Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Kim - Make sure you have Russ buy an A4 sized (large) courier bag. I had a smaller one and had to run back down stairs to get the bigger size. From what I've seen they're pretty speedy about getting it out to you and you can track and trace to see when it's left the consulate. Today I'm handing in my resignation at work - 1 more month to go. The house has been settled and money is on its way to my bank. I'm about to take my son for long weekend in Rotorua and have weekends full of family dinners and meeting up with friends. Time's flying! It's great to see things progressing along for so many of our Kiwi couples.	kelzm	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-14 18:39:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Congrats Kim! That's great news, I was wondering if your theory about the touches was going to be proved correct. It's all go now, hopefully you get that consulate appointment asap. Justine. Good to hear from you, I'm glad everythings worked out for you and Jordan. Best of luck in finding a job soon. Keep us posted on how you go, I'm sure there's a few of us that are a little bit nervous about fitting in with the American way of life.	kelzm	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-13 21:59:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	WOW Grant, that's excellent news, sounds like you've got everything sorted Kelly, you are so lucky, I'm really happy for you, truly i am, not feeling any green monster feelings at all, none, none whatsoever seriously tho Kelly, have fun and say Hi to your beloved from all of us	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-26 04:29:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	I know, i actually had a wee cry, it was very emotional seeing him again, i forgot about all those expressions i love, those little smiles and that look on his face he gets when he's teasing me, telling me i should do what the man says, just everything really	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-25 22:36:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	oooh and we now have a web cam, I'm sooooooo happy	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-25 22:16:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	No Kate, I'm confused also, but i've deciding i'm going to take my cv, my bank statement, a completed I-134 from Rob and a completed I-134 from our friend, if they don't need all of that, great but i'd rather have it with me then be turned away and asked to come back with something. Seems the safest way to me	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-25 22:08:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	This is what i read in one of the reviews of the auckland consulate...... She also checked through the affidavit of support - I was getting Joanne's dad to co-sponsor as Jo is heading back to Grad School. But after looking at Jo's she asked if I had any saving and if I bought the bank statements with me - I had and showed that I had savings of around NZD13,000, and she said it would be find with just Jo's affidavit and my savings - we didn't need a co-sponsor. She said she wanted to make it as easy as possible for us to down it on our own. I'm thinking we are going to be ok, i just didn't want to be worried about that right up to and during the interview.	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-25 03:57:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	I got a reply email from the auckland consulate today, the question being if it was ok to have a co-sponsor for the I-134, there reply was......... If you have sufficient funds of your own, the I-134 is not essential. Your CV would also be required. Any person resident in the U S can provide an I-134 but needs to show their income and last year's income tax return, as well as their U S passport (copy) or Legal Resident card. As they haven't said what constitutes "sufficient" i'm not sure i'm any happier than i was before, however, if i recall correctly someone earlier in the thread said they showed them a bank balance of $13000.00 and the consulate was happy with that so i guess i'll be ok. I'm also not really clear on what they're saying in the second paragraph, do they mean the fiancee doesn't have to fill in the I-134 but if we have someone willing to sponsor us other than our SO we can get them to complete the I-134?? i'm confused and it's been a crappy day so i'm sorry the info isn't better	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-25 03:37:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	hey grant, mum sent me some extra spending money while i was visiting in april, she paid $25 to bnz here but then the receiving bank took $30 and then Rob's bank also took their share (tho i don't remember how much that was i think it was under $10) so after losing on the exchange rate and the banks taking their bit it was all a bit depressing	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-23 16:51:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Welcome Shawn and Luciana Hey Kim what airline was it that had the cheaper fares to the states? you mentioned something in an earlier post about flying thru tahiti on a mon or fri.	