Rubycon

Okay, well apparently we have an interview date - just called DOS line!

August 10th at 9:30am.

Next step here we come!

I kept getting the "this message has been deleted without being read" thing.

What a stupid message to give as a reply. They could at least put "you're mail has been received and will be dealt with soon".

The future is with the DOS line, folks. Polite and helpful both times I called (will call again this afternoon - really musn't become obsessed with this though!)

OK - so this may be a silly question, but here goes anyway. Does scheduling your medical early seem to have any effect on when your interview is scheduled? I know there are some people that wait until close to interview date to do the medical and others (like us) that schedule the medical as soon as they get the LND file #. Just curious if you guys that have been around a while have noticed any real difference there. I did a search, but there wasn't really anything I could find on this other than people asking about the delays involved with having the medical only a day or so before the interview.

When I had my medical back in early May, the doctor I saw seemed to believe that having my medical early would speed things up. She said I would probably hear about an interview in about two weeks (obviously I didn't as I hadn't sent back my checklist). In my case, it doesn't seem to have speeded things up. But there ya go.

Rubycon I pass to you the VJ spirit stick. It helped the last person I gave it to maybe it will bring you the love as well.

*pass the beautiful and shiney VJ spirit stick*

Thats great, just be careful where you put the shiney VJ love stick as I'm still limping from the last time...

Ahhh - good luck to you on that interview. Have you tried calling DOS to see if it has already been scheduled by any chance?

Thanks, yeah I called the DOS line - the woman I spoke to was nice and helpful, but no news. She just said that the Embassy had received Packet 3. Well, at least Royal Mail didn't screw up

In England having a tribal design tatto on your lower back is SO chav.

Many a Saturday night here in I've seen disgusting, fat female chavs with their flab rolls falling out everywhere bending over to puke and exposing their butt cracks. NOT nice. Perhaps the Louisiana law makers would consider enacting an ordinance here, too?

Well, I don't believe in God so does that mean the only option for me is to pray to the State Department when we want rain?

I'm sure they'd be happy to do some cloud seeding for you...

Right, now its my turn to grumble. I'll be screwed if the interview takes longer than usual to schedule as my employment contract expires at the end of August, and with it my place to live...

Just an FYI for those of you talking about Disco (my SO) - after reading through the thread perhaps I should clarify:

As per my siggy timeline I mailed the Packet 3 forms back on the 5th May (DOS confirmed they were recieved on the 9th) but I couldn't include the checklist as I was paranoid about not having my Police certificate in time. Well Scotland Yard took as long as humanly possible with that (39 days) so I only got the checklist sent off on 1st June. But I have had my medical done and no RFEs so... (goes to check post again)

Disco and I are still waiting for my interview date too..

There seems to be a couple of people who sent back Packet 3 and their decleration on May 31st. I posted mine June 1st so surely it can't be long... Called the DOS visa info line yesterday but no news.

I hate anyone using the term 'chicken' as a term of endearment

..he he.. my SO would agree with you... she's not too impressed that I refer to her as poultry (NOT old bird I hasten to add)..

My favourite word so far that I picked up from you lot is lollygagging (translates as dawdling for English people)!

I just called them and they quoted me a rate 4.5 cents better than the one Nationwide has.

I really hope this isn't a scam.

As an example, xe.com gave me a rate of USD1.95 to GBP1 when the "mid market" exchange rate was USD1.98 to GBP1. Seems pretty good to me (surely better than withdrawing USD from an ATM using a UK debit card??)

Note that xe.com charges no transfer fee...

I have used xe.com currency exchange to transfer money from my UK account to my US account. They are a Canadian company. You pay your money from your UK account to the broker (in the UK) via BACS (for which there is obviously no charge) and it arrives in the US via EFT (no charge also). All this is easy to do through online banking services. No charges, and they offer competitive rates. It worked for me.

My UK and US bank do not work together officially or have a presence in each other's country. There are no bank charges involved.

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences so far, they've made great reads. Here now is...

