What do I do with all my possessions?

Once the K1 Fiance visa application process was over and my visa had been approved and it was clear that I would be an immigrant to USA soon, my challenge was to whittle down all my worldly goods to no more than would fit into two suitcases.  I am in my mid-forties and despite being at heart a minimalist, there was a substantial amount of stuff that I’d accrued during my period on the planet.  It took me a lot of time and mental energy to work out the fate of each of my possessions and I was still sorting through them right up until the day of my flight.

Some of my stuff had already been moved to the USA in advance.  During our back and forth trips across the Atlantic to see each other, my wife, Abby and I had been taking and leaving items in Florida in anticipation of my immigration USA.  These included my laptop, clothes, books, and CDs.  I had also posted over a box of books and CDs.  Although the postage was pretty expensive (£50 for 30 CDs and 15 books), I felt that psychologically it would be good for me to have a few of my personal effects in my new home.

The big things like my sofa, chairs, mattress, etc. had to be got rid of, because basically I would have paid way more in