ctjwa

customs is what you bring into the country

immigration is bringing yourself into the country.

You'll be fine if you bring the passport, bring the greencard, and leave the plants and animals behind.

It's form DS-3025, the vaccination worksheet (not to be confused with the vaccination supplement, I-693a, which you need for filing AOS).

Unfortunately, the doctors in Germany are extremely unhelpful when it comes to obtaining a copy of this form (even though it clearly states on the bottom "give copy to applicant" ). I have heard from several people in Hamburg and Frankfurt who were refused when they asked for a copy. Myself, I was refused by the receptionist but spoke to the doctor AT THE DAY OF THE MEDICAL and received a copy.

Personally, I do not think that you will be able to obtain a copy this late, they probably sent everything to the consulate.

Doesn't your wife have a vaccination passport from Germany? Usually everybody in Germany has one (it's a yellow booklet.....might be different, though, if your wife is from the former "DDR", Eastern Germany). This vaccination passport ("Impfpass") is in several languages, so it would be sufficient for taking it to a USCIS doctor here in the US to have the vaccination supplement filled out.

If she can't find her vaccination passport (or doesn't have one), but remembers having had alle the required vacinations, I'd recommend getting a titer test to prove that she has had them. With the results of the titer test you should be able to have the vaccination supplement filled out as well.

Good luck,

CW

I had her call the doctor in Hamburg, and they faxed over the DS-3025 right away. I was pretty happy with that! I didn't bother to pay the $50 "paperwork fee" the civil surgeon was going to charge to copy it over onto the I-193A. I just mailed the DS-3025 in, so hopefully that will be good enough. It's literally the EXACT same form, only landscape instaid of portrait.

Not too worried about an RFE, we're together now and got the AOS forms in to Chicago. If it takes a while longer to finish the rest so be it.

Thanks for the advice, all. Managed to find the phone number for the doctor in Germany, so we're going to call them tommorrow morning - it's hard enough to contact doctors on their hours, let alone with a 6 hour time difference

Hopefully they can fax it, and it'll be in english! I believe it should be, since the paperwork was originally going to the us embassy anyway...

I think I found it!

Dr Thuneke and Dr Zimmer

011-49-40-47-60-86

I hope they'll fax over the records like good little doctors

Hi,

I was hoping some of you kind German souls could help me. I'm looking for the name and phone number of the doctor in Hamburg who does the visa medicals. My wife (!) had her medical done there, and said there was only one name on the list she was given in her K1 packet, but she can't remember the name. We need to call that guy and have him fax over the vaccination supplement. Argh....

Thanks!

Hi all,

I'm putting together all the AOS paperwork, and I dont think we have the right Vaccination Supplement paper. All of the paperwork from the medical she had done in Germany was mailed directly to the Embassy. She never got anything. And then upon arrival into the US she had to give the entire package to immigration at the POE. She has some other little paper she showed the doctor that keeps track of all childhood vaccinations, but it's in German, and I really doubt it would be worth anything here.

Was the doctor at the medical exam supposed to give her a vaccination form? Can we call that doctor or an embassy to get a copy of whatever we need? Should she just go to a civil surgeon here? The problem with going to the civil surgeon is they'd probably make her get all the shots again with no record, right?

What do we do??

All of those dates are irrelevant, because Hawaii is still the United States. You wont even need a passport if you've gotten your drivers license.

Enjoy your honeymoon! We will be in Maui at the same time, maybe we'll see you there

Send two checks payable to Department of Homeland Security

1) AOS + Biometrics= $395

2) EAD= $180

you will need to mail your application to:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

P.O. Box 805887

Chicago, IL 60680-4120

Or, for non-United States Postal Service (USPS) deliveries (e.g. private couriers)

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Attn: FBASI

427 S. LaSalle – 3rd Floor

Chicago, IL 60605-1098

So if we send it via fedex we send it to the top address ??

No.......... Fedex is not the postal service (ie, the mailman). Use the bottom address.

Hi all, just wanted to check in and let everyone know how the big day went.

Joana arrived safe and sound at JFK, there were some significant delays, but none because of the immigrations or customs stuff. The plane was about 15 minutes late, then half of the baggage didn't make it on the plane so there was a frenzy of angry passengers. After about an hour and half, she finally made it out the door and into my arms I was starting to get nervous because so many people had come out before her, but I guess it was just bad timing at immigration because a couple other flights arrived at the same time.