Chapter 2, The Touristy Bits

Porter Sculpture Park, Montrose, South Dakota

Most of the next couple of days was spent visiting various tourist sites in South Dakota and Wyoming. Shortly after leaving Sioux Falls we pulled off the I90 to check out the Porter Sculpture Park. We met the artist, who was very welcoming and was hugely excited to meet an English guy! An interesting place to wander around (apart from the birds nesting in a sculpture who didn't want to be disturbed), the centerpiece is a 60 foot high sculpture of an Egyptian Longhorn bull made from iron. Well worth a visit.

By this time the weather was very hot and sunny, and later that day the temperature hit 110. Thats very hot if you're from England. We pulled off the I90 at Presho for gas and to eat our sandwiches. We were slightly concerned to have pressurised gas fumes rush out of the gas tank when we took off the filler cap, but apparently this is common in those sort of temperatures. I was impressed to find that my sandwich was going stale while I was eating it because of the heat drying it out!

We then pressed on, arriving later that day at the Badlands National Park. An amazing place, the rolling prarie land cracks away into the most incredible, jagged landscape. It really was an awesome sight and an essential visit if you're in this part of the country. We took route 240 off the I90, which becomes the Badlands Loop and takes you right through the park. Every turn brought amazing views, with plenty of viewing spots alongside the road. My SO was especially delighted to see a wild goat (the same girl who wanted to get out of the car in the Yorkshire dales and pet a sheep that was stood in the middle of the road...).

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota

After a night at Rapid City, SD, we took in Mount Rushmore National Memorial and the Crazy Horse Memorial, both south west of Rapid City in the heart of the beautiful landscape of the Black Hills. Visitors are not allowed to approach the Crazy Horse Memorial on foot, due to random stone blasting, instead you have to take a bus tour, which I recall was pretty expensive. Good visitor center, though. Again we pressed on, back to the I90 and headed into Wyoming, heading towards the awe inspiring Devils Tower National Monument. The Wyoming landscape was really beautiful to drive through, and as we reached the summit of one of the hills heading north on highway 14, there it was... can you see it in the distance?

Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming

We took a lovely walk on one of the routes around the base of the tower, then after a while we headed back to Sundance, WY for a nice late lunch. After that we began heading south towards the Utah border and drove well into the evening on route 59. This was probably one of the most isolated 100 mile drives of the whole trip, with the road running parallel to the railroad for much of the time. I have an enduring memory of seeing massive long goods trains lined up and stretching off into the distance. We also saw our first small herd of Buffalo on this road!

Kinda funny this has come up right now, as a recent visit to my family has made me think about exactly these questions.

For me and my fiancee, I think we'd have made it work whichever country we ended up staying in. However in between the end of our time at university (where we met) and now, my fiancee returned to the US, found work and now earns a good salary, and I'm just completing teacher training which hasn't really worked out. Financially it makes sense as she makes more money than I do and will do next year despite becoming a "Newly Qualified Teacher". I'm now considering a career jump (into sound for TV/film) and Chicago seems like a good place to do it! If I tried this in the UK, I'd pretty much have to move to London, which I hate the idea of (not even considering the cost of living there).

I think my SO would have been agreeable to moving to the UK, but it just hasn't worked out that way.

And I think I liked what I saw of the US. Its going to be exciting/daunting/scary to start a new life there.

Summer is nearly here again, and being in the thick of the visa process has made me wish once again for the long, open road...

So the idea here is to talk about any road trips you have done - I'm thinking more of holiday trips here. What tips do you have? What places make essential visits?

Let me start off by relating a little of mine and my finacee's road trip last summer from Chicago to San Francisco...

We gave ourselves about a week to get from the edge of Chicago to a friend's place in Fremont, CA. Along the way we took in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. We went through two cars (!), the first a 96 Olds Ciera (much missed, it died about 100 miles south of Salt Lake City) and a rental Hyudai, which took us the rest of the way with no complaints.

Prequel - an Englishman learning to drive American style!

The distance we were going to travel on our trip of course made it necessary to share the driving. So, in the days leading up to our departure, I needed a little bit of experience on Illinois roads. Here are a few tips/observations on driving in the US from a Brit perspective (not to be taken as lawfully correct, of course!). Any additional tips from natives would be welcome!

