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

[cdneh 3,112]

well the e-mail to the embassy was a flop...they said..were booked untill the 26th, but if anything comes availible we'll let know...LOL LIKE THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!!

oh well, just have to hang in there, made it this far..stillll bummer!!!!

Well..it's a while, so you may strike it lucky! You've made it this far, and that's no small thing...chin up!

[kiwiana 2]

kelvan: yes the police report goes to the embassy, like the medical exam results

ivannaloveskiwi: sorry that you couldn't get the date changed but at least you gave it a try. I know it's not much of a consolation, but it will give you guys time to double and triple check that you have all the documentation etc ready for the interview.

cdneh: did you sort out any medical or car insurance for usa? my fiance doesn't think i can be added to his car insurance. I will go stir crazy if i can't drive over there!!!

Anyone got any suggestions of any car insurance companies over there that i could look into? The same with medical insurance?. I looked at a few medical insurance sites a little while ago but got totally confused with what would be the best policy to take.

[cdneh 3,112]

I'll need both...and I'm looking too

I copied this from a while back...I seem to remember Kim posting this... I think it was supposed to help with regard to auto insurance..

Transport Registry Centre

Private Bag 11777

Manawatu Mail Centre 4442

NEW ZEALAND

The list of traffic offences includes offences up to seven years old, including Demerit Suspensions records. It also includes information on traffic convictions and sentencing from court appearances.

All Requests must include the following information:

driver licence number (if known)

full name (as shown on your licence)

date of birth

postal address (to have the information sent)

OR email address (to receive the information electronically)

contact phone number

Please allow 10 working days after the request is received.

There is no fee for this service.

Edited January 27, 2009 by cdneh

[yankiwi 0]

Hey all!!

Wow, everyone sure has been busy! I may not get the chance to post much, but I try to catch up on reading this thread about once a week. I've been keeping you all in my thoughts as you've waited out the paperwork process, and done happy dances as the approvals have come in!! Plus more than a bit of grumbling at the universe on behalf of cdneh ;-)

We've got less than 3 weeks left in NZ! I'm not as excited about it as I thought I would be, but that's probably mostly me dreading getting everything done, and the flight to the US. The movers come and we hand over the keys to our flat on Feb. 5th...and I haven't gotten the cleaners scheduled yet, nor is the packing done. I swear every time I thin out our possessions they breed while we sleep.

Feb. 12 we fly out of Auckland, our POE is San Francisco. After much debating back and forth we decided that choosing between North Carolina and California was too hard without actually visiting the areas, pricing apartments, and checking out the local scene. So, Chris' boss has been gracious enough to agree to the following plan:

2 weeks in the Bay area. Chris will work on-site there and get a feel for the work environment and in the evenings and weekends we'll drive around and try to picture ourselves living there!

2 weeks in Alabama to visit my family and friends in the area, and get all my belongings sorted out there, so they are ready to ship to wherever we settle.

2 weeks in North Carolina to check out the Raleigh/Durham area, price housing, and figure out if living there is worth having Chris continue to do contracting work remotely for the company instead of moving to Cali and working at the office....plus we'll go up to Virginia for a weekend to visit my grandmother and aunt.

During all our travels Chris will continue to work remotely so there will be no loss of productivity for the company, as well as get as many hours in while we're moving as is possible. By the first of April we'll know where we're going to live for the next few years! A little unconventional, yes, but at least we won't be committing to a place sight unseen, and we'll get in a good portion of our visiting before settling down for a bit! We all know how much smaller the vacation time is in the US.

I checked NZ Post site for their biggest "Weigh-To-Go" box (510 x 405 x 280mm). At a final weight of 20 kg it'll cost $233 to send it International Economy (which takes a few weeks). 10 kg is $138.50 So we bought some and those boxes are bigger than I thought they were! They'll definitely get our documents, some books, clothes, and keepsake stuff there (with a good taping). I think 2-3 would sort out anything you'd need to ship. I'll be mailing off some boxes to the US later on this week! If you're gonna ship big boxes to the US make sure to get the big red customs label, not the little green one.

[kiwiana 2]

Hey all!!

Wow, everyone sure has been busy! I may not get the chance to post much, but I try to catch up on reading this thread about once a week. I've been keeping you all in my thoughts as you've waited out the paperwork process, and done happy dances as the approvals have come in!! Plus more than a bit of grumbling at the universe on behalf of cdneh ;-)

We've got less than 3 weeks left in NZ! I'm not as excited about it as I thought I would be, but that's probably mostly me dreading getting everything done, and the flight to the US. The movers come and we hand over the keys to our flat on Feb. 5th...and I haven't gotten the cleaners scheduled yet, nor is the packing done. I swear every time I thin out our possessions they breed while we sleep.

Feb. 12 we fly out of Auckland, our POE is San Francisco. After much debating back and forth we decided that choosing between North Carolina and California was too hard without actually visiting the areas, pricing apartments, and checking out the local scene. So, Chris' boss has been gracious enough to agree to the following plan:

2 weeks in the Bay area. Chris will work on-site there and get a feel for the work environment and in the evenings and weekends we'll drive around and try to picture ourselves living there!