Her actual immigration process was a breeze. They made her sit down and talk to somebody about the visa, but there really weren't any questions asked. He just filled out some papers, stamped her passport, and she was out the door. Unfortunately, she didn't get the EAD stamp, but she also didn't ask for it. After a long day of flying, and a lot of nervousness, I guess it slipped her mind. So if they do indeed still give the stamp, it's not automatic. We'll try and call the local immigration office and see what we can do about it.

So that's all -- it turns out the hardest part of the K1 proccess is the wait. Hopefully AOS is the same story!

My wonderful fiancee lands at JFK in just about 12 hours, and i think it's the first 3-4 hour drive i've ever looked forward to Then I get to turn around and do it all over again, but this time with my copilot by my side.

It's been a heck of a long wait, but I consider us to be one of the more fortunate ones. We've had a smooth journey thus far, mainly due to the guidance of this board and the people who inhabit it. Thanks for everything so far, and I can't wait to hop on down to the AOS forum tommorrow

Here's hoping all goes well at the POE, she gets the EAD, and we can finally start our lives together. I'll let you all know how it goes soon!

Well said Jay, that sounds like an excellent approach. B)

Being made fun of, and put down by people everyday because your from a different County is not a good social interaction.

What is that teaching them?

Well, to take the flip side, staying at home under mommy's protective wing isn't very good social interaction either. The world isn't always candy canes and sugar plums, but I'll agree high school can be especially cruel.

If you choose to pursue the GED route, which may in fact be the best choice academically, I would definitely keep them involved as much as possible in other ways -- working at a restaurant, volunteering somewhere, playing on a sports team -- anything to keep them immersed in american culture. They can only benefit from maturing and growing before going to college. There was an article this past weekend in the WSJ about how more and more american kids are starting to defer enrolment to take a "gap year" between high school and college. I like the idea, it takes kids off the straight line track to graduation and gives them a year to learn about themselves, what they're interested in, and where they may want to go in life.

Coming from a younger perspective (I'm 25, no kids), I'm not sure I'd recommend pulling your son or daughter out of school, or sending them to college at something drastically young like 15. One of the most important aspects of school, especially college, is the social interaction. I think it's a critical part of adolescence, and has a major impact on how you grow as a person. I can only imagine this is even more so the case for students coming from another country! Perhaps the schools in England are more regimented and focused on learning the lessons in the quickest period of time, but here I would value the educational process much more than what's memorized from the textbooks. (as a small disclaimer, I went to an ivy league school, and did very well. but the social interaction is far and away what I value most from it.)

I think that is why your children have been placed at a grade level 2-3 years behind what they have already learned - to keep them at the same age/social level, which I can't disagree with. Perhaps in the meantime you could try to supplement their learning with other things? Reading, field trips, projects?

Above all, remember that teenagers are going to cause trouble no matter where they are from or where they are now I know I skipped my fair share of classes!

And this on campus job means that I'll get a SSN, which is good too

I don't understand this part. Why does this mean you'll get a SSN? Don't you already need one to be working?

Hi all,

I know I've seen the topic of health insurance floating around the board, and it never seems to be one that people have an answer for. I just got my fiancee approved, so here are the details.

I applied for Joana with Blue Cross Blue Shield of the state i live in. I printed the application off the website, and mailed it in. She applied without putting in a SSN, and admitted that she hadn't lived here for the past 12 months. A couple days later somebody called, and I told them that she didn't have a SSN, and to put it through without one, they did (so i guess you should put "none" instaid of leaving it blank). A few days later BCBS sent a big packet from which you have to pick your plan. The one we picked was a $400 deductible, $15 copay for doctor visits, and %20 cost for prescriptions. The premium is about $212 a month. They did have plans with $2000 or $4000 deductibles (you'd have to pay that much incase of a serious accident before the insurance pays the rest) which went for about $120 a month. That one would be good for just basic emergency coverage.

A few days after selecting a plan we got another letter in the mail saying we've been approved. Keep in mind, this is an individual plan, and my name was never mentioned once in the application process. The reason we signed up for insurance is because our wedding isnt for 2 months after she lands here in the US, and we didn't want to go uninsured for that long until my work can pick up the tab.

Hope that helps.

What a great way to run a business. Let the customers pay your employee's wages.

