biggish data

Thankyou!!!!

so when you are on the plane you have to fill out a form?

Good luck man!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-28 14:49:00

US passport photos near the embassy?

I went to goulds pharmacy and the contrast was not great. I bought 4 and all the embassy did was take one of my photos and photograph it, then hand me it back. On the visa it shows thinner than a UK passport photo.

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-02 19:29:00

yeah dont worry about it thats what scared me! dont let anyone tell you that you need it!

Im leaving in 8 hours!!!

edinburgh-paris-salt lake....

in 24 hours I shall have my love!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-05 15:55:00

yes I am flying Paris to SLC so it will be my POE

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-02 19:30:00

Congratulations micmac!!!!!

p.s. update your timeline!

Done and done!!!

If a mod sees this, salt lake isnt on the point of entry list. Any way of adding it so I can review next week?

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-30 19:25:00

On the ds160, don't worry i did the same thing too! i even saw people with other forms and standing outside for as long as i was i started to wonder was i supposed to have one of them too (was a piece of paper with their picture on it)

Its so annoying! haha. I cried on off until I got in the door! People kept staring at me!

Visa came this morning. I paid for standard delivery and it came at 9.20! woo hoo!

Leaving next thursday, POE salt lake city

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-30 18:16:00

Thats great! I didn't pay for early delivery. my interview was monday so I am hopeful that the weekend won't interfere too much. I see yours was wednesday.

its not showing up on the dx website yet so I am guessing it is still with the embassy. Hope I get a text tomorrow!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-28 14:59:00

Yeah I wont get money in the bank until saturday morning so at least that will remove any temptation!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-26 16:33:00

what annoyed me about the day was that there was an embassy worker shouting to the queue outside that they all needed a ds160 or they wouldnt get in. I asked some girls next to me and they all had this thing in colour print with a photo and I had never seen it before. I freaked out cause I thought I was so prepared, went to goulds, paid for internet and one of the guys was like "go back! you dont need that!" thankfully I did and was also refunded for the internet session :-P

Do they just assume everyone is a non immigrant? haha.

yeah I will keep the pictures but the contrast is a bit off.

wonder when I will get the visa. the embassy lady said 8-10 working days and the couriers said 3-5. I am guessing its 5 cause that seems to be the current trend on here!

I want to go on the 5th as it will be exactly 3 months since I saw my love!

gonna review them the now

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-26 15:41:00

They only used one!!! I bought four cause I wasnt able to check this before I went. thats annoying!

I got approved reasonably quickly and I didnt have to provide any of the evidence I printed. Will write a review when I get home :-)

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-26 10:59:00

Do you only need two? I read three sometimes but one is for the medical right?

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-25 13:28:00

thanks everyone!

I will get the pictures at goulds to be on the safe side.

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-25 13:24:00

Its coming! leaving for london tomorrow night. Getting the sleeper, getting a mcdonalds breakfast then straight to the embassy!

printed outs screeds and screeds of evidence, and now ready to roll!

Feels like its come dead quick when it really hasn't, being 7 months and all :-P

A question... is the photo place in goulds? or the embassy itself?

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-24 18:19:00

Pharmacy Storage

they seemed kinda peed that I had so much stuff, I was like you and had a long journey. I needed entertainment and stuff, so I had my laptop, my ipod, my phone, my camera, and wires for these items.

They put it in a sealed bag anyway, its not a locker or anything so I dont see why it matters to them. They didnt charge extra either.

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-16 19:30:00

port of entry and here I am!

Salt Lake City is a great POE!!!

Very few international flights run through SLC, so security is very quick. Except for the fact that the flight was delayed so they let anyone with a connection through first. I was one of the last through so the guy at the desk just did my interview there and then, was very nice and chatty.

So, besides the wheel being torn of my suitcase in transit, all was well!!

