONSULATE. So you need to fill out each individual form so that they know who to give each copy to I guess

[Michelle Kauffman 0]

thanks so much for that guys, and yes i know i'm starting to sound like i'm freaking out, prob cos i am, but i'll try and keep it in check

michelle

[yankiwi 0]

Michelle- Titirangi is beautiful! We drive through it every time we head to Piha (which is not nearly enough). It's my favorite beach here, probably because it's the first place Chris took me to after my plane landed in NZ. I have a thing about walking barefoot on the ground when I'm stressed, it helps me feel grounded, so I requested to be taken to a good walking beach so I could put my feet in the water, in June. It was cold! I guess it's no surprise I got married on a beach, barefoot.

Rubyred- When my partner and I met in person for the first time it was just like that. It took a few minutes to associate the person in front of me with the voice on the phone and in the emails, but within a hour or two I felt like we had always been together. It's so odd... Meeting online means that you get to know the person from the inside out, instead of from the outside in. I think that's why when you meet in person everything is so...right.

Oh, and about the K-1 thing. I also think that if you were to get married say 10 months from now you'd be able to adjust status. From what I read in the past messages in this thread, you didn't go over intending to marry and a lot can happen in 12 months. I came here and got engaged, figured we'd do the K-1 thing and enter the US to get married, but then we thought why bother? We knew what we wanted, we already felt married, and there was just no real reason to wait. So 6 months after arriving here we got married! I planned a wedding in less than 2 months.

Anyone else headed to the states to live- Are you shipping any of your belongings over to the states besides the 2 suitcases you're taking on the plane? We don't have enough to ship a whole crate, but Chris has a lot of books that I think we should take (I'm a book person myself and have missed mine immensely these 2 years). I priced just parcel shipping and it's wicked expensive. So I'm curious as to whether anyone has found some good solutions to that dilemma.

[yankiwi 0]

Kim- Hahaha! Yes, those that go into psych often need to see one too. I wouldn't be an exception to that either! I think some people are natural counselors. I've always been the peacemaker in my house growing up and the counselor to all my friends. When they have a terrible day they all hunt me down on IM to talk them off the ledge (since they can't call me for cheap anymore!). Doing all the schooling to be a licensed psychologist though is daunting, so I've thought about doing the 4 year degree and then a certification program to be a Life Coach, and working on the rest of the schooling gradually.

Working for yourself is the greatest thing IMO. It's a lot of responsibility, but if you're good at following through with your plans and paying attention to detail it sure beats having a boss outside of yourself to answer to every day! I don't have much patience with computers at the moment, but Chris is hoping I'll learn programming by osmosis one day.

That's so neat how you and Russell met! Chris and I met on a mailing list for our Myers Briggs type and struck up an conversation about something off list at one point and the rest is history. I had no clue when I joined that list I'd meet my match, it wasn't a dating list at all!

I think Russell's Geology degree will have a better market in the US for sure! NZ is so small when it comes to some things. I was reading yesterday how if you want to be a Meteorologist just about the only place to work is MetService and all I could think of was "What if you don't work well there, you're screwed!".

Our general understanding of how NZ immigration works is that once you've passed the 12 month mark of being here on a visitors visa, once you leave the country, you have to remain gone for at least one year before coming back. The rules in their manual are a little difficult to interpret though, so it could be I have to stay out for the same amount of time that I spent here. I've been here almost 26 months. So either way, once I leave I'll have to stay gone for a while!

[KimandRuss 0]

I didn't know that about visiting NZ... interesting. If I was divorced in 2005, I could have married Russell in NZ then. There was no Adam Walsh Act and therefore, DCF was as simple as a visit and a marriage. *sigh* After the Adam Walsh Act was enacted last year DCF kinda went away for a while and then came back with a 6 month rule. We contemplated getting visas and me coming to NZ and waiting the 6 months but I have two teenagers so taking them out of school to homeschool them at this point in their lives seemed a little too much trouble. So we are where we are... waiting. Hopefully we hear something by the end of the month.

Luckily, i've not needed a shrink just yet. May have to re-think that after this process! j/k .... I have been through an awful lot in my life... loss of a child, loss of my dad at just 51, i've had to lose 200 pounds, my brothers been missing for 5 years... there's a post somewhere in this thread with a link to that. But i've just always had the support I needed to pull me through it. I'm really the type that shrinks the shrink. I don't think I need anyone telling me how to feel..which is why I didn't do too good with the classes. I don't think that should be the job of a psychologist. My brother (who suffered from depression) lost his shrink (whom he loved and had faith in) not long after my father's death. It was very difficult for him. He found a new one at Stanford U and used to record his conversations with her then take them home and analyze them and talk to me about them. When I went to go meet her she noted I seemed very much the same in that I was analyzing her as much as anything. She was right. You're right in that it just comes naturally to some and I am surely one of those people. I'm always the shoulder...always the rock.. I tend to see clear when vision is clouded and i'm not afraid to say what I think. It's just always been so easy for me. Russell's sister has her phd in psychology and her and I get along famously. She thinks I should be one too. Too much schooling and too much pill pushing! Perhaps i'll find someone I will enjoy taking the lead from someday.... I wish you a lot of luck with it. The world needs good people to talk to.

Michelle, you'll be fine. Use the guides like I said...and use the example forms for reference. One thing at a time. I think many of us felt this sense of worry while putting the package together. Especially me since I had everything stored on my hard drive and ready for printing...and my hard drive failed the day before we were to file. I know! Sucked! I had to put it all together again on one of my laptops... was not fun. Here's a picture of our packet. What a nice feeling to get it sent out though!