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-23 16:32:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Hey Dave and Genna, welcome to our thread sadly i also had trouble, south titirangi rd doesn't fit either, i struggled and struggled with doing it on the computer and then ended up doing them all by hand, what a pain, quite literally	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-23 03:46:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Russ thanks so much for that, good to know all those little details that I for one always worry about	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-22 16:32:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Thanks Kate, I guess now there'll be no reply before Monday and I'm working Monday so we'll both have to wait til Monday night, hope you're not working then Hehe thanks Kelly, i guess we were both posting at the same time	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-22 02:20:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Once again thanks for the excellent advice Kim, I've emailed the consulate and hopefully they'll have the answer I want Kim you must be so excited with everything moving along so quickly now	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-21 20:18:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Ok less than two hours have passed and i'm now worrying about the next step. I'm very confused, i've been trawling the forums and I'm reading very conflicting information regarding the I-134. Some people are saying you can't have a co-sponsor and some people are saying you can, I really hope you can cos Rob def doesn't meet the minimum. I've looked at Capt. Ewok's details of requirements but I can't see anything there about co-sponsors. Does anyone really know?	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-21 17:55:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	NOA1 received!	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-21 16:08:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	QUOTE (cdneh @ Aug 21 2008, 07:29 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> QUOTE (kiwiana @ Aug 21 2008, 11:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> cdneh: Thats great your immunities are all in check. Now you can relax and sit back I dunno how ... I need to get me some patience pills...and double whatever the prescribed dose on those is... heh.. Hmm sign me up for some of those pills too pls, i've been driving Rob nuts asking if he's got the NOA1 - tho i'm not so worried now, now that i know the cheque's been cashed	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-21 02:33:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	hehe grats Kelly	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-19 03:12:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Good Luck Guys for your interview Can't wait to here that it all went smoothly.	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-18 05:30:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	ooohh it's all happening now kim	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-16 01:40:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	WOW, congratulations, that's great!!	Michelle Kauffman	Female	New Zealand	2008-08-14 15:55:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	i feel completely at home with jordan, like we've always been together... but it's a slow process settling into american life. i like it here - a lot - but it's very very different from nz, and it takes a lot of getting used to. still looking for a job, hoping for something in a bookstore, but no luck yet i think once i find work and settle into more of a regular routine, i'll start finding things a little easier. no homesickness, though, despite this! i think it's because - as corny as this sounds - i truly feel like jordan is my 'home', and that anywhere he is, is where i feel most at home.	rubyred	Male	New Zealand	2008-08-13 19:57:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Wow I'm so excited for you Grant! I agree, it sounds like a great idea to pay the extra and get the Premium seats. Someone at work told me it makes a HUGE difference! Guys, I'm off to Kansas on Sunday night. Gone for 3 weeks. 3 flights there. Will probably stay away for 32 hours straight like last time. Yay!	Kelvan	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-26 04:26:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Hi Dave n Genna! We had that problem with some of our fields when filling out the pdf form on the computer. You can leave it blank and then handwrite it (very neatly) in the box after you've printed it out in black ink. Can someone else confirm this?	Kelvan	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-22 17:50:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Hey thanks for your info Russ! I'll remember that when my time comes and forward it onto my friend who's almost at that point in the timeline. Nice to meet you	Kelvan	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-22 16:34:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Hey Michelle woohoo you got your NOA1 as well! I'm so glad. We have similar timelines	Kelvan	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-22 02:18:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Thanks guys!!! I'm so glad we are on our way now, after our first package got lost. Hey Kim, how did Russ get a medical so quickly? And how did he schedule his interview before he had the medical? I have a friend who has told me that she can't schedule the interview until she provides police certificates of all the places she's lived, and has her medical.	