LAND DOWNUNDER, Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi

[Rings 10]

Hi Jamie,

I know how you feel as my husband is from Melbourne. Please don't pay any of those sites anything. The paperwork is not hard and you have a ton of people here that will support you step by step through the whole process. My husband just got his 10 year greencard yesterday and we did this all ourself with the help of these fine people here. if you look at the timelines of people and their signatures, you can get a good idea of how long this takes. Please remember that it does not go any faster if you hire a lawyer or any of those sites. It's the same process no matter what. That and we have heard some really bad horror stories of people who have hired lawyers that did their paperwork wrong. The person who is going to do the best job for your case is you...because it's personal...it hits home... it's your life. You can do this and we can help you! Most of the odd mumbo jumbo you are reading here is forms and paperwork that we all must file and before you know it, you will be a pro! Good luck in your journey and please keep asking questions!

[Giggles 1]

Vanessa, if you don't mind me asking, don't you have health insurance now that you are living in the US? I'm just curious to know because personally I would never like to take the chance and go without it (even though I've never been admitted to hospital in my life). If you get critically sick or were in an accident which requires hospitalisation the medical bills can cost thousands and thousands. For one of the richest countries, it's an absolute joke they can't provide healthcare for their people.

Jamie, I'm a soon-to-be navy wife also My man is on shore duty over on the east coast in Washington DC now. He asked about my medical insurance and when I told him I didn't have any because we could get free medical treatment he couldn't believe it. We'll be covered under our husbands medical insurance once we get married so luckily medical and dental bills won't be an issue for us unless they retire before 20 years service, which mine won't be.....he's Joe Navy! Lol. Did you meet your fiance in Oz? My man told me that guys often go AWOL after port visits in Australia because they fall in love with Aussie women and don't want to leave. Lol.

[TerriandEric 4]

From what I understand, all you have to do is make sure your 8 1/2 y/o is mentioned in your K1 petition as a person that is going with you. I know there's also something about the child's father signing something for permission but that might happen at the P3 stage. Hope those links give you something to work on.

The child has to be mentioned at the interview stage not on the petition. Also you MUST have a signed affidavit from the biological father giving permission for the child to live permanently in the USA OR court papers granting sole custody to the mother. Without these things, the child CAN not be granted K2 derivative status nor can they travel. You also need the father to sign on the passport application, without that the AUS government will not issue the passport..once again you can also have permission from the Family Courts granting permission for the mother to make all travel arrangements regarding the child in question.

I know all this as I have just had to get it all done for my son & daughter.

On the petition, do not fret as the first place you will mention the child is on the I 134...and again on the paperwork for Packet 3.

[TerriandEric 4]

The child has to be mentioned at the interview stage not on the petition. Also you MUST have a signed affidavit from the biological father giving permission for the child to live permanently in the USA OR court papers granting sole custody to the mother. Without these things, the child CAN not be granted K2 derivative status nor can they travel. You also need the father to sign on the passport application, without that the AUS government will not issue the passport..once again you can also have permission from the Family Courts granting permission for the mother to make all travel arrangements regarding the child in question.

I know all this as I have just had to get it all done for my son & daughter.

On the petition, do not fret as the first place you will mention the child is on the I 134...and again on the paperwork for Packet 3.

CORRECTION - Sorry you do mention ALL children on the petition but you do not specify who is travelling with you when you leave.

I apologize -- I am exhausted as my youngest son was hospitalized yesterday with a severe bout of peritonitis and after very long days at the hospital I am off there again tomorrow as he needs surgery to fix his PD Catheter. At this stage it looks like we will be spending the next 6 weeks in Westmead Childrens Hospital..at least by the end of that we should have NOA2 lol.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Vanessa, if you don't mind me asking, don't you have health insurance now that you are living in the US? I'm just curious to know because personally I would never like to take the chance and go without it (even though I've never been admitted to hospital in my life). If you get critically sick or were in an accident which requires hospitalisation the medical bills can cost thousands and thousands. For one of the richest countries, it's an absolute joke they can't provide healthcare for their people.

No problem asking. Up until Dec 12 2009 I had travellers insurance still. Now that I'm married i'm on my husbands health insurance through work but I think it's pretty minimal coverage... I haven't read through the paperwork so I'm basing it on his memory and he's never had to use it so he doesn't really "know" the ins and outs.

