thesnowman

I would still think you'd have to file the same papers and pay fees like you would here. I don't think it would save you any money to do it over there, but I guess it's worth investigating.

Well I know that if you can go to the consulate in Washington DC it is cheaper than if you mail it in, just thought I might be able to go to Glasgow and get this sorted.

I am going back to Scotland next week and was wondering if it is possible to go and get my daughter registered as a UK citizen while I was over there. I know I can sort it out over here, but it is fairly expensive and on the "to do" list, alongside my citizenship.

So I am flying back home for the first time since I arrived, here in Kansas City the options to exchange money are limited, you basically have to go to the bank, but it can take days to exchange it and they are quite useless at it. I could exchange dollars to pounds in the UK, but I dont think I will get that good a deal. Does anyone have any suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

So I read the first 10 pages or so on this thread and then felt the urge to reply, so I apologies if I cover old ground here.

I am kind of torn on this one. As a UK citizen with a USA greencard I have spent thousand of $$$ to get here and remaining in status, so anyone coming over here illegally and then get granted amnesty pisses me off; however rounding up all the illegals and shipping them back is just impractical, so I am not to sure what the solution is. Anyway I lost my greencard (when my wallet went walkabout) and then paid the $300 to get a new one, therefore I don't carry it anymore, it is kept safe and secure at home (although I should really get a photocopy). My fear would be that some bored or over eager cop would would pull me over on some trumped up traffic charge and then ask to see my greencard, if I cant produce it there and then, I could be arrested. Now I know as a legal alien I should have it on me at all times, so if that happens then it is my own fault. But what happens when I become a USC, I show my driving license (which I had to show that I was here legally to get), but if I dont have a greencard to show that I was a citizen they could arrest to me to determine what my status is. Now this wouldn't be a simple 5 min check, they would either have to have access to the homeland departments database, or they would have to send a request to Homeland to determine the status. This could take a significant amount of time, and I would be locked up till they determine what my status is, very gestapo.

I also find it ironic that the Republican legislature in AZ say that since the federal government is not tackling immigration, they need to put there own laws in place. Dont Republicans believe in limited Federal power, but here they are using the lack of it as an excuse for this law.

If this law is implemented carefully and (I believe) in the way it is intended, then it shouldnt be too bad. However if history has taught us anything, is that it is likely to be abused by the authorities, that is what concerns me more.

I do agree that giving the insurance companies power is what has gotten us to where we are now. I just don't see a govt run system as the fix for that. I like the idea of this 'insurance exchange' but I am not convinced that we can sustain the cost of the bill as passed.

I actually liked one of the ideas floated before was to form a not for profit insurance company, rather than a public option and I thought was a rather good idea. One thing is clear though we could not sustain the cost of health care as it was before the bill was passed. If the Republicans had actually tried to help craft the bill we might have ended up with something better, but they made the decision to be obstructionist for political gain, so much for America first.

Maybe government isn't the best entity to control health care, but it is a millions time better than an insurance company. If you think about all the money the insurance companies spend trying to decline care, advertising and billing, that could all go into patient care. I think the thing that most annoys me is that it is tied into your work, if you loose your job, you loose your insurance (cobra is to expensive). My first job in the USA had good insurance, low premiums ($200 a month for entire family) and only $20 for a doctors visit, but when I left there for a better job and more money I lost my good insurance, I now pay so much more and as I mentioned earlier I am still paying off my daughters birth despite putting away over 2k in a FSA card. I also remember we got this bill through from the hospital and the insurance wouldn't pay $50 of it, so we were curious on what it was, turns out that it was the drop of tylenol that they gave my son for his immunizations. $50 for something that costs around $6 a bottle, so we now take our own.

I like the idea of this insurance exchange where we can pool our numbers to get cheaper insurance. As I have mentioned before I have my own share of issues with the NHS, but I would take the NHS over my private insurance USA health care.

