Adrian+Mike

I sent out applications online, mostly on department stores. I probably sent out 10-12 applications to different places. Target wrote me an email saying they have no vacancy at this moment. Macy's emailed me for an interview schedule, I got the job at Macy's.

I've over 10 years experience in retail back home in the UK and applied at our local Target store. Had an interview on Monday for a flow team member for overnight shelf stocking... got an email today stating that they were unable to provide me a position. I've had my Greencard 3 months and this is only the second interview I've managed to get and I've sent out too many emails, phone calls, registered with temp agencies etc to even remember. To say I feel like a spare wheel while my USC wife supports us both is an understatement. Fortunately she just got a promotion at work which is great and makes me very proud of her, but just makes me feel even more of a tool as I can't even get a position in retail - one in which I'm qualified for - to help pay the bills. I've never known such a tough job market in all my life, feeling as if you need a degree just to flip a burger at the moment.

As for discrimination against hiring workers who are not born n raised in the US... well after so many rejection interviews/letters it does start to make you wonder.

Just an update. Been looking for work for the past 3 months now, Not a single interview. At the moment I'm lucky to even get a rejection letter never mind a response. As another said the job market is really brutal - seems there's many more people going for the same job than before so they have a much bigger base to choose from. Unless you have experience and at the very least a degree,which I don't, then you are pretty much at the bottom of the pile.

We went to the Social Security office on the Monday after our wedding to change my name and apply for his card. He'd been here for 2 1/2 weeks by this point, so I figured there'd be no problems. The girl at the window, during the course of our conversation, told us she was pretty new and was working the window as a clerk because she'd not been trained on everything else. I got worried at this point, but she didn't try to tell us he wasn't eligible for a SSN, and accepted his application nicely, so I just let it go.

Then, she said she couldn't give us a number right away for him because she had to wait for more information to come back from the Dept of Homeland Security. I was under the impression that his entry would show up right away in the SAVE database if we waited two weeks, and that they'd be able to tell him then that his number would be generated overnight and to just come back the next day if he needed it before the card arrived.

She gave us a letter telling us that she was waiting on more info from the DHS, with a reference number, and that if it came back accordingly he could receive his card by mail in about 4 weeks.

I'm sorry, but I just have a sinking feeling that something got screwed up here. I have read too many horror stories about people's SSN getting screwed up by untrained clerks who don't know ####### they're doing. One of my friends here who is also on VJ said her SSN was screwed up here in OKC, and now she doesn't have one, and is going through the AOS process without one.

I don't want to wait a month only to find out they've screwed it up. What should I do? Is it too soon to panic?

Thanks in advance.

First off, Don't panic. Secondly, Don't panic

When I entered I had the same issue. Having read up that most of the time it appears in the database after around two weeks I was also given the same letter to say that they need to verifiy etc. After roughly 3 weeks I received a letter to say that they had verified it and to expect my card shortly. A week later it appeared in the post.

If after 3 weeks you haven't received a letter I would ring and chase it up, however I suspect that your going through the same process as I went through.

Just a btw though - after I had received my SSN I ran into the wall of "not a valid SSN number". It turns out when they issue a new set of numbers they don't always filter through to the banks/insitutions straight away. It wasn't till a month after receiving my card that I could actually get on a bank account due to them all using a credit check system which checks for the validity of your SSN. Phoning up the SSN office is useless by the way as they'll just tell you it is valid, just have to wait till the credit checkers have updated their new "high list" of numbers.

Hi folks, quick update here...in the end I went with Trans Global Express to book DHL. I shipped 2 suitcases totalling around 45kg for 80 quid plus 6 for insurance for DHL Air Express. DHL picked up the suitcases within the specified time frame the day before I flew out and they arrived at my door in Florida the day after. Just unpacked them and everything is in perfect condition.

Really great service and VERY cheap, will be using them again for sure!

Yep I strongly recommend these guys. Used them 3 times, all to ship personal effects to our apartment here in the US (west coast) and they've arrived the next day. Cheapest around that I could find anyway.

Well, just on my way to get my EAD card in a month or two. I knew before I immigrated here to be with my wife it was going to be an uphill struggle, but seeing this thread just shows me how hard this will be. Fortunatly we have a few contacts, one possibly with my wife that could be something, could be nothing but time will tell, having to wait off till this EAD comes through. As someone else said I think its more to do with who you know - ask you frieds, your SO's work to see if theres an opening there (im sure most of you have already done this).

We had the same problem and I remember asking a very similar question here at the time. We ended up using her mother as a co-sponsor as with the current climate we had no idea when she would be able to get another job.

Well that was a long trip and a busy day...