[amaciar 0]

Hi Everyone

I have been away from the computer for a wee while and man did I have some catching up to do! It is good to see that everything is going smoothly for some.

As for New Zealand Residency it is pretty easy in comparison. My husband and I had been together for just over two years when we applied. I sent in a huge packet with pictures and e-mails that we had written while apart. Plus we had documents saying we shared a bank account and all. The hugest issue was timing to police report with the medical but once we sent in the one package it was a waiting game. I think it took 5 months and I sent in my passport and could work and continue on with life. At the time of filing for my NZed residency I had been working here for a year though and had a company willing to keep me on.

As for our progress with USCIS we have hit a wall it feels like. We called the consulate in Auckland to see what we could do about speeding up the porcess. Now we are all sorts of confused. They sent us the medical packet along with the police check release. Now we have no idea if we need to conitnue with NVC. They said we didn't but the lady seemed cranky and distracted. So the question of the moment is do we need to continue with NVC or do we bring the I-864 and the rest of the info to the interview. We also spoke to a lawyer and that confused us as well.

To add to the fun I had an accountant sorting out my tax returns for while I have been working overseas and after three weeks of us stressing he sent back the incorrect info and kept saying that if I haven't worked in the US then I have nothing to worry about. WRONG ANSWER!!! So there was lots of crying and it was a bad day yesterday. So now I am freaking out that we will get an interview date and not have the correct tax information.

Wow that was a giant vent! Anyone have any advice? We are going to call the American Consulate in Auckland on Monday to try and get some answers so we don't mess these next few steps up!

Amy

[amaciar 0]

Just received our letter from the Auckland Consulate saying that my Hubby's interview is on the August 13th. Crossing our fingers this all goes well. I am ready to be back home. The interview is a week before our 1 year wedding anniversary and I am hoping we will be celebrating both the anniversary and Nics residency

As for moving belongings back to the States it seems like a bit of a nightmare. We had been looking to send home two bikes which are pretty small and only about 50KGs all up and it was going to cost 1200 each bike! So we have flagged that idea and are again selling off three quarters of our belongings to meet the 2 bags limit. Thank god for Trade Me We have become good at this as we have been doing it for the past 6 years. My family thinks I am nuts when I pack my bags to fly back to NZed. The scale comes out and my bags get packed and repacked till the weight in each bag is perfect If the books are worth the money i would say try and put as many in your bags as possible and pay for the excess baggage. I am starting to think the excess baggage fee is less than the shipping cost. Also have a look on amazon and try to determine whether he will be able to buy some of the books second hand and if it will be cheaper in the end to rebuy the books. Probably not but it is worth a try!

[kelzm 0]

Hey all,

Did some reading on AirNZ rules for baggage to USA.

In economy you get two bags at 23kgs. Flights to the US work on the piece system so every bag you have over the 2 is counted as a piece and charged at that cost, rather than charged by the kilo. Each extra bag on the piece system if flying from Auckland to LA or San Francisco costs $175.

I know I have too much for two bags, I'm hoping to get away with 3, paying $175 for an extra 23kgs seems like a decent deal to me.

Links to the info are:

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/before-you-...-in-baggage.htm

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/before-you-.../nz/default.htm

[KimandRuss 0]

I think I mentioned this earlier but we originally brought all of Russell's stuff home with us in 2006. We looked into moving all of his things here as well... yeah, ridiculous! So we sold what we could, gave away what we could and stuffed all of our suitcases full. Thankfully we had the kids with us as well so we were allowed more. We had to go through AUS first, then NZ. I remember repacking everything in the airport and weighing each bag until each was right up to the allowance. The worker's got a kick out of us. We did pay for extra bags as well but it was well worth it compared to having it shipped over.

I did hear something about extra bags being sent but perhaps not on the same flights? Can't remember where.

[yankiwi 0]

Hey all!

Chris had the medical check done with Dr. Marcus Stone in Remuera this past Friday. I ended up staying home since I'm trying to NOT catch a cold (but I have the sniffles thanks to the recent weather in Auckland!). I'm SO glad I read through this whole thread and took note of what doctors people saw and how the visits went. Chris says the appointment was a breeze! Got an updated tetanus shot, went around the corner for the x-rays and blood work...in total even with waiting at the other places it was all sorted out within 2 hours! All of that totaled $280, better than some other places I've read about!

This weekend I spent some time sorting out copies of all our paperwork to take with us just in case something didn't make it from the NVC to the Consulate. Since they've started doing the police checks from the NVC, they have all of Chris' original documentation (boy you'd better believe we paced the floor until the package tracking said it was delivered in the US!) so we don't have to take any of that, but I'm taking copies of all those as well (yes, I'm obsessive )

Thanks for all your input on the shipping stuff to the US thing. I still don't know what we're going to do, but I am checking to see if we can get a lot of those computer books used from Amazon and then just packing the essentials. I've been sorting through clothes to see what all we can donate. If the rate for an extra suitcase is about $175 I'm going to see what sort of box I can ship to the US for that price, just so I can compare.

I have a friend who used to work for an airline company and she mentioned that some places used to allow you to ship luggage with them even if you aren't flying with it, but someone has to go pick it up at the closest airport. I'm going to see what I can find out about that.

The truth of it is that I LOATHE dragging tons of suitcases, and where as most of you are coming home to someone in a set place, we won't be. So we'll be living out of those suitcases and lugging them everywhere we go until we get all my stuff and transport it to wherever we end up. My goal is to stick with our laptop bags, a giant suitcase, and a smaller one if need be. That's it. We'll see if we can pull it off or if I have to eat my words...