Nywoek

Had my ssn appointment on the 25th and got it in the mail early this week. We went and got a marriage license on thursday, so now we are good to go once we find an officiant! Not really doing a proper wedding or anything, will save that for later so our friends and families have time to attend. I suppose this will be my last update, since I should be moving on to the AOS part of the forum, but to whoever is reading this, thank you for following our journey and if anyone reads this in the future feel free to message me and ask if there might be something you think I might know based on this thread and my embassy/country! I have my email notifications turned on and will keep it that way.

Hi 😃 Arrived on a K1 at the end of July, got my ssn and last week we went and got a marriage license. Now we are trying to figure out when to actually get married, but we have decided to just do it pretty much without celebration, and plan a bigger wedding for friends and family in a year or two. I do have two daughters who will be there, and I suppose we need witnesses, but other than that I am not sure we will have any guests at our wedding. Feeling a little nervous about filing, after submitting the i129f application with proof of relationship I have kept up making a page of photos and documentations from all our visits, which I brought to the embassy when I had my interview. They did not even look at it, but better safe than sorry. Since I have been here we have been super busy, and while I have snapped some photos during datenights there is not a whole lot to write home about. In addition, I think the only mail I have gotten has been my snn, and things I have purchased that came in the mail. Should we document the entire relationship, or is it more important to show newer photos from right before and right after we got married? We do not really get any post in the actual mailbox, so collecting that also feels hard, any advice with that? Since I do not want to wait too long before we file I feel stressed I do not have enough to send in. I read you can send it afterwards, but that they do not always look at it. So yeah, entered the country, got my ssn and marriage license, anything else super important I should be getting up to? 😅 Me and the kids will be put on his work insurance after we marry, and he will add me to bank accounts. I have a credit card with my name on it right now, still using my norwegian funds though. Any advice is appreciated, thank you! ^.^

I think it took two weeks, but it all depends on which days they release. Around the time I did this back in march I know some lady logged in april 1st and got a may slot. I eventually got a slot in june. The issue is that they just release a few at a time so you have to keep checking. My timeline will tell you exactly when I got sent to nvc and such but there was nothing for two weeks and all of a sudden they put out dates for june and I could pick one. I know someone right after me and ho had to wait for july dates but they could have just gotten unlucky. They only do K1s on mondays and when I got to it the day I picked only had that one slot so i when they release a whole month that can be only 4-8-12 actual appointments, I don’t know. I just picked one and went with it because there had been nothing for what felt like forever. So my advice is to not pre-plan anything until you have that date. 😅 Oh and how you do it is you get a link and you log in to a visa scheduling site and then you pick from a calendar there. Just don’t get discouraged if it’s empty, keep checking 1-2 a day (early morning and late afteroon seemed to work for me).

I sent 5 cubic meters of stuff to the US, but it is still on its way. It is insanely expensive. My courier also had options for 1 cubic meters. And 10. If you are just thinking of shipping a couple of boxes, just buying extra suitcases (or like mentioned that and a business class trip) will be a LOT less expensive and a lot less hassle. We had way too much for that, brought 5 suitcases and hand luggage for 3 people in addition to what we shipped. But if we end up paying even more fees (my courier said it should not be a problem, but that if the customs officers decide to check our stuff we will have to pay some fee..) then I will think it is even less worth it and well.. I don't know, I just recommend trying to pack stuff and maybe asking friends or family who are visiting you to bring an extra suitcase or two whenever they come to see you.