Arrived at the embassy a tad after 8am for my 9am. I was surprised at the amount of people wanting to get in and at the armed cops around the place

Took ~30 mins to get through security and then after getting my number from the front desk, it was another 1hr15 before my number came up. 15 mins to check docs, be complained at for having postit notes on the paperwork and paying through the nose the $350 for the Visa

Ten mins after that i was called back up again, got 3 questions from a nice Carolina guy, where does she live, when did we get engaged and how long have we known each other. Then he explained he'd already read through my file and he was approving me!!!

It was all i could do to walk back into the main area towards the courier desk without a stupid grin on my face

All in all, by 10:30, i was out of the door wondering what to do until my train at 2:30. Good job it was a warm sunny day, Grosvenor Place (American Park) right outside the embassy which was beautiful to sit in and look around.

Congrats! Said exactly the same thing to me, wonder if it was the same chap!

Just getting ready now, big day's tomorrow morning, kinda panicky.

It'll be fine, once your inside you'll be soon falling asleep listening to the numbers being called out zzzz lol.

We have officially moved past interview stage to waiting for courier to arrive with the visa stage! Hooray!

Whoohoo, congrats!!

What are people's experiences with shipping larger items such as furniture to the states? How did your more dear items fare, and do you have any recommendations?

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/128548-yes-its-another-shipping-thread/

Thread may be a little out of date, though the links seem good and a wealth of information in them.

Or do they even allow you to have a beard on the green card?

I hope so, ive kinda grown fond of mine As far as I know the requirements are the same as the passport http://travel.state.gov/pdf/Photo-Quality-Requirements.pdf and nowhere does it mention not being able to have a beard ( the chap on the right hand side looks as if he has a nice little tash going on ) . Someone with more knowledge im sure will correct me if im wrong. My K1 visa in my passport has a picture of me with a beard, the Officer in the london embassy certainly didn't bring it up with me as an issue.

That is exactly the boat I am in. What makes it even worse is that all I can seem to do in the few days before he leaves is cry. Silly and childish as it seems.....it is what it is. Skype is wonderful ( we leave it on 24/7....but it doesn't wrap its arms about you whispering those wonderful words in your ear. It doesn't tickle your ribs and make you laugh uncontrollably.

lol same here! I thought we were the only crazy ones that left it on 24/7, even when we're both at work!

My bride to be used to do exactly the same thing, as the time approched for me to leave it all became very emotional. Me being the guy of course tried to put on a brave face and reassured her the best I could, however as soon as I got home and spoke to my mother (im a mummys boy lol) I ended up blubbing in the end

We watched alot of tv shows together over the internet,legally of course , basically just hitting play at the same time.. sounds madness but it totally helped as it felt, i dunno more of a normal thing, if that makes sense. She told me a story once of one of her mothers friends (i think!) whom were in a simlar situation found the cinema listings with her fiance living abroad and timed it so they saw the film at exactly the same time, keeping in touch over the phone all throughout. When you hear stuff like that I have to think how lucky we are nowadays to have skype and webcam! lol

Talking on skype and using webcams every single day pretty much takes the edge off of things. Also knowing that there is light at the end of the very long tunnel really helps. In my final month before I finally fly out there for good ive been working as much as possible to try and make the days shorter.. that and my Xbox

It's never easy leaving each other through, even though you know you'll be seeing each other again soon. The first few days for me are tough, but once I get back into the routine of using skype/webcams chatting etc it gets easier.

I found that the saying "its always harder for the person left behind" was totally true. I just had to keep thinking to myself that all the emotion that we were/are both going through will make us that so much stronger when the day we get to be together forever comes around.

Just another site to try - opodo.co.uk Ive booked all my flights through them, usually with Delta however this time around Air canada seemed to be the cheapest - shame as I don't get airfare points

You can't concentrate on reading anything as the tannoy which calls out the numbers is constant and you are always listening out for yours. It's like the one they have at the post office and it goes:- "currently serving N**** at window No. *". After 4 hours of being subjected to it, I can still hear it in my head now and my interview was a week ago! Everyone just seems to sit staring into space and twitching! It's also really hot in there, so no wearing any big jumpers!

lol so true, that stupid tannoy gave me a headache, your listening so intently for your number! Is it sad I still know the number I was given?

That really is sucky. I had my interview last week - when paying at the counter I coulden't believe my eyes as it was still the old price, I had thought they had already put it up! Seems I was very very lucky!

And you were right! I called DOS this morning, the interview is scheduled for 11 June at 9am! I called her and woke her up (she's been working night shifts) and asked her what she was doing at 9am on June 11? She was still groggy from being woken and couldn't quite understand what I was asking her, so I just her interview was June 11 at 9. She paused, then said she'd have to call me back. Then she called super happy!

