Michelle Kauffman

Yes, most likely a different Consulate.

You can contact the Embassy via email and ask them what they will require of you. They are extremely helpful and will tell you what you need.

Michelle's SO is also on disability so she may be able to offer some insight. My thougths are that you will just need a co-sponsor. Hopefully you will be ok and be working by the time AOS comes.

Thanks!

One more question, sorry if I am a pest. . .

On question 7 on the I-134, it says, I am employed as or engaged in the business of ___. . .

Thing is, social security disability isn't a job so do I say none, or none see attached sheet and say where I derive my income from?

i don't recall what Rob put on his form, again i'm at work, usually look at the forums when i'm at work, one of the few sites they let us into.

i'll try and remember to look tonight or tomorrow and let you know.

In regards to Rob's income, he's just given me what he gets from disability, a letter from them saying what he gets now, and what he got last year, he won't be working any time soon as his doctor thinks he needs a lung transplant, and if he eventually does go back to work it would only be part time, we have his parents as joint sponsors as we will be living with them for a while and we have his friend who will be a co-sponsor if needed and we'll have the money from the sale of my house here, i think we now have sufficient financial support/assets that it shouldn't be a problem, at least that's what i'm telling myself, doesn't mean i'm not going to be nervous about it all when it comes to my interview tho.

**

Now a question from me, does anyone recall how long after they sent packet 3 back they got the letter with the interview date on it? i'm still anxiously waiting.

Approved !

Goodness ..the relief when you walk out of there

I did get a good night’s sleep, to my surprise, I think working nights Friday and Saturday, and sleeping a bit on Sunday meant I was tired enough last night. I was up at 0500..but I’m used to that. I got in early...traffic being what it is in Auckland, and parking can be hard to find once the office workers start going in. Down Queen to Customs, and from there the first right at the corner by the Post Shop onto Commerce St. Right ahead there is a parking lot, which is actually on Fort St. Parked up by 0700.

Course my appointment was ages away, but I hiked up Queen to Starbucks and sat in the window there for a bit watching people going to work, droves of them. Man the sights you see when you haven’t got a camera…I couldn’t work out whether some of them were on their way to work or to a party…one woman in a black dress so tight you could see what she’d had for breakfast, and the most shocking pink highest heels I’ve ever seen. I dunno how she gets around in those.

Back down the street to the Queens Arcade, which was open by then, and straight upstairs to the ladies…right by the water feature as described I realize I did that out of the usual order…heh…but then I had a bit more time and so had room for more coffee. I found a very nice little place right on the right side of the Arcade, and sat in the window and did a little more people watching. It got to be 0900 quite soon, and so I headed back to the Citibank. I did take a pic of the flag, and sent it off to my SO…he knew that when I sent that I was on my way in. He said afterwards he saw that flag and went..wow…she’s there.

You’d think you were boarding a plane once you step out of the lifts…what with the bag screening and the walk-through scanner. He asked me if my cell was off, and put my bag in a locker, and gave me the ticket. All I took in was my paperwork files and my glasses …(middle-aged-eyes) He sent me to window 3, and said to buzz, but there was a lady sitting there already and she told me to take a seat and said she’d let them know I was there. I only waited for 10 minutes or so. Hard to tell though, I’d left my watch home, and was using my cellphone clock, but of course you can’t take that inside…

I think I had the same two ladies that Kiwiana had, first the older lady, who did NOT tell me I was approved, but did say she would recommend they keep my passport, and then the younger blond lady.

The first lady, the older one was very nice and quite chatty. She didn’t ask for much, our previous divorce paperwork, my long form birth certificate, my Canadian police certificate, his I-134 and my proof of funds. She had a checklist with boxes highlighted in yellow she ticked off. She did manage to misplace the receipt for the visa fee though…she took it off the front of my passport and never found it again. She said not to worry, she’d SEEN it…and so we went through everything I’d given her and she’d given back. As it happened I had the customer copy in my file, so she copied that and was happy.