Before you drive:

1. First of all, you can drive on a UK driver's license when in the US as a tourist (ie: on a tourist visa/visa waiver), though remember to check, as rules vary from state to state.

2. Make sure you get an International Driving Permit. I never got pulled over, and so was never asked for it, but published information strongly advises getting one.

3. Always check that you are properly insured for the vehicle you'll be driving. We called my fiancee's insurance company to check - I was fine.

4. Always carry your British license with you whilst driving - unlike in Britain, in the US it is illegal to drive without carrying your license. Remember also that you need both your photocard and paper counterpart to form the full British driver's license - so make sure you carry both.

5. Obviously make sure that the vehicle you will be driving is in good working order. Remember oil check, tyre pressure check, coolant check, etc. Do these checks at regular intervals throughout your trip, too.

Some observations on American cars for British drivers:

In general, us British tend to drive relatively small engined manual (stick shift) cars - so for me, getting used to the Olds was no problem as it pretty much drove itself. Note that you can't really use engine breaking as you would in a manual, so until you're a little bit more used to the vehicle, make sure you brake in plenty of time! Also, in a big engined American car its very easy to break the speed limit without much encouragement, so take it easy to begin with.

Some observations on American roads and road users for British drivers:

When driving on multi-lane roads (ie: interstates) it seems common for Americans to change lanes with no warning or signal. Don't be put off by this, just make sure you make your intentions clear! Watch out for debris (blown out tyres, road kill, etc.) - there's a lot of it about, especially on rural roads. Make sure you know how to negotiate a four-way stop sign intersection - get an American to explain how its done! Remember that, as in Britain, a red octagonal stop sign means come to a full stop - don't be temped to just slow to a crawl, as you can be pulled over by the police for this infraction. Know your speed limits - these vary from state to state and in many cases are lower than their UK equivalents. For example, 55 MPH on a US highway versus 60 MPH on a British A road, or 65MPH on a US freeway/expressway versus 70MPH on a British motorway.

Chapter 1, The Midwest

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

The first day we crossed much of the Midwest, in what now seems like a bit of an endurance test! We took the I90 west to Rockford, IL, then continued west on Highway 20 (I didn't want us to take the interstate for the whole trip). We crossed the Illinois/Iowa border at Dubuque, IA, then continued to Waterloo, IA, where we stopped for a late lunch. We then continued west on the 20, and a some point we headed north, and crossed briefly into Minnesota to rejoin the I90 (probably via I35).

The type of rural midwest landscape we were now travelling through could probably be classed as featureless (see signature animation below!), but for an Englishman it really is like nothing he's ever seen before - you really can't drive for more than a few miles in England without coming across some kind of settlement. So I found it quite interesting, really. We saw some strange people driving along with their feet stuck out of their truck windows (if you are someone who drives like this, please tell us how you are controlling your foot pedals...), but for the most part, the first day was pretty quiet.

We were now heading to Sioux Falls, SD for our first night. We'd brought some major chain hotel directories with us (Holiday Inns seemed consistently good wherever we went) so along the way I or my fiancee would call ahead to a few places and see what was on offer for that night. For a double room we usually paid about $80-120 per night. Neither of us are campers, so we were hotelling it for most of the trip (yup, it did turn out expensive). Sioux Falls seemed like a nice place. We'd arrived in the middle of a music festival, so things seemed to be quite lively.

...to be continued!

Hi, i sent my subject access to glasgow about 3 weeks ago... still not even had confirmation reciept I called pitt st this morning and the guy i spoke to couldnt even help me as he didnt work in that dept. ... and its a bank holiday weekend so i have to wait till tues. Am thinking of calling scotland yard to see if they have it My birth certificate was in the envelope and i need that for interview as well

First of all I called the data protection office at West Midlands police, just on the off chance that I could convince them to expediate it (after all I'm clearly more special then everyone else). The guy I spoke to was very polite but said no. He also couldn't give me a contact number for the NIS at Scotland Yard.

