I'm sorry to hear that. Mine isn't actually even on the market yet. I'm still doing all the painting and wallpapering and fun stuff, and doing it on my own despite being ill. My boys are living la vida loca behaving like they'll never get to talk to their friends again and that they'll never, ever be coming back to New Zealand, going out all night and sleeping all day. In other words, they're as much use as tits on a bull.

Though Jeremy annoyed me greatly yesterday, so I told him I had another 5 1/2 months til my visa expired!

Kel.. have a SUPER trip!!! I hope you get some bites on your home soon!

Gnomegrrl.. sorry you're having a rough go of it and i'm sorry you're ill. Hopefully all that stress will be over for you soon.

is is going to be possible to start filing for a fiancee visa while i'm still in the US? i'm thinking, maybe a month or two before i leave? or should i return to nz before we begin the process?

Justine, I sent you an email.

Hi guys,

Just thought i'd let you know that Mark has his interview tomorrow in Auckland!

Good luck MarkJo!

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of contact - have been at home for the last two weeks and been enjoying getting outside and spending a minimum amount of time inside.

So had my interview in Auckland this morning - went good as gold. Really helpful staff and not a problem. They are just waiting on getting my Police Cert back, but as soon as that arrives they are going to get the visa in my passport and post it down to me at home. I will update the Consultae info page too and will write you a full report of the interview in a couple fo days (in an internet cafe at the mo and just about run out fo time).

Hope you are all well and good luck with your journeys.

Regards,

Mark

Great Mark! Congrats! Must feel good to have the major bits out of the way. Your SO is with you in NZ, correct? I hope she can stay until your police cert and visa come back and that you are able to travel together. It's such a looong flight home! Look forward to your review.

Looking forward to your reply here as well...I'll be going through Auckland..one day

One question you may be able to answer...is the Police check done by them, or can you get one yourself?

First of all, congratulations Mark! The staff in Auckland are lovely, aren't they?

They do the police check. When you first get your packet from them, they include a form for you to fill out which gets returned to the Consulate by post.

Thanks for that! It's a way off for me, but I am trying to think of anything I can do in advance, so as not to have a last minute worry over anything. Not that I won't anyway

Congrats Mark, that's great news. Nice to see all this progress happening!

are your papers heading to VSC this week????

Yes they are!!! Funny how every little bit of forward movement cheers the heart. We will at last be in the queue!

He's just said...'we're one day closer love... ' ..awwww

Hi again everyone,

Just thought I would let you know that my passport, along with my visa arrived in the mail yesterday. Is great to have it finally.

Yes Joanne (my SO) is over here with me - we head back to the US on 28 May and are getting married on 28 June. Is really relieving to have the visa all sorted.

So, here is a review of Auckland:

The people at the Auckland consulate are excellent - they are really helpful, answer any questions you have and just really try to make it as easy as they can for you (apart from the Security Guard).

I turned up at the consulate about 30 minutes before the scheduled interview. Jo was going to come in with me, but the security guard said she couldn't - he asked who was applying for the visa, and I said I was and that Jo is my fiancee, but he said she couldn't come in (The Consular Officer told me that she could have and that she would have another word to the security guard about it).

After entering the consulate I went directly to a window where a lady went through my documents and visa application part by part to make sure everything was there and that it was all OK. She told me that my Police Record hadn't arrived yet, but that they were expecting it to turn up any day. She asked me if I had been arrested at any stage and said that if I hadn't it should all be OK. She then took finger prints of both hands.

She also checked through the affidavit of support - I was getting Joanne's dad to co-sponsor as Jo is heading back to Grad School. But after looking at Jo's she asked if I had any saving and if I bought the bank statements with me - I had and showed that I had savings of around NZD13,000, and she said it would be find with just Jo's affidavit and my savings - we didn't need a co-sponsor. She said she wanted to make it as easy as possible for us to down it on our own.

After everything was checked she said to go and sit my another window and that the Consular Officer will call me soon.

After waiting about 8 minutes I was called to the window. The Consular Officer was very friendly and took my finger prints again. Then she asked where I met my fiancee - I said at university in the US when I was over there at grad school - she asked what school, and when I replied said that was the same school her father went to and that her brother just graduated from. That was it for the questioning.

She then quickly flicked through all my documents, said it was all Ok, asked me to raise my hand and swear under oath that everything in my application and associated docs is true. I then signed the form and she said I could go.