I completely agree with you on the health care front. It's SO expensive to get healthcare and yet there's no public health care system.. or dental or anything. I was reading an article recently that talked about this doctor who once a month gathered dentists, eye doctors and regular doctors and went to a location to offer free health care. The place changed each time but they remarked about how people had been living with bad teeth or eyes or whatever and yet lots of them smoked, or drank a lot in preference to paying for medicine (which was cheaper). It was a real eye opener about some of the less fortunate areas of the US. I like the Aussie system as at least you can get medical treatment and it's pretty decent, but the UK version though its "free" they pay for it out of their pay cheques in the form of tax, and apparently it's really bad because everyone takes advantage of it...

But yeah, I'm pretty sure now we're married i'm covered on Tony's healthcare but he needs to get a copy of the documents for me to read through to know exactly what it is.. thanks for the reminder

[Jaime and Melvin 0]

Hi everyone!

Hi Terri My 8 yr olds father has never had anything to do with him, apart from seeing him once when he was 5 days old and signing his birth registration forms. I guess getting a signature from him is going to be quite difficult!

My 8 year old already has a passport, we went down that road in 2007. Because I couldn't get his father's signature, I had to fill out a separate form stating why I think they should issue the passport and what avenues I've gone down to try and contact him. 4 weeks later after applying, his passport arrived, no questions asked.

What is the I 134 by the way? Another form?? LOL

I hope your son is ok *hugs* poor little guy!

Hey giggles! No we met online actually LOL. 2 years ago we met and finally met in person earlier last year . His 20 years in the service is nearly up, he was going to retire but is planning on making Chief, so will be in for another few years at least. He stays on shore also and works on the boats when they come in

Thanks Rings I knew the site sounded very fishy! It's just like all those sites wanting money for applying for the Greencard Lottery, when it doesn't cost a thing to apply! I will definitely keep you all updated with my journey and continue with my questions .

Vanessa thankyou sooo much for all that info and links again! I haven't had a chance to check them out yet, it's hard to get free time on here to concentrate with the new baby etc, but I will try to look them up today and save them. I don't mind being overloaded with links by the way haha. The more info the merrier I say!

I hope I responded to everyone, I must get in here more often to keep up lol.

[Giggles 1]

CORRECTION - Sorry you do mention ALL children on the petition but you do not specify who is travelling with you when you leave.

I apologize -- I am exhausted as my youngest son was hospitalized yesterday with a severe bout of peritonitis and after very long days at the hospital I am off there again tomorrow as he needs surgery to fix his PD Catheter. At this stage it looks like we will be spending the next 6 weeks in Westmead Childrens Hospital..at least by the end of that we should have NOA2 lol.

Terri, I'm sorry to hear about your son I hope all goes well.

No problem asking. Up until Dec 12 2009 I had travellers insurance still. Now that I'm married i'm on my husbands health insurance through work but I think it's pretty minimal coverage... I haven't read through the paperwork so I'm basing it on his memory and he's never had to use it so he doesn't really "know" the ins and outs.

I completely agree with you on the health care front. It's SO expensive to get healthcare and yet there's no public health care system.. or dental or anything. I was reading an article recently that talked about this doctor who once a month gathered dentists, eye doctors and regular doctors and went to a location to offer free health care. The place changed each time but they remarked about how people had been living with bad teeth or eyes or whatever and yet lots of them smoked, or drank a lot in preference to paying for medicine (which was cheaper). It was a real eye opener about some of the less fortunate areas of the US. I like the Aussie system as at least you can get medical treatment and it's pretty decent, but the UK version though its "free" they pay for it out of their pay cheques in the form of tax, and apparently it's really bad because everyone takes advantage of it...

But yeah, I'm pretty sure now we're married i'm covered on Tony's healthcare but he needs to get a copy of the documents for me to read through to know exactly what it is.. thanks for the reminder

Well at least you have some medical coverage for now even though you don't exactly know what it is. Lol. I remember seeing a story on Oprah where they did a similar thing with the free doctors, maybe it was the same people you read about. It's sad that poor people who need medical treatment have to go without....it's the USA not some poor third world country!