I have been trying to keep up with it on the bbc website, dont know if I will do an overseas vote. I dont like Brown (even though I am Scottish, he comes off as a miserable git), but since I am not in the UK I haven't formulated an opinion on whether I could vote Tory. I voted twice for Blair, but wouldn't describe myself as a Labour supporter. I will keep an eye on it.

I must say I enjoyed the presidential election last year even though I couldn't vote in it, I just seemed that everyone gets hyped up for it and more involved. Although it goes on for far to long and the amount of money being spent is ridiculous. I was actually in Chicago on business on election day and made my way up to Grant park where Obama had his celebration, the place was electric.

I do wish they would do a presidential style debate in the UK, I found them engrossing.

In the UK if myself or my family were sick I could call up before 9am and I would be seen that day at my local doctors surgery. In the USA it took me over two months to get an initial doctors appointment and then when I was sick the soonest they could get me in was 6 days later. In the UK when my son was born I paid nothing, I had a midwife come round to the house for two weeks after the birth and then a health visitor came around at regular intervals to give us help. IN the USA my wife had her birth plan ripped up by a doctor who gave her a forceps delivery because, and in his own words, "he didnt have the time to wait as he had to get home". This invasion cost us over 4k. I pay over $800 in premiums for my family and an extra $200 in FSA payments, I got offered a good job while my USC wife was pregnant (and at college), but the new jobs health benefits didnt kick in for 6 months which meant I had to decline as I couldn't afford the cobra payments to leave.

The NHS isn't perfect, I ended up using free works private medical care for surgery as I didnt want to wait, but I would rather have the NHS than the US system. My wife got a prescription for some severe migraines, we took it to Walgreens and they said that the insurance wouldn't pay for it all, and told us to take half a pill a day rather than the whole one, we said fine we will pay for the rest and we were told that we couldn't as the insurance wouldn't pay for it we weren't allowed to either.

So I would rather the government be in charge of health care than an insurance company who we have spent hours on the phone arguing with over costs. Luckily my wife spend a few years working in a doctors surgery and done insurance billing so she knows their tricks.

thesnowman21 - (Danielle USC, Andrew - Kilmarnock, UK) -Live in Kansas City, KS since 2006.

No need to pay $10K to a hospital when you can get a midwife for about $350 and give birth at home. Hundreds of generations have done that, for thousands of years, literally, and my brother and I've been born exactly the same way. In my opinion, the only reasons to go to a hospital for child birth without health insurance:

1) Money really doesn't matter

2) Anticipated complication at birth

3) Excited about a Caesarian and fan of scars

An experienced midwife does exactly what an obstetritian does, minus the cutting.

Dont know what midwife you got quoted by, but I wouldnt trust anyone that charged $350 for a home birth. My wife wanted a home birth with a midwife after having a midwife for my sons birth in the UK. We paid $2500 and the insurance wouldnt cover it, despite the midwife being a certified RN and certified Midwife. So we just put the money aside with my works Flexible Spending Account scheme and paid her that way.

Anyway the whole process was smooth, wife had a water birth and had the birth exactly as she wanted. the midwife came to our house from about 2 months out, came once a month until around 7 months, then every two week. Was always a phone call away and was very knowledgeable. Having the birth at home was awesome, she started contractions in the morning and spent the day watching tv and listening to music while we waited. The midwife came when we told her the contractions were getting closer and the baby was born about 2 hrs later, couldnt have a hospital birth after doing it at home.

Anyway I know that not everyone could do that, some woman feel more comfortable at home, my wife just wanted to make sure that she had the birth exactly as she wanted, without a doctor doing any interventions. We also have a major hospital 2 blocks away so that offered some comfort if anything untoward happened.

your first green card is called a conditional green card and is only valid for two years. It is kind of protection built in to try and prevent marriage fraud. Anyway 90 days before your conditional green expires you can apply to "remove condition". Once this is accepted you will be given a new 10 year green card. Check out the Removing conditions forum and guide for more information.

My works health insurance sucks. I pay just under $700 a month for me, my wife and my two kids. $30 co-pay, 2k deductible and everything over that is 80/20. Health insurance is an extra $60 a month.