My Visa and Passport then arrived in the mail four days later (the Police Report must have arrived soon after my interview).

My advice would, be prepared for your interview with everything that you need, present it well so it is easy for them at the Consulate and you shoudl be fine. They are not there to make it hard for you - they want to help you as much as they can.


Good luck to you all with the rest of your journeys. I will keep in touch as we progress through the next stages.

Cheers,

Mark

cdneh, congratulations on taking that first step! I agree ...every little detail brings us one step closer to being back together, where we belong! I hope the journey to the visa is quick for you too!

Mark, thanks so much for taking the time to post your experience with Auckland and congratulations on getting your visa!! Have a safe journey, a wonderful wedding and please do keep us posted as you adjust.

How are the rest of us?

We've received our NOA1 hardcopy and are quite happy to finally just be in the waiting game. It appears as though Vermont has slowed down with their approvals some but hopefully that will change soon. It's already been 2 1/2 weeks since we sent our petition... time flys!

Hi all

Mark, congrats on the approval and thanks for posting the review, I'm starting to think about what I need to do at the consulate so every bit of info helps!

I'm currently in North Carolina on vacation in the Outerbanks with my husband and some friends of ours. It's great to have time off, and to actually be here in the USA.

The day I arrived in the US our final coversheet from NVC turned up so I was able to send in all those documents, if everything was correct we should be getting approval sometime next week. Then it'll be sent through to Auckland where I'll just have the medical and turning up for the 'interview' to go. Yippee.

Getting in to the US was a breeze. I had been worried about being stopped at the border. They are aware that the last time I came through we got married but it was a very easy process all in all. Got a couple of questions about where I was staying, with who, and was my husband a US citizen. Then I was told to have a great vacation and was on my way breezing through to baggage claim.

Kel, glad you made it across ok. Have a wonderful time with your hubby!

How are the rest of you?

Still here..still waiting...

My case is complete at NVC so now I'm waiting for everything to be posted and my interview at the consulate scheduled.

No good news on the house sale front though - what about you cdneh, any luck with selling yours?

Hi Guys,

tho i've posted in the forum before i thought i'd take the time to introduce myself and my loved one here in the kiwi/us thread, ha woudn't you know it i originally posted it in the wrong place and had to move it.

my name is michelle and my man's name is rob, we met on the internet, playing wow of all things

i'm currently with him at the moment visiting, our first visit since we fell in love and it has been wonderful, i've been here (Harmony, NC) since second of april and unfortunatley i have to go back 22nd may.

rob is on disability and lives with his parents and his nephew, rob is being being evaluated for a lung transplant and his doctor says it needs to be done sooner rather than later. unfortunately money is an issue and things are a bit of a mess here but i love him and i just want to get back as quickly as possible so i can be with him.

unfortunately we don't have a time line for the lung transplant or for me getting here as i need to sell my house and get a divorce so rob can start the whole visa process.

i thought i'd try and do all his side of the paperwork while i'm here in case my divorce comes through while he's in hospital, that way all he'd need to do is sign them and get someone to post them off, any thoughts on that?

another question is what is the A # they refer to in the i-129f and g-325a?

i've probably shared too much but all this seems very overwhelming and wouldn't you know it, i have 5 days left with rob and i get a cold sore

it's seems like the time has just whizzed by and the closer the 22nd gets the more anxious i get, i know i need to get back to nz and sort things out but i so want to just stay here, i guess we just have to be patient and get thru

hopefully it won't be too long before i'm posting that our process has started and we can eventually be together

michelle

I'm lucky there...I rent. I almost bought a couple of times, but in the end thought to wait. Just as well as it all turned out!

Welcome Michelle (& rob). Sorry you're having to leave soon,... boy, we know about that! I'd have all the papers filled out and just dont sign or date them until you know you're 'legal'. Be sure he makes copies of everything so that once you're approved here he can send you the exact duplicate of the package. Have you filed for your divorce yet? I too had to be divorced before I could file for Russell to come back home (to the u.s.). After a 10 year relationship, 1 1/2 years of living together abroad/US... he was denied entry on his last visit in. We then had to wait 7 months for my divorce to go through...(ex dragged his feet). Anyway, we filed 5 weeks ago and are awaiting our NOA2 now from VSC! The good news is the Auckland consulate is very efficient!

Kel, when are you heading back to nz???

cdneh, glad your got your petition off finally! Did you get your NOA1 yet?

