Thank you for reviving this thread Lorelle...

Mellie and Sean have left me alone!! So I'm glad you are still here.

you're welcome It just seemed cruel for it to be left to drift into the abyss lol

I wont be around here for a while after the 19th....Im moving out of here and in with my older son and his wife until I leave for the US and they dont have internet access Guess I will be making a few trips to the library hahahaha damm....gonna have the DT's by the time I get fulltime access again in the US.

OMG I can't WAIT until you get to move here! I know you must be chomping at the freaking BIT!!

yep that ........and frustrated to boot lol

Thank you! Yes I had a safe flight (if not packed with people and uncomfortable), and got thru customs in reasonable time. (They made me wait til the officer had processed everyone else in the queue )

I'm now with my wife in Blacksburg, VA. A bit different to old Sydney town.



Actually, quick question (tho I will go check the other forums and google it now), do I need to apply for a SSN now? Or is it somehow processed along automatically with other things...

1. CONGRATS on getting here. I can't beleive you are in Blacksburg!! I went to college not far from there. MY college is a HUGE rival with Va tech! I've spent many a drunken night in Blacksburg.

2. SS# - I say it's quicker just to go into the office. You should be fine...the stupid woman here wouldn't give it to Stewart until he had his green card, but most you only need your passport visa and stamp. Others who have waited..have waited ages. Just go ahead your self in and get it done.

1. You went to UVA? Another pirate?! My wife is graduating from VT this weekend, then we're heading back to the north/eastern part of VA. Small world, huh

2. Cool thanks karo, I'll probably do that. I think on the DS-230 there's somewhere where you say you want the SSN card but I forget right now and my copy of the document is back at my in-law's place.

YEAH for your wife! That's awesome. Yeah Stewart checked that box too - and we never heard ANYTHING so we finally just took things into our own hands. He had his SS within DAYS.

He's settled in really well! I'm sure you'll do the same! He has a job and is going to school. We're just so darn happy to be together I know you are too - we actualyl are going back to Oz for xmas again as his sister is getting married! I swear I've been to more Australian weddings than American ones

OMG, where's that head-exploding smilie?

Wait 3 weeks from entry. If no sign of your already-applied-for SS card, go to your SSA office and re-apply in person.

The cards most often show up exactly as expected.

Check the Guide and posts from mdyoung for info on "EAE/Enumeration At Entry" which explains the process of applying via DS-230 II.

re Welcome

I thought I'd jump on this thread to say hello to everybody and to add more support! I'm sure I'm going to need it at the end of this year. It's so quiet here at work. I'm a radiography tech (aka Xray Tech) and my days just can't go fast enough. I work at a small clinic and hardly shoot any patients. At the main hospital that I'm a part of, we would shoot non-stop... I like being here... gives me more time to research info on this Visa stuff... if it weren't for AussieWench, I would have never heard of/looked into, DCF. And of course Karo has been quite a help also, otherwise I'd still be a bit lost

Anyway, glad to be in the company of good people...

Keep up the support, every little bit helps!

Hi David.....good to see you found this thread

You are going to do great. Sydney is easy peasy and many here to help you through it. So any questions or if you are needing confirmation on something, just ask away.



I gotta say it again.......

5 DAYS TILL MY INTERVIEW

First off... again let me say thank you to Karo. She's been a great help and I've been asking her plenty of questions... maybe I'll go ahead and throw them out here so I can get everyone involved.

Here's something that crossed my mind... Stephanie and I plan on getting married in January and hopefully set up our interview date immediately following. I was told that when she fills out the applications, to go ahead and put that we are married. Now that we are supposedly married, will she continue using her orginal name? When would be the best time to legally change her name, should she wait until she's in the states and change it when she applies for her SS#?

Anybody from Adelaide that can help with this part... I think police/medical stuff is different from state to state... in Adelaide, can she go ahead and get her police report... or should we wait until our forms have been submitted. Will Adelaide send the report straight to Sydney or will they hand it to her? With the medical exam, will the exam also be sent directly to Sydney or will they give her the results? For either of these, does she have to show some kind of voucher or can she just call and set up an appointment and state that she's inquiring because of immigration stuff? I'm not sure whether we should wait for packet 3. I'll be emailing Sydney to send Stephanie Packet 3 very soon, I'm just collecting my info and creating a check off list.

Thanks again!





