paul.

I went to mine the day after arriving and told them I was waiting on my SS to arrive. From what I recall, she had the card re-routed to that office and I got a call within another week. I was working within 14 days of being here. If I'd waited for it in the mail, it would have taken a lot, lot longer and I'd have been losing out on a pay check, hence I did the old saying of "if ya want something doing right...". Good luck.

Hey, trust me, I get the feeling too! My Wife is also set in her ways through her Father, so she too has more put away each paycheck than she needs too. I graduated business school and am a frugal person by nature, so to me it itches at me, you know, that the government is making more money off of MY hard work. I'm happy to pay my taxes, but not more than they ask for and that's how I feel doing it her way and your Husband's way!

I work as a federal civil officer full-time and am a part-time deputy sheriff in Oklahoma. I have been here since May 21st 2009, so am still a resident alien.

What I found while looking for LE jobs (I am prior military) was that the municipal jobs often state you need to be a citizen, but when you actually question it, they realize they haven't actually dealt with resident aliens applying before and therefore they misunderstood the state statutes. So in my position, I just made sure to read the state statute and then printed the relevant section off, applied and on the interview explained why I thought I was qualified, then brought out the printed section to prove I'd done my research correctly. This may in fact help sway any interviewer, as it shows some useful traits for LEOs...

For state and federal law enforcement jobs, you will need to be a citizen for sure...I am biding my time, slowing gaining experience before applying at one of the federal agencies. However, there is one exception I have found-a tribal police officer. These are federally trained officers, but at least in my area, they allow permanent aliens to apply as they are governed by their tribes own statutes.

My example:

http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/Deli...p?CiteID=454176

Do a CTRL+F to search for "alien", there is only one mention of it:

f. such person has provided proof of United States citizenship or resident alien status, pursuant to an employment eligibility verification form from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

Obviously, this may change depending on what State you want to work in, but all States have a resource such as the website I linked to, where their Statutes are online. If not, a Public Library will carry them for sure.

I don't have anything to add to your question, but a quick tip though.

Withholding more from work makes the government earn interest on YOUR money, so when you think you're getting a good amount of money back at the end of the year, you're really only getting a 0% interest return on what you saved. If he took the minimum out of his wages and put it into a high-yield savings account, you'd make interest all year long and then would have enough money to pay any taxes you'd still owe at the end of the year, plus some spare from the interest! People are kidding themselves that by getting a large sum at the end of the year, they are somehow better off than paying the government what they still owe. It's simple math, but often people don't think about it as a nice, large check is juicy, I get it. But anyway, think about it!

Hey, I'm still around y'all, so tick another one from The Hague (Scheveningen is really The Hague anyway!).

Congrats to everyone getting along BTW and sorry to hear some of you having problems. But chin up, it will all get there eventually. Time does fly by though and when you get home, you'll look back at this and laugh at how stupid it all was just to be together.

Right now, I missed my police academy due to the visa taking so long to send to my house, so am part-timing as a 911 dispatcher until I can either get a better paying job or go to the academy in September. But the work situation where I live is extremely dire, we live in a community with only 2500 people, so there are only a few jobs and I got lucky I snapped one up already. I am an hour and 15 drive from Tulsa, but there is nothing more than minimum wage there right now, so it's not worth the cost of the commute each way...fingers crossed the economy will pick up soon as I want to get back into flight school to get my US licenses!

Take care everyone, I'll pop back soon (am on night shift right now)

Awesome! Congrats everyone so far!

Peet, good luck with that, I hope they help you out!

Thinking of Jeanine today, hope all is well!

This message reaches you from the USA, I actually made it and I am still in shock. The POE was simple as pie, I flew in through Dallas Fort Worth, missed my 1-hour connection time by 1 minute, but luckily it's a commuter route, so they fly hourly to Tulsa and I got on the very next one. Seeing each other after 5 months apart was strange, like I actually didn't recognize her for just a second, but when I did it was amazing! Other than the day I got married, I'd put yesterday as the best day of my life. Thanks everyone here for your amazing support through some hard times. I will continue to come here to support y'all as often as I remember to! On a good note, I got offered a job already and my Police job can continue on the side, so I'm very lucky to have some amazing friends here in Oklahoma, who thought of me while I was away. Good luck to everyone and I hope for Jeanine that her flight goes as well as mine did!

Got myself a flight, gonna be cramped, but who cares...now I'm off out to go grab some food. I'm not gonna sleep anyway LOL.

Haven't read any of the above, as I'm in a huge rush to get home! yes, I got my visa without warning this morning...Mr. Senator pulled through for me...shame he's a republican!