Justine... how's it going???

Welcome Michelle and Rob

Kim - how's the wait looking? VSC moving any faster? I know some people were concerned with the speed there for a while.

As for me, I'm leaving the US on Thursday so just a couple more days left here. Then it's back to work and organising, and all those other things

We're looking at about a 50-60 day avg to NOA2 at VSC right now ( sounds like i'm talking in code!). Most January/February filers were approved in a month but they're just working on clearning the second half of March out now, so it's longer but still fairly quick. It's been 5 weeks today that we sent off our petition! Time has really flown! I'm hoping we see our approval in the next few weeks then Russell will do all he can to rush the consulate so he can be here asap. No house to sell, no great job to leave... as we did that years ago. We just need that lovely little stamp that allows him back into the country...for good!

Do you guys know if he can schedule his medical as soon as we have our new case number from the NVC or do we need to wait for p3?

Kel, sad you're leaving but I suppose there is a certain comfort in knowing it wont be much longer! I do hope your home sells quickly (and for more than you're asking ) and that you're back 'home' in the U.S. ASAP!

Still waiting Kim...I think this process would try the patience of a saint...and heaven knows that wouldn't be me

Yeah, it's tough. We're getting there though!

hi everyone!

45 days left till i get to the states!

just found out that every time i apply for a job in the US, on my j-1 visa, i have to get the employer to fill out an 'employer data form' and send it to both my sponsorship agency and the US govt for approval, before i can accept any job offers. they certainly like to keep track of everyone...

consulate interview is coming up very soon; still getting rid of all my stuff; have a trip planned to chicago in september to meet the family. jordan's mum is coming out to CA at the end of july to meet me, and paying for me to fly back to chi so i can meet everyone else - i couldn't ask for a better set of 'in-laws'

oh, and get this: you know how my parents met jordan awhile ago and it all went well? well, it must have gone even better than i thought because my mum emailed me the other day to ask me if i had already given jordan a piece of pounamu, as her and dad want to get him one (and have it blessed by my uncle)... my parents have never given ANYONE a greenstone, and are really not the type of people you'd expect to, either, so it's a pretty big deal. my uncle, who is maori, belongs to the ratana church and does those special kind of blessings - another thing my parents are not really into, so even stranger that they would do this!

everyone said to me that my parents would surprise me with their ability to pick up on the specialness of what jordan and i have, despite me not telling them pretty much anything (i.e. nothing ) about our relationship or situation - turns out you were all right!

There is a very special power that comes with being a mother.

How sweet they are giving him a greenstone. I've had mine for years but Russell just gave my mom one for her birthday last month. I'm sure it warms your heart.

Six weeks today that we sent the petition. Still no formal April approvals (just an expedite) but we're hoping it's not too much longer.

Counting down now to being able to file for the dissolution of my marriage, i understand it takes a month after filing to come into effect and as soon as i have the divorce papers in my hand i will send copies to Rob so he can send off our K-1 visa petition.

I'm very excited that we'll soon be able to start the journey.

Hi all,

Just thought I would write a note to say I am in the US now.

No problems at POE - came through LAX and it was quite quick. Lined up with Jo in the non US citizen line and the immigration officer dealt with the whole thing there and then - didn't have to go to another room or anything. He just checked through all my documents that were in the envelope. The only thing he asked for was some photos of us, as at the interview the CO gave me all the photos back and said they didn't need to stay in the file. We'll the immigration officer at the border asked for the photos - I had them all in my carry-on anyway so just handed them over to him. Did the fingerprints and photo, asked when we planned to get married and then just said to make sure we get married within 90 days and to file AOS afterwards. Was a friendly officer and didn't make it any harder than he needed too.

Have bought a car, finishing touches on planning the wedding and getting organised for moving down to South Carolina in early August. Our wedding is on June 28th.

KimandRuss - you asked a question about scheduling the medical. I rang up and got an appointment before I had Packet 3 - the doctors just said to make sure I bring in my passport, the photos and all documents I needed. They didn't ask for any numbers or anything. That was in Christchurch.

So now we will be onto the next stages of things and AOS soon.

Hope all of your journeys are going well. Best of luck.

Cheers,

Mark

Michelle, do be sure your divorce is completely FINAL before sending off the K1. Do not send it during the waiting period.

Mark, welcome to the U.S. and congratulations on your upcoming marriage! Thanks for answering my question regarding the medical. He's up near Whakatane but I hope the 'rules' are the same for wherever he's going.