What you are being quoted isnt that bad, just look into the details like what your deductible is and what things are co-pay versus subject to deductible. It does take some getting use to, I am from the UK and never worried about health insurance, don't you just hate that socialized medicine.

This Christmas we set up skype so my parents could watch their grandkids open their presents. Still isnt the same as being there, but it was nice. One thing that I have found that helps is Facebook, I have only really got into it in the last 6 months, but it allows me to keep up to date with all my friends and family back home and allows them to know what I am up to.

I know its not technically not right, but what we did was just said we were girl friend and boy friend when we looked at places and then used the USC name for the appartment (we told them i wasnt working there), then when I got my GC we just got me added to the lease.

I dont really feel bad, I got so sick of jumping through all these hoops because I was trying to legally come to the US.

Like some people have said the interview is a bit of a non event, I remember when I started the K1 journey and spent months reading about other peoples UK embassy interviews and getting worried about any potential pit falls, but again if you have your stuff together it will be a breeze. If you want to read my review of the interview have a look on my profile for my embassy review.

I got on more stage on my Visajourney to go (citizenship) and I do remember the K1 portion being the most worrisome. Also went by myself as my fiance (who lived in the Uk with me) was in the embassy sorting out my sons passport, Just take a book or a mag to read as you may be their for sometime.

Congrats to all those who got their approval. To all you VSC filers I feel your pain. I remember when I filed my K1 and CSC was slower than everyone else (plus IMBRA didnt help) and I desperatly wanted to file at Vermont. Just hang in there, it will come eventually.

The greencard should suffice as your re-entry visa.

Yay my new 10 year greencard arrived in the mail today. Good to see on the card it says it expires on 12/3/19, just seems such a long way off. Anyway 1 year from now I can apply for citizenship and I will then be finished with USCIS forever, which sounds like heaven right now.

One thing that puzzles me is that despite not having a biometric appointment I manage to have a photo and fingerprint on my greencard??????????

anyway good luck to everyone else.

I also late filled (about 2 months late). I initially sent in my packet, but they rejected it as I didnt file within the allotted time. So I resubmitted with a letter explaining my tardiness. I then got my NOA1 which extended my status by 1 year. However I never received my Biometric appointment and I was getting worried that my lateness was causing problems, thankfully though I got my approval letter yesterday.

You got approved w/out a biometrics appointment?

Yeah I never went for my Biometric appointment because they never sent the letter. I phoned up and asked where it was and they said they would chase it up, but that was a few weeks ago and I was getting worried. However yesterday a letter from USCIS arrived and told me that I had been approved.

I also late filled (about 2 months late). I initially sent in my packet, but they rejected it as I didnt file within the allotted time. So I resubmitted with a letter explaining my tardiness. I then got my NOA1 which extended my status by 1 year. However I never received my Biometric appointment and I was getting worried that my lateness was causing problems, thankfully though I got my approval letter yesterday.

So I never got a Biometric appointment, and I even phoned them and told them that I hadnt received it yet. Well anyway today I received a letter telling me that my I-751 had been approved.

I am getting worried now, I still havent received my Biometric appointment letter. Do you think I should contact them.

BBC america is ok, at least we can get Top Gear and I have found recently that PBS have been running blackadder. For football Fox Soccer Channel carries alot of the EPL, but you need to get Setanta for most of the matches (which is only carried on satellite)

Biometrics appointment received in the mail Saturday, 10/24 - the date set is 11/5.

This does mean that everything's going well, right? I mean...surely we'll not get an RFE now?

Not necessarily, when I was filling for my AOS I got a RFE after I had my bio appointment.

So I was looking into getting my US born daughter registered with the UK embassy so I can get her UK passport. Now looking at the price it is around $300, plus around $140 for the passport. Now the question is do I need to register her birth and get a UK birth certificate to get her UK passport?

Obviously if that is what needs to be done then it will, but I got another son who i need to get a passport for, both US and UK, plus my daughters UK and US, then my naturalization fee (around $700), and this needs to get done before we fly to the UK for my sisters wedding next year. It is starting to add up.