Twinkles

I have been here four years. Our wedding anniversary is tomorrow.

I'm a Geordie, according to the man who..... still is my Husband, I talk like Golem -.^

He has pointed out on many occasion, that I refer to myself in sentences, as more than one person.

Here in Northern Virginia, where a lot of the original Brits settled, i often joke with my friends that the Empire is back

My experience here is they love all things British. I could talk utter tripe and they will still be awe struck. It does make me laugh.

We tend to find i'm Americanizing my talking, due to necessity of needing to be understood.

It's a whole new experience visiting the Doc here. had two kidney specialists rolling on the floor laughing when i referred to a past water infection.

My Husband, bless him is a very patient man, with a wonderful sense of humor.

At time's, he seems to take pride in being my translator, although for me, i feel like brave heart and want to lift my kilt and say freeeeeeeeedom.

We blame the fact that i was born next to the Scots border for me thinking that way.

However, it appears my Hubby is turning into a Geordie, with his "aw aye's" I enjoy it when he does try to talk Geordie to me.

It's a home comfort.

I think four years on, i'm an unusual mix of Brit and American. I don't think i will ever give up my British ways completely. Last night for tea we had British dumplings! so i'm still a bit of a rebel. All things considered, i have no regrets and absolutely love it here.

Not a k2?

No, in November of 2010 he was issued a K2 visa, but we decided after it was issued he would follow me on.

We sent his passport and issued K2 Visa back to the London Embassy and informed them of the change of plans.

Here we are nearly four years later and he is following me on, with a (i think) CR2 visa, since his K2 expired long ago.

In Oct/Nov of 2013 my Husband applied as the sponsor and step father, to bring him over here to finally join us. because we married on a K1 before my Son was 18 years old, this time around the application is step child of american citizen. Im pretty sure its a CR2 that he is getting. passport and visa are getting delivered to him tomorrow, so i will know for sure then.

I read on a different site, CR2 Children, like my Son, wont need to adjust status/ remove conditions, i dont know if thats true or not and trying to find assurance from a more trusted source.

It's an immigrant visa so he is a permanent resident upon arrival. His passport is stamped with an I-551 indication that proves LPR status (for work, driver license, international travel) until the card arrives in the mail. Some get the SSN card automatically in the mail, but many end up visiting a SSA office to apply. The CR1 visa discussions should be a good place to look at what happens after arrival since it is a more discussed immigrant visa.

There is a fee to pay before the greencard will be issued. It can be done online before he moves.

Health insurance is something to look into, whether he qualifies on your family policy or he needs one on his own. Open enrollment is over but qualifying life events like birth of a child, marriage, immigration(?) allow enrollment if within 60 days of the event. The Moving Here and your New Life in America forum discusses that often. I really don't know much about it.

Yea, i remember about the social security card for me, it was a bit of a nightmare and i had to make several trips to the social security office.

I arrived Feb 2011 and didn't get my card until October 2011. I remember the dates as my employer kindly held the job for me, until i had it all sorted out.

Green card fee $165( i think is the amount) Up to now there has been no request for it, although i'm guessing the details about paying that will come with the passport/visa delivery tomorrow.

He wont be arriving until the 17th, week before he turns 21. It's not quite sunk in yet and i'm just wanting to make sure i'm not missing anything critical. The registering for military service was a new one on me, as example.

London trip went great, he was out of date on one of his vacs, bit disappointed with that, since he did go to a Boots the chemist travel clinic right before...meh, in the full scheme of things it could have been a lot worse. Take our medicals in 2011 as example!

Nothing like that happened this time around for him and my Husband was even able to go into the Embassy with him.

I stayed outside and just loitered

Hello all,

Son will be emigrating as a step child of american citizen in January. (we married a few years ago on K1, before Son was 18)

He will arrive in the States, few days before his 21st Birthday.

I have been trying to search to educate myself on the steps to follow once he is here.

Due to his age and the visa he is coming in on, will he actually need to adjust status?

Only thing we are absolutely certain of, is we need to get him to register for military service, within so many days of his arrival.

As for the rest, i'm struggling to actually find information. If someone can provide a guide or let us know where we stand on this, its appreciated.