The rest of you are very quiet... how are things???

Mark - congrats on making it over to the US and best wishes for your wedding. I hope you both have a fabulous day.

Justine - wow, it's getting close to the time for you to leave. It must be exciting!

I've got my interview scheduled for July 8th so the last hurdle is in sight. I need to get my medical done before then so I'm just waiting for the consulate to send the info so I can go and get that done.

Time seems to be flying, I'm still counting on leaving here in September which gives me 3 months to get everything in order. Unfortunately no news on my house, I've got a few more weeks before I start panicking about that so fingers crossed I get some good news soon!

Hope the rest of you are doing well.

Hi Folks.

Kel, hope you get some good news on your house soon! Congrats on the interview date! Do let us know how the medical goes.

I did hear back from the Auckland Embassy via email. Because i'm self employed and own some rental property I wanted to know what documents they were looking for in regards to the affidavit of support. They did mention that Russ's CV/Resume would also help. I thought that was interesting. Anyone else hear that from them?

They also suggested to wait for packet 3 from them before scheduling Russell's medical. Noted they just had an issue with someone who did it before they had record of that person and there was all kinds of confusion. I'm sure the medical wont take long to schedule and complete anyway. Still waiting for that darn approval! It's been 7 1/2 weeks since we sent it now...hopefully it wont be too much longer!

Justine, you must be jumping out of your skin!!! I hope you keep us posted!

I've been a bit quiet...we've struck a hitch, and an unnecessary one at that. I spent considerable time locating the bits of paper required, it can be quite a challenge to get some of those when you aren't in your country of origin to start with, it took 4 months for the long form birth certificate alone. All up I was five months assembling the bits and bobs, and I was quite thrilled to get the entire package bundled up and sent off to the States, so he could add his bits of paper and file. That was at the end of March.

He's still waiting on a copy of his divorce paperwork. He thought he had it, but it was not among his papers in the end. Pretty sure then he left it with his daughter in her safe, but she can't remember the combination. This was about mid-April. His daughter called on her Mum, the ex-wife, and she agreed to send a copy, which she hasn't. Now we are waiting 5 weeks for it to be sent from the courthouse in California. There was some confusion as to which courthouse....and on and on. It's meant to be in the post as of Friday last, but not arrived as of today. At our present rate of speed we will be lucky to file in June.

I'm annoyed, and not a little disappointed. Seems to me there was adequate time while I was busy assembling paper for him to have eyeballed what he needed, and been ready. Now we are delayed at least a couple of months and possibly longer. He's very contrite...but all the same we are not even in the queue.

In this morning's post, I received my fingerprint criminal report from the RCMP, report is dated May 14th. I wasn't expecting that back for at least 2 months, and if those are only good for 6 months...well as it stands at present we may not even be close to interview by then. If I have to repeat that process, getting fingerprints done again here, sending those off to the RCMP, anaother 120 day wait, sending those back.... *sigh*

Oh i'm so sorry. I don't know why I thought you had already filed and were right behind us!

That darn divorce decree was the bain of our existence for so long too! I do hope it gets to him soon and that he can file asap! Maybe the process will be back to the 1 month approval times by then. Keep the faith!

I thought the police certificates were handled by the Auckland Embassy??? They told us we didn't need to do anything with regards to that and that they'd handle it all when the time comes.

We were meant to be right behind you, and file about the same time. I had an end of April date of filing in my time-line, which I have taken out until we can file.

He's been divorced for years...it's the paperwork he can't locate. As far as the police certificate, that is from Canada, and I was of the understanding they would do the NZ one, but I had to get any others.

One month approval time? I could do with a little of that ...

no kidding! 4 weeks was the norm in January/February so there's always a chance.

That's too bad about the certificate. At least you know you can get another one.

Where I live in Massachusetts I just contacted the registrar of deeds where my divorce was granted and asked for a certified copy of my decree absolute. It costs me about $20 I think. I hope he can get that soon and that you can be on with it.

good luck!

That's what he's done, contacted the people out in California where the divorce was granted...it cost him the same amount as yours, and this was weeks ago. He's been trying to reach them all this week, and getting voice mail.

I'd like five minutes alone with Murphy!

He got it today

We Fedex in the morning

That's so great!! I hope the process starts to move quicker for you!

Today is 8 weeks to the day that we sent ours off. We were expecting to see our approval by now. It's a good thing I keep my glass half full!

