LAND DOWNUNDER, Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

[Tom&Ren 0]

Hi All!

The doc who did my medical in Sydney (Dr Waks) said I could pick up my medical results the morning of my interview to save me travelling all the way to Sydney again to pick them up..............is he right, can I send in Packet 3 without the medical results??

I realllllly don't want to take a day off work and fly to Sydney just to pick them up!

[kaffy 2]

When is your interview and why can't the clinic mail them to you?

[jldut80 0]

Just sent off my packet 3 to the Sydney consulate! Cant wait for my interview!! Annie have you heard anything yet? Surely you will hear very soon!!

[alb2009 0]

I just got my email notification yesterday ("Packet 4")-- and Andrew's interview date is scheduled for June 23rd!!

For those interested, in took us a total of 9 working days for the US Consulate to process our Packet 3 and send us notification of our interview date (we received notification on June 3rd). The total time beteween sending in Packet 3 and having the interview for us is one month. Pretty impressive turn around time!

Hope everyone else is moving along quickly in the process!

[kaffy 2]

Hi guys, as you know we are doing second stage processing for my husband's Aussie PR (he was granted his TR 2 years ago) and after about a 2 month wild goose chase through DIAC in Canberra my case finally got transferred to Washington DC last month. We had 3 weeks to get everything together so we took out time getting everything together and finally sent it off last Thursday, they received it on Friday and by today (Monday) his approval notice has come through. How's that for efficiency! If it had stayed in Canberra their processing goal is 6-8 months Anyway it looks like he has a year to go back & activate his PR visa. I don't know if I will go with him or not but we'll figure it out

[myperfectflaw 11]

Congrats Kaffy!! Are you doing this just so you guys can move there as a possibility or is that a definitive plan?

Ben had his interview this morning--and he's approved!! He promised his boss he would stay til the 15th of next month to help get someone new trained to take his place, but we expect to have him on a flight home within the week after! I'm bouncing off the walls!! All that worrying and stress, and he was asked where I live and where and when we're getting married and then said congrats! Thank gods that hurdle is over!! A short break now until we have to get started with the next one!

[kaffy 2]

We had apply to get his Temporary resident permit for when we lived there in 2007-08.. it was meant to be a permanent move for us but little did we know less than a year later we'd be hopping on a plane back to the States But since we paid all the fees the first time we figured we'd just follow through with the second stage of the processing so that we don't "waste" it. No plans on moving back but it's nice to have just in case something urgent comes up I guess

Congrats on the approval!! Any luck with booking tickets yet?

[MzMo1102 0]

Hi Everyone...!!

Had my interview today and everything was done and completed in less than an hour from going through all security checks, finger prints, waits, and interview! Oh, except one "minor" hiccup - my birth certificate has my mother's maiden name as my middle name. However, my passport and all other legal documents doesnt include this name (I was born overseas). So, prior to issuing the visa I need to either amend the passport to read as my birth certificate or obtain a name change certificate and send it back so they can issue the visa. Either way, there is a waiting period from 2 weeks to 4 weeks and my k1 approval expires in 2 weeks. I have emailed the US consulate explaining the waiting period so hopefully, they can extend this 4 month period for at least another month!

But other then that - they said all was in order and gave me a pre-departure information sheet to read over...now, just the frustration of having to sort out this name change !!

[jldut80 0]

I recieved my interview date today, june 30th. I cant believe how quickly things are progressing. I only sent back my packet three last thursday and yesterday was a holiday!!

[SCFsnoopy 0]

Seems like everyone is doing pretty well! I hope you get the naming issue sorted soon MzMo!

So, my NOA1 date is May 22nd... how are my chances of having the visa by Christmas? I'd love to have a February wedding, despite the cold (hey, maybe it will snow and I can have a white wedding ) and I want to take at least 4 weeks to tie up loose ends before I leave for the States once I've got the visa in hand. Of course, I don't really mind if I get it later because then I will probably wait a bit longer before entering so that we can have the wedding early summer...

[kaffy 2]

Hey Aussies, just had an a-ha moment.. saw an old Aussie worksafe ad replayed on TV here a couple minutes ago

the original: http://media.workcover.nsw.gov.au/video/30..._commercial.mpg

the american version: http://www.lni.wa.gov/Main/worksafe/

they even flipped the car from right hand drive to left hand drive

[jldut80 0]

Quick question. Does anyone have any tips on shipping a few items to the states from australia. I have a few boxes of things i want to ship over but the quotes i have received so far are ridiculous!