My experience with credit--

I will say that early on...maybe 8 months after marriage, we decided to buy a new house. Because he was an unemployed immigrant with no American credit card in his name, I applied for mortgage pre-approval only in my name. I figured I would get less red tape and a better rate that way. I know everybody on VJ stresses a home in joint names is important for removing conditions on the greencard, but that didn't seem to matter in our case.

When we applied for removal of conditions, we were at the time renting a basement and even that tenancy, utilities etc were only in my Husbands name.

I have a question regarding credit. Does your UK credit score follow you to the US? I'm a bit old school and I've never had a credit card so I have no credit record at all. And being self employed, I just cant get one now. Is this going to be a problem or can I just start off small and build up over there? Obviously I'll have access to a joint account at the start.

I was in the same position as you. I needed and wanted to establish my own credit rating here in the US.

CapitalOne bank helped me. I paid a very small deposit, they issued me a secure credit card.

Max limit on it was $200. I applied for it online.

I kept the card for 12 months, used it every month, paid the balance off every month.

12 months later, i visited Capital One branch and explained to them, that i had been with them 12 months and could i now have a proper credit card. Took the manager a short amount of time, he did all the form filling for me and i was approved instantly.

He even helped me close my secure credit card account down and get my original deposit back.

What was really nice was, the new credit card gives a bonus of $100 dollars reward, if you spend $500 or more in first 3 months.

I bought our England flight tickets with the new card have just redeemed that sweet $100 reward.

I know its not much, but i also get 1.5% back on everything i buy and (and this is a biggie for me)

No foreign transaction charges when using my card abroad.

On a side note, if you also open a checking account with them and in the future you make a trip to the UK and need British pounds.

Bank will order for you, for zero bank handling fee. Some banks rub hands together when you visit abroad. Charge fees like $10 to change currency and 3% foreign transaction fee on everything you buy, ATM fees and so on.

I think with the card i have ATM fees abroad get waived.

I recommend this bank, i think they are immigrant friendly and understand were we are coming from and what our future needs are going to be.

I dont feel like they are taking advantage of my britishness here, as i feel that other banks do, if you know what i mean.

I'm glad I saw this. I am about to get photos for my UK police certificate. I will get a set of six instead of four so I have enough for the medical. That's quite a jump in quantity .... from one to four. i wonder why they need so many.

Aye, it's quite the jump.

I'm going to be there in person, at the Visa Dr, on the 15th, so will try remember to ask her "why so many" then.

Just curious is all.

Not sure if this has been posted somewhere already. So i'm just going to post it in here.

We booked a visa medical mid November and received the courtesy confirmation of booking email from Knightsbridge after that.

In the email, was a list of *what to bring*

I was triple checking stuff over this morning, with the November email they sent and the Visa Dr web site.

http://www.visamedicals.info/us-bring.asp

Noticed a change, called them and they confirmed, update of *what to bring*

It is no longer 1 Passport pic, it is now 4. Any size British or US.

...Gotta be aware of little surprises! always check for up to date info, right before your appointment.

It's an immigrant visa processed at NVC, where NVC gives the interview date. Then it is up to the individual to have the medical in time for the results to be there by the interview. But nothing to actually hold you to that. They won't get approval until the medical results arrive, so a little longer for the visa to issue.

IR1/CR1s processed at NVC are the same.

I think it's a CR2 Visa application. US Citizen applying for a step child, we married before my Son was 18.

I entered States on a K1 visa several years ago.

As Nich-Nick has said, we went through the NVC. This has taken a long time to get to this point. Applied in 2013 for our Son to join us.

NVC issued the interview date. I do want to expand, that the way we are doing things, has been acknowledged by the Embassy.

Our Senator spoke with the London US Embassy, on our behalf, so the US Embassy is aware, when we are doing the medical.

also allowing my Husband, to enter the Embassy, with our Son, on his interview day.

Second time our Senators office has acted on our behalf. Very grateful for the help and advice they have given us.

Grateful to you also Nich-Nick, for your helpful responses over the years.

In regards to his Medical. The exact wording the US Embassy, London, gave the Senator was..

"If he is able to obtain an appointment on or before 15th December, the immigrant visa interview will continue as scheduled on December 16th."

So we are assured, this is fine to do. We realize this will delay visa issue, as what happened to us several years ago.

That's fine. All in good time.

As i understand it, his age is frozen, until a decision is made. He is approaching 21 years of age.