So I then called the number given on the embassy info page where it says to "call this number to see where your certificate is". The guy I spoke to said that the office that I needed was no longer there and to call this number: 0207-161-3559. I called it but just got someone's voicemail. Don't know if it was in fact the correct contact.

I was a little confused at this point, however, as to whether I had actually just called the National Identification Service itself, or London Metropolitan Police's data protection people (given that WM police couldn't/wouldn't give me a contact number for the NIS itself). Also, given that the London Embassy website* seems to suggest that everyone applies through the Met for their clearance (which is not the case), you can understand the reason for my confusion.

Lastly, it seems from reading other posts that the speed at which you receive your receipt from you local police force varies, if indeed you receive one at all. My one from WM police arrived within about a week so it seems they are on the ball.

Hope this helps.

*Go to http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/visa/iv/ukpc.html

"While I'm by no means advocating a return to the punishments of old

I am!

Great to see what you can get absolutely free in this country when you're a chav. Chavs were the reason that the NRA was founded, because the Americans decided that they actually wanted to be able to do something about the little sods if any of them made it over the Atlantic. Thats why chavs wear those puffy jackets - as a floatation aid. In fact, if you read the full constitution it actually says "the right of the militia to bear arms against spotty little Kevs annoying ordinary decent people driving their ####### 'modded' cars around pretending its actually cool for what you drive to sound like an irate wasp."

(yes yes insert your fat joke here, I can take it )

Faaaaaaaat!

Purchase a healthy stock of real Irn Bru.

Definitely!

Just one sensible thought though people - you might want to be careful carrying UK over-the-counter painkillers to the US. I'm sure there must be some kind of restrictions on bringing in stuff when it is prescription only in the US.

There ARE people in York who are nice to me; the people I worked with were, for the most part, very nice...but for me the negatives outweigh the positives and though people here can be superficially friendly, I've found it almost impossible to make friends here. Most of my friends in the UK have been fellow foreigners, and for the last couple of years I haven't even put forth the effort to try to make friends with people.

I have to say that I'm a little saddened by this. As a resident of York for four years, I'd like to think it was a pretty friendly place - friendlier than some parts of the Yorkshire Dales! In fact, if I was to consider anywhere my home, it would probably be York. To be fair, most of my friends were from the university. Perhaps the very fact that such a proportion of York residents ARE students makes it a little more cosmopolitan, and hopefully a little less forbidding to "outsiders".

That said, some of the "locals" could be pretty hostile to students. But the students usually asked for it. I always considered myself a little above this, however, as I was born and brought up in Yorkshire...

Its been said before - everyone's experience is different.

Trader Joes is a good place if you've got one, other places look for "Cabot" Vermont Cheddar with the black wrapper.

Thanks for the tip.

Anyhow, I think its more about what US stuff isn't available in the UK...

...Reeses Bites, anyone?

Okay, to be fair I just found this image on a UK food site but whatever, its not like you see 'em everywhere.

One food item that I haven't yet seen in the US (maybe I just haven't looked hard enough) and will miss lots is big slabs of tasty non-processed cheddar cheese!

Though quite how you'd transport that I have no idea...

I've never felt that sort of acceptance in the UK...even if you naturalize, you're still a foreigner.

I think that depends what type of area you're in. In some mainly rural parts, yeah, you'd have to have been inbreeding for several hundered years before you were accepted as "local".

...perhaps this particular can of worms needs to be resealed quickly!

I'm in exactly the same position - just need my police clearance before I send in the checklist.

If I'm feeling brave I'm going to send it in after four weeks of waiting for the police clearance. I got my reciept on May 1st so I figure sending it in about half way through next week should be about right... Surely they won't schedule me for interview within the two weeks!?!?

I need to judge it carefully as I need to be all ready to go by the end of August (otherwise no job any more, no apartment... well, you get the picture).

Of course I wouldn't have to juggle this if the turnaround wasn't so long. I mean, six weeks? If it took me six weeks to turn a piece of paper round in my job, I'd have been fired a long time ago.