So I have been here for just over a week, thank god the LDR is over. The wedding is in two weeks and it totally got set aside cause of the visa stuff and I was ill. I got slammed with a $150 medical bill for an ear infection cause I am not on insurance yet. Will try and claim it on travel insurance.

hope everyone elses stuff is going well!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-16 19:51:00

DS-156 & Passport Photo's Question..

I posted regular sized ones with the packet 3, glued them on. They only took one of my pictures from goulds at the embassy and they took a photo of it and gave me it back I think. That is the picture that is on my visa. annoyingly enough it shows thinner than a UK on the actual visa, so its kind of a waste of money, but obviously you don't want to be defiant and be like "take my UK one and be thankful" haha

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-17 15:44:00

What to wear to the interview?

funny you posted this because I made an effort to dress nice, I wore a shift dress and a nice jacket but some people were dressed like "jakeballs" (your man will know EXACTLY what I mean haha)

most were dressed well though. All you do is stand at the window so they may not notice your clothes too much. But its nice to be nice right? hehe.

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-16 19:20:00

:-) Would love to see pictures when the big days arrive or if anyone already did get married :-P love hearing this stuff especially from long distancers! ha ha

teepee sounds awesome!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-30 18:18:00

Not yet, this will be my first. I will definitely have to do that! I remember them doing it in friends, it will be surreal to see it!

I booked the sleeper so I don't have to stay overnight. Seems I got the last ticket at a decent price! I really hate flying which is funny cause I have done 11 flights this year alone! Where abouts is he from?

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-17 18:05:00

Its crazy! My mum has had a lot of problems with the UK passport people, and my sister can't afford it. Shame they haven't invented teleportation yet... would save a lot of 14-18 hour journeys!

I am glad to make thanksgiving and Halloween, I really wanted to see both. Shame our wedding is the day after halloween I can't go crazy with my hair like I usually do.

I hope you guys manage it. Try not to get worked up about what visa journey says. By some standards I wouldn't have had an interview until late october and I was fully prepared for it and was getting really down about it. They may surprise you!

I will do, just going to book my train tickets just now :-/

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-16 20:06:00

That sounds great though! sorry to hear you have been delayed. Its lucky that you have family who can help host it cause they will be flexible :-)

We are having ours for 60 people, and we are making it a weekday evening so people don't have to worry about time off work cause it is such short notice. None of my family are coming from the UK, but we plan to have a party in Scotland next year sometime.

Doing a lot of "DIY chic" which is funny, cause people will think I am trying to be fashionable when in actual fact its all we can afford after this visa process! Thankfully I bought my dress on ebay in January like a week after we got engaged, otherwise that would have been one of the compromises no doubt.

So we are on for november 1st now. Kinda annoying cause we wanted to go on a road trip for the honeymoon and now its gonna be close to thanksgiving and bad weather!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-16 19:50:00

Hello everyone!

Hope everyone is doing well in their "visa journey" and is surviving the long distance relationship... :-P

Just wondering how everyone's wedding plans are coming along?

We had to change our date a few times, the visa pushed it back and then we got double booked and stuff... but other than that it seems to be going perfect and everything is sorted... except a registrar... maybe the most important part! we better get on it!

anyone doing anything fun?

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-16 19:21:00

They moved our date!!!

micmac - never thought of that - I see you got your visa in 4 days, did you pay extra or was that regular service?

Yeah my interview was the monday, and my visa came at around 8.30 I think, on the friday, but I didnt pay extra. I was surprised, I had actually got my mum to wait in for it but I had not left the house when it came. They didnt ask for ID or anything either... haha. Totally not what I expected!

Edited by micmac, 17 October 2011 - 05:20 PM.

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-17 17:19:00

They moved our date!!!

very happy to hear that, thats great! Good thing its on a monday too as the weekend hopefully won't slow delivery down!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-17 15:40:00

how do you withdraw money on an ATM from a UK account?

i always hit checking and had no problems was with santander too, but you don have to inform them that you wish to use your card in the us if you haven't i have a visa debit too.

