Shawn&Jodie

Had my interview today. All straightforward and went well. I’ve been submitted for approval.

filed sept 21

Biometrics reuse notice Nov 2nd

Interview Jan 6th

On 11/16/2020 at 2:50 PM, clauric said:

Still haven’t gottten a biometrics notice. I filed 9/5/20 online and I am located in San Diego. Still got estimated 5 months (April 2021). I checked the processing time for SD and I think it was like 12.5-14 months. The last biometric I did was 2014 when I renewed by greencard. Maybe they will reuse it but I am not keeping my hopes up since it’s been 6 years. And thank goodness we filed before December 1 since they added more questions for the citizenship test for people who files on December 1 or after.

My last biometrics were in 2013 and I got notice they would be reused on Nov 21, hopefully they will for you too

13 minutes ago, Rymb2008 said:

Hey Congratulations!!

can i ask which field office?

Of course, it’s San Antonio, TX

Quick update. Just got notice that my interview has been scheduled for Jan 6th

(filed September 17

biometrics reuse November 21)

still says case completion expected July 21

Filed sept 21st

notice received Nov 2nd that my old biometrics will be reused (for info purposes my last biometrics were done in 2013)

Estimated time for my case is June 2021

Online was the way to go.  I remember the old days of having to fill out everything and send in a large packet.  We finished it in about 30 minutes, mainly because we kept forgetting job start dates and such.  We already had all our files saved as pdfs so it was easy.  We are on 5 year so we only needed green card, marriage cert.  and I added some extras to the "extra evidence" section just because we thought we would need it and I had already had the files ready. 

Deff recommend online.  

Just submitted my N-400 online.

Filing on the 5 year rule

Jodie

Great thread, as we read thru it I will say the coffee drinkers have it rough. We finally bought a coffee pot and Jodie found it was easier than instant coffee. When we went back to visit my family in WVa my sister got her hooked on 8 O'clock coffee. It was actually cheaper then what she had been drinking.

This week she got her first experience of us driving to work with a tornado warning which she was not happy about. 2 hours later the university shut down and she had another fun ride as we drove around flooded streets trying to get home. After that is was a day with no power.

We rescued a dog last year as she had never had one and before she moved here she gave me grief as my last dog would sleep in the bed. She always thought that was disgusting but now every night she expects our Opie to get into bed with her.

For those moving to the US the first year I would say is the hardest. Your waiting to get all the right documents to really start your new life and sometimes the hoops you have to jump thru seem insane.

Depending on where you live you will find things that do compare to life in the UK and if you are lucky your local stores will have some staples. I suppose wherever you move there are growing pains and your move to the US will be no different. One suggestion for those of you that can now work, try a temp agency. They really helped Jodie get established with a work history and landed her in her current employer. Two years in it has been three promotions and an office with a window.

She also wanted me to add........ For you texas peeps.... "All hail whataburger".

Old UK VJ member here but it is the weekend and we decided to check in. As of August Jodie now has her 10 year green card and we made it through the process all by VJ. Never had a RFE and we are two green cards in and have never had an interview.

Now i just have to talk her into keep practicing driving........ At least she finally got her learners permit.

Congrats to you Jan. filers who are starting to see results. We haven't been visiting VJ much but we were a Vermont Jan filer who got approved in August. We got transferred to Cali and from there it wasn't long.

Weird thing for us, two green cards in, no interviews at all.

Guess we have 10 years to decide on citizenship.

Good luck to those of you still waiting.

Thanks Ryan, was an off the wall question and thats why I dropped it where I did.

Hey everyone, we are in the process of getting my wife her 10 year green card. We have already recieved a noa extending her green card for one year and her name was spelled correctly. We recieved her bio appointment today for next Monday ( thanks for the advanced notice). Her name is spelled correctly at first but then it has c/o Josie last name.

We just called the number on the letter and after putting recipt number we got a message saying "we cannot access your case at this time".

I suppose my main question is will this cause a problem at the bio apt? Secondly how can we get this corrected if the arcane telephone system wont let us.

Thanks in advance.

If you have an HEB Plus near you (in Texas) they normally have a good little section with British foods. As other has suggested we have invested in a bread maker as Jodie hates the bread here. If your ever in Austin there is a great little cafe called The Full English that nails it.

Just our experience, we had to get Jodie's new passport with the married name before we flew back to England. We applied in October and sent the photo and marriage certificate along with old passport. Even though our bank blocked the orginal transaction Jodie was able to reply to the email informing us. It only took about 2 weeks after the payment was recieved to get the new passsport.

Now, I understand that it depends on the time of year but I am sure it also is affected by the fact that all passport renwals from the US must now go to the UK.

I would suggest if you are planning this in the future make sure your US bank is aware that a foreign charge is coming, as it will make your life easier.

"armadillo eggs" You take jalepeno peppers and cut them in half, stuff them with cream cheese and wrap them in bacon. These used to be our sunday football game day treat but now it has grown as a normal weekend treat. I used to love Wendy's hamburgers until Shawn took me to What-a-burger. I am ruined. Panera is a new thing I have gotten into but living in a college town there are alot of local places that I would miss.

Kiwinyc,

For us we have to fly into Manchester so it is Austin-Atlanta-Manchester. We are looking forward to the direct flight to London then just taking a train up north. We just flew over for christmas and almost missed our connection in Atlanta on Delta (aka KLM). Luckily when we got to the gate they actually said are you "Mr. and Mrs." and we were the last people on the plane. Saved us that 45 minutes of watching people try to pack stuff in overhead bins.

On our flight back they must have had a new plane because we had the sweet headrest touch screen that let us pick movies and other games to play.

Are you ready for the influx of people for SXSW?