The second lady, quite a lot younger was very nice. She had me swear the oath that everything in there was true, and I signed that bit of paper you do when you are there. She went through our petition, and said…’oh…I see you were stuck at NVC in RANDOM checks for quite a while..!” Good grief….random! She had about half an inch of paper there she was looking at with little boxes all checked..I was desperate to ask if I could see it, but decided not to tempt fate. She redid a single fingerprint and that was all.

I showed her some pics I’d taken from the webcam when she asked, as we hadn’t sent any of us together with the petition. We didn’t have any. Who knew? She laughed out loud at some that showed the grandchildren mugging in front of the laptop…not realizing I was watching them , and one where the youngest was showing me his pet snake, I think in an attempt to startle me. Didn’t work. Monty Python doesn’t worry me.

She said it was all in order, and that I should have my passport back at the end of this week. Perhaps 15 minutes with her all up.

I went back out through security, got my bag back and went back outside. I was half way back to the car when I actually realized what had just happened…good thing the car knows where I live because I think I was on auto-pilot. I must have looked quite mad…grinning all the way home.

I called the boss and handed in my resignation, and we are looking at flights for the end of the month. It’s all go!

I am so happy for you, it's been a long time coming, haha now just a few weeks to finish everything up and you'll be away.

Ooh you must tell me the flatmates reaction

heh...she was out when I got back...but she says she is quite pleased. Man I have a few loose ends yet to tidy up ..

and the boss's reaction, hehe

Shock...horror..utter dismay....man it was lovely

haha you are so wicked, i can't wait for my turn, tho this lot here know all about it so there will be no shock or horror but i am hoping for some dismay lol

and the boss's reaction, hehe

Approved !

Goodness ..the relief when you walk out of there

I did get a good night’s sleep, to my surprise, I think working nights Friday and Saturday, and sleeping a bit on Sunday meant I was tired enough last night. I was up at 0500..but I’m used to that. I got in early...traffic being what it is in Auckland, and parking can be hard to find once the office workers start going in. Down Queen to Customs, and from there the first right at the corner by the Post Shop onto Commerce St. Right ahead there is a parking lot, which is actually on Fort St. Parked up by 0700.

Course my appointment was ages away, but I hiked up Queen to Starbucks and sat in the window there for a bit watching people going to work, droves of them. Man the sights you see when you haven’t got a camera…I couldn’t work out whether some of them were on their way to work or to a party…one woman in a black dress so tight you could see what she’d had for breakfast, and the most shocking pink highest heels I’ve ever seen. I dunno how she gets around in those.

Back down the street to the Queens Arcade, which was open by then, and straight upstairs to the ladies…right by the water feature as described I realize I did that out of the usual order…heh…but then I had a bit more time and so had room for more coffee. I found a very nice little place right on the right side of the Arcade, and sat in the window and did a little more people watching. It got to be 0900 quite soon, and so I headed back to the Citibank. I did take a pic of the flag, and sent it off to my SO…he knew that when I sent that I was on my way in. He said afterwards he saw that flag and went..wow…she’s there.

You’d think you were boarding a plane once you step out of the lifts…what with the bag screening and the walk-through scanner. He asked me if my cell was off, and put my bag in a locker, and gave me the ticket. All I took in was my paperwork files and my glasses …(middle-aged-eyes) He sent me to window 3, and said to buzz, but there was a lady sitting there already and she told me to take a seat and said she’d let them know I was there. I only waited for 10 minutes or so. Hard to tell though, I’d left my watch home, and was using my cellphone clock, but of course you can’t take that inside…

I think I had the same two ladies that Kiwiana had, first the older lady, who did NOT tell me I was approved, but did say she would recommend they keep my passport, and then the younger blond lady.

The first lady, the older one was very nice and quite chatty. She didn’t ask for much, our previous divorce paperwork, my long form birth certificate, my Canadian police certificate, his I-134 and my proof of funds. She had a checklist with boxes highlighted in yellow she ticked off. She did manage to misplace the receipt for the visa fee though…she took it off the front of my passport and never found it again. She said not to worry, she’d SEEN it…and so we went through everything I’d given her and she’d given back. As it happened I had the customer copy in my file, so she copied that and was happy.

