... the courier brought it this morning!! And very pretty it is too - like a kid has been given free rein with the colouring pencils.

Now, if only I had the faintest clue when exactly I'd be using it, I'd be *much* more excited. Will avoid boring anyone rigid with details, but... if I resign from my job, I'm supposed to give two months (ugh!!) notice - but I'm waiting to see if they're going to make me (voluntarily) redundant first. It should have been happening as of April 1st (perfect!) but it's all been held up... so now I don't know what to do - how long I should wait before just going 'buggger it!' and handing in my notice. The two month notice period doesn't appeal when they might well just pay me to leave (woohoo!) and let me go at much shorter notice... if I resigned and then a week later all my also-hoping-to-leave colleagues got their redundancies... that would be fairly, um, annoying!

I would sooooooooo love to just get on a plane ASAP and get over there. The Boy keeps telling me not to be hasty and to be patient and to wait and see what happens. Bah. I am sick of being patient, I've had it up to here with being patient!

*stamps foot*

Um, anyway. That is all. The mini-vent felt good, though. Damn it, I've got my visa - now I want to be counting down to the day I can actually make use of it!

Right, back to eBaying my entire life away... people really will buy anything on there...

6 months & counting down...

Congratulations, and Good Luck with the "push" before you "jump"

Congrats, Well done.

Hang on for the money!

Congrats I feel the same, got mine today and dont know when im leaving, most probably july, just seems sooooo long to wait.

I don't suppose you have an "in" with anybody in your HR department?

I really hope you are made redundant. There's a phrase I never thought I'd say to anyone.

Fantastic!!!!
Congrats! Feels good doesn't it!?

Crap, that is such a hard call. I hate when companies hold that 'possible redundancy' up in the air that way. I don't know if I could deal, especially if I had that VISA in hand.

Still, if you two would greatly benefit from redundancy pay, I'd say perhaps stick it out. I'm just notoriously irresponsible though. If I had enough to get by during the period of not being able to work in America, I'd just be concerned about getting out of my job with good references intact and take off A.S.A.P. I'm just being honest, I just tend to lead with the "I want to start my new life!" heart than I do with my "Sound financial choices" head. If the redundancy pay would make a big difference though, I think I'd stick it out.

I just hope that if you stick it out, they DO make you redundant. Corporate just sucks that way.

Whichever you choose to do, CONGRATS on getting that VISA and good luck for the future!

Congratz!!!

Wonderful news, congratulations!

Thank you all, lovely VJer people! It's hard to believe that garishly-coloured bit of paper is what all these months (okay, so not *that* many months in my case - we've been incredibly lucky, all things considered!) of form-filling and evidence-gathering and waiting and more form-filling and evidence-gathering have been in aid of! It's weird... I keep opening my passport and peering at it and thinking 'I could get the train to Heathrow now, and be on the next flight outta here...!'

I'm going to try some quoting-and-replying now, and will probably bugger it all up.



I wish... until a couple of years ago, yep - I knew the relevant people well enough that there might have been some hope of wheedling, grovelling, plying with alcohol and similar... sadly their jobs were all outsourced (the last of the 'old' HR people I actually knew to talk to took redundancy a few months ago... curses!) and our new HR people are mysterious, automaton-like types who seem incapable or unwilling to hold any conversation that hasn't been pre-scripted for them. Damn.



Ahh, you have it exactly... and I'm being very strongly influenced by the "I want to start my new life!" head, and thinking 'meh, it's only money, life's too short!' etc - if it weren't for Sensible Mr. Fiance and his "sound financial choices" head, I'd almost certainly have lost my cool entirely and thrown myself over my manager's desk as soon as I knew my interview date, and been pathetically grateful if they'd agreed to let me give, say, six weeks notice instead of eight. Teddy406 mentioned 'being pushed before I jump' - made me smile, 'cos I've been repeatedly 'talked down from the ledge' (as it were) by assorted colleagues, friends & family members every time I decide I've had enough of the waiting, and announced that as soon as I get the visa, I'm outta here. In fact, my mother had to do just that (from a beach in Egypt, where she's on holiday right now - must have cost her a fortune in mobile phone bill ) after I texted her to say the visa had arrived, and that I was therefore finding it hard to resist the urge to jump straight on a plane and email work to say 'uhh... I can't come in tomorrow... or ever!'. Obviously I was (mostly) joking, but I think she missed that part.

