Our first update!

[Nywoek 89]

I wish I had heard from the embassy, but I haven`t and I am getting more and more anxious because I know they only offer one day with k1 appointments a week. At least they did last year.. I am probably overthinking/worrying this, because I dont even want an appointment until probably either very late may or june at the earliest, but how nice would it be to be able to finally plan all these trips and the actual move?!

 

Since my kids dont need visas this feels like a very silly reason to delay stuff, but I also want to do things right. 😕 And they were so quick to send my FTP letter so I dont know why it is taking much longer with a response to an email. I worry they dont have my contact info or something.. I was considering calling during my lunch hour at work today, but it has come and gone and I might just wait until monday. I really hope I can schedule this before I leave for my trip tuesday.

 

Also.. looking at plane ticket prices for july is... woha. X.x Not for the faint of heart, lol. But my fiance is suggesting maybe he comes to help and then we go "home" together. Might be nice. 😃

[Nywoek 89]

I called. They just had not processed my request yet. But a few hours later they did.

Then I ran into some problems with the delivery of the visa. Very counter-intuitive. Lol. But I followed the cookie trail to the answer!

 

Ended up here: https://www.ustraveldocs.com/se/en/immigrant-visa
 

Click the right thing and it says this:

 

If you live in Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, or Norway and want your visa package to be sent to an address in your home country, enter your address and then select your country from the drop-down menu under “pick-up”.

 

Nice to know. Wish it was on the first page. Lol.

 

Then I did all that, paid the interview fee, blablabla...

 

No slots available. So now that part starts, I guess. XD I wish I could have started this on monday. 😕

But... I will stay strong. Maybe try to scope out when they release new slots? It is so hard to find info on Stockholm though.. I feel like a pioneer. May those that come after me use this very silly thread for knowledge and do better than me - have less stress - that will make it worth it. XD

I will just keep myself busy packing and cleaning this weekend. Travelling to Boston on tuesday, cannot wait to see my love again.

[hplusj 559]

You got this!  Everyone in the community is rooting for you.  Get that interview!

[Nywoek 89]

On 4/6/2025 at 2:16 AM, hplusj said:

You got this!  Everyone in the community is rooting for you.  Get that interview!

Thank you! You guys give so much nice support. ^-^

I must admit it is a little hard right now, logging on to the usvisascheduling website and it saying "no slots available". If the website even works. I tried last night and this morning and both times the website was insanely slow and kept timing out. I almost thought maybe it is because they put out appointments in the morning and there is a rush of people, but when I finally got in there it was as empty as always.😕 I have been trying since friday and I worry a little bit that they wont add more appointments until the first of may, because last I heard someone was able to schedule a may appointment for april 1st, and there were only 2 days available in all of may, the rest of the year was all red. But I just have to keep trying, we have made it this far so we can make it through the rest of it!

 

Now I have to finish cleaning and packing, because tomorrow morning I am taking 3 different planes and going to Boston. I am so excited to see my fiance and his cat, and help set up the house for our little family. ^.^ My kids are going with their grandparents to Spain for a week while I am gone, and considering I am going to New Hampshire they will have much better weather than me. XD Will miss them terribly, of course, but glad they will be having fun. 😃

[Nywoek 89]

Okay, update time.

 

My trip to Boston went well. Felt bougie using business class, it's good I'll be flying coach going home so it wont go to my head. XD No extra issues during the passport check, I mean the officer asked me a bunch of questions, but they usually do. No use for my stack of documents I had ready in my backpack, but better safe than sorry!

Wonderful to see my love and his cat again. 🥰

 

So the tariff stuff has been spooking us a bit, so we decided to invest in a  desktop pc for me since my laptop is getting up there. No matter what happens with he economy the graphics card situation has been annoying for years and most likely will stay that way anyway. It arrived the day after me and a few days later we had it set up with a new desk and everything. Apart from installing some games the first thing I did was go to the scheduling website to check for interview dates and what do you know they had some open in June! So now I will be in Stockholm for my interview june 16th. I was so excited, I ran upstairs to my fiance who was working in his temporary office (he is using the room that will be my littlest' bedroom while he finishes building some rooms in the basement) and gave him the good news while jumping up and down in excitement! It feels like such a relief, we got it the month it will work the best for us and it will give us time to still move during the summer so my kids can settle in before school starts.  