Thank you! Thats annoying, and I was in santander like three days before I left and I told the teller I was moving to america and she just said "shhhhhh dont tell them" I am guessing incase they wanted to close my account. She could have said about the card thing!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-18 11:12:00

how do you withdraw money on an ATM from a UK account?

As far as I remember it took me at least 5 days for my account to be verified with paypal and that was only december, you can't transfer money before it has been verified with the bank.

I know that the call centre won't help. Call centre training will generally not include questions like that. It is very specific. The woman in the bank couldn't even tell me what percentage the conversion fee for using the card abroad was, and that is pretty standard. What I wanted was for someone from the UK to tell me what option they use on the ATM. Very simple problem for someone who has done it before.

It is not the bank's fault it is the american banking system versus the UK one. Neither of my debit cards work in the machines here.

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-18 02:10:00

how do you withdraw money on an ATM from a UK account?

I am not calling the bank, I am sure this is a pretty simple problem and I would be very surprised if someone from the UK on visa journey had not encountered this. That's why I asked.

The bank is not the issue, alliance and Leicester is under santander, one of the biggest banks there is. And it is a Visa Debit card so it should work. Its this "checking/savings/credit" thing, and I doubt that customer services would know what I am talking about unless they had first hand experience of it. Call centres are generally useless when it comes to out of the ordinary queries.

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-17 19:59:00

how do you withdraw money on an ATM from a UK account?

Yeah it does, it has all the logos! haha. But the problem is this checking/savings/credit thing I think. In Britain that option does not exist on ATMs, we have one card for each.

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-17 17:02:00

how do you withdraw money on an ATM from a UK account?

Not sure if anyone else had this problem but its really getting to me.

Basically I have two bank accounts, one with RBS and one with Alliance and Leicester/Santander.

I really need to withdraw money from the A&L one, and whenever I put it in an ATM it says "withdraw from 1)checking 2)savings 3)credit"

I have tried all options and none of them work. When I use the card as debit in a store it usually has to run as credit, even though its a visa debit. I am really confused. I would have put this money on a thomas cook travel mastercard but it was being refunded from a retailer when I left scotland so it was too late. I would query whether the money had been refunded but the RBS card has the same issue when I try to withdraw or balance check.

Is there any way of sorting this other than paypalling the money to myself? Cause paypal takes ages to set up and I need the money asap.

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-10-17 15:39:00

Interview on Monday

How was it?!?!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-11-09 15:52:00

Get the acpo police check asap! Its valid for a year and you have to have the certificate before you can make your medical appointment.

Don't get caught up in the process too much. It shouldn't be too stressful. Obsessing about it makes it worse, I did that a few times ;-)

Don't let him overstay under any circumstance cause if they find out he will be denied! How long were you planning on having him over for? Visa waiver programme only permits 90 days. They ask you about it at interview too. he could always come, leave then go back. But by that time you would be close to medical and interview time and he would need to be in the UK anyway.

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-26 17:37:00

I was half asleep when my man called I was like "oh no! october 26th that sucks, what are we gonna do!" and he was like... its september that's awesome what are you talking about??? haha.

I am baffled by how this process works!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-08 13:42:00

somehow managed to get september 26th! Dunno how that happened! maybe cause I paid before they processed packet 4

maybe see you there aorobert!

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-08 13:28:00

Nope, no news. FI just tried to call DoS but he keeps forgetting about the time difference and they were closed, missed them by 15 minutes!

my provisional date was the 29th, really wanted to do it around then so we could get our honeymoon out of the way before the weather gets #######. I was told on the phone "you never know" cause I paid early and got my forms back early but maybe the wife was just trying to be nice :-P

So we should call tomorrow and hopefully find out.