Kelvan	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-20 05:37:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	NOA1!!! *falls over*	Kelvan	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-19 03:06:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Woohoo Kim! I'm so happy for you!	Kelvan	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-14 03:52:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	QUOTE (KimandRuss @ Aug 22 2008, 06:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hi and welcome. Yes, you can either do as Kel suggested and write it in freehand, OR you can follow the I-129f instructions ... If extra space is needed to complete any item, attach a continuation sheet, indicate the item number, and date and sign each sheet. The example forms (link above) will help you a lot too. as an added note... be sure you tick the box part C, Q2. Many people miss this, and are RFE'd, as they believe it's related to the military question above. You just saved me and RFE with that last part. Thanks so much. I have decided to leave the "Wellington" section off of the address, as she does not actually live in Wellington and I have already listed a "town"... ugh...	Dave_n_Genna	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-22 18:30:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	I'm doing the Final filling in of the forms thing... and I have hit yet another question mark. New Zealand Adresses! Aaaaargh! The space on the forms leaves so little room, and I am supposed to make "Wainuiomata, Wellington" somehow fit in the Town or City box that is This <------------> big? My Fiancee, Genna, says I need to include the following info: Her street, Wainuiomata, Wellington, New Zealand, 6008 But there are only spots on the I-129F form for Street, Town or City, State or Country, and Postal Code Can someone who has been filling these in for NZ give me some bit of insight?	Dave_n_Genna	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-22 17:27:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	We send money from Nics bank to mine. You need to have the routing number and a few other details for the account the money is going into. Both banks will take a bit of a fee but it is safe and relatively easy. When you do send money try and send a larger sum so that the fees don't feel as bad. Good luck! I know that from BNZ and Kiwibank you and do international transfers online and there is no need to go to a bank.	amaciar	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-24 15:32:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Sounds like those were two successfule interviews. Congrats Kelvan- Great to see that your packet arrived. You must feel relived Nic and I have just arrived in upstate New York. We bought tickets the day his passport arrived in the mail and it was go go go from then til now. Nic said that the process in customs was a formality really and all they did was open his packet to make sure all the detaisl were there. Then he was fingerprinted. It took about 20 minutes and when he was finished I was still waiting for our bags. Now it is time to get on with out lives til we need to remove the conditions of residency in two years	amaciar	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-19 18:42:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Hi Everyone Nic had his interview yesterday. It was probably the strangest hour of my life. The lady we spoke to first was great. She was cheery and was impressed with the way we had put our forms together. We had each set in their own bundle clearly labeled. Basically what happened was we had our case switched to the NZ consulate once the I-130 was approved so we needed all the documentation you usually send to NVC ready and organized. Then after the lovely lady made sure all our forms were in and the correct evidence was there we sat down and waited to see an officer. Now I was thinking here comes the grilling and the intimidated feeling! Nope the gentlemen asked us when we wanted to leave for the US and we answered ASAP and he asked what our plans were. Which we told him and then he explained what would happen once they approved us. So in total we were at the consulate for an hour. The majority of the time we were being told what we needed to do once we entered the US! So Nic was cheeky at the end and asked if we could go have a celebratory drink and the kind man said everyday is an excuse for a celebratory drink He dodged the question but when we arrived back to Palmerston North today we checked to see if our Courier Bag that we gave the Consulate had been sent......sure enough it was picked up today at 2:30. So we are hoping that means all is well and his passport will be back tomorrow with a shiny new stamp on it. Our theory is they wouldn't send out a request for more evidence in our Courier Bag. So the Consulate was heaps better than i thought. Now sure if it helped that I was there with Nic or not but I hope everyone has the type of experience we did. Hopefully tomorrow I am not back on here crying because they sent us some horrible request notice. RubyRed- I know exactly how you feel but in reverse. My first year in NZed was not always the easiest but by my second year I was feeling like I was home. Just don't let the bad times get you too down and enjoy the differences. Kim- Great news. Not long now til you are Stateside. Everyone looking for jobs Good Luck. Nic and I will starting that process near the end of September. We hope to be home in about 1.5wekks and then spend some time with my family. I feel like I haven't seen them in forever! Anyone found any good job search websites?	