Justine????? Just a few days now isn't it? I'll never forget the first time I put my arms around Russell, many, many...many years ago. I can only imagine how excited you both are and I hope that first embrace is all you could have imagined it to be. You better keep in touch with us and we want pictures!

How is everyone else?

Hi All

This is my first post on here, but have been reading a lot of posts etc over the last few weeks. This site seems a great resource.

My name is Grant, I am a very typical Kiwi male, raised in the Waikato, but now living in Auckland. My wife, Brook, is a US Citizen, born and raised in California and has been living in NZ for about 12 years. She is a dual citizen. We met about 5 years ago, and have been married for a little over 2 years.

Brook retains US Bank accounts, credit cards and a California Drivers licence etc so we will be all set to hit the ground running when we get there.

We have two children, boys aged 17 months, and 8 weeks old. Our boys are both dual citizens and have both NZ and US passports (crazy at their age, but that is the way things work).

It was our intention to have two kids quite close together in age, and relocate to the USA once they were good to travel with.

We are about to start the Immigration path for me to become a permanent resident. In fact we have all of the forms filled in and ready to file in the next few days (most likely early next week as I will be out of town on business for the next couple of days). Obviously we are going the DCF route (have actually been to and from the Consulate a lot lately getting the boys birth abroad, and passports etc organised. To date we have found the Consulate Staff to be brilliant and they go out of their way to help out. This is very encouraging.

Anyway, that is enough from me. We are sure that we will not have any problems with the whole process, but I'm sure there will be times when I will ask questions on here.

Once I workout the timeline thing, I will create one for us as well.

Cheers,

Grant

Hi Grant..welcome to VJ!

Hi Grant, welcome to VJ. Great to see another kiwi on board.

Thanks for the welcome guys.

Right my first question - if you think I will get a better answer in the DCF section let me know, but I understand that each Consulate has their own procedures, so thought getting a NZ perspective might get me the best answer.

We have the following forms completed and ready to file:

Brook:
- I-130
- G325A
- I-864 (hers)
- I-864 (her parents are my co-sponsors as Brook lives in NZ, and does not earn any income in the US, apart from a small amount of interest on money in the bank there)

Me:
- DS-230 (Part I)
- NZ Police Clearance Form
- G325a
- DS2001 - Readiness Statement
- Cover Letter

We also have all of the supporting documents we need (very recent passport photos, marraige licence, proof we actually are a proper married couple - although our two kids should be evidence enough etc).

Right after all that, here is my question....It is our intention to file all of these together on Wednesday. Is this what we should be doing?

We have rung the 0900 number, but the person on the other end was not overly helpful, and seemed suggest I post in my documents first (before Brook even files the I-130). This seemed contrary to what the instructions on the form says.

We only live 10 minutes from the Consulate, so filing them in person is easy.

Thanks in advance,

Cheers

Grant

Seems to me that going in person would be the easiest way to do things, at least that way you'll get a quick answer if anything is missing!

I'm guessing that you should need the same kind of forms as the rest of us even with DCF. Do you have full birth certificates for both of you? Also my form for my interview stated I needed to bring in a recent payslip from my sponsor, even though they had the I-864 info on file, as well as his most recent tax return, so you may want to have something similar from Brooks folks.

Thanks for your quick answer.

Yes - we have both full birth certificates (and certified copies). Interesting about the recent pay slip from my sponsor. What we have it doesn't have anything about this, it asks for the latest IRS return (and if able the previous three years). We have all of these. Her parents are retired, so don't have payslips. Hopefully we don't need to provide these...however it will not be a show stopper, just a minor hold up.

Cheers

Grant

I can't really offer any help since i'm K1 but you could always email the consulate... AucklandIV@state.gov

We went to the Consulate in Auckland today, armed with everything we could think of possibly needing to kick the whole process off.

The lady behind the window was brilliant. We basically filed (with the right supporting documentation) the I-130 (Brook filed), the DS230 (Part 1), the police clearance, the DS2001. We also had to pay the I-130 application fee.

We then took a seat and waited, the same lady came back with an interview letter and date and medical check information for me (19 August is my interview date), we then waited a bit longer and were called up to see a Consulate Officer who had checked all of the forms, and made Brook swear an oath and then we were able to go.

Lets hope the interview stage is as easy as well.

Cheers

Grant

Oh - Brook also filed a G325a as well.