It is a great way. If people didn't tip, the restaraunt would have to pay the waitstaff more (since nobody would work there for $2.50 an hour). In turn they would raise the prices on your cheeseburger. On top of that, the waitstaff wouldn't have any incentive to work hard, so your more expensive burger would probably be served cold and rudely.

you could always try priceline or hotwire for cheaper prices. I think it has to be within 90 days of your travel date, but it's one of those deals where you dont know the exact flight times until you pay.

I did it for a trip to germany, and it came out to be $499 round trip with taxes included, versus $650 if I were to book the exact same (cheapest) flight from expedia or anywhere else.

I've had Lingo for about a year now, and it is great. $20 a month, no equipment to buy, unlimited calls to a bunch of places, and never a problem calling Germany twice a day for about an hour. Also, if anybody you know signs up you both get a $25 credit, so it's essentially another free month. Also, I've brought the little modem thing to other places (friend's houses, hotels, etc), hooked it up to the internet there, and it works fine with any phone.

I dont see any reason at all to stay with Vonage or any land line company. They will always be more money.

I do like the sound of that wi-fi cell phone thing in the original post, but it would be more of a luxury than a necessity.

I flew Continental just last week, and they did indeed drop it from 70lbs to 50lbs for 2 free suitcases. If it is inbetween there, they charge $25, if it's over that, they charge by the pound. If it's over 100lbs, they wont take it at all. Both of mine were between 50 and 70, so the guy just charged me for one.

Only thing i might recommend is putting all your REALLY heavy stuff in your carry on. You can bring a pretty good size carry on and also a backpack/big purse with you, and as far as i know it doesnt matter how heavy it is since you'll just carry it through security with you. It says officially 40lbs, but nobody weighs it.

I'm only paying about $400 a year for my insurance.

What are you driving, a bicycle? Insurance policies are written in 6 month increments. I think that may be the $400 number you're thinking of, resulting in about a $70 a month payment.

that is outrageous. call an insurance agent, not the companies directly. An insurance agent can get internal quotes from many companies, find the best plan price, and sign you up for much cheaper than an individual can by simply calling for a quote.

They can do multiple types of insurance (car, homeowners/renters), and oftentimes have good package deals. Also, they get paid by the insurance companies, not you, so it is free.

another option that we're using is to send stuff over one bag at a time.

I just came back from visiting, and only brought one bag over so i was able to take one of hers back with me as well. Her parents are coming over for the wedding, so they will each bring one more bag of hers over. We will collect the remaining stuff, if any, at our christmas trip.

If there are some things you can do without right in the beginning, free is alot cheaper than shipping it or paying for extra bags.

Don't worry about any of that reconcilliation stuff. It's an extreme hassle, and very prone to mistakes. My advice is to never use your savings account as a debit/credit card at stores. Get yourself a real credit card, and just pay it off all in full every month. That way there are no overage fees for going negative, and you actually earn 1-3% back on all your purchases depending on what kind of card you get.

You still have to plan out your budget, so it's not a golden ticket to go on a spending spree, but if you can use the card responsibly then it will remove any chance of being charged an overdraft fee.

Keep in mind, it's usually not the bank's fault. One day for deposits and 3 days for outside checks to clear is standard. If you get direct deposit from your work, that is automatic (if you get paid on friday, it is in your account at 12:01 thursday night). The problem lies in the stores you shop at. When they swipe your card at the point of sale all it does is check that you are allowed to spend a certain amount. The store only sends charges in to the credit card company once a day at max, usually more like once every 3 days. I've known some resteraunts that only send in charges once a week, so it can often times be quite a bit delayed.

Get the real credit card, and don't worry so much.

Thailand? I'll have a wife, i don't need girls

So many different places on this thread already, and it's only on page 3! I guess it really is to each their own.

I was thinking about the plan of flying into miami, spending one day there on the beach, then driving down (in a rented convertible of course!) to a hotel/resort in key west. I'm definitely in favor of beach climates, although really no preference as to big resort or small private place. I wouldnt want a bed and breakfast, because I'd prefer to be alone and not deal with the guest interaction on our honeymoon. Maybe a villa kind of thing near the water would be ideal. Part of a bigger resort, but tucked away a bit.

Hawaii would be awesome, but it's so far to travel, I think we'll save that for another year. An all-inclusive resort in Mexico would also be high on the list, but unfortunately we cant cross the borders. Same with a carribean cruise.