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

[KimandRuss 0]

Grant... sounds like really good news on the job front! Good for you! Keep us posted. Thanks for the info!

Kel, thank you for the info! It's good to know. He wants to get it as quickly as possilble and fly out the same day if possible (cute no? :lol) ...not sure we want to risk it getting lost in the post or not but it would save him another long drive. Something to think about.

Awwww a long weekend in smelly Rotorua! What a nice place to visit.. been to both Te Puia and Whakarewarewa, where I guess some of Russell's 'peeps' are from. Very nice. I hope you have a wonderful time with your son. I'm sure you're going to miss him a lot but he will be well cared for and getting the education you'd like him to have. Have a great time with your loved ones. Very soon for you!

[kiwiana 2]

amaciar: Congratulations! And thank you for the details of the interview.

[KimandRuss 0]

wooohooo we're at nvc already!!!

[Michelle Kauffman 0]

ooohh it's all happening now kim

[yankiwi 0]

Amaciar- Thank you SO MUCH for posting that! I've read it several times to try and convince my brain that all will be calm, easy, and drama-free tomorrow. I'm so glad things went smoothly for you guys, have a safe flight home!

Kim- It's great things are starting to move quickly for you guys after so long (not fast enough though, I'm sure )Our paperwork from the Consulate said to bring a foolscap sized registered envelope, but after talking to the people at the post office Chris decided to get a foolscap Courier envelope. The difference being registered is signature required but doesn't have track and trace, where as the Courier one is trackable, overnight delivery and signature required. Perhaps that would work for Russell? Pace offers urgent courier service, same day delivery to most places in NZ so that could be an option too. Unless of course he's going to stay around Auckland until it's ready to pick up, in which case picking it up in person would be the quickest of all!

Well, tomorrow is the day! According to what the Consulate sent us, most of our documentation is there and all our fees are paid. Since police checks and all the "original" documentation for them is being sent to NVC now, we had to go that route, so they should have it all. Just in case though I've found all the copies for everything we've ever received from them and ever had to send and it's all coming with me tomorrow, along with pictures. I don't think they'll need any of it, but at least I'll have it, kind of like a paperwork security blanket!

I'll be so glad when tomorrow evening rolls around...

Good luck Grant!! If things are moving at a leisurely pace I'm sure we'll see you there!

[cdneh 3,112]

Good luck for tomorrow!

[kiwiana 2]

yankiwi and Grant: All the best and good luck for tomorrow!!

[gshennen 0]

We're all ready too, will see you tomorrow!!

I got the cash out today to pay the fees tomorrow (the last job on the list).

P.S. I just got an A4 Track and Trace Courier Envelope from the postshop. surely it is the right size.

Cheers

Grant

[Michelle Kauffman 0]

Good Luck Guys for your interview

Can't wait to here that it all went smoothly.

[KimandRuss 0]

Ooooo tiara and grant... GOOD LUCK!!!!

[gshennen 0]

Hi All

Firstly good to meet you Tiara and Chris, best of luck moving forward for you guys, seemed like it was all under control.

Secondly - Our interview (will add to the Consulate review as well later).

Bit of a frantic start, where I normally park was closed off, so I parked in the Foodtown carpark and hoped that I wouldn't get towed.

Brook, Clay and I went through security (they seem very nice if you show up with a baby!!) and went straight to the window. The lady came and we progressed our paperwork bit by bit. One thing they asked for that I didn't have was a copy of my CV/Resume. I did however have a copy of my university degree, and my Project Management qualification, so that seemed to suffice. This was all very smooth and easy enough (except for the poor lady and I trying to complete some maths sums without a calculator). The lady was very pleasent and talkative and made me feel at ease. After the paperwork she ran through the process of the POE.

We then sat down and waited to see the Comsulate officer. This was a bit of a long wait (but seemed a lot longer as I was worried my csr would be towed!!). Was great to chat to Tiara and Chris during the wait. Was a bit of a worry when Tiara and Chris were called up before us, but within a couple of minutes of them being called to a window we were ushed into a separate meeting room (also a bit of a worry).

The Consulate officer was very nice, and all he wanted to know was how (logistically) we planned to get over there (as we have two young kids). We are planning on having Brook go first, me wrapping up the house, and following a week or two later. This is what he wanted to here rather than me go across with them and then come back to wrap everything up. He then ran though the paperwork and signed off everything as he went (a good sign I am thinking), chatted away about bits and pieces, took another fingerprint and sent us on our way saying that the passport with the "foil" attached, as well as the envelope inside would be back to us within a few days.

All in all it was pretty painless, and the whole process was over in an hour and a half (with an hour of this at least just waiting between the paperwork section and the Consulate officer).