Woohoo!!!!!!!!

I'll answer the ones I know about.

The police report you can get at anytime. Most of us opt to have it sent to ourselves, in fact I'd prefer to have it in hand, but I believe almost everyone here has had it sent to themselves and taken it to the interview.

As for the medical, I was a little confused myself about whether I'd need to send in the DS-230 so that I have a case number as the pinned Australia DCF forum indicates. However, I've been told this is the same as the police report, that in fact you can book and do it anytime.

The married name question, since whatever you put in the DS-230 will be correct at the time of the interview, ie you will be married, so it will be correct if you want to put the married name down. However, I believe I have seen in the forum somewhere that either should be ok.

I'm sure others in the forum will have an answer soon, and I'd like to ask them actually: For your partner's address in the DS-230 did you use their Australian address (ie your own) or their US address. Again, this might not matter, but thought I'd ask.

AussieDude

(I'm from Sydney by the way, so there are some subtle differences but I believe its only about what is sent when you mail the DS-230)

I have contact the US Consulate directly about use of maiden name and married name. Thier answer was:

She can use either, as long as she has proof of name change. i.e. Birth Cert or Passport for maiden name, of Marriage Cert for married name.

It doesn't matter if all her Tax Returns, supporting documents etc. are in her maiden name.

Thanks Big Oz... hey... I noticed your timeline started off with May then to April then back to May, did you mean to start with March? Anyway, thanks for the information... that was the last question that has been pondering me.

Glad to see this thread has been revived!

All we need now is Mellie and Sean and we'll be in business.

Dude,
If you can confirm that this is so (for all states in Oz) would you be a pal and post a correction to the Aussie DCF thread? things *do* change and people sometimes get confused & post wrong, so it's up to all y'all to keep that pinned thread correct. There's nothing holy in there as far as I'm concerned.. it's by Aussies for Aussies and particular to your Consulate.

On the address question: I was instructed to use my US address (I'm the USC). Others have reported differently. Due to Sydney's non-resident policy, I think you'd be correct with the US address.

Names: matters not when/if, as other answers support. It's even legal to use two different names.

I can confirm for VICTORIA that you did NOT need a case nunber for either the medical NOR police checks.

[/quote]


Thanks Big Oz... hey... I noticed your timeline started off with May then to April then back to May, did you mean to start with March? Anyway, thanks for the information... that was the last question that has been pondering me.
[/quote]

Yep made a typo, timeline is supposed to start in April. I will ammend (thought I had already!) I have to add to it anyway as today I went for the walkin to file I-130 & I-864, and got my interview date for June 12th, only two weeks away!!

Rose, the first lady at "window 1", is great to deal with. Quite a nice lady. She had some women in line before us who was complaining/arguing about things not being clear in the forms, and thankfully she was still in a good mood for us. The second lady we had to talk to, "window 4", was not quite as welcoming, she asked us a lot of Q's about our relationship and why we chose to marry in Australia and move to the US. In the end it was all good, we had our petition approved!

For those interested, here's a quick breakdown of my Thursday walkin at the US Consulate in Sydney:

07:30 Arrived at MLC Building, proceeded to Lv10, 3rd in line!
07:40 Security shows up and opens up reception for security clearance #1
07:50 Cleared Security #1
07:55 Allowed to take lift to Lv59, and take ticket for Immigration Visa, 2nd in line!
08:15 Called to Window 1, form checked and sent to make payment at Window 6.
08:20 Made Payment, now back to Window 1.
08:35 Given Appointment date. Finished at Window 1, now waiting for adjudication.
08:55 Called to Window 4, sworn in and probed by questions.
09:20 Approved, time to go home and wait for interview.

So all up it took only about 2 hours and went pretty smoothly. Glad I was prepared, this forum helped a lot!

Any reason why you didn't request to have your interview on the same day?

It appears he did a "walk in Thursday" so you can't do both on the same day.

That can be done without making an appointment or anything.

Since you are planning so far ahead you can do it all on one day!

ahhhh ya... that makes sense, stupid me.

I ended up applying in person as it never showed up

We had to do the same.

AND

we had to wait until hiis GC arrived...the stamp on his passport wasn't enough. Others have been able to but we had a lady who couldn't wrap her brain around it.

sigh.

Awww the memories. Hi everyone. Bye everyone.

Sean - stop being so worky and come back and play