2 weeks in Alabama to visit my family and friends in the area, and get all my belongings sorted out there, so they are ready to ship to wherever we settle.

2 weeks in North Carolina to check out the Raleigh/Durham area, price housing, and figure out if living there is worth having Chris continue to do contracting work remotely for the company instead of moving to Cali and working at the office....plus we'll go up to Virginia for a weekend to visit my grandmother and aunt.

During all our travels Chris will continue to work remotely so there will be no loss of productivity for the company, as well as get as many hours in while we're moving as is possible. By the first of April we'll know where we're going to live for the next few years! A little unconventional, yes, but at least we won't be committing to a place sight unseen, and we'll get in a good portion of our visiting before settling down for a bit! We all know how much smaller the vacation time is in the US.

I checked NZ Post site for their biggest "Weigh-To-Go" box (510 x 405 x 280mm). At a final weight of 20 kg it'll cost $233 to send it International Economy (which takes a few weeks). 10 kg is $138.50 So we bought some and those boxes are bigger than I thought they were! They'll definitely get our documents, some books, clothes, and keepsake stuff there (with a good taping). I think 2-3 would sort out anything you'd need to ship. I'll be mailing off some boxes to the US later on this week! If you're gonna ship big boxes to the US make sure to get the big red customs label, not the little green one.

Wow! less than 3 weeks to go!! the time has flown! It sounds like a great idea to check out the places first. pricing apartments etc before deciding where to live.

The cost of shipping the boxes are reasonable considering the weight.

I swear everytime i thin out our possessions they breed while asleep

I thought it was just me that noticed this!!

cdneh: i will send away for this tomorrow

[Kelvan 0]

Thanks for your help kelzm and kiwana! What on earth would I do without all your help guys

cdneh: Not long to go now til your interview! Hope it goes well, I'm sure it will.

yankiwi: I can see myself in the exact same situation as you. We are looking at living in SF, but it's hard to say without going there and BEING there and experiencing what it's like beforehand.

[yankiwi 0]

cdneh--Ahah! Yet another thing I've missed putting on my list of things to do! Thank you for posting that! Good thing they are willing to send it via email...

kiwiana-- Yes, it breeds! And unpacks itself...

For the last 3 weeks people have been asking me "Are you done packing and ready to move yet?" and I'm like "NO! It's a whole lot harder than it sounds! We aren't just moving across town, we are moving across the WORLD!"

Storing things here is going to cost far too much, so what we can replace we're donating or giving away, and what we can't replace is going in those boxes. I don't care if I have to ship 10 at $200 a piece, that's still WAY cheaper than using a moving company or paying rental fees on a tiny storage unit for the next 6-10 years!

Kelvan--If you can arrange to do so, I would highly advise it, and I haven't even done the traveling yet! But I know from moving every 3 years while growing up that no place is ever what you think it's going to be and I want to know the good and bad in the areas, if possible. A few days isn't long enough to absorb anything worthwhile IMO, which is why we opted for 2 weeks (since that's easier than multiple short visits). It'll cost a bit as far as staying in a hotel goes (although I'm going to try and stay in places that offer air points for rooms, might as well get something out of it) and a rental car since I don't have one waiting for me back home and we don't want to buy until we know what state we're moving to. But it's still better than committing to moving to a place only to decide 3 months later that we can't stand to live in the area another day!

I'll update my signature with a link to my blog when I can remember to...and I'll post on the blog as we're traveling around, so you can see pictures from the Bay Area and my reviews of things around there. We'll be staying in Mountain View I think, which is in between San Francisco and San Jose, but we'll be checking out the surrounding area on the weekend (armed with a map!).

[KimandRuss 0]

ivanna, sorry you couldn't get the interview moved up but i'm sure the time will fly!

As stated, the Embassy handles the NZ police certificate but if you've lived anywhere else for more than 6 months you will need to obtain pc's from those Countries as well...and how you go about getting it is different for each Country.

Ana, how exciting to have your visa in hand! I know how you feel about wanting to go now. You may remember, Russell actually booked his flight for the wrong day because we wanted him here asap... ended up paying for two tickets. Wont be long now!

Car insurance will vary by State so you'll have to check around where you'll be living. Also, car laws vary by State as well. In Massachusetts you can drive with your international license for up to a year. After that he will need to get a MA license and insurance. After checking with my car insurance company, he brought along a paper stating his clean driving record to help with costs when we do add him. He also brought paperwork stating his good credit to help when adding him to the mortgage..etc.

You can get temporary medical insurance from many different places. There are several different plans to choose from but most will cost about $30 a month or so ...just until you can either be added to your spouse's or obtain some through a job.

Lisa, NVC doesn't handle K1's the way they do other petitions. Hopefully it will be sent soon, if it hasn't already.

yankiwi, travel safe!

Michelle, what's going on in your world??