I won't feel as angry when it arrives!

I am aware that they were brought up in classrooms with flags flying and hand on heart and George Washington could not tell a lie - but is it too late for me to be socially adjusted to think like them ?

I have no wish to continue the explosive fight in this thread but I will say this:

As a British person who has had the privilege of visiting an American high school, yes, it did seem strange at first to witness the pledge of allegiance and the stars and stripes in the classrooms.

But consider this - how do you promote unity among a student body where a third are hispanic, a third white, and a third black (roughly speaking)? You demonstrate to them what they all have in common - their nationality - right from the newly naturalised hispanic student who speaks broken English to the white kid who can trace his ancestry back to the baby-eating bishop of Bath and Wells who stepped off the Mayflower...

I'm not saying that promoting national pride in students is the only way to foster a collective identity, but I'm sure it goes a long way. Perhaps any Americans who went to a culturally mixed high school would like to comment?

Do we have the same type of unity in British schools? In the one where I teach (which is predominantly white) there is no problem with student unity. But what about an ethnically diverse school in the middle of Birmingham, for example? I visited a school there a couple of months back and sat in on a class specifically designed to help recent (mainly African muslim) immigrants to integrate into their schools and new lives. I'm sure that the teachers there were doing their best to help these new students - not least with language difficulties - but I couldn't help but feel that a little bit more celebratory British flag flying would not go amiss.

So why is it that the British press recently got all wound up about the fact that we're supposedly losing our national identity because of immigration (witness the sudden panic that we now need to teach "Britishness" in classes - whatever that is)?

Maybe we shouldn't be too quick to dismiss American flag-flying as some kind of device to deny independent thought - after all, America's vast amounts of immigrants (us) seem to be doing little to erode its national identity.

Tea and cream scone, anyone?

Hello all. I'm sure there are now plenty of descriptions of what happens at your medical in London, but I just thought I'd give you the heads up on my experience from a couple of days ago.

I was able to book my medical for a specific day and time (Wednesday, 3:30pm), which is handy for those of us for whom its difficult to get time off work. I was given an appointment at the Bentinck Mansions practise. I booked the train from Birmingham well in advance so I got cheap tickets on Virgin. I allowed two hours each side of the appointment when booking. This turned out to be plenty (too much) time.

The practise is easy to find - a 5/10 minute walk from Bond Street tube station. The map given in the mailing that the London embassy sent out wasn't too clear, so I printed out my own version from Google Maps using the postcode given - this was more then sufficient to find the practise, and I'm a bit scatty when it comes to directions.

You'll know when you're in the right area, as Jags, BMWs, and Mercs abound(!)

I arrived in London with loads of time to spare, so I wandered around Oxford street for a bit. By the time I got to Bentinck Mansions I was seriously over-caffeinated.

Upon arriving I handed over my documentation (passport, immunisation record, etc.) to the receptionist and was directed to the waiting room. After a few minutes I was asked to fill in some paperwork: the first was basically a duplicate of the medical questionnaire supplied in the embassy mailing plus a few extra tick boxes, and a declaration to say that I understood the implications of having an HIV test (scary).

The couple of other people in the waiting room looked a little grumpy - all men, so we did the man thing of avoiding eye contact and pretending we were all looking forward to being poked and prodded on behalf of the US goverment. Yeah right.

After a couple of minutes I was called by a nurse to discuss my immunisations. My records consisted of a print out from my local surgery of my official records, and a school medical record card, as the latter detailed some jabs not listed in the official record (boarding school). I explained that I was allergic to one of the necessary jabs (hence I had not had it since I was about 5/6 years old). The nurse said that this would not be a problem, and noted it down. I needed a MMR booster, and I volunteered to have it done right there (£30) for the sake of having all the paperwork in order. All done in five minutes, and then it was back to the waiting room.

Next, I was called for my chest X-ray. The radiographer was very nice and the X-ray only took five minutes. Back to the waiting room.

The other men were there again, clutching their blood test arms, but we still did the man thing of avoiding eye contact.