The second lady, quite a lot younger was very nice. She had me swear the oath that everything in there was true, and I signed that bit of paper you do when you are there. She went through our petition, and said…’oh…I see you were stuck at NVC in RANDOM checks for quite a while..!” Good grief….random! She had about half an inch of paper there she was looking at with little boxes all checked..I was desperate to ask if I could see it, but decided not to tempt fate. She redid a single fingerprint and that was all.

I showed her some pics I’d taken from the webcam when she asked, as we hadn’t sent any of us together with the petition. We didn’t have any. Who knew? She laughed out loud at some that showed the grandchildren mugging in front of the laptop…not realizing I was watching them , and one where the youngest was showing me his pet snake, I think in an attempt to startle me. Didn’t work. Monty Python doesn’t worry me.

She said it was all in order, and that I should have my passport back at the end of this week. Perhaps 15 minutes with her all up.

I went back out through security, got my bag back and went back outside. I was half way back to the car when I actually realized what had just happened…good thing the car knows where I live because I think I was on auto-pilot. I must have looked quite mad…grinning all the way home.

I called the boss and handed in my resignation, and we are looking at flights for the end of the month. It’s all go!

I am so happy for you, it's been a long time coming, haha now just a few weeks to finish everything up and you'll be away.

Ooh you must tell me the flatmates reaction

Well it's the 3 forms you have to take with you to the medical, if that helps.

sorry no, doesn't help at all, i need to be looking at the papers, i'm a bit of an airhead that way, sorry

I'll let you know !

waiting...waiting...waiting...hehe

It went well, and I'll have it in hand the end of the week. More directly!

woohoo, omg that's so great, tho i knew you wouldn't have a problem, so when do you hand in your notice at work?

Ok question..

We got the packet 3 stuff. And out of the 3 forms you take to the doctor, does it have to be the parent's medical information? Or is that something totally different?

sorry i'm at work and don't have packet 3 with me, can let you know that i just rang dr stone's surgery for an appointment and they could give me one this week but i chose next monday as i still have to go see my doctor for my hep b shot

i must admit i'm getting rather excited, getting closer and closer to my honey

I'll let you know !

waiting...waiting...waiting...hehe

Maybe someone can just answer for me if the medical is something that needs to be made a day or two ahead of time, or is it something that takes weeks to set up?

i think it probably depends on where you go, but i would try and get it done a week or two before the interview as the doctor will need time to send all the paperwork on to the consulate.

I think I worded that poorly. What I meant was can I call the doc and make an appointment for the next day, or does it take like a few weeks to get in to see the Doc?

i think that would depend on the doctor you're going to see and how busy they are, i would ring them and ask.

Maybe someone can just answer for me if the medical is something that needs to be made a day or two ahead of time, or is it something that takes weeks to set up?

i think it probably depends on where you go, but i would try and get it done a week or two before the interview as the doctor will need time to send all the paperwork on to the consulate.

It is a very stressful time indeed. I think i have added a few hundred more grey hairs on my head through this process!! and bags so heavy under my eyes that they could accomodate a jumbo jet through lack of sleep!!

i wish grey hair was my only problem, i seem to be inhaling everything edible that comes near me, i'm the size of a house and i can't seem to stop myself, and i know it's cos of the stress

oh and i also have the grey hairs but at least i can cover that with hair dye

i was in the same dilemma before i mailed back my packet 3. I had written the p.o box address on the front of a large white envelope and then sealed it.. Took it into post office and said i wanted it to go in a courier bag (track and trace). After i wrote the address on the courier bag, the lady at post office looked at it and said.. oh the courier only delivers to 'actual' addresses. I said, well i don't have the other address on me.. so anyway, i sent it off with the p.o. box addy on it and the embassy signed for it, so the courier delivered it ok.