Well to put an end to this tale, it ended up working out, but it was a bit of a pain in the ###. We needed all sorts of proof of residency to get her into school, however it was mostly from my fiance. We went to UPS and got a notarized letter saying I live with him, and from there we could use his mail to prove residency. They are very strict about it here, apparently. Also went to a urgent care and got her a physical. Poor kid was terrified, she has never had to go to the doctor due to school before. XD But it was fine. We have a meeting on Thursday with her guidance counselor and some other people from the school for information and so she can pick her classes. Happy to have that sorted, it is a lot easier with the younger one, I just have to send a letter saying I intend to homeschool her. And well then I actually have to homeschool her which is 20 times harder, but at least one part is easy. =p

Yes, you absolutely must do this. They will not approve your visa if you do not. My medical paperwork took a long time to get to the Swedish embassy, and I had to get a denial paper (but they told me as soon as they had the paperwork we would be approved). That being said.. lower your shoulders, take a deep breath and I will tell you it is going to be ok. I am a very anxious person, and I absolutely do not like doctors. I have to be /REALLY/ sick before I go (which was dumb.. I used to have free healthcare before I moved to the US! lol) and this whole ordeal was terrifying to me. I had to order tickets with a plane, get a hotel, find the right doctor, have the right papers and most of all do all the things required. I dreaded this part for months at end, it was probably the worst part for me, the interview made me a bit nervous but thinking about doing this was super scary. But then I did it. And it was over before I knew it; everything was fine and now I am living in the US with my soon-to-be husband. So believe me when I say you can do it, and it is going to be ok. 😃

Stockholm is very quick about stuff, the only thing I had trouble with was finding an interview slow, but other than that they are great so best of luck to you guys!

Honestly, I feel like a walking disaster when it comes to this part, but if I actually end up with all my stuff and no giant hidden scary fees I can write more about this part. But in short we just googled and found a company from the Netherlands who was willing and able to come pick up my stuff in the north of Norway and move it to New Hampshire, it is super expensive and honestly kind of dumb, but it was important for my kids and I got to bring a lot of my own stuff. However, it can take 8-10 weeks and we still do not have our things, so I only packed things I did not need for a while, and we brought 2 extra suitcases of clothes to get us through it. To be fair most of the clothes we sent off were for winter, we certainly do not need those right now! Most of the things are honestly personal items and toys... which is silly considering that we could probably buy everything in the shipment for less than what we paid for it, but whatever what done is done. XD I have emailed the company a lot and they are quite helpful, and my experience with the movers was positive (two dutch guys came with a GIANT truck and they would have packed everything for me, but I had already done that because how else would I know how much 5 cubic meters is??? Although they were happy because that made their job a lot easier.. anyway they came, wrapped up some of my boxes - apparently you cannot use clear plastic boxes- and took the stuff away). I sent them a LOT of money, a scan of my passport and my visa, and there are some customs papers but it doesnt seem like I have to fill them out much, really, I am just horrible with forms and my anxiety wont let me complete things. XD But I did most of them this weekend, and will finish tonight with the help of my fiance. I hope. I hate waking up and having some email asking me to PLEASE SEND THE DOCUMENTS (they are always so nice about it, I am just horrible at this). Lol.

