Pat2021

Thank you, but if I do, what car do I insurance myself against? Can a car have 2 insurance policies against it? As I need to drive the two cars in the household. Or does the insurance just insure "me" and then I can drive the car which is insured with their AAA insurance? Due to personal reasons, they can not switch away from AAA on those cars for now.

So recently moved to the US on IR1 Visa, situation is as follows: Spouse and I live with her parents, who own 2 cars and have an insurance with AAA on them for years and years and years. Did my driver's license, passed, received the temporary permit (Still waiting for the plastic one), went to AAA to put me on the policy. They took a copy of my permit and my foreign license as well as a no-claims-discount from my previous insurance of 5 years in the UK. AAA took it, then a week later we receive a letter that if I'm not excluded they're going to drop the whole policy. Went to them to find out what happened, they said they have a policy that a foreign driver has to hold a license for a minimum of 18 months before they can be insured via AAA or provide a clean driving record from the issuing foreign authority (in my case Austria). Now the latter is not something Austria does as far as I'm aware, but my family at home will call around to find out. The first one, being excluded for 18 months, is untenable as I need to go to job interviews, run errands, etc. They said another option is to take out a different insurance and that I can drive the 2 cars in the household then - even if I'm not insured against them - as the "insurance follows the person not the car" - but that doesn't sound right, if I have to be specifically excluded from the 2 cars in the household? What is the opinion of VJ, what do I do next? Any recommendations for other insurances that might take me? State is CA, I got my CA permit on the 30th of January (no plastic one yet), my Austrian one I've held for just over 10 years, 5 of those I drove in Austria, 5 I drove in the UK, with a no-claims-discount from the UK available for those 5 years. Thank you!

Oh so update for anyone that's interested, guess the backlogs mostly cleared? I received my SSN on the 23rd, went to the DMV on the 24th, passed my written one (they had to print it out as for some reason their computer had issues with my fingerprint 🤣), and today the 30th I already had my driving one. It was much, much easier than I anticipated and anyone that has been driving for a while, especially abroad, should have no trouble passing whatsoever. Just drive slow and calm and make deliberate and over-exaggerated shoulder checks and you'll be fine. No parallel parking for me, just reversing along a straight line for 20 feet. No freeway driving, just some residential driving.

I haven't been to the SSN office, no. Maybe I can try one of these days? But if they do add the hyphen, would that cause any issues with the USCIS system if one day I'll apply for N400?

Hi everyone. My last name is hyphenated between my birth name and wife's (sponsors) surname. My wife has the same. I just got my SSN and they used the name that was on my IR1 Visa and on my machine readable part - the hyphen being replaced with a space. Now I read that for the IR1 Visa, they can't use hyphens, and it seems it's the same for the SSN. But for some odd reason back when my wife changed her name, they issued the SSN for her with the hyphen in the last name. Now I'm wondering if it will cause any issues that my document spells a "different" name then my wife's? Also, for all bank accounts, CC's, etc. I've been using my name hyphenated, as I prefer it that way - will this cause an issue? What name do I use when we file taxes married jointly? Hers with a hyphen, mine without? Both with a hyphen? It seems a silly thing with just one character but just want to make sure, thank you

Hmm I see but it feels weird taking out a loan for a small sum that I can easily afford and pay interest on it to the bank just so they pat me on the back and say "well done, here's a few points towards your credit"?

Yes passport was stamped, thank you 😊 I always keep electronic copies of everything anyway!

Same thing, "no record found for traveler". Thank you but how can I be sure that my entry has been recorded if I don't see it on the I-94? For all I know they might still think I'm outside the US and expect me to arrive before my IR1 expires in April?

Hi, I just arrived last week on the 11th on an IR1 Visa. Got it stamped and everything but wanted to now check I-94 just to satisfy my curiosity and it says "Record of Traveler not found". I tried various spellings of my name, but nothing pops up. Any ideas what's wrong? What do I do?

Thank you that's great advice. My spouse was living with me abroad the last 6 years and so had nothing reporting to the bureaus either. But because she maintained an account with a credit union, they approved her for a CC as well, so she'll have that and I'll be an authorized user on it 😊

I only got approved for the Amex due to my UK credit history, via Nova. My US credit is currently non-existent, I don't even have the SSN delivered yet. I want to increase our credit rating so that we can get a car, a house, etc. in the near future. Very valid points about good standalone credit - but an authorized user also receives a credit boost for it, right?

Thank you. Do you recommend that per person or between the two of us with the other as authorized user?

What's the best way to build credit quickly and effectively? My sponsor has been out of the country with me for 5+ years so she also doesn't have great standing, though her TransUnion score seems to have been kept intact and is quite good. For some reason she has no Experian score though? I got approved for Amex through my UK credit history but I'm aware it's not super widely accepted. I also keep reading that the more credit cards you have, the better - is that true? For now I'm thinking my Amex with my wife as authorized user, and for her a SoFi with me as an authorized user, to boost our scores. But is that enough? Should we get more credit cards, even though we won't use them? Is there more we can do? Thank you.

For what it's worth, when we landed last week the queue for immigration was huge. Took us over an hour to get to the desk. My spouse was with me and the process was super simple and absolutely lovely CBP officer. Just took a photo of my face, told my wife to make sure I behave in the US (as a joke! We all laughed), told me welcome, gave me a stamp with IR1 written on it and send us through. Took less than 5 minutes at the CBP desk. 🙂

Was at the DMV, got told to come back once I have my SSN. Asked if I can drive on my foreign license, lady said it's a bit of a grey area (like you guys mentioned), but to only do it if my license is in English or I have an international one. So I'm a sitting duck for the moment, as my license is Austrian. Oh well. Let's see how long it takes to schedule a behind-the-wheel test after I pass the written one. Hopefully quick.

