kelzm

Kim - Make sure you have Russ buy an A4 sized (large) courier bag. I had a smaller one and had to run back down stairs to get the bigger size. From what I've seen they're pretty speedy about getting it out to you and you can track and trace to see when it's left the consulate.

Today I'm handing in my resignation at work - 1 more month to go. The house has been settled and money is on its way to my bank. I'm about to take my son for long weekend in Rotorua and have weekends full of family dinners and meeting up with friends. Time's flying! It's great to see things progressing along for so many of our Kiwi couples.

Congrats Kim! That's great news, I was wondering if your theory about the touches was going to be proved correct. It's all go now, hopefully you get that consulate appointment asap.

Justine. Good to hear from you, I'm glad everythings worked out for you and Jordan. Best of luck in finding a job soon. Keep us posted on how you go, I'm sure there's a few of us that are a little bit nervous about fitting in with the American way of life.

I didn't have any record of my immunisations either by record or through blood tests. I was asked if I had measles and chickenpox when I was young, since I had, that seemed to satisfy all requirements apart from the tetanus shot which I'd had about 15 years ago so I needed to get the nurse to give me another one.

I sympathize with my fellow job hunters. I've been looking for a while now, just to see what kind of things turn up that I can do, now it's getting more serious since there's just over a month to go before the move. I'm going in to my lawyers today to sign the paperwork for my house sale, my last 'big' task that needed organising will then be out of the way.

For those of you still to do your medical I really recommend Dr. Marcus Stone. He seems to be a lot cheaper than everyone else and the the whole appointment was easy, quick and he got the results through within a few days to the embassy.

I think the wait between NOA1 and NOA2 is the worst part. You can't get any information, you're just stuck waiting in no mans land.

The new CR1 process for NVC is great though, you can be in and out of there in a month since it's all done online. Looking forward to that for my sons application.

Yankiwi - glad to hear Chris's medical went so well. Dr Marcus Stone definitely seems to be the most cost effective (which was important to me!). So many August interviews, not that long to go at all... August begins this week after all! Kim I'm crossing my fingers that Russell gets to have his August interview too, I'm sure you must be close to approval.

Today was a good news day for me. I got the call from my sons principal to say that they've approved him staying and keeping his scholarship and I also got a call from my lawyer to say that the sale of my house has now gone unconditional.

So, I'm busy preparing - garage sale next weekend, pack up the house and move out to my parents the weekend after, then finish up all the other bits and pieces and look at flying out mid-September.

Hey all,

Did some reading on AirNZ rules for baggage to USA.

In economy you get two bags at 23kgs. Flights to the US work on the piece system so every bag you have over the 2 is counted as a piece and charged at that cost, rather than charged by the kilo. Each extra bag on the piece system if flying from Auckland to LA or San Francisco costs $175.

I know I have too much for two bags, I'm hoping to get away with 3, paying $175 for an extra 23kgs seems like a decent deal to me.

Links to the info are:

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/before-you-...-in-baggage.htm

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/before-you-.../nz/default.htm

August 10th! That's not far away at all, congrats, it's finally happening for you. Good luck for the trip and don't forget to post after you've arrived.

On my last visit over I took a suitcase filled with clothes I knew I wouldn't be needing, I'm thinking that I'm going to have too much for two suitcases still though. Erk. Kim - do you have any info on the extra baggage charges? I'd read somewhere they charged per suitcase, do you know if that's true?

I'll second that about the consulate, I think we're very lucky in NZ compared to a lot of other countries. I wasn't even asked to show any of the evidence that I brought in and the interview was pretty painless as I stood at the counter. They really are there to help us through the process.

My update - house still under conditional contract, 5 more working days till it's uncondiitional (dependant on a builders report).

I had the visa sent out to me via courier package, however it was very fast. I sent my sons birth certificate via courier on the 8th of July. The visa was stamped as approved on the 9th of July and I received it back via the courier on the 11th of July (it was sent to my parents so I could be sure someone would be home to receive it and apparently they woke them up at 8am!).

So, looks like it took only a day for the actual processing of it all.

Justine, great to hear you made it safe and sound and thanks for posting a pic.

Welcome to Lux, it's exciting to see our little community here growing. Kim I'm feeling like approval for you and Russ must be just around the corner now!

My latest news is I have my visa safe in and hand and I have a signed offer in on my house, it's conditional on a couple of things which hopefully will not be an issue. I'll know in 10 days time if this will go ahead or not. So far looking good, yippee.