The different addresses they list do make it very confusing but I don't think it really matters what address it is sent to. The consulate is on the third floor of the citibank building (i think its BANK?) ( i hadn't noticed that they call it citigroup aswell, now that IS confusing) But i would like to think that anyone in the postal service would know where the American Consulate in Auckland city was.

eeek, it never occurred to me to send packet 3 back in a courier envelope, dang i wish i had now

i was waiting for my house to sell before sending in packet 3, but got too impatient and decided to send it back anyway, we have a conditional contract on the house which hopefully (*please dear lord) will go unconditional on the 10th feb.

i still need to see the doctor and now waiting for the next letter from the consulate advising of my interview date

feels like i'm in a constant state of stress and i'll be jolly glad when it's all over, well this part anyway, and back in the states with rob.

She said that monday was a public holiday (where is it a public holiday??)

isn't the presidential anauguration on the 20th??

Congratulations Kiwiana and thank you for such a detailed account of your morning

as always i'm a little confused, it looks like she started off your interview saying you were approved, am i reading that right?

i'm so nervous just reading your post i have no idea how i'm going to cope with my own interview.

Good luck for today Kiwiana

tho i'm sure that you're going to be fine I understand the butterflies, hehe i get them just thinking about my interview

I think I must be past middle age. As my youngest son said.... you aren't middle aged... people rarely get to be 110 Mother...

I think I might be the Granny here

oh pish posh, you're a granny when you have white hair that looks a bit like candy floss and a wrinkly face and do lots of baking, now i don't know about the baking but the rest of it def isn't you

Tell you what else has been interesting on here, I know alot of you are just starting out, in you early 20's etc, and to be honest I thought at 46 I must be the granny of the thread, but from the odd thing I've read it sounds like there may be the odd other middle aged person or two on here, so that makes me feel a bit better....lol

Cheers

Kim

hehe yep, i'm 43 tho i must admit i don't feel middle aged, strange but i still don't think of myself that way yet

Thank you so much everyone, I felt as though I ought just to stop posting until something happened, until I could post good news instead of being all worried.

I just hope we've hit the last of the hitches...sheesh...we've been plotting and planning 15 months now...it only seems like forever!

The funny thing is, the AKL consulate said remind us Monday. I spent part of yesterday afternoon putting an email together to send them, to ask for them to try and find out what on earth was going on. Don't have to send it now. All I am sending is ..NVC said this, can you comfirm that please

Congratulations

i'm still smiling for you, and i might do what you're doing and see if they'll take less notice, you're such a smart cookie

It totally sucks the big one. We have done a lot of preparation, ducks lined up and quacking madly, and never for a second did we anticipate this.

It's the total lack of information from their end that's maddening...I mean if they've some sort of issue... ask us!

We've gone back and forth on this hundreds of times...is it me? Is it him? Is it anything? Is it a random whim? What! We're a couple of middle-aged boring people with quite ordinary names and backgrounds and from places that are in no way suss. It all seems so incredibly cruel and pointless.

We are trying to formulate plan B now. I was going there because he lives in a flat at his daughter's house, and would prefer to remain close to his grandchildren, who are 7 and 10. We will most likely have to look at Canada now, it's a bit closer for him to visit than it would be from here.

poohs bums and wees is all i have to say now

as for me, we're just waiting for the house to sell, as soon as contracts are signed i'll be sending packet 3 back to the consulate

i do have a question tho, any opinion on whether it would be better for me to take leave without pay from the police or just quit outright, the thinking behind taking leave without pay is that future employers would hopefully think i was a good employee as the police were willing to keep me on. do us employers think this way?

i think my only concern now apart from the house selling is that they may think i will become a public charge and not let me in as Rob is on disability, I hope that they will be able to see that with me there working i'm will alleviate some of the burden not add to it.

DHL is shipping to NZ at the moment, a package weighing three pounds...so there might be more than one in there. If you are waiting for NVC to send yours... just a heads up.