 

Still no clue how Stockholm actually does it.. because the lady who got an appointment in may said she got it april 1st. So I guess the advice is just to keep trying. At this point I had taken a few days off checking because the website did not load properly on my phone, so it felt really cool and special that it finally worked on my new computer. ^^

 

I still have to schedule my medical, but I have to make a plan with my parents since they are looking after the kids. For the interview I sort of felt like I did when we got Taylor Swift concert tickets: just click whatever you can and be happy with it, but I am hoping it wont be a problem with the medical. I should do it sooner rather than later though, because there are only 2 doctors in the country (at one hospital) that does the medical, so I would not want them both to be on vacation or something. O.O Not sure if I need my new passport ready for that though? I have my appointment on May 7th and it usually takes 1 to 2 weeks to get it sent in the mail.

 

I have spent my days here putting away the 3 suitcases of stuff I brought (my fiance brought one after his christmas trip) and getting the house ready for us. This place is starting to feel more and more like home and we are both so excited to finally be together and not have to think about the fact that one of us has to go home by themselves. My fiance will make one more trip to Norway, either sometime in june or right before we move so we can all go together, but other than that it will be amazing not having to say goodbye for months at a time. 

[Nywoek 89]

Got back yesterday, man am I exhausted. Trying very very hard not to sleep after I sent the kids to school this morning. Right now it is 11, and I am still up! Lol.

 

Leaving was sad. I wrote a note and hid easter eggs with jellybeans all over the house so it would cheer him up when he found them. He loves jellybeans. ^^

 

Got my medical scheduled on the 13th of may. It was the clinic that picked the date, so there should be more than enough time before my interview. Lol. I am currently ordering plane tickets. Going the day before and staying most of the day, since the appointment takes a while and the ride to the airport takes some time too.

 

Next I need to plan the Stockholm trip, but I have two friends who might want to come along with me, and we can make a weekend out of it. That would be nice since I probably wont see them for a while after.

 

I now have around 3 months to pack up my house and get everything ready. Crazy! O_O

[hplusj 559]

I really don't know how you guys do it, packing your entire lives to switch countries.  My husband doing it marvels me.  There was a lot going on and somehow in all of it, he managed to sell all the essentials, store the rest, and move with just a couple bags.  Mindboggling.

 

Truly happy to see movement for you!

[Scandi 4,281]

16 minutes ago, hplusj said:

I really don't know how you guys do it, packing your entire lives to switch countries.  My husband doing it marvels me.  There was a lot going on and somehow in all of it, he managed to sell all the essentials, store the rest, and move with just a couple bags.  Mindboggling.

 

Truly happy to see movement for you!

It was surprisingly easy to sell the condo, the car and get rid of everything else. In fact, it was the best feeling, I felt so free not having a bunch of stuff anymore, I only brought what I could fit in 3 suitcases and got rid of everything else (I had no reason to store anything, I wasn't going to move back). Felt absolutely amazing. 

Edited April 27 by Scandi

[Nywoek 89]

I think we have decided to ship some of our things. The furniture I will either get rid of by selling/throwing away or I will leave in the house since we are renting it out. This makes things easier as far as how much we have to ship. Currently we are looking at 1 or 5 cubic meters. There are also several storage rooms in my house, so I will lock up 2 of them for our stuff we wont want to bring. My fiance thought that was weird but it is normal here. Lol. I am in touch with a company that will come get my things and deliver them at my fiances house, shipping it with a boat. It will cost a lot, but we have factored in the cost and I think it will help the kids and me feel more like it is also our home sooner. And who knows how much it will cost to buy new things in the future.

