Scandinavians

[MR193 2]

Just wanted to let yinz know I'm now safely in Pittsburgh. Everything has gone extremely smooth - way above my expectations. My Christmas Eve today (which is when we start celebrating back home) has been nothing like Christmas in Sweden... but that's how I wanted it to be anyway. Mullin's diner for breakfast (the Hungry Man breakfast made me a very un-hungry man lol), we got julmust at IKEA, nice lil visit with the in-laws... Now drinking the julmust with choc chip cookies and WWE raw wrestling - Xmas eve in America!

God Jul - Merry Christmas everyone. Seriously, I love you guys. <3

I'm happy everything went smooth and you can now settle into your new wonderful life

God Jul & Gott Nytt Ar

[MR193 2]

Congrats Owl, and congrats Bork! Nola - glad you got to have a real Scandinavian Christmas!

My wife and I both missed it tremendously, and it did not make it any better when skyping my family in Norway during their Christmas eve ribbe and pinnekjøtt dinner.

Mele kalikimaka as they say in Hawaiian is not how we plan to spend the next Christmases lol. It just simply does not satisfy my Viking soul.

In a wonderful play of irony however, I received my green card in the mail yesterday, on Christmas eve!

Congrats on your Green card ! Seems like Christmas is turning out to be good for a lot of us. I'm just happy I got my EAD and SSN to be able to work and feel human again . This is the longest I haven't been able to work in my entire life lol

[Mr. Borkström 63]

Thank MR193. I agree, seems to be a good Christmas for a lot of us.

In case anyone is interested, I tried to sum up my experience of the flight over and POE and all on my blog.

[Mr. Borkström 63]

Hard to believe I've been here a week already. Guess that's what happens when you finally get to enjoy the life of being married to a wonderful, lovely and beautiful woman like my darling wife.

Fact is today we've been married for 18 months. Of those 18 months, we have spent a total of 9 days together. But it was worth waiting for it.

[jaycali 415]

Congrats bork!! I know, I cannot believe its been almost a month since my POE - time goes by so incredibly fast when your worries can finally amount to everyday life concerns rather than immigration lol.

Been here in Hawaii with my wife for 3 weeks now and I'm loving every moment of it.

It's the last day of 2012. For many of us, this has been a year of immigration hell. I wish everyone who POE'd in 2012 a very happy, stress-free 2013, and to all of you filing or interviewing in 2013, continued good luck on your visa journeys!!

[Mr. Borkström 63]

Couldn't have said it better Jay Jay. Fingers crossed for all you guys.

[rarasantiago 3]

Spent two weeks in Vancouver, while there we drove down to Seattle for a few days. We flew out of Vancouver to Portland yesterday, so we crossed borders four times during the trip. There were no issues, only odd thing was that the Canadians wanted to see my husband's green card both for leaving and entering when we drove across. When we flew back the US officer was nice and did what felt like a mini-embassy interview:

How long have you been married?

How did you meet?

Do you (my husband) speak Spanish (we met in Spain)?

When did you arrive in the US?

When do you plan on becoming a US citizen?

Wonder if they'll continue to ask these in the future or if it's because of border crossing soon after getting his green card.

Hope everyone had a great holiday and the new year is starting well!

[Alaska2012 462]

A heads up to all of of you, when its time for aos we must fill out the dates we have been outside of the us. So if you guys like me travel abroad once in a while be sure to write down all the dates exactly. I've heard that they are quite ####### about this...

[rarasantiago 3]

A heads up to all of of you, when its time for aos we must fill out the dates we have been outside of the us. So if you guys like me travel abroad once in a while be sure to write down all the dates exactly. I've heard that they are quite ####### about this...

Thanks for the heads up Alaska, I've read about that too and have put visa poe green card in our google calendar for easier keyword searching in two years.

[Mr. Borkström 63]

We went to Home Depot today and got a house key made (complete with a Pittsburgh Steelers logo on it of course), just for little ol' me. So now I can actually leave the house and go farther away than the mail box (which is actually right next to the front door). I might venture dahntahn on Monday when my wife goes to work. I have set up my computer, but it seems I forgot to pack my wireless internet thingie, so in the meantime, I can't use my own computer for anything Internet related (which kind of sucks, cause I can only write on my blog without the umlauts). We simply got a plug for the computer's power cord so it plugs into the American wall socket, and it seems to be running like a charm. I might look for another plug so I can hook up both my external hard drives. I also bought a new wireless mouse - I actually have the computer hooked up to the big screen TV in the living room. Biggest monitor I've ever had, but then again, everything is bigger in America.

Oh and we got soft pretzels at Auntie Anne's today. NOMNOMNOM! I'm enjoying myself so far, except for a couple slow patches Thursday and Friday when my wife was at work. I have a (smart) phone now, though, so at least we can text a lot when she is not at home.

[jaycali 415]

Hahaha, Borkstrom I know where you're coming from. My first week here was spent in utter boredom lol. My wife took the car to work in the morning, and our apt had no wifi, and my Norwegian smartphone had no data plan yet. The TV in the living room wasn't working, so literally all I did during the day was eat, look out the window, text my wife and lounge. I eventually ventured outside to walk around, walked down to my wife's work and hung out there. Now, I have internet, a job, the car and things have gotten less boring lol.

[Mr. Borkström 63]

I don't get bored easily. I can always find something to occupy my mind. But even my great mind has limits.

I may venture outside tomorrow, especially if the weather is nice. I need to stock up on Cheetos.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

A rather simple/stupid question - are USC spouses allowed in the Stockholm Embassy for the interview when the time comes?

[Alaska2012 462]

Today is the first time since I've moved over that I wished Alaska was a bit closer to Sweden. My mum is in hospital, the intensive care unit, and all I can do is sit here starring at the phone...

[jaycali 415]

A rather simple/stupid question - are USC spouses allowed in the Stockholm Embassy for the interview when the time comes?

I do believe so. I was actually asked by the CO if my wife was "here too" - as in, "is she here at the embassy?"

Today is the first time since I've moved over that I wished Alaska was a bit closer to Sweden. My mum is in hospital, the intensive care unit, and all I can do is sit here starring at the phone...

Oh no.. Wish you and your mom all the best Alaska.