It isn't ours.

i'm so very sorry

Michelle, just to reiterate, it's the I-134 he needs to fill out for the Embassy not the I-864. The I-864 will come at adjustment time.

yeah thanks Kim, but as i am hoping to get over to the states as soon as possible and getting married in that first week i wanted to make sure i have everything i need for the next step. Rob has completed an I-134 and is sending that to me soon

joint sponsors have to be living in the same house as the petitioner from what i can see, but joint is def easier, and yes their income gets added onto the I-864 of our fiance's and the joint sponsor completes the I-864A

oh good one! we will definitely do that then! Have you heard anything from nvc yet? any word of your package arriving at consulate in Auckland?

nope not a word, i figure xmas has slowed everything down

however i can't actually leave here til my house sells, hopefully that will be soon

With some of the time I've had on my hands since being here, I've found a few web sites to source many of the things that we might miss from home. Some are expensive but I guess when you think of how far it's got to come. In many instances, it could be cheaper to get some of the lighter things sent from home if you've got someone who would do it for you. Here's a couple of sites, but there's quite a few other NZ, Aussie and British sites I've come across, it's just a matter of fishing around online to find what you want.

http://www.simplyoz.com/

And because I'm in Arkansas at the moment, this ones a bit dear but only about 30 mins away so I can go browse and do away with the freight.

http://www.everythingaustralian.com/index.html

Happy shopping

Wow! these sites are soo cool!! The everything Australian site has kiwi items like watties spaghetti and baked beans and also has nz flag lapel pins and crossed pin of both flags -nz/usa. fabulous!!

Both sites have MILO!! yippee!!! I have bookmarked both of them!!! Thanks everso much!!!

Michelle: so glad that you have found a solution to the sponsorship (ala your funds) but if you do have to go with joint sponsors do they have to fill out a 1-864A? I think we will go down that avenue with *joint* I haven't looked into it fully yet, but from what you say, if it is easier then co-sponsor then that is the way to go

joint sponsors have to be living in the same house as the petitioner from what i can see, but joint is def easier, and yes their income gets added onto the I-864 of our fiance's and the joint sponsor completes the I-864A

good to know we can get vegemite there as from what i understand we can't bring any with us, can we?

i'm pretty sure i've got the sponsorship problem fixed, after reading the instructions for the i-864 again, i see that we can use any money i take with me to make up any shortfall and we'll only need 3x the difference between rob's income and the poverty level

failing that, his parents can be joint sponsors with him, not co-sponsors, a subtle but very important difference being that they don't have to meet the income requirements by themselves, we just add their income to his

*sigh

now just need that house to sell

Hi Michelle

Glad you've found a resolution for your sponsorship problem. Isn't it funny how we stress about stuff but a solution usually presents itself eventually......

You certainly can bring vegemite here with you... ....I brought Marmite, Vegemite, Jarrah Coffee, Cheese, and I can't remember what else. As long as you decalare that you have food with you when they ask. I told them I had cheese etc and they told me to pass straight on through, didn't even look. You're not allowed soft cheeses like brie, camembert etc, but edam was ok.

There are some things you can't bring like meat products and some others which I think are listed here

http://help.cbp.gov/cgi-bin/customs.cfg/ph...amp;p_topview=1

I still haven't managed to sort out the ssn yet, one of Chris' boys needs to get a replacement card so we're waiting on one of his papers to arrive in the mail to save two trips.

cool thanks for that, i'll take a large jar with me, it'll last a good while

good to know we can get vegemite there as from what i understand we can't bring any with us, can we?

i'm pretty sure i've got the sponsorship problem fixed, after reading the instructions for the i-864 again, i see that we can use any money i take with me to make up any shortfall and we'll only need 3x the difference between rob's income and the poverty level

failing that, his parents can be joint sponsors with him, not co-sponsors, a subtle but very important difference being that they don't have to meet the income requirements by themselves, we just add their income to his

*sigh

now just need that house to sell