Things are definitely moving fast now.

Yay, congratulations!! Just the interview to go now, and your almost there. Take a book with you as the waiting time is zzzz - I forgot and ended up almost falling asleep in the waiting room lol.

I've recently moved to California (3 weeks ago) and used these guys.

https://www.transglobal.org.uk/

I sent 7 medium sized packing boxes which total weight came to over 80 kilos. Cost me around £160. The website lets you put in the dimensions of each box along with the weight and then calculates the cost using a number of carriers. The cheapest that I used was with DHL. DHL came and collected the boxes from my house and delivered them to my new address in California 5 days later. Found the service to be great.

Hope this info helps.

Ive just sent my second parcel today using these people, using DHL through them. They're very good indeed. Left London on tuesday and were in Seattle over 6000 miles away on thursday, 2 days! Cost £45 to send my first box, next cheapest site I found was around £90 so im shifting the rest of my stuff using these guys.

So I called the DOS for my daily dose of disappointment and spoke to a rather rude lady who would just tell me that there's no interview date. I asked if she was marked as eligible and apparently was too lazy to actually check for me. She ended up hanging up on me because she didn't want to answer more questions. Unfortunately, she didn't give me her name.

So I called back and got her again. She put me on hold after giving her the case number, I waited...waited...waited, then she hung up.

After about 10 minutes, I called back and spoke to a nice lady who gave me her name and seemed upset I was treated that way by the other person.

The checklist is now in the system and she's marked eligible for an interview! No date yet, but I finally feel like something is happening!

We were going through exactly the same thing when we were checking to see if we were eligible. The majority of the time we got through to someone who really coulden't give a flying monkey about our case, our questions or even feel any compassion about what we were going through. Glad they've finally indicated your eligible now though!

Thats great news, my visa has shown up on the DX site now too.. I will have it in hand on monday :-)

lol thats 3 people including myself now that are receiving their visa on monday.. hope they get around to all of us! hehe

I was plesently surprised on thursday when I had to pay my visa fee. I thought they had already gone up so was expecting to be paying alot more until I saw the receipt. Hopefully we'll just start the AOS just before if/when the fee goes up!

I'm sure that I've read about this somewhere on this forum, but forgive me that I don't have time to look through 80+ pages. How long did it take for the auto-response to an email to come back to people who've emailed?

From what I remember it was fairly quick, within an hour if I remember correctly. On both occasions ive emailed them they replied the following day.

YAY More approvals, isnt it such a relief when it over !! Congratulations

Thanks! Though I don't think its sunk in yet, totally drained at the moment lol

Star please Approved today hooray!! :D :D

I'm not sure about your price I had to pay $400x3 for a CR1 and two CR2s. It was painful to sign that credit card slip!

The website says no backpacks, but there were people there with them. I took a large purse type thing for my documents and snacks, my daughter took a fairly large purse. We all took books and sandwiches and snacks. I've heard that if you take drink in they ask you to drink some in the security booth before they let you in. We didn't want to be dealing with that (times the 4 of us), plus the extra weight on the underground, so I bought us all drinks in there. A bottle of water is £1. They have canned sodas for .80p I think. I've seen worse prices. They also have crisps and premade/prepackaged sandwiches.

Thats awesome.. least I won't be sat there twiddling my thumbs, good Tom Clancy novel to read Thanks!

Anyone. That being said, I had written on the ds2001 (all three of them) that I was going to be there and had written it in the email when I changed my date. My name wasn't on either of our sets of appointment letters. Supposedly there is a list that anyone not being interviewed has to have their name on to get in. The people at the first check station verified my identity and wrote my name on one of the three letters to get me in. They didn't seem bothered, and they did not consult any list. They will both need to have their US passports with them.

Ah that clears it up thanks!

Im also assuming im going to have to fork out for the new visa fee ($350) rather than the old price, even through we started before they changed it? Oh, and can I take a book in with me to read while I wait.. they didn't mention it on the website lol

Thanks again

Congrats MJM!

Just received packet 4 / appointment date letter through the post and I was intending on taking my mum/stepdad (who's a U.S citizen) to the interview with me to keep me company, however on the letter it states - " if you need to bring a carer, translator or U.S Citizen spouse/fiance(e) to assist you during your time at the embassy, please send us their full names as soon as possible so that we may arrange their access to the embassy."

So does this apply to anyone I bring with me to the embassy, or just thoes that are involved with the visa application?

Thanks!

Congrats to everyone who've seen some movement recently! To everyone else, hang on in there!