Hello, just wanted to let you know the answer to this. We put Dec 31, 2014 as our planned wedding date and yesterday my fiance received his appointment letter with an interview date of Dec 16. We emailed the LondonInfoUnit email right away and asked if it was 1. possible to get an earlier date 2. possible to expediate the processing and delivery following the interview and 3. what the estimated processing time is. They wrote back this morning saying:

1. No it is not possible to get an earlier date;

2. There is no way to expediate processing and shipping, except for standard delivery options;

3. They estimate it takes about 10-15 days until the passport will be returned.

So there you have it. We're disappointed but grateful that this huge stage of our journey will be over soon. So he might not be here by Christmas, but at least it won't be too much longer. Gives us an excuse to have Christmas morning round 2 a week later! And who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and it'll only take a couple of days...

Hope that helps!

Our Sons interview is the same day as your Fiance. Me and Hubby are flying over to oversee final part.

Monday 15th December for the Medical and then Embassy Tuesday Dec 16th. So i guess if your Fiance hears a couple of Geordie's and an American Guy, in the waiting line outside, they will know it's us 3 xD My name isn't on the list, so i have a cold wait outside, being December i will need to find somewhere warm to wait for them both.

We will more than likely split up, for over the Christmas, our (me and Hubby) return flights are Christmas Eve, we have to return to the States.

I'm taking comfort, all going well in London, Son will be with us here, on this side of the pond in January. Happy thoughts, waited so long from start to finish, it will have taken 15 months. At this stage, i can pass on Christmas.

Thanks very much Cathymac! Good luck for your interview, you'll have to let me know how it goes!

I have booked my medical for the 28th (1 week before the interview on the 9th) do you think that's enough time?? It seemed like you did yours much earlier!

Thanks

Considering, all being in order at your medical. Knightsbridge Doctor need 5 business days to get your medical to the London Embassy.

It's business days, as they (Visa Doctor) don't work weekends.

same in here it's not a workin link

Thx for letting me know, i'm not the only one.

Good ole NVC

Here i was thinking we were all done with that place.

It's like they are finally releasing us....yet not.

Dear me, i'ts feeling like an escape from Alcatraz movie ^-^

Hi Guys/Gals

I wonder if anyone else is having problem with visiting the link in the interview letter from NVC'

Our letter says

You can try megabus and see if there's a train option if you are worried about road traffic.

After my interview I booked a train back home from London for £10 using the megabus website which I was pretty pleased with as it's 200 miles! They only have limited train routes though.

Failing that use thetrainline.com to find the cheapest trains then book them on the train operators website, it will be the same price but most train operators don't charge a booking fee, thetrainline.com does!

I tried the megatrain search, some weird reason it defaults me to the megabus page.

I'm guessing it's telling me, they don't do Newcastle to London trains.

Thanks about the tip to check out the train operator, i would never have thought of doing that.

Few days ago i had a quote of 220 pounds, for us all to travel down to London via trainline

Today (using your tip) i searched again, this time going to the train ops site. I discovered it was East Coast.

On that site i'm getting a quote of approx 160 pounds, big savings difference.

So looks like train op East Coast is the winner xD

We are staying in my home town, for best part of the UK trip, My parents live in a sheltered housing complex, that has a Guest room that any of the Residents can book for Family/Friends. 10 pound a night, can't get any better than that.

Feel like i'm making good progress on the planning and booking front.

One stick in the mud is the interview PDF email the NVC sent us,

This page has some hotel recommendations near the bottom of the page http://www.visajourney.com/consulates/index.php?ctry=United%20Kingdom&cty=London

(I also recommend mega bus or even national express coaches, often much cheaper than trains)

Yep, i did see those hotel recommends.

Bryanston link doesnt work for me. I get an error whenever i try

"The server at www.bryanstonhotel.co.uk can't be found, because the DNS lookup failed. DNS is the network service that translates a website's name to its Internet address. This error is most often caused by having no connection to the Internet or a misconfigured network. It can also be caused by an unresponsive DNS server or a firewall preventing Google Chrome from accessing the network."

Marble Arch Inn is sold out for the room/date we need.

Lincoln is closed for renovations until 2015.

We had not considered overnight coach travel, during the day would be no good, since he is having his medical same day we arrive.

I'm just worried if there is any delay at all on the road it scuppers the appt.

So train is looking like the safest, most reliable.