Anyway, have to run as I'm traveling to Heathrow in less than 2 hours and haven't even packed yet, or booked a flight hehe, I'll see what they have available when I get to heathrow, I've already got a hotel for the night, just in case! Bye guys, see you on the flipside. Good luck with all of y'all stuff now k (gotta start doing my country boy accent ya know hehe).

Ha, since we're all harley-fied, we should have a Dutch VJ biker tour sometime! Man, I'm dreaming, but it'd be pretty cool stopping all over the country.

It might be easiest to find an ex-pat community in your local area and ask around for someone who can teach you the basics. I taught Kourtni enough so she can understand stuff when she stayed with me for 3 months in The Hague last year and she found it hard, admittedly. I've tried rosetta stone as I really want to learn Spanish, but I'm not too fond of it for the same reasons. There is nothing like learning from a native.

OK! Well thanks for your first-hand experience! I revoke my previous statement to not use that route then, as I have been misinformed. But as everyone has said, as long as you have a genuine reason and proof of return, you will be fine, honest.

SirJon, so would you advocate going through Ireland after all then? I've read reports where immigration was done in Ireland, but then again when they landed in the US. If that's true, that would make the journey pointless for many people.

Awesome, you'll have to ride up to Oklahoma sometime then on route 66, which is real close to my new home! My whole new family are a bunch of bikers. We've got a road king and a sportster, along with a honda shadow (think we may have just sold that one though). I'm hoping to afford a new bike soon, so I don't have to bum the sportster! Not that I don't like it, I just want my own to customize.

Liz, I am crossing fingers for sure. Counting down till Thursday LOL!

Yeah, called DOS, extortion line, Embassy reception, etc. They all say "it's processing", but can't tell me how long or if anything is wrong. I got our senator's office involved yesterday, as I had to wait 15 working days before I could do that. Hopefully I can find out what the delay is and when I do, I'll let you guys know as I know I'm not the only one biting my fingernails to the knuckle!

I went across twice during my CR-1 process. Different visa, but the same thing in essence, as they think you have a high risk of overstaying.

I just stated clearly that I was visiting friends and family for a holiday/vacation and would be returning home to work on date X-X-X. As long as your ticket matches that, you'll be fine. Just be confident, friendly and honest with the immigration staff and you won't be hassled. But of course, the paperwork you mention is always a good backup plan, in case they do ask for evidence. I didn't need it though. Once through Dallas, once through Toronto.

Don't do what a lot of people say to do, travel via Ireland, as reports say you still get immigration on the other side anyway.

Edited for your last question: No, it won't delay your process unless you commit a crime.

Waiting on visa since 28th of April, anyone else waiting that long?

Welcome to our thread then!!

Uhm, I actually don't remember sending anything in as proof of our marriage to be honest. I'm talking to Kourtni right now and she doesn't either. We assumed that was what the interview was for, we never got RFE'd for anything to prove our relationship. We just sent in our marriage certificate....and our petition started only a month into our marriage, so I wouldn't worry. I didn't even get asked to present anything at the interview. That's more fiancee visa type stuff, I think, as already being married kind of proves your intent I guess. I might be wrong and we might just look the innocent type!!

On our side, we called the senator's immigration aide today and he apparently emailed London while on the phone to Kourtni, which was very nice of him. We are to call him back on Thursday to jog his memory, unless he has contacted us first. So fingers crossed I hear something this week!

Oh that's awful man! Sorry to hear that, I hope it all goes well for you guys.

I have called the Embassy, but the receptionist won't let you speak to anyone but her and she knows nothing, then there is the extortion line, which is a visa help line costing over 3 bucks a minute (!) and they said they only help people before the interview, not after and they nothing of my case. So I've emailed them and Amsterdam, hoping for something, but the London email got returned with "we have deleted your email without reading it, you do not have authorization to email us". So finally, the DOS (State department) visa line kinda confirmed they are waiting on the certificate, but couldn't tell me if they have applied for it or not. Monday I am calling Senator Inhofe to see if his Office can help us.

Not a thing. I assume it is down to the embassy waiting on my police certificate, but my concern is that during the interview and any subsequent calls to DOS and the embassy extortion line, I was asked if I was going to send in the required certificate!! Which isn't the case, the US Embassy London must request it from the Amsterdam consulate themselves...but I can't get a hold of anyone within the Embassy to put me at ease that they know what they are doing!

Tick tock, tick tock....still here...GRR.

Congrats to the approvals!

Congrats to all new approvals and congrats to KAT&Allie for your visa arriving, have a great flight!

Damian, I had totally forgot about that....too funny mate. But yeah, I've had pretty shitty luck throughout this visa fiasco, but I'm approved and that's all that matters at the end of the day. But I'm missing tornado season in Oklahoma, so it'd better hurry up and get here so I can go chasing!