The riots were really bad the day before I went but I only saw four armoured vans all day, no policemen anywhere! I actually tried to hand deliver my application to the embassy cause the glue came off the envelope before I posted it but they would not take it of course, so I sent it when I got home.

having a small wedding is probably the best idea in this situation, but we are having 60 guests. I think we can pull it off! picking a weekday evening so not to collide with people's jobs too much.

micmac

Female

Scotland

2011-09-07 16:30:00

Debt in the UK when you move to the USA?

Yep, that's right. But it's only on your own personal income, not your spouse's. Because David didn't work the first year, we didn't have to pay any of his student loan.

Thanks Justine, that's what I thought. I wouldn't want (or expect) my wifes income to be taken in it.

HighlandScott

Male

Scotland

2011-08-27 13:41:00

Debt in the UK when you move to the USA?

In a past life I worked in the personal insolvency sector (in the UK) and would say it's a myth that debts go away after 6, 10 or however many years. I had a client once that forgot he'd had a credit card with a bank 15 years ago. He dissapeared without paying it. Then he applied for a new credit card one day with the same bank and they said "ah ha!!, we've found you" - you owe us from 15 years ago and pursued him for the money. I think some companies VOLUNTARILY write off some debts if it gets to a certain point, however you have no legal right to tell them after x amount of time that the debt is no longer valid. There's nothing about that in any credit agreement.

I'll be moving to the US later this year. The only debt I have is a Student Loan. I've been reading their information this morning (http://www.studentlo...&_schema=PORTAL) and as I understand it I have to pay 9% on any earning over £15000 (about $24400).

I worked this out to be, on an example of earning $30,000:

$30000 income
deduct $24400 threshold
= $5600

9% of $5600 = $504 per year ($42 per month)

Does anyone else pay a Student Loan from the US? Am I working this out right?

:hehe:

HighlandScott

Male

Scotland

2011-08-27 05:07:00

Excuses for a day off for the medical

And congrats on the case complete Scott! (Saw it in your sig)

Thanks, the end is almost in sight for us now

Just need to get our interview date soon I hope!

Good luck with the rest of your case, you're not far behind us.

HighlandScott

Male

Scotland

2011-08-27 08:17:00

Excuses for a day off for the medical

That's right. Once you have your case number you can make the medical appt any time. I made mine about 7 weeks in advance- first by working out the perfect date/time for me then just calling and asking for availability which worked out perfect.

HighlandScott

Male

Scotland

2011-08-27 05:12:00

UK Debt in USA - Relaunched Topic

Also your credit history in the UK would be badly damaged and if you intend on returning you may struggle for credit in the future. The future being the six years it takes for the debt to be wiped from your credit file.

And remember it's six years from the date the debt is marked as settled by the creditor until it's gone from your history.

you are not obligated to pay your student loans off whilst you are working abroad, but obviously it helps not to accrue further interest on them... however my sister who works in Dubai was recently told that after 12years if you have not made any payments towards your student loan, it gets written off - but I have NO idea if this is actually true!!)

That entire statement sounds untrue to me. They do not let you cease payments just because you've gone to work abroad. And I doubt they'd ever write off any debt. You won't find anything about that in the agreement you've signed or their website, etc (happy to be proven wrong on that!)

Student Loans Co will give you up to one year off making payments if you tell them you are travelling abroad...I did and they were cool about it. After a year they will write to you and tell you what you owe....I had to send several payslips and they calculate an overseas monthly payment amount based on what you have earned. Every year they will review it.

If by "travelling abroad" you mean "not working" then I'd agree they would be cool with it. And yes, as I understand it they will tell you what you owe- by way of a very high monthly payment.......unless you prove your earnings like you say which will bring it down MUCH lower.

Is six years standard in europe/ Ireland ?? It's 7 here
I know we will leave some debt behind. But hope to retire back in a few years. Can anyone point me in the right direction to learn more about banking and credit in Europe.
Don't want any surprises if and when we return
Thanks

Certainly 6 years in the UK. Not sure about Ireland or the rest of Europe.

HighlandScott

Male

Scotland

2011-09-10 14:07:00