Does anybody know what time slot is the last available for a Medical on Mondays?

I stayed at the Comfort Inn, Hyde Park. Google maps says it's a half hour walk, but I remember it being much less than that. I also had the option of hopping on the tube and then hopping off 2/3 stops later. I was trying to swing the trip for as cheap as possible, think the room was about £50. Try taking a look on booking.com, that site usually has good prices.

As for train tickets, I always compare thetrainline.com with redspottedhanky.com and see which is the cheapest, though it doesn't usually make much of a difference. Could you do Megabus or National Express? I usually travelled to London via coach which worked out much cheaper.

Not heard of redspottedhanky or megabus, will check them out, thank you.

I did some searching this morning (apparently Sundays are a good day to search for plane tickets in the US)

Friday evening it was well over $1100 each for flights.

Today its flashed up a great flight for just over $850 each, i secured/bought two tickets!

Used my Capital One Bank credit card, this will get me 5% back of the $850 on each ticket.

Every little helps =)

There is going to be three of us travelling to London. I was even wondering about rail cards.

Thank you all for posting the recommends.

The Hotel Lincoln House, where we stayed in the last time (few years ago) is closed for renovations.

Searching for everything US plane,UK train,UK hotel and all from the US side of the pond. Feels a tad more difficult this time around.

I seriously doubt the disabilities will be any kind of issue, but his age could easily become an issue as he will "age out" when he turns 21. The visa process must be completed before he turns 21 years of age.

Once the application is made, I thought the Child's age was frozen until decision is made by Immigration?

Would really help if we new what country and embassy.

I posted this in the regional discussion section for United Kingdom.

As far as i'm aware, there is only one Embassy, which is London.

Hi all,

Looking for some inexpensive Hotel recommends please.

Within walking distance to the Embassy would be great.

Also, going to need to search for train tickets. Any recommended sites, deals?

Thx

Pls Twinkles when is ur scan date bcuz mine is 29th August and mine as not change don't know why?........

Scan date AOS and IV was Sept 3rd.

Confirmed today over phone to us from NVC. We are case complete as of yesterday.

All we can do is wait out each waiting period we are given. As at this hurdle....If the 60 days go over and still heard nothing, call NVC, or contact Senator.

I'm recommending Senators office staff,

Earlier in the process, we waited over the 30 days NVC had stated to us...My Husband contacted his Senators office and within days, our case was back on track. Senators office staff were extremely helpful, just have to give them case details and permission to act on your behalf.

if it goes over 60 days, start to poke them in anyway you can.

Good luck, i hope you receive news soon.

Oh thank God finally they touched sept! Did u confirm ur cc?

Aye, we did confirm.

My Husband called them at 7 am this morning, on hold 30 mins.

He was told over phone, case complete as of yesterday.

just by looking at the recent CCs people have gotten, they are all around August 27-29

The off ones in mid september and october were checklists with original scan dates in August.

I'm not sure how the visa we are applying for factors in with you all in this Topic.

Our application was a i130 and is for what i think is a CR2 visa for my aged under 21 Son.

We are currently in the 60 day wait after submitting AOS and IV.

I have no idea where the discussions are on these forums for CR2, but we are being dealt with by the NVC.

Filed October/November 2013

Our last scan date was Sept 3rd for AOS and IV packages (sent both together)

Got home from work this Evening and the AOS paid has changed to N/A

Don't know if this means CC or a checklist.

Our AOS just changed to N/A today.

Going to call in the morning to see whats going on

Hi all,

My Son (beneficiary) is approaching his 21st Birthday in January.

Been on this process for his i130 since beginning of Nov 2013 we are currently in the 60 day black hole for our AOS and IV packages.

We know his age is currently frozen by Immigration until completion of the process.

Just wondering....when his visa is issued, if anyone knows how long his visa will be for, before expiry.

If we do make it to the London Embassy before his 21st Birthday, will they want him off British soil asap, or will he have the same time frame i had for example, with my K1 visa ( i think that was for 6 months).

Second question is, i remember when he was going to originally come with me on my K1 visa, due to his age (16) and no contact with his Biological Father, i had to make a sworn statement at the Embassy window related to that.

He is 20 now, will they still require something to that effect again? I'm guessing not, but i don't want to just assume >.>

To my knowledge, him turning 18 put an end to all of that.