 

Both my medical and interview trip is booked with flights and a hotel. My medical is tuesday and I am going down to Oslo on monday. I got a new carry-on suitcase today, ready to pack some essentials for my Oslo trip. I am so nervous about it, since doctors stress me out and my anxiety is telling me I will somehow fail the medical. Why my anxiety is telling me that I do not know, so I am trying to tell that b. to calm down and be quiet so I can focus. XD

 

Sorting and selling is going so-so, why is it so hard to get rid of stuff! Lol.

 

Added the appointments in my countdown app. The first one is the day we met in person the first time. Hopefully after my interview I can add the actual moving date, but I am very much looking forward to my fiance visiting and helping a bit with the house! We will also be taking a trip down south to a rural island where my family has a really really old summer house. He has never been there before since it takes 8 hours or so to drive there, so I am glad to show it to him. Lucky for him we installed a real bathroom a year ago, prior to that we had an outhouse, and the shower was behind the courtain in the hallway from the kitchen. Lol. It is not easy to modernise 150 year old houses like that, lol.

[Nywoek 89]

I am back from the medical! Went to Oslo on monday and met a friend after getting photos for the doctor and finding my hotel we went walking around the city for a few hours and then had dinner. I was back at the hotel at 8 and spent the night reading, lol.

 

The day of I was really really nervous. My hotel was literally 50 meters from the clinic, lol, so I was 15 minutes early but they started with taking my vaccine papers. The clerk said I had a really cool last name for use in america (lol), and I had to look up what types of covid vaccines I had done, but it was no problem. Then they sent me in line to the x-ray. The technician was nice and chatty, said his birthday was very close to mine. XD He was going through my papers and thought I needed another vaccine, but then he had me log on to the norwegian health website so they got that overview instead, and it turned out I did not need it. He gave me a copy of the xray on a cd and told me to keep it in my hand luggage in case they ask for it at the airport, but that if they do not I should not make a note of it and just keep walking. XD Then I was in line to get my blood drawn. The nurse also asked me if I had a urine sample with me, but they did not mention that in the letter so I apologized and she just gave me a cup. After all that was taken care of I went back to reading in line, and was finally brought to see the doctor. He was super nice, but he kept talking about all sorts of stuff that had nothing to do with the test. He took my blood pressure, listened to my heart and when I told him I was a little nearsighted he had me check on the board there, but only one of my eyes are a little confused so he did some quick caluclations for my forms (i do not know my prescription). He did not ask me all the questions I expected, but I suppose they drug test my urine and he did talk to me a long time so he makes an overall evaluation of me as a person and with the health stats that is what makes for the thing. He did kept asking me what medication I am on, and I kept telling him none because I do not take any, even as I walked out to pay he ran after me and asked again... XD

 

They wished me luck and said have a good trip, so I guess I passed? They told me they would mail me my blood test results and such, but I am guessing all the tests they took there were good and they would have notified me if there was a problem that would fail me.

 

So now I feel very excited and very nervous, because this whole appoinment has been a big roadblock for me this whole time. I had a lot of irrational fear that I would fail it for some reason. So I have been holding back a little. Definitely packing and sorting and getting rid of stuff, but now I think I will do even more and be even more brutal. This is actually happening!

[TBoneTX 47,262]

17 hours ago, Nywoek said:

This is actually happening!

Exciting!  Thanks for the thorough update.  Post it under Embassy Reviews or other appropriate location.

17 hours ago, Nywoek said:

The nurse also asked me if I had a urine sample with me, but they did not mention that in the letter so I apologized and she just gave me a cup.

THE BLONDE AT THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE

          A blonde woman came in for a routine physical at the doctor’s office.

          "Here you go," said the nurse, as she handed the blonde a urine cup.  "The bathroom is there on your left.  The doctor will see you in a few minutes."

          Soon, the blonde came out of the bathroom.  She handed an empty container back to the nurse.  With a relieved look on her face, the blonde said, "Thank you!  But they had a toilet in there, so I didn't need this after all."   