We're just finishing up a total remodel of one of our rental units. Lots of work! And.... the extra income certainly helps. Speaking of income.... we're finally re-focusing our attention on AOS this week. Better late than never? I have to admit that i'm really enjoying all the time we've had to spend together and i'm not looking forward to him going back to work in his field full time. I suppose the time has come though.

Boy, we've all come such a long way since this thread started. You are a great bunch of people and i'm so happy to see everyone finally moving along.

[rubyred 0]

hi guys!

still no decision here on what to do... but we're reading vj all the time, and leaning towards staying here instead of doing k-1.

one thing i'm concerned about: medical/dental insurance. my travel insurance runs out when my visa expires, and being put on j's work insurance is gonna cost over $350 p/month... and i don't work in a job that provides health insurance, nor am i likely to anytime in the future. i'm getting pretty stressed about this. if any of you find good insurance plans, please post them here!

[KimandRuss 0]

I know here in MA many of the self-employed consultants I work for go through the Chamber of Commerce for their insurance. Might want to give them a call to see what they offer.

[kelzm 0]

Wow, things are really humming around here!

For those of you looking at Auto Insurance and planning to live in California here's what I discovered:

- It's mandatory to have Auto Insurance in California. You have to carry proof of it in your vehicle at all times.

- Once you're a resident for more than 10 days you need to get a California drivers license. You can drive on your NZ license for a year, however technically once you've got a physical address and/or get any of those things like bank accounts that mean you've settled, you've become a resident. It's likely something you can get away with if pulled over, but for me I thought it was easiest to just get the license.

- Nearly every job I look at has as a requirement possession of a California's drivers license.

- I got added to my husbands insurance no problem. We use esurance, it was all done online, premiums went up $5 a month to cover me and the additional car we now have. I also got approved by Geico and reasonable prices.

So my advice is to go and sit your California drivers license, you need your social security number to do this. It's pretty simple, I went in and took the test on the same day, the DMV site has all the guides and sample tests online. I sat my practical test a couple of days later. Once you have that California drivers license check out Geico, esurance and progressive. All of them give you online quotes, none charged me extra for being 'foreign'.

[kelzm 0]

I've been looking to see if there are any other Kiwis living near me, since sometimes I just wish I could hear that familiar accent. Thought I'd post the link to a small but growing group of Kiwis in the San Jose area. I'm just organising to have coffee with one of the members who comes through my town for work. Yippee.

http://expatnewzealander.meetup.com/30/

[rubyred 0]

hmmm i just tried signing up but it keep telling me to enter my zip code... yet there was nowhere to enter it?? i don't understand!

we're about an hour away from san jose, but i'm sure we could make a day trip out of visiting at some stage. we're off to LA this weekend on a bit of spur-of-the-moment trip.

[Dave_n_Genna 0]

Can someone tell me to which address my fiancee is supposed to send her Packet 3 return packet (checklist, Police Certificate form, 2 passport photos, passport photocopy, DS-230, DS-156, DS-156K)

I have the following addresses, with no indication of which one to use:

Consulate General of the United States of America

Private Bag 92022,

Auckland 1142

New Zealand

OR

U.S. Consulate General

Level 3 Citibank Building

23 Customs St East

Auckland

New Zealand

92022

ALSO, to make things still more confusing... the letters my Fiancee got from the consulate list the building as the

CitiGROUP Building... and everything else I have ever seen lists the building as the CitiBANK Building... does anyone know which one it really is???

Thx for any help!

Edited January 31, 2009 by Dave_n_Genna

[kiwiana 2]

Can someone tell me to which address my fiancee is supposed to send her Packet 3 return packet (checklist, Police Certificate form, 2 passport photos, passport photocopy, DS-230, DS-156, DS-156K)

I have the following addresses, with no indication of which one to use:

Consulate General of the United States of America

Private Bag 92022,

Auckland 1142

New Zealand

OR

U.S. Consulate General

Level 3 Citibank Building

23 Customs St East

Auckland

New Zealand

92022

ALSO, to make things still more confusing... the letters my Fiancee got from the consulate list the building as the

CitiGROUP Building... and everything else I have ever seen lists the building as the CitiBANK Building... does anyone know which one it really is???

Thx for any help!

i was in the same dilemma before i mailed back my packet 3. I had written the p.o box address on the front of a large white envelope and then sealed it.. Took it into post office and said i wanted it to go in a courier bag (track and trace). After i wrote the address on the courier bag, the lady at post office looked at it and said.. oh the courier only delivers to 'actual' addresses. I said, well i don't have the other address on me.. so anyway, i sent it off with the p.o. box addy on it and the embassy signed for it, so the courier delivered it ok.

The different addresses they list do make it very confusing but I don't think it really matters what address it is sent to. The consulate is on the third floor of the citibank building (i think its BANK?) ( i hadn't noticed that they call it citigroup aswell, now that IS confusing) But i would like to think that anyone in the postal service would know where the American Consulate in Auckland city was.