Aaaand we are here! On the same side of the world as a lot of you! Woooot! Our trip was pretty chill. We went to Oslo on monday the 28th, met up with my aunt for dinner, stayed at the airport hotel across the street and went to Iceland and then Boston the next day. I had custody papers ready for Iceland, but I got a Norwegian officer ("Oh, you are norwegian? Then we do not have to speak English!") who did not ask for that. I think he was a little confused by the kids' passports, since they traveled with their US ones. They had no other stamps and I think he might have thought they were born in the US. No problem though, just had to explain the situation. We were seated on row 12 on the plane to Boston, and it was not a full plane at ALL. So when we finished the plane ride we were one of the first ones off, and when we got to the passport control area no one was in the non-us passport line at all. Usually I have to stand in that line for 20-40 minutes (but to the fair other than my one brush with greatness when I flew business last trip I always pick the seats all the way in the back lol). I had considered asking someone which line to get in, since I was on a visa and the kids have american passports, but I just made the decision to go to the front of the line. I did not even have time to put my phone away before we were called over! We had a friendly officer, he asked for our passports and as he was looking at mine he said he could see I had a lot of paperwork with me. I said yes, sir, got a whole K1 packet for you and handed it to him. He had to ask the guy in the booth next to us if they do K1 visas there, and the guy was like yeah sure. He also had to help him find the right page in my papers. I cringed a little watching him tear open my "DO NOT OPEN" envelope, lmao. But he was the one who was suppose to open it! XD Anyway he did not actually ask me any questions, he was mostly just asking how to process the visa and the guy next to him helped. He could not find a pen, eventually he asked me for one, and as the stationary nerd I am I handed him one from my purse. After stamping my visa and passport and taking photos of us he sent us on our way and I was so excited to see my fiance! He had a friend come help us pick up our stuff since we were traveling with a whopping 5 suitcases, 2 carry-on suitcases and 3 backpacks and my big purse lol. We had to wait a long time before getting our stuff and I was annoyed at how people act around the carousel. I think I have been to too many countries where they mark an area right next to the carousel for no standing, so that everyone can just step into it when they see their suitcases come towards them. Here people were standing next to each other like a bunch of sheep and I had big and heavy suitcases and was probably coming down from an adrenaline rush lol! My kids were like "Chill mommy!" XD But we eventually made it out, made it home (always get some Sonic 20 min from the airport as a snack!) and now we LIVE HERE!!!! It has been an adjustment. The kids are a bit bored without friends, and there is a girl who lives next door who is my youngest same age, but it has been so hot most days she cant just like... hang out in front of the house, lol. They have talked a couple of times though. Now we are planning for stuff, trying to get the oldest into school. She needs a medical and lots of papers and it sucks, but we are hopeful we can get it all together before school starts for freshmen september second. I will be homeschooling the little(r) one, and I have been doing research and found some people from the area I can talk to. I have an appointment to get my SSN on the 25th, I did that online a while ago but that was the earliest appointment. We are waiting to get married until after that. I am happily typing this from my gamer girl setup right now, while the kids are playing on the couch behind me. Excited for our future here! Only real hiccup so far has been that I have been super slow to send my customs papers to the movers, so they are a bit stressed lol. I also just noticed that the border control officer stamped the wrong date stamp in my passport (it says July 28th, we arrived July 29th) and I am hoping that does not cause any issues.

It is a bit wild going from free healthcare to paying almost 7000 kroner for a relatively simple visit to the doctor. Lol. XD I am reporting from the trenches (my house, where I am not done packing or cleaning or sorting) 2 days before we leave for Oslo! Fortunately my parents have agreed to take on the job of cleaning the house.. mostly because they were supposed to help me but then a miracle happened and we actually had some nice summer weather. Nice for them and my kids, not so fun for me when I was cleaning out our upstairs with slanted walls from the roof and no aircondition. Lol. But.. who needs sleep when you have your paperwork and you are about to leave the country for who know how long! XD I will update once we arrive in New Hampshire. I cannot wait to see my fiance and maybe take a week off to relax. The past several months have been madness!

Yeah, they sent it with UPS and it was very quick! Don’t have to pay for it either, I went through so much trouble researching the Stockholm embassy and how they handle shipping with non-swedish beneficiaries. Even bought a postnord shipping thing and brought and she told me I did not need it. 🙈

Cheeky TB. 😜 So today WAS THE DAY! Visa officially in hand. We are celebrating with french toast, my fiance is making it because im busy selling kids toys on fb marketplace. 🙈😂 I feel so much better! This is unreal! Made it here 2 weeks after my interview! 🥰🥰🥰

Thank you so much! In general I love documenting stuff, and like my kids say I tend to be a yapper (especially over text), plus I overexplain everything so this is all very.. me. xD However I think a lot of it came from how hard it was to find info on Stockholm and how alone I felt on the big internet during this process, so I decided to just go for it and document it. What’s the worst that can happen, someone wont bother to read my thread? That’s fine! 😅 But then lovely people like you and others come by and say that it’s helpful and comforting and that makes me really really happy. Thank you for your well wishes, and I hope that USCIS picks up the pace do you can be with your loved one soon!

I got a notice in my mail app, my visa is on it’s way and will arrive monday! 😍😍😍😍

And today when I logged in (even if I figured I should give it a few days) it says Issued! 💃💃💃 Stockholm worked FAST for that one! xD