17 hours ago, Nywoek said:

when I told him I was a little nearsighted he had me check on the board there, but only one of my eyes are a little confused

EYE CHART

 

A Polish immigrant went to the DMV to apply for a driver's license.  First, he had to take an eyesight test.

The optician showed him a card with the letters CZWIXNOSTACZYK.

"Can you read this?" the optician asked?

"Read it?!" said the Polish immigrant.  "I KNOW the guy!"   

[MalloryCat 670]

On 5/14/2025 at 5:32 AM, Nywoek said:

I am back from the medical! Went to Oslo on monday and met a friend after getting photos for the doctor and finding my hotel we went walking around the city for a few hours and then had dinner. I was back at the hotel at 8 and spent the night reading, lol.

 

The day of I was really really nervous. My hotel was literally 50 meters from the clinic, lol, so I was 15 minutes early but they started with taking my vaccine papers. The clerk said I had a really cool last name for use in america (lol), and I had to look up what types of covid vaccines I had done, but it was no problem. Then they sent me in line to the x-ray. The technician was nice and chatty, said his birthday was very close to mine. XD He was going through my papers and thought I needed another vaccine, but then he had me log on to the norwegian health website so they got that overview instead, and it turned out I did not need it. He gave me a copy of the xray on a cd and told me to keep it in my hand luggage in case they ask for it at the airport, but that if they do not I should not make a note of it and just keep walking. XD Then I was in line to get my blood drawn. The nurse also asked me if I had a urine sample with me, but they did not mention that in the letter so I apologized and she just gave me a cup. After all that was taken care of I went back to reading in line, and was finally brought to see the doctor. He was super nice, but he kept talking about all sorts of stuff that had nothing to do with the test. He took my blood pressure, listened to my heart and when I told him I was a little nearsighted he had me check on the board there, but only one of my eyes are a little confused so he did some quick caluclations for my forms (i do not know my prescription). He did not ask me all the questions I expected, but I suppose they drug test my urine and he did talk to me a long time so he makes an overall evaluation of me as a person and with the health stats that is what makes for the thing. He did kept asking me what medication I am on, and I kept telling him none because I do not take any, even as I walked out to pay he ran after me and asked again... XD

 

They wished me luck and said have a good trip, so I guess I passed? They told me they would mail me my blood test results and such, but I am guessing all the tests they took there were good and they would have notified me if there was a problem that would fail me.

 

So now I feel very excited and very nervous, because this whole appoinment has been a big roadblock for me this whole time. I had a lot of irrational fear that I would fail it for some reason. So I have been holding back a little. Definitely packing and sorting and getting rid of stuff, but now I think I will do even more and be even more brutal. This is actually happening!

glad to hear it went well!

 

did they give you a copy of the DS-3025? the vaccine documentation? as you may need it for your AOS when in the states. if they didn't probably easier to get a copy now while youre still in the country lol

[SL2024 251]

2 hours ago, MalloryCat said:

glad to hear it went well!

 

did they give you a copy of the DS-3025? the vaccine documentation? as you may need it for your AOS when in the states. if they didn't probably easier to get a copy now while youre still in the country lol

 

I agree with this and would advise the OP to do this as well if they haven't got a copy of it already

[mam521 2,459]

Wonderful to hear things are progressing along!  

 

If you're a driver at home, I'd head into the local agency and get yourself a copy of your driving record to bring to the US.  Not sure what the reciprocity agreements look like in NH in regards to license exchange, but your insurance rates are likely to be much less if your insurer has proof that you're not a new driver and in fact, have a driving history in Norway.  

[TBoneTX 47,262]

Along with the above, get copies of every possible official document that might be difficult, impossibe, or expensive to get from overseas -- renewed driver's license, university transcripts/records for yourself, school records for kids, extra birth certificates, divorce certificates if applicable, and more.

 

You're packing to move, but it's possibly a lot easier to get these things now than it may be later.

 

P.S.  Can't recall whether I already suggested the above to you.