Wow, your Walgreens must use a 1990 digital camera or decided to use some crappy instagram filter. Ours looked fine and I have used them for my passport photos. I will also say this, they even made us come back since Jodie was wearing a white shirt and they said it would not be accepted since it would be on a white background. I should have added that to my original post.

We did not have to have the photos countersigned when having her name changed. There is no requirment on the instructions.

As far as making sure her name matched her green card we just didn't want any issues. We have read post on VJ where it was not a problem returning to the states but they were told they should get it done. I always figure better safe than sorry. I am never sure when some customs person is having a bad day and wants to take it out on someone.

As a response to this topic: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/456913-passport-changing-to-married-name/ I hope to add some info that will help those just married in the US when needing a new passport.

This is important since if you have your green card and your passport name does not match your greencard name it would be a pain to travel. Now that I think about it, probably only if you are the one who went through a name change.

As I stated in the original thread you now have to send your old passport to England now, yet they still charge us more plus a courier fee. Anyways, here are my hopefully helpfull tips.

1) Passport photos: They are a different size then the ones needed for your visa. We got ours at Walgreens, the UK size is preprogrammed into their system, make sure you tell them. If they say they can't do it, make them look. I only know this because i checked before hand ( I go there alot) and when we went for the pics there was someone different there who acted like I was making it up.

2) Tell your bank: We got an email form the passport office in the UK letting us know our payment was rejected. Turns out our bank though it was a fraudulent charged. Let your bank know in advance that you will be having a charge from the UK, it is about $250. Lucky for us we emailed them back after talking to our bank and they tried again, and let us know it went through.

3)Tracking number: If you want to track the process you need to write the number on your application. It is the bar code on the front of the application.

4) Amount of time: It seems this time of year Oct, we got ours back in about 10 days. We hear from my wifes friends in the UK it takes about 2 weeks over there. If you are in the travel season, summer, it will take longer. It takes more time for it to get there it seems. You can look in the orginal post on how I sent it.

5) What we sent: We had to send 2 extra items, we only got one back. We got back the marriage certificate but did not get back the proof the document of proof that her name had changed. We sent the offer of employment she got from TX State Universitywhich had her last name as her married name.

6) Photos countersigned: We did not have to do this since she looks the same.

7) How you get it back: We recieved two flat letter envelopes from DHL. One contained her new passport and the other contained her old one and the marriage certificate. You pay about 20 pounds for this but it is added into your fee.

8) How you pay: You also need to print off a payment form that you fill in your bank information. This is how they bill you and please see #2

We both hope that anyone, well it seems this post is for the lovely females, that needs to get a new passport is helped by this post. If any of you VJ's are going to be in Yorkshire this xmas '13 or driving through TX anytime, let us know.

Good Luck on your Journey.

Shawn and Jodie

Just so you know, as we almost used the old mailing addy. You now have to send your passport to the UK instead of mailing it to DC. This has changed since September 9, 2013. Here is the information if you are a UK citizen who needs to change their name on their passport. It will walk you through the steps you need.

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports

Also, even though it goes to the same place we still have to pay twice as much and an extra fee to have the passport sent back.

The guy at the post office asked me what I was sending and suggested I send it certified and when he asked the value we just kind of looked at each other and both said, no idea. I did fill out a custom form just so we had proof what we were sending. It will cost you about $17 just to send the old passport plus the paperwork and supporting info.

Enjoy

I just talked this over with my wife and she stated the following. When she visited she had travelers insurance through her bank that would cover her but once she moved here it was probably moot since she left a minimal amount of money in her account and had moved here. Now once she got here and we got married I was able to add her to my insurance through my work. Now, here is a tip for those moving here and marrying a US citizen. Most companies have an open enrollement period where you can add or change coverage. When we went to add her they said we missed the open enrollment and had to wait 9 months. After me using logic and the girl not buying it she suggested her getting insurance from somewhere else for a month then cancelling it and then us coming back claiming she lost her insurance and the enrollment period was moot. So, me thinking quickly stated that she had just lost access to her NHS and she was allowed to be added.

At this time she did not have a green card but she did have a social, that's all that was needed.

So what advice can I give? Have the travlers insurance but once you get married get a social and get added to your spouces insurance. If they claim you have to wait, claim the loss of your NHS and the enrollment period issues wont matter.

I will say that in the states that have insurance plans you will pay for coverage that may really suck, as in high deductables and all. Lucky for us I work for a large university and have good insurance, even though it cost 288 a month to add her. This is one of those cost that people don't think about when deciding on the marrying/moving process. Lucky for us Jodie got a full time job at the university and it covers your insurance, she gets a job, I get an automatic $3,600 a year raise since she now gets her coverage for free.

So, use your contacts and friends to help you look for jobs with good coverage. I know Jodie was worried about the insurance thing and you should make sure your spouse is aware of how things work before making the move. One bad illness can put a real dent in how you percieve your future.

I'm hoping to travel back to the UK for Christmas now that I have my greencard, but I would like to get my passport renewed in my married name, so the name matches the one of the greencard. I was looking at the application for applying for a British Passport for Overseas Customers: Section 2 where it asks for my parents information.

Given that I'm a British citizen, born in the UK before 1982, and already have a valid passport, that is good for another 7 years, do I need to complete this section?

I'm pretty sure I don't, but I want to be sure before I fork out the money.

I hope you enjoy the heat and welcome.

Talking to my local USPS people they would never ask me to fill out a custom form when it was obvious paper, if it was a box or something bulky I had to fill out the form. From the perspective of waiting for packages from my wife's mum it is always faster to send things from here versus things from there.

When you send something as in the tax forms just make sure it is flat and they should just let you send it. Just my experience but then again I do live in Texas and I am sure people in the USPS are used to the rules.

Greencard arrived yesterday. Good luck everyone, I'm sure you can't be far off now