Finally arrived..

[Jan 0]

Phew.

First off, I haven't been on Visajourney for months. Forgot my username and password even.

Anyhoo, I've finally moved to FL and have started adjusting to everything.

For those who may remember us, my USC wife and I went the DCF route.

She lived in the US the entire time, and one of the times she came to see me in Finland, we got married. (December 9, 2005). The next week she filed the immigration petition at the finnish US consulate and our process officially started. Prior to that, we had been collecting information on our own for almost a year from various sources, including this forum which was the most helpful of them all. (BIG thank you!).

Anyway, between December and April, we went through the hoops and loops of the immigration process and gathered more information, and papers. Christ what an ordeal. And this was supposed to be the EASY way. I had to hunt down my medical records from my childhood up to current day, and it wasn't easy. Apparently someone somewhere had failed to forward my medical records when I moved around in Finland. I never needed them so I never thought about them. We don't generally take care of it ourselves, the government does. Well, here's the first thing the Finnish government failed to do for their part, causing me trouble. Argh.

Then I had to get copies of my military records. That took several phonecalls and it was pretty frustrating. Their central archives did have them however, so all was good and I received my service records.

We asked for detailed advice in lots of places, and we were surprised (and massively frustrated) to find out that no matter where we looked, everyone gave us DIFFERENT instructions and advice. And I don't mean people like you, I mean the US government immigration websites, written publications (some of which I bought), finnish authorities... heck, just calling and emailing the US consulate in Finland gave us different answers!! And depending on WHO you talked with on the phone, you STILL got differing instructions! I was about to go insane. The bottom line is: Find out who (person's name) will be handling your petition at the consulate, and ask him/her ONLY. That's the only authority who actually is doing this stuff on a daily basis, and they will be your main contact and gatekeeper, deciding if your papers are sufficient and correct or not. If THEY are wrong, you can blame THEM for giving you false information. (Don't be surprised if it happens ).

They SHOULD know best. Anyone else's advice is just a second opinion, and there doesn't seem to be common rules between countries for the DCF process, when you go deep into detailed information like which forms to fill and what other papers to present.

Adding to the frustration, they seem to enjoy making you run like mad, getting the papers in several stages. The first time you go in, you are given a list of papers to bring. When you show up with all of them in your neatly organized folder and think you're done, they give you a second list of papers and forms to get. And the process is repeated again. And again. Why not give us all the requirements the first time? ARGH!

We tried to be clever and learn from other people's experiences, for example reading this forum. Well that gave us an idea of what to expect, but all detail information was approximately 50% wrong, for OUR country and OUR petition handler.

Long story short, sometime early 2006 I finally received my immigration visa, and I was good to go. I quit my job and sold or donated everything I owned, I didn't want to drag with me 34 years worth of accumulated junk I never needed in the first place. It was a liberating experience, and at least for me, the right way to do it. I immigrated with 2 suitcases of clothes and presents to my US family and friends, and a backpack where I carried my papers and personal items. So far (2 months) I haven't really missed a thing.

The last 6 months or so I lived in my sister's apartment, and the last 2 months of that she and her boyfriend lived there too (after they got rid of his apt).

Alright then. The big day came, I had my tickets in my pocket and everything was lined up and I was ready to go. I intentionally got a flight that did NOT have a connecting flight inside the US, despite it causing me minor inconveniences. The last stretch according to my tickets and reservation details, was to be from Amsterdam to Miami. I thought no matter how long the immigration processing would take once I got out of the plane in Miami, it wouldn't matter because I could stay there all day long, not needing to worry about making it to any more flights. My wife was supposed to drive down there from Orlando ( 5 hours) to pick me up, and we'd spend some time in Miami together before heading home.

Yea, that would have been sweet.

Instead, when I get on the plane (for what I thought was Miami) in Amsterdam, I happen to ask someone something about my luggage. She says I have to check it out in Philadelphia. At that point I was real confused, I'M NOT GOING TO PHILADELPHIA!

