alexist

20th August. eep.

I polished off my airmiles (with airmiles, a one way ticket is just half the miles of a return), but man, a one way ticket is £££ as it has to be purchased full fare. Also, the taxes and fees cost £200 each. (We're flying Premium Economy. I had the miles, once you're paying for an unrestricted full fare ticket it's not much more, and it will be a lot easier. Plus, extra luggage.)

Plus side of megabux tickets: I can change for free if I need to (well, free on Aliza's, £25 for me).

I need a letter from Neil so I can take Aliza without any trouble (single parent on one way ticket is a red flag for kidnapping!)

Luckily it seems that notaries in England work quite similarly to how they do in the US when it comes to witnessing signatures (one notary even lists "permission to take children out of the country" under services). Or at least, they're the people to see; they might have a standard form used. The difference is that in the US, a notary public is basically just a professional witness. In the UK, they're all lawyers (and consequently there are far fewer of them--in the US, my old pharmacist was a notary public!)

Neil just called--he passed his visa interview!!

*immense sense of relief*

1) Letter was not from embassy;

2) Embassy was phoned. DS-230 was received and processed without incident (but they didn't until 11 June!) and Neil should be getting his interview date soon. Phew.

3) Our Internet connection was down all day. The Bangalore Muppets refused to believe it wasn't our router until Neil found another one (for some reason we have a 2nd) and had the same problem. They finally admitted it was a line call after a total of about 90 minutes on the phone. It just came back half an hour ago. BT suck royally.

We're back. More to follow. If you have any urgent news, leave it below so I don't miss it.

I'm currently having a panic attack the size of Mount McKinley. I was expecting Neil's visa interview letter to arrive while we were gone. It hasn't. However, we DO have a card for a missed special delivery. The delivery office is closed until 7:00 tomorrow, so I am going to be in a state of panic until I go and get it. This is actually the worst possible outcome. If I definitely hadn't got it, I could ask if there's a way to check case status (general USCIS case status barfs on the case number, possibly because it's DCF and not handled through them; London Embassy website only has an online check for non-immigrant visas). If not, sigh, have to resubmit the paperwork. But at least I'd KNOW. Another 18 hours in limboland.

Oh god. Just for the topper we got our notice from the landlord. If this visa isn't sorted soon we are so screwed. *hyperventilates*

Bleh. Got all the visa paperwork done now, I think. The US wants to know that the applicant (ie Neil) is:

1) who he claims to be;
2) married to the person sponsoring him;
3) not a criminal;
4) not a threat to public health;
5) not a threat to the public purse.

Large numbers of forms, with supporting evidence, must be filled out to demonstrate this. (Plus the medical exam, jabs, etc.)

Now we wait for an interview.

Aliza is showing early signs of TV addiction. She yells when I turn it off. Oh dear.

latest funny thing: when she sees dogs, she points and shouts "da! da!!" only does that for dogs so maybe she's got a new word! She also has "ba" for bath. (for you non-parents, this isn't wishful thinking--toddlers don't get the whole word at first. it's the consistency with associating sound to object that's important.)

Neil's watching the Champions League tonight so I made veggie lasagna. Aliza ate a bit, then threw it. gotta love toddlers. (She's eaten it before so it's just a mood.)

1) Visa application packet from the US Consulate

2) Neil's police certificate (luckily I'd known about this before we got the packet and had him get it--saved us nearly 2 weeks).

Form filling ahoy this weekend!

first line:

"Notice of approval of relative immigrant visa petition"

YAY!!!

I left my iPod in the seat pocket on the airplane. 2nd time I've done that. I'm going to ring BA in a few.

(OK... I need to ring Heathrow and they're closed till 8am tomorrow.)

I also came home to a letter from the US Embassy. I didn't specifically write in the employment section that I'd been unemployed/a housewife. So I have to write a letter saying that. Bah.

"As of April 2, 2008, we are processing petitions filed on January 7, 2008."

You've been stuck on the same petitions for over 2 weeks now?? Has the entire visa section gone on holiday?