GregBu

Thanks for the replies. It's looking like the exchange rate for Halifax banks is much more favorable than what local banks here in Texas will give me. I'm just making a few phone calls to confirm that.

My wife and I are about to travel back to Nova Scotia for our Canadian Wedding. We have a lot of wedding expenses to pay off, and I plan to bring about $5,000 US currency to cover it all.

However, I am hoping to find the best way to convert that much currency without taking a bath in exchange rates.

Right now I'm thinking about just taking cash and finding a bank in Canada. However, I'm open-minded, any other suggestions?

Here are our options...

My wife has a Vancity account we could do an international wire transfer to...

We could buy American Express Travelers Checks in US or Canadian currency...

I could make my bank jack up the daily ATM withdrawal limit on my card and every day I could withdraw the max amount (probably won't work, not enough time to get all that money)...

I could order Canadian Currency from my local bank...

We're going to be landing in Halifax and doing our banking there most likely, any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks for the clarification.

Its fairly plain and simple, all she needs to have on hand is her passport and the envelope that she got from consulate.

That 2 things are more important over the medical, most of the times they would not even ask for the medical papers.

Once she lands, she goes to the normal line and present her passport they will take the envelope and ask her to wait until officer is available.

Then they will complete the rest of the paper work get her finger prints, and ask her some basic questions when you guys got married etc.

Then they would stamp her passport which makes the CR1 active and let her know it takes anywhere from 4-6 months for her to get the GC, if she does not hear by then call the number.

That’s pretty much it.

Wow, 4-6 months for her Greencard? Can she work before then? Are her ITIN and the stamp in her passport enough for her to get a job?

Also, since she's flying out of Halifax, are they going to do the POE there? They do the customs part there...

My wife flies out from Halifax to Austin, TX tomorrow for her POE (CR-1). It's been a long time coming, so obviously we're ecstatic.

I've read through the guide here and past posts, but just wanted to make sure I'm not missing anything.

She has her passport with the Visa and a letter from the medical appointment. That's basically all she needs right?

She's going to have a short interview (anything she should expect?) and have biometrics done probably (just fingerprints, right?).

When she gets here, next week we can go to the Social Security office and start pestering them for her SSN, right? I know it'll take 2-3 weeks, but my wife is anxious to start working immediately.

Does she need to do anything special to get her Green Card? Or just make sure the forms and addresses are correct?

I just wanted to say that this is probably one of the best communities on the internet and anytime someone mentions immigration, I send them here because you guys are about 1000x better than the "official" sources of information.

Yes one can get a job! What has happened to others---is that the company may just hold ur 1st paycheque until you get ur SSN #. Some get the SSN # right away. some do not!!

Even if you checked off the box on the DS-230--many times the SSN does NOT arrive. They recommend you wait approx 10-14 BUSINESS days after you POE and if no SSN card---then simply download the form from http://ssa.gov/online/ss-5.html take ur passport and birth certificate (or green card if it luckily has arrived) and goto ur local SSN office and inquire about its status. Most likely one has not been issued--THEN WHAMMMOO--you pass over your already filled out form and ur passport and birth cert. Should arrive 1-2 weeks later in mail! I do believ you can go back in person the next day or so and they can verbally tell you the #. i was told they can not tell you the # over the phone

You dont have to download the form ahead of time---just trying to save you time at the SSN office, thats all

Thanks all for the replies. She's been going out of her mind with boredom and is anxious to get a job immediately.

My wife's interview went great. She has a few loose ends to tie up in Canada, but we are expecting her to move down the second week in March.

I know from checking the forums that it typically takes about a month for her Green Card to show up.

Our question is, can she get a job before then, or does she have to wait for the actual card?

On a side note, I wanted to once again thank everyone here. You've been fantastic, couldn't have done this without you, seriously.

Wife is at the Consulate now for her interview. I'm about the least likely person you'll find to ever be nervous. For whatever reason, I just don't get nervous. However, I think I'm actually on the verge of it this morning. It's been a long road of long distance life, we're both ready for that part of our relationship to end, so the being together all the time part can start.

It shouldn't really, I don't think, but i'm always nervous with this stuff so I try to go above and beyond just in case!

I would tho add her name to your mailbox (if it isn't already) - They had a lot of issues for some reason delivering my mail, regular mail and uscis mail, when my name was not listed on the box.

Thanks so much for your help!

I would fill out the forms again with correct address and bring them to the interview, make sure the first thing I told them was the change of address give them the corrected forms and make sure they changed it right in front of me lol.

As to the change of address - if we've requested the Halifax DHL office for where her Visa is delivered, and nothing else should be going to the old address. Is it that big of a deal?

regardless of what is suggested here - I hope your wife also did a proper address change at Canada Post?