Oh yeah, my car wasn't towed, so that was good.

Cheers

Grant

[cdneh 3,112]

Glad to hear it all went well! Good they didn't tow you either I think if my interview ever rolls around, I will park up at Pitt street ambulance station and hike down. Probably only the one perk we get

I have my titer test results today, and I show antibodies for the lot! Excellent, I haven't got to be a pin cushion. The only one I need is tetanus, and I'll get that tomorrow when I uplift my results.

Brief flurry of activity ended...back to patiently waiting

[Kelvan 0]

NOA1!!! *falls over*

[Michelle Kauffman 0]

hehe grats Kelly

[yankiwi 0]

It was great meeting Grant, Brook and Clay today! They made what would have been a long, quiet wait much more enjoyable!

We had to be up at 5:15 am in order to make it out the door and across the bridge by 6:30 am. It wasn't that hard to get up though, considering we hadn't slept much the night before (we were both worried we'd sleep through the alarm!). Once we were in the city we parked in the open air lot across from the train station (paid $15 to cover it for the day so we wouldn't have to worry about the time running out!) then went and sat at a cafe until it about 15-20 min before the scheduled time for the interview, then we went up. We wanted to make sure if there were any lines to get through security it wouldn't make us late. Thankfully it was pretty clear though.

All our stuff had to go through the x-ray machine, keys, cell phones and such were taken and locked in a little locker by the guard and we were given a number card to claim them back with.

The first woman we talked to at the Consulate was really helpful and seemed to have a good handle on things. She reviewed a whole file of paperwork filled with all the original forms and such we sent to the various places, as well as the original documents we had submitted to the NVC for the police checks. She then asked to see our passports and took the courier envelope we were told to bring with us. After that Chris was fingerprinted (using this interesting electronic scanner thing, way cleaner than the ink and stamp method! LOL). She asked how long we'd been married for and what are travel plans were, and said that as things are now, Chris' permanent resident card would be "conditional" since we haven't been married 2 years yet. I asked if we waited to enter the US until after our 2nd anniversary in December, would the permanent resident card then be without conditions and she said yes, we'd just need to remind the immigration officer at the POE. We talked about the procedure to apply to remove conditions and she said while it's entirely up to us what we want to do, it is a pain and can be a long process (which we've already read a lot about). Then she said that they didn't have to affix the foil in the passport today! Instead we could have the interview with the Consular Officer and have everything approved, then once we knew when we wanted to leave we could just call them up and let them know we're ready to have the passport processed. We could drop it off and it would be back to us in about 2 days, and we'd then have 6 months from that point to enter the US. So it gives us a bit of room, since if they had issued it today the 6 months would have been up in January, and our anniversary isn't until the 21st of December...so we'd be cutting it close. Then she explained what the envelope packet is (basically you are hand carrying your own records, they don't keep anything on file at the Consulate, which is why it is so important that the envelope not be opened and safely make it to the POE!).

The Consular Officer that was scheduled to do our interview wasn't in the office yet, so we had a seat and enjoyed a long chat with Grant and Brook and got to see their little one (SUCH a cute baby, he stayed quiet the whole time!). It was kind of funny to chat with a fellow American after being out of the country so long!

After a while passed (must have been about 45 minutes) we were called up to the window for the interview, which surprised us since we figured Grant and Brook would be before us! I swear the woman who conducted the interview must be the "long haired blonde" some of the reviews speak of because she was sooo friendly and cheerful! She checked Chris' fingerprints again, asked where we'd met, how long I'd been here, when we got married, if I liked living here, what Chris' profession is (we took a copy of the CV just in case, but she never asked for it), checked our passports, went through the stack of papers initialing them, asked to see proof of our finances since I didn't have to file taxes last year, and gave us back the originals of Chris' birth certificate and our marriage license. She asked if we'd happened to bring any pictures of our wedding (I don't think it would have been a problem if we didn't have them, but thankfully I thought to get some printed off yesterday just in case!). Then she had Chris swear an oath and sign some paperwork. After all that she closed the folder, told us that the medical check was good for a year and the police check was good for 6 months (although they can get it renewed if necessary), so to just let them know when we were ready to have the foil placed in Chris' passport....and we were done!

We looked around for Grant and Brook to wave bye, but we didn't see them, so I thought maybe they had an even faster interview than us and then ran to save the car from the tow truck! Glad everything turned out well for you guys too, it was really nice meeting you, I hope your move to the States goes smoothly!

Thanks for all the well wishes everyone. Of this whole process the interview was what I dreaded the most and it turned out to be the easiest part of all! Thanks in a huge part to the excellent staff at the Auckland Consulate, they really to go out of their way to help.