Update: After a lot of stress, we finally received the last of the boxes today. Turns out that TransGlobal does not talk to DHL, who in turn don't talk to DHL Export, neither inbound, nor outbound. Supposedly all due to GDPR but it's not made clear at all. So, boxes got stuck in UK customs, DHL export contacted us, we needed to provide the same paperwork we did to TransGlobal. Once that was done, boxes got stuck in US customs. DHL there never contacted us, which was a pain and a half, as we had to multiple times message TransGlobal about the status and ask for a DHL contact information. Once we got that, they had a completely different format for a waybill so we had to rewrite the waybill as well. Once provided, it cleared customs relatively quick but it went to the FDA as we had wooden utensils. That took an extra 3 days before delivery happened. Oh and of course the boxes got separated from each other, so we had 2 different deliveries on two different days. One box went through Ohio, the rest through LA, but in 2 batches... All in all, relatively stressful as no one provides any contact numbers for the export / import teams and no one communicates with each other... At one point TransGlobal said the boxes "might be returned to the UK" if customs is unresolved - and of course they'd charge those fees to us. Who would receive them in the UK? No one knows. Have requested a partial refund from TransGlobal as I find this was too stressful and not straight-forward enough. The customs process seems to have been easy - no boxes were opened or checked, our packing list was more than sufficient. It was the miscommunication between TransGlobal, DHL and us that made this into a frustrating experience. Overall, probably better to go straight via a courier that also does the customs clearance and delivery.

Oh thank you that's very useful. I thought I immediately count as a resident when I enter on the IR1 visa, no matter where / how I live? On the second point it seems it makes no sense for me to go the DMV before I obtain the SSN in that case. But what happens if the SSN is after the 10 days that California stipulates for registering?

Thank you that's very useful information. I'll be arriving in CA next week and will go through the process of obtaining the drivers licence then. My question is - my wife was here with me in the UK, and she'll now be flying back on the same flight as me. We'll be staying with her parents until we sort stuff out. What do I bring as "proof of address" for myself for the DMV? Clearly I won't have much yet, as no bank account in the US, no SSN until it arrives (maybe it does make sense to wait for it?), etc. I just ordered a pair of pants in my name to the address we'll be at in the US - is the invoice for that a "proof of address"? You mentioned that I need another piece of government or financial mail to me or the petitioner - but how do I obtain that? All the ones addressed to my wife were addressed to the UK. She does have a US savings account with her US address but that has no physical mail, only .pdf file statements. If I print that would that suffice? Thank you in advance.

Hi everyone, sorry for all the double posts but I have an interesting update that might hopefully be helpful to all future movers. I spoke with various people at TransGlobal and got the following information: Commodity Codes are now required for any goods moving abroad since 1st of January 2021 which is why OP probably did not need to provide them. I updated my excel packing list with a column for each item with the commodity code and sent it to TransGlobal. Furthermore, all information to be transmitted to DHL has to be in a single .pdf attached to the order. For me, I attached the packing list, the CBP3299 form, the supplementary info, passport photo and power of attorney into one pdf. IMPORTANT: After this pdf is uploaded, you need to call TransGlobal to generate new shipping labels. I suspect this is the reason so many people on the previous pages said DHL never received the information from TransGlobal - they don't automatically attach the info to the shipping labels. Hopefully this is helpful to someone, my boxes are being picked up Friday, I'll keep you all updated on the progress! 😊

Yeah, I also suspect prices went up lately like crazy. Actual quote was £770, then they slapped on £80 for oversized box, £50 for insurance and £20 in "admin fees"

No I didn't. I might've jumped the gun a little bit with TransGlobal, as I used them in the past and always had good and cheap experience with them. Admittedly not for a bigger move, only for a box here or there. Hopefully it'll work out, as I do have the whole packing list with the all the items in each box and their value as well as the filled out customs form. Final delivery is DHL anyway so I'll probably deal directly with them? One "benefit" of having the oversized box is that I could only have the "Express" shipment which delivers in a day. I'll ask TransGlobal to hold the boxes until we arrive but from the previous pages it seems there isn't much of an issue if the boxes do arrive before our arrival date.

So I added a fifth box to reduce the weight. Even so, due to one oversized box, the quote came to £922 😢 Surprisingly though they're now asking for "Commodity Codes" during the customs part, despite it being a personal shipment. I just put 000000 as a placeholder and have contacted TransGlobal if that's correct. Will keep you guys updated as this thread is really useful!

Hi again, I'm in the midst of packing and going to go with TransGlobalExpress. In your post you mentioned max weight of 30kgs per box. I have one box that weighs 40kg. TransGlobal does give me a quick quote for it and I can't find any reference for that weight of 30kg. Is there a source that it can't exceed 30kg or will I be fine with one box at 40kg? The rest are all around 25kg Thank you

If your aim in the future is naturalization, you can change your name, to pretty much anything, during the N400 submission for "free". Otherwise, as Steve stated, your DS260 has to be in your legal name as it shows on the passport.

As people said, sounds like HR has no clue what they are doing. Perhaps they'd be satisfied with a screenshot of the USCIS status from paying your immigrant visa fee? (It's a new case number, you received it in the payment confirmation) It should not count as official but with how dense they seem to be, maybe that'll satisfy them regardless?