What is the I 134 by the way? Another form?? LOL

Hey giggles! No we met online actually LOL. 2 years ago we met and finally met in person earlier last year . His 20 years in the service is nearly up, he was going to retire but is planning on making Chief, so will be in for another few years at least. He stays on shore also and works on the boats when they come in

The I-134 is Affidavit of Support form you submit to the US Consulate in Sydney with Packet 3. You won't need to worry about this one until your I-129 petition is approved. You better get use to filling in all these forms....there is a lot. It's a good idea to keep a copy of everything you submit in case you need to refer to it later and makes it easier when answering the same questions on different forms. I know this whole process is daunting at the start but you will find practically everything you'll need to know on VJ or ask on the forums. We didn't know about VJ until after our petition was approved....it would have been much easier if we had of know about it back then. Good luck on your journey!

I hope your man gets his promotion! Mine is a few years away from doing 20 years. He's hoping to make Senior Chief this year....I hope he gets it because after all the hard work he's been doing he definitely deserves it. He was also going to retire after 20 because of me but now we are thinking it might be better to stay in a bit longer for the benefits we'll get if he stays in a couple more years. He's so worried about having to leave me in the US when he's got to go to sea because I'll have no family near by and I'll be all on my lonesome. It seems the majority of people meet online these days. We met the old fashion way, it was quite funny because we hung out for a few days and he was telling me he'd fallen in love and he wanted me to come visit him when he gets back to Japan. I was thinking he was just saying that to try and have his way with me and he'd forget all about me when he got back to the ship (you know the stereotypical sailor). Lol. I was so wrong.....the man was serious from the beginning and I'm glad I took the chance by going to Japan

Edited January 17, 2010 by Giggles

[TerriandEric 4]

Hey all,

Thanks for the well wishes for my son. Things are not looking good at all. He was meant to have surgery today to fix his PD Catheter, but due to unforeseen emergencies his surgery was shuffled to tomorrow. We at least know now the course of action they are taking. They will remove his PD Catheter and insert a Vas Cath so he can begin Haemo Dialysis tomorrow afternoon. They will also insert a nasal gastric tube so he can have supplemental feeding as he has lost almost 2 kilos over the last couple of days. He is resting semi comfortably...he has his PCA button to give pain relief via the drip pump...so he is in pixie land most of the time which is the best thing for him at present. He will have to have the Haemo Dialysis over the next 6 weeks or so and that means hospital visits 3 days of the week for 6 hours a day...I am trying to keep a semi normal routine for my 12yo daughter but thats not happening. I have shielded my other kids from all his medical visits over the years but now they have been confronted with it ad Bek is shocked and wide eyed at all her brother has to endure.

Anyway, just wanted to update a little..nothing new on the USCIS front *#######* hope everyone is enjoying their weekends

[Jaime and Melvin 0]

Hi everyone

Terri that must be so hard How did the surgery go?

Thanks for that info Giggles! What a shame you didn't know about the forums prior to doing your Visa! It seems like a lot of the info on the forms is very repetitive but yeah, I'll be making double copies of everything!! Even getting the info together for bubs citizenship etc was so daunting at first, but now that I'm familiar with all the forms and have filled out all my info, it's easy. I just have to wait for the other half to fill his out and post them back now.

Do you think I'm going to have a problem with the whole having proof of meeting thing for the K1? I may only end up having just the one photo or nothing. I need to get onto my mate about that photo and see if she still has it. I have read some posts on other threads that the proof isn't that important?

Oh I hope he gets the promotion too. He is going for Chief, I don't even know what he is now, I must ask him or you would probably know the ranking order? He's been knuckling down with studying lately, I guess to better his chances of the promotion.

It's lovely how you met and how he was true to his word. The Sailors in general are very stereotyped eh. It makes it sad for the ones that really are good honest men that only want one woman.

[Jaime and Melvin 0]

I just had a brain wave! I organised my whole trip on my other computer, that I neglect these days, as I use my laptop mainly. I had a folder in my email with my USA emails saved, like bookings, itineraries etc.

I just had a look and there is one itinerary for my Delta flights from Las Vegas to Seattle and Seattle to LAX! I didn't end up actually going on those flights, as I had to come home a month early and booked other flights with another airline, but I wonder if they would still look at it as proof that I was there? The itineraries I didn't save were in my other email account and I've deleted them ... I've also deleted my whole International flight itinerary.