The travel agent never told me that my "direct flight from Europe to Miami" actually DOES have to stop in Philly at first and I'd have to change planes there, check out my luggage, take it through customs, and check it back in again. AND I would have to do the immigration formalities in Philly, not Miami.

Which of course meant that I now HAD TO worry about catching my damn connecting flight after all.

I had no information on when it would take off, either. Or where.

So I get my butt on the plane after trying to call my wife and let her know about the changes (She didn't answer her phone since it was 3 in the morning) and hope for the best.

In Philly I discover that I have a little over an hour to make it through the customs and immigration. I was told by the consulate to reserve enough time for it, at least two hours, because the immigration processing would take time. Great.

Well... the luggage shuffle was a breeze, and the customs was a breeze, and when I got to the immigration desk... I was the only one there!!! Wow! No waiting in line! Just general waiting for whatever reason I was not privvy to. Some 30minutes later (mostly waiting around), I WAS DONE!

Welcome to America.

So I had almost an hour to burn, before my flight. 15 minutes of it was spent on finding the new gate, since they changed it. (add to my frustration again).

I *finally* make it to Miami, and my wife and her friend are there to pick me up. They booked a hotel room (two, actually.. hehehe) for us right on Miami Beach, and we spent the night and the following day just unwinding, tanning and swimming and walking the beach.

Of course I would jump off the hotelroom balcony and nearly break my foot, not being able to walk properly for 3 weeks and had to endure constant pain for two weeks.. but that's a whole different story

So now I was in America, had my passport stamped with work authorization and all that was left was to just sit and wait for my actual green card and social security card & number. The consulate had applied for an SSN on my behalf, and the papers they gave me said the card(s) will be mailed to me within 3 weeks of my arrival. The Green Card did arrive within the promised timeframe (It's light tan colored actually).

But the SSN card did not. I waited for 4 weeks, and then called the Social Security service number. Took me forever to come up with a request word that would make the automated computer service to understand I actually want to TALK with someone. Then it made me wait 15 minutes. I later learned that it's pretty much the standard. I finally got hold of a real person, and she told me that the time to process my SSN application would be closer to 8 weeks, instead of the promised 3. Ok. So I decide to wait even longer.

8 weeks are just about gone, when I give up and call them again. This time I was told that it SHOULD actually have been 3 weeks, and they have absolutely no record of anyone ever applying for a SSN for me. No applications pending in my name. I'd have to go to my local SSN office and re-apply in person. (something the Consulate specifically told me I would not need to do).

So I did. Hours of waiting in line in a tiny overpopulated waiting room, and 5 minutes of actual processing and I was out of there. "2 weeks", they said.

Well, we did get a free Hooters crayon.

Jan "Still waiting" Andersson

Edited July 16, 2006 by Jan

[Jan 0]

The moderators might want to move my wordy ramblings above to the appropriate forum, maybe the DCF forum would be better. I dunno. I didn't mean to write that much, and didn't mean to focus on my DCF process. Go figure. But that's what you got!

Jan

[J&D 0]

A belated Welcome to America Jan! Happy you made it in one piece, despite all the frustrations :-)

I'm here (Charlotte, NC) for over 4 weeks now and still no sign of an SSN for me also, so I've got some queuing in small rooms with a zillion other people to do as well.

[Jan 0]

Update.

I'm stunned. It only took them less than 5 business days to process my information, once I got there and applied for a Social Security Number in person.

Then WHAT THE HECK WERE THEY DOING THE LAST 2 MONTHS WITH MY PREVIOUS APPLICATION??

I think it's obvious that the US consulate in Finland never applied for a number for me, despite them telling me they did. Oh well. I should have gone to the SS office WAY earlier. Live and learn. (Never trust the government. Any of them. LOL )

My wife took the opportunity to go with me and have her information updated too, she also got her new card with a new last name the same day I did. (today).

Jan

[Kaalyx 0]

A hearty welcome to the States! And I hope you won't be jumping off any more balconies in the near or distant future