amaciar	Not Telling	New Zealand	2008-08-14 03:37:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	We have made some significant progress today. We have booked out flights, and are heading to San Francisco on the 22nd of October. Because this will be stressful enough for the kids, we have forked out and are flying Premium Economy with Air NZ. Therefore we can take advantage of the Koru Lounge before leaving, get bigger seats/room (we have reserved front seats, to get more room, and also get a bassinet), and have an easier check in. They will also provide the baby essentials should we need them. We also bought a car today, a Subaru Outback station wagon. Brook's father found it (it ticked all of our boxes), and we bought it. Therefore we can really hit the ground running. We also have a list of essential bits and pieces we want for when we arrive (car seats, high chairs, cots etc) and we are going to order these on line and get them delivered to Brook's parents. Brook also spoke to her bank in the US (she is so glad she kept an account) and has organised credit cards etc, and these are being sent out here. We are also starting to sell our stuff on Trade Me. It is all go!! Hope everyone else is making progress as well. Cheers Grant	gshennen	Male	New Zealand	2008-08-26 03:44:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	QUOTE (amaciar @ Aug 25 2008, 08:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> We send money from Nics bank to mine. You need to have the routing number and a few other details for the account the money is going into. Both banks will take a bit of a fee but it is safe and relatively easy. When you do send money try and send a larger sum so that the fees don't feel as bad. Good luck! I know that from BNZ and Kiwibank you and do international transfers online and there is no need to go to a bank. Cool - thanks for that, will look into that, as the two banks we use are BNZ and Kiwibank!! Cheers Grant	gshennen	Male	New Zealand	2008-08-24 16:27:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Welcome to the new guys in here. Put your feet up, we are a good friendly bunch. I have a question... What experience has anyone had with transferring money to the US from NZ? I want to transfer some oney to Brook's parents to buy a car for us, but not sure of the best or most cost effective and safe way of doing this? They don't have the internet, so using Paypal (which I have heard of being used a lot) is not an option. Basically it has to go straight into their bank account. Thanks in advance, Cheers Grant	gshennen	Male	New Zealand	2008-08-23 16:43:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Another really interesting thing that happened ar the Consulate, was the interviewing officer, really (and I mean really) ecouraged me to get naturalized after being in the US for 3 years. It wasn't just a passing piece of advice, he really laboured the point. Cheers Grant	gshennen	Male	New Zealand	2008-08-22 15:27:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	QUOTE (kiwiana @ Aug 22 2008, 09:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Grant: how cool to have the magic 'foil' in passport. Are you ever tempted to open the 'secret envelope'? jk Oh yes...I sure am. It is a bit like a wet paint sign.. They make it pretty damned hard to tamper with, it is sealed (like a normal envelope), then has the consulate stamp over the seal, then someone's signature, and then the whole flap is taped shut. We have put it out of sight (after we kept picking it up and staring at it). Our plans are (at this moment). Brook's mother will fly out here on about the 15th of Oct (to be chief baby sitter while we wrap our NZ stuff up). Brook, the kids and her will fly to the US on the 22nd(ish). I can sell/put into storage the remainder of our stuff, get rid of the cars etc, and I'll fly over on about the 29th of Oct. In the meantime, so that we are prepared for the kids arrival, we will arrange cots, car seats etc online and get them shipped to her parents, and we will send over some money so that Brook's Dad can buy a car for us so we can hit the ground running upon our arrival. Tiara - do you get the envelope etc now, or do you wait until you resubmit Chris' passport? Did they say you were approved on the spot on Tuesday? With us the guy didn't actually say so, but he certainly left us with no doubt that it was all approved. Even so, it was still a nervous wait until the courier pack arrived (especially seeing I was putting the track and trace number into the website of the completely wrong courier company, and always getting an error message!!). Cheers Grant	gshennen	Male	New Zealand	2008-08-22 15:22:00
Australia and New Zealand	NEW ZEALANDers heading to the US and their USC spouses - POST HERE!	Woohoo - I have my passport back with the magic "foil" in it, and my secret envelope. Now the real planning can begin!! My grandmother turns 80 in October and we are having a big family get together, so we will look at going over shortly after that. I still have not advanced any further on the job finding front, but have applied for a few in the last couple of days. Hope everyone else is progressing well as well - seems like it is all go for us Kiwi's. Cheers Grant	gshennen	Male	New Zealand	2008-08-21 17:58:00