I also have a receipt and itinerary from Greyhound, as we took the bus from LA - Vegas and I have receipts for my Vegas accommodation. I know I didn't meet up with my partner there, but it's proof at least that I was in the States maybe??

[Giggles 1]

If his next rank is Chief, he must be an E-6 Petty Officer First Class at the moment (enlisted rank goes up to E-9). Well that's a good thing he's busy studying for the test....it's tough to make Chief but it will be well worth all the hard work if he does. It's quite a big deal to make Chief.

Hmm....I honestly have no idea how you'll go if you can't provide a lot of evidence. We had lots so it wasn't something we had to worry about. You need to prove that you have actually met in person within the last 2 years. Which would be stuff like photos of you together, travel itineraries, boarding passes, the immigration stamps in your passport. If you have a baby together you'd think they'd class that as evidence you've met wouldn't they?? I'd start looking for any other pieces of evidence I could if I were you. Your fiance doesn't have any evidence that you were there? No photos of you together, did you email him your itinerary or anything? Also it would be wise from now to keep anything that proves you have an ongoing relationship (phone bills, IM chats, emails, Skype logs, birthday cards, letters, etc). I don't think I'd include the itinerary which you ended up cancelling. It might looks suspicious if these dates don't match up with what's stamped in your passport or in any other evidence. Hopefully any evidence you can gather will be enough.

[Jaime and Melvin 0]

Hey Giggles, yeah you're right. It would look a little suspect. I am thinking that we might have to make one more trip over there, before we start the Visa process. I guess it will make it even longer before we can start the Visa, as I don't want to travel while the baby is still so young. I was thinking of going about October/November. If I do that, then we can make sure we have heaps of photos. He doesn't have any photos of the last time we were together unfortunately.

[Giggles 1]

Maybe it might be a good idea to call USCIS and ask them about your proof of meeting seeing as you already have a baby which will have US citizenship and also the fathers name on the birth certificate. Otherwise if you aren't in a hurry to start the process, making another trip to the US or him visiting you in Australia would be a good idea.

[Deb+Steve 13]

Hey Giggles - just wanted to say 'bon voyage'. You're leaving soon, right? So if I do not see your font before then ... safe travels and cannot wait for the wedding pics.

I'm sure I'll still be here waiting by the time you are filing for AOS.

Hey all,

Thanks for the well wishes for my son. Things are not looking good at all. He was meant to have surgery today to fix his PD Catheter, but due to unforeseen emergencies his surgery was shuffled to tomorrow. We at least know now the course of action they are taking. They will remove his PD Catheter and insert a Vas Cath so he can begin Haemo Dialysis tomorrow afternoon. They will also insert a nasal gastric tube so he can have supplemental feeding as he has lost almost 2 kilos over the last couple of days. He is resting semi comfortably...he has his PCA button to give pain relief via the drip pump...so he is in pixie land most of the time which is the best thing for him at present. He will have to have the Haemo Dialysis over the next 6 weeks or so and that means hospital visits 3 days of the week for 6 hours a day...I am trying to keep a semi normal routine for my 12yo daughter but thats not happening. I have shielded my other kids from all his medical visits over the years but now they have been confronted with it ad Bek is shocked and wide eyed at all her brother has to endure.

Anyway, just wanted to update a little..nothing new on the USCIS front *#######* hope everyone is enjoying their weekends

You've had it rough, Terri. So sorry to hear about your son. Will say some ohms for you ...

[TerriandEric 4]

Thanks everyone for the ohms & well wishes. My son had his surgery yesterday and was in agony for the msot part of the night. They have put the Vas Cath into his jugular on the right side of his neck. He is extremely uncomfortable with it, they removed his PD Catheter as well but they will insert a new one of those next week sometime. They put a NG tube in for supplemental feeding as well. He has a PCA for managing his pain levels which helps immensely. I am doing the daily shuffle of into Westmead for 9 hours then home again to attempt to pack & get some sleep.

Wont be around for a couple of weeks as we are looking at a minimum stay of 2 weeks in there...thank heavens there is a Starbucks in the lobby!