Kim - as others have said, very sad about your brother, thanks for sharing the poster though, hopefully someday it'll have a positive effect for you.

I had my interview today, I'll post a review very soon about that. It was all pretty simple. They did ask for my sons birth certificate though, which I didn not have with me, I hadn't received any information before that mentioned bringing it. I actually had it out last night and debated taking it with me but since I have not applied for a visa for him yet decided against it. I have to mail that in to the consulate and once they've verified that they'll issue my visa and send my passport and package back to me.

Not too bad, nearly 11 months in process.

Michelle - I hope things pick up for you soon, waiting is awful, I know.

Julie and Alan - welcome to our little thread and nice to hear of another Kiwi/US couple. I'll be not too far from San Jose when I make the move. I'd be really keen to hear how Setanta sports works out for you. I'm a rugby and rugby league fan and not getting to see any games would be very very sad.

Still playing the waiting game myself! Interview on Monday so I'm looking forward to getting that out of the way and knowing that I'm all approved. Then I just have to get the rest of my life (House, sons school) sorted! I've never known time to seem to move so slowly its frustrating, yet at the same time so fast I'm worried how I'm going to get everything done.

I really hope that July will bring good news for you Kim and Russ, and you as well cdneh. I found the USCIS wait the worst because there's just no information coming from them.

I have to admit though I've also been looking around through job sites and starting to think about getting my CV into some kind of order. Seems like a few of us are going to be inhabiting Northern California.

Hey guys, great to read everyones news and see progress. Kim and Russ - I hope you'll get some good news soon!

For me my house hasn't sold, though I do have someone interested, it's just a matter of getting a decent offer from them. My current stress involves my son and making arrangements with his school for him to stay on when I go. I'm hoping to have that all sorted by August.

I've got my medical on Wednesday, made an appointment with Dr Marcus Stone in Remuera, was given the cost of $110 for that appt. My interview is on the 7th at 9.30am, my pink form does have to bring in a recent payslip as well as a copy of my husbands most recent tax return, even though his tax returns were submitted with the I-864.

Seems to me that going in person would be the easiest way to do things, at least that way you'll get a quick answer if anything is missing!

I'm guessing that you should need the same kind of forms as the rest of us even with DCF. Do you have full birth certificates for both of you? Also my form for my interview stated I needed to bring in a recent payslip from my sponsor, even though they had the I-864 info on file, as well as his most recent tax return, so you may want to have something similar from Brooks folks.

Hi Grant, welcome to VJ. Great to see another kiwi on board.

Hi

My case was completed on 12th May, I have my interview on July 8th.

Hope you get yours scheduled soon!

Mark - congrats on making it over to the US and best wishes for your wedding. I hope you both have a fabulous day.

Justine - wow, it's getting close to the time for you to leave. It must be exciting!

I've got my interview scheduled for July 8th so the last hurdle is in sight. I need to get my medical done before then so I'm just waiting for the consulate to send the info so I can go and get that done.

Time seems to be flying, I'm still counting on leaving here in September which gives me 3 months to get everything in order. Unfortunately no news on my house, I've got a few more weeks before I start panicking about that so fingers crossed I get some good news soon!

Hope the rest of you are doing well.

Welcome Michelle and Rob

Kim - how's the wait looking? VSC moving any faster? I know some people were concerned with the speed there for a while.

As for me, I'm leaving the US on Thursday so just a couple more days left here. Then it's back to work and organising, and all those other things

My case is complete at NVC so now I'm waiting for everything to be posted and my interview at the consulate scheduled.

No good news on the house sale front though - what about you cdneh, any luck with selling yours?

Update for me.

Case complete 05/12/08

Hi all

Mark, congrats on the approval and thanks for posting the review, I'm starting to think about what I need to do at the consulate so every bit of info helps!

I'm currently in North Carolina on vacation in the Outerbanks with my husband and some friends of ours. It's great to have time off, and to actually be here in the USA.

The day I arrived in the US our final coversheet from NVC turned up so I was able to send in all those documents, if everything was correct we should be getting approval sometime next week. Then it'll be sent through to Auckland where I'll just have the medical and turning up for the 'interview' to go. Yippee.

Getting in to the US was a breeze. I had been worried about being stopped at the border. They are aware that the last time I came through we got married but it was a very easy process all in all. Got a couple of questions about where I was staying, with who, and was my husband a US citizen. Then I was told to have a great vacation and was on my way breezing through to baggage claim.

Please update me, DS-230 on 04/29/2008

Congrats Mark, that's great news. Nice to see all this progress happening!