I'm going to wait a bit and see what happens... I feel like such a whiny little b!tch that I'm even complaining 'oh poor me, shall I leave now or hold on in the hope of getting a bit of free money?' - it does sound truly pathetic! Anyway... thank you all for 'listening' to my musings and ramblings - I will stop whingeing for now! Thank you again for all the congrats... now let me just go and stare at my visa again for a bit...

Congrats safe travels

CONGRATULATIONS! Hope all goes well on the next step, when your in the US of A!!

Congrats on the visa! M.

YAY! Glad it came.

With the job thing, oh god I dont know

But I DO know that your right about the visa, looks so funny!

YAY go featherB!!!!

You'll get it all sorted out soon and will be here before you know it!!

I got approved on Tuesday so congrats to me and you

FeatherB - I am supposed to give 3 MONTHS NOTICE!! My resignation letter to my boss said i wanted to be released from duty in 4-5 weeks as I will be leaving for the USA first week in May..

Its sods law - when you WANT to be made redundant it never happens. Book your ticket and start your new life abroad !!

I have just "reserved" my ticket out of here on the 5th May - so scary !!

Congratulations

Congrats!!!

Congrats from another Brit!!

I've already decided my way round that should that happen - jump on the first plane off this rock!!!

And Congrats to you as well - so glad to see people are managing to make their new starts now!!

As I said - jump - forget the jobs, money and careers should come second, family is what matters!!

It looks like they held a colouring competition for the under-10s and the winning entry got to be on the visa!! (well, okay, maybe I exaggerate just a touch...)

Oh, and thank you! I am sooooooo looking forward to the moment when I can book myself a plane ticket. Then it will all seem much more real!

Time to start the chant of "Make Feather redundant! Make Feather redundant!".

Yay!! Congrats to us, PCKAA, that is fantastic news!!

So, has your boss agreed that you can leave that soon, then? I'm assuming so, or I guess you wouldn't have booked the flight yet! As for the redundancy thing... I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't on the verge of happening 'anytime soon' - if only they'd just make up their minds and either confirm when it'll happen, or say 'it's never going to happen'/'it's not going to happen for X number of months', I would happily hand in my notice and, like you, ask sweetly if they'd release me any sooner than that. Ugh... we shall see. But thank you, you've reminded me - after, um, July 5th, I think it is, I'll have clocked up 9 years (!!) there, which means that I will instantly be expected to give three months notice instead of two - hm, that's given me an idea for my absolute deadline, anyway - if I gave notice on July 6th and they said they were going to make me work three months, my visa would have expired by the time they let me go! So maybe July 5th will be the deadline....

I'm actually going to go and throw myself on the mercy of our occasionally scary senior mangery woman tomorrow, see what she says. Wish me luck.... (where is that green-faced vomitty emoticon when you need it, eh?? )

Anyway... congrats, again!!!!

Hahaha... it's not as though I am getting anything done right now, preoccupied as I am - they might as well let me go now! I'm considering (on the advice of a lovely colleague who's appalled at the idea I might just resign) asking for a career break/unpaid leave for a few months (obviously with absolutely no intention of going back afterwards) if it's not all sorted in a month or so. That way, I'm thinking I might just get to have my cake and eat it... bugger off to the US, wait for the 6 of us to finally be made redundant... and if it doesn't happen during that time, oh well, I wouldn't have waited around that long anyway. It all sounds a bit precarious and scary... hmm. Oh - anyone know if there would be a problem with still being technically employed in the UK after entering on my K1 & filing for AOS... even though I wouldn't actually be working or earning any money?! Would they even need to know?

As you can tell, patience is really not my strong suit!

FeatherB - my boss is NOT happy about me leaving, or me giving 5 weeks max notice period. But what can they seriously do when I'm leaving the country on the 5th May? I have busted a gut for them for nearly 9 nine years, so i deserve it. They have no choice in the matter. Seriously, if i was you, I would ask for voluntary redundancy - what have you got to lose? At least you will know sooner rather than later.

Good luck whatever you decide. I can't wait to get out of here now - the thought of working a 3 month notice period makes me feel ill !!!