Thanks!!

[SCFsnoopy 0]

Quick question. Does anyone have any tips on shipping a few items to the states from australia. I have a few boxes of things i want to ship over but the quotes i have received so far are ridiculous!

Thanks!!

Unfortunately ridiculous is pretty much the only price you'll get, and with shipping you get what you pay for. I do not recommend sending anything through Aussie Post, they lose stuff all the time and things often get held up (it took 9 weeks for a clean pair of boots to get to me when I was in the US). If you send through DHL, as long as you pack your things into their boxes it's reasonable (still expensive, but they get stuff to the States in 2-3 working days)... their Jumbo box (25kg) is a little under $300 if you bring everything to the depot to pack. A little more expensive for the courier to pick it up from you.

I work for DHL so I can give you some tips on shipping in general (and I can probably get more specific info on retail prices if you let me know what city you're in). With any shipment that is not a document, you will be required to provide a full custom's declaration - I cannot stress enough how important it is that this is completed, and accurate! If customs suspect something's missing or not right on the invoice, they will open your shipment and search it and you'll be whacked with a huge inspection fee (sometimes in the market of $800+!). A custom's declaration needs to have at least the following info:

• Name and address of shipper (you)
• Name and address of consignee (who/where you're sending it)
• Each item in the shipment. Note that you cannot generalize - don't put down "clothes", list each seperately, "shirts - 5, skirt - 1, dress - 4" etc.
• An approximate value for each item (has to be at least $1, we encourage customers to list used personal effects at a low value as this deters customs from charging duties)
• A total value for each item - if you have listed 5 shirts at $1 each, total value for that item is $5
• A total value for the whole shipment
• State whether goods are duty drawback (in your case, no) and if they are hazardous.
• Some may ask for a reason for export, as far as I know this is not strictly necessary but not a bad idea to put down
• Signature and date
• AWB or tracking/consignment number (depending who you send with, DHL requires the Air Waybill (AWB) number) and date of export

It sounds like an awful lot but once the custom's declaration is in front of you it's all fairly easily laid out.

There is a website you can ship through that actually has their own DHL account, so they get shipments at a discounted rate - I believe it is http://www.xsbagsandboxes.com.au/ - I've had a customer or two come in after using that site and they have sent stuff that would ordinarily have cost them in the thousands for under $800. I think the way they work is they give you an account number to present to the DHL staff and also allow you to write up your custom's dec online and print it off so you can have it ready.

Another note - I have no idea if Fedex, etc, are as stringent as DHL are but if you ship with DHL you will absolutely be required to allow a member of staff to inspect your shipment before you seal and send it. We have absolutely no choice, our security policies are extremely strict, if you are not a regular customer and do not hold an account with us we MUST inspect your shipment. We are really only looking for obvious thing like bombs, aerosols, certain foodstuffs, prescription meds, lithium-ion batteries (in phones, digital cameras, laptops etc) cash, checks or any other cash equivalent... things that people don't realize you can't send or we are not allowed to send due to policy.

If you're sending shoes, make sure they're clean and note that they are clean in the custom's dec ("pair of shoes, clean" will do the trick). If you send any wood products, good chance you can add another day to transit time. The US is really mostly concerned about foodstuffs coming in so try to limit or eliminate that if you can (although Tim Tams seem to be fine )

Sorry if I've overloaded you with info, but we get a LOT of customers that don't realize what a process it is to ship anything overseas and it's better to have too much info than too little! At the least it will save you a bit of a headache if you're prepared - that's getting to my other point, try to do this a week before you really need to so that if something happens and you need to take another day to do it, you have that liberty. We had a customer send 8 jumbo boxes overseas about 3.5 hours before he had to get on the plane, it took over 2 hours to inspect the shipment and correct all the custom's decs and he complained the whole time about needing to get to the airport... he should have done it at least the day before!

[Tom&Ren 0]

Hi all!

I got my interview date! July 7th @ 11am!

Can't believe how fast they processed it! I sent Packet 3 via Express Post on Friday and by 3pm today (Monday) I had my interview email!

Any other peeps booked in for the 7th??

[kaffy 2]

Quick question. Does anyone have any tips on shipping a few items to the states from australia. I have a few boxes of things i want to ship over but the quotes i have received so far are ridiculous!

Thanks!!

We shipped about 7 boxes over via Australia Post sea mail (stuff like winter clothes that we didn't need urgently) and they arrived within the specified time frame and nothing went missing. They are the cheapest too out of all the shipping options