Lastly, I was called for my physical inspection. The doctor was very nice, and put me at ease right away. She verified some of my answers from the questionnaire, then had me read from an eye chart. Easy. Then I had my physical - genitals looked at (just a very brief look, not the cough test guys!), throat inspected, and general skin condition assessed. I had my blood pressure taken (normal, amazing given the amount of coffee I'd had) and then the blood test (done very well, no bruise!). As I have a history of asthma I had to do a peak flow test (blow down the tube) - no sweat as I play tuba. I must have looked worried, as the doctor told me not to worry, that I had passed the physical. I said that any form with the USCIS insignia on made me look worried.

Then that was pretty much it. I got all of my paperwork back, including a reciept for the MMR jab and a copy of the official immunisation record for the visa. The whole appoinment only lasted about 40 minutes (I think I was the last one of the day) - it started bang on time, too. Note that they now charge VAT on top of the quoted price (I was informed of this over the phone when I booked the appointment). What? You were expecting something to be CHEAP in the visa process?!

All the staff at Bentinck Mansions were polite, friendly and professional, and put me at ease right away. Thankyou folks, you made a stressful medical a lot easier!

Hope this info helps! Don't worry, I was all worked up about it and it wasn't nearly as bad as all that.

Hello everyone. This is my first post on VJ. I found the site several months into mine and my fiancée’s K1 visa process, however it has been comforting (if somewhat humbling) to realise that our story is not the only one out there. So no questions, as yet – just wanted to share my thoughts. I'm not sure if this is the best place for this post, but none of the other forums seemed to fit the bill.

The basics: I am a UK citizen, 23, my fiancée, Monica, is the American – a little older than me. We met at university in England in 2004, where both of us were studying for our masters degrees. After dating for several months, our degree courses came to an end, and – very sadly – we said goodbye, with the promise that I would visit her in Chicago. I had already secured a job in England, and at the time we didn’t see any way that our relationship could continue as it had done before.

After a lonely couple of months, I made my first trip to the US for a lovely Christmas and New Year 2005/06 with Monica. We both quickly realised that our feelings for each other had not diminished in any way – if anything they had strengthened. Some months later – again, lonely ones – Monica visited me in England and we graduated together.

Needless to say, we have visited each other several times since then. We both work in education, so are fortunate enough to have regular holiday/vacation time in which we can travel (even if the US and UK education system vacations don’t coincide!). In November 2006 I realised that I loved her to bits (sorry, I’ll try to spare you all the sicky details are far as possible), and I think she felt the same(!), so we decided to take the next step and get engaged.

We submitted our K1 petition in December 2006, and I'm now waiting on my police certificate coming back from the NIS before I return the declaration of readiness for interview form.

After reading through many of the posts here, it struck me that no-one had really discussed the impact the visa process has on a relationship. How do different couples deal with the loneliness of waiting for several months to be together? How do couples deal with the stress of having one's future (and present) in the hands of faceless agency? What effect has the waiting had on your relationship? Your relationship is special, but only as special as everyone else's.

As for many people here, my visa journey will conclude (or just begin, but I'm not worrying about that just yet) with marriage – a life changing decision, but for those of us who are not US citizens, it also involves moving home; changing jobs (in my case possibly career) – and not least the simple culture shock of emigrating. How have people been able to deal with the stress of this complete change of life?

I am sure that there is no-one among us who would claim that the visa process has been easy. My fiancée and I have found ourselves arguing about the visa timeline over the phone, later realising that the only way we have been able to vent our frustrations about something over which we have no control, is to argue with each other about it. In a time of uncertainty, it would be nice to believe that the fact that we love each other will be enough (maybe it will be), but the very fact that this love exists through phone calls, letters, emails and text messages (if I weren't a hardened cynic, I'd say it exists in the heart too), means that reality is all too ready to distract us with thoughts of shipping, affidavits, form this, form that, supplement to this, that, and the other.

But I don't mean to sound defeatist! As all of us do, I'm looking forward to that moment when I can triumphantly walk out of the embassy!

What is it that will have sustained us to that point? Thoughts please...