Hmm, she had some things sent to her Mom's...and some sent to our place here in Texas.

Now I'm confused, which packet is packet 4?

Ok, so for CR-1, Packet 4 is just interview date and medical appointment info. We got that via Electronic Processing. Whew, my heart stopped there for a minute, I thought we completely missed a packet or something.

I would contact DOS Visa Services and ask: 202-663-1225 There you more than likely get address updated so "packet 4" goes to the correct place.

http://travel.state.gov/visa/about/how/how_1463.html

Now I'm confused, which packet is packet 4?

So...

My wife has her interview on February 7th. We did electronic processing, so everything was just scanned and emailed, then emailed back to us. We were going through her forms recently and discovered a possible oops.

When she filed her DS-230, she had a different address in Canada than she does now. She was a student in Vancouver then. Now she's back living with her Mom in Nova Scotia.

Should be change the address on the form?

I tried calling USCIS, but they punted me to the Consulate. Since the case is with the Consulate, they said there was nothing they could do. I tried calling the Consulate, but you just get a voice saying we won't talk to you unless it's an emergency.

I looked at filling out an AR-11 online, but that was for non-US citizens currently living in the US.

So now, I'm not sure what to do.

Do we change the DS-230? Or should my wife just note the change when she's at the consulate in her interview?

Thanks!

Great, thank you so much. Still probably going to play it safe and book the flight for after 5pm, but we might risk it with an earlier flight.

My wife's interview is scheduled for February 7th at 9am. That afternoon/evening, she'd like to return to Cape Breton, NS.

I'm just curious when a safe time to book her flight would be. I'm not sure how long she can expect to be at the Consulate.

Thanks so much. I tried using the service, and everything was going well, it offered some alternate dates but I didn't select one yet.

So I decided to call, see how that went, ...and here's where I have problems.

She has an interview for Feb 7, according to the letter we received from NVC. However, when I called to check on our appointment and possibly change it...it's not showing us as having an appointment in the automated system, and unfortunately their offices were closed.

I'll call back on Tuesday, hopefully we didn't lose our Feb 7 date, because we'll take that over the first date they had available after that online, April 5th.

Is it still impossible to change interview appointments reasonably? My wife is scheduled to have her CR-1 interview in Montreal on Feb 7, but is also scheduled to give a presentation at an Information Sciences Conference in Seattle on Feb 9.

Anyway this could happeb?

Disregard this, we got her package four emailed to us today. Interview is set for February 7th.

Question,

Once you're done with NVC and they're sending you the next information to schedule your interview and whatnot, do they email it to you, or mail it to you?

Ours turned out great...in the end we had.

Turducken Roll stuffed with Cornbread Stuffing (Cornbread stuffing, stuffed inside of chicken which has been rolled up and stuff inside of duck meat, which is rolled up and stuffed inside of Turkey).

Cornbread dressing (being a Southern boy, I just had to contribute that)

Mashed Potatoes

Baked Sweet Potato with Toasted Pecans

Green Beans

And for dessert we had homemade Pumpkin Cheesecake.

Best we can tell, here in the State of Texas, Julia is going to have to take the written and practical driving exams to get her license.

We're definitely doing Canadian Thanksgiving. We were either going to do Rabbit Pie or a Turducken Roll, I think we've decided on a Turducken Roll though, and the usual trimmings. My contribution, being a southern boy, is going to be cornbread stuffing, but other than that we're going with green beans, mashed potatoes and sweet potato baked with cinnamon and marshmallow.

Should be quite tasty, and we'll save the Rabbit Pie for another day.

That was the point of what I said, everything here is sickly sweet and over-fatty, and that's coming from someone who likes foods like poutine and donairs.

I try to avoid chain restaurants (Chili's, Applebees, etc.), and usually have no trouble finding well-prepared, tasty food that, whether or not it's 'healthy' at least isn't unnecessarily fatty or sugary.

When I eat the food and expect it to taste like home it almost makes me sick. Everything is too sweet, and too fatty. And trust me, I'm no health nut! Everything just tastes fake. I miss poutine, and donairs.

I swear I'm not trying to be a smart ####, but you cracked me up. Everything here is fake, too sweet and too fatty, but you miss poutine and donairs.

I love poutine (prefer mozza fries though) and I love donairs. But poutine is scary fattening, donairs are REALLY sweet and the meat in donairs is one step removed from mystery meat.

So when I read your comment, it cracked me up.

At any rate, my wife really enjoys going out for more traditional ethnic cuisines than 'standard' American food. We go out for Chinese food, Mexican food, etc. and the rest of our meals we cook ourselves. We keep a lot of fruit in the house, since it's so much cheaper here in the States. Depending where you live, hopefully there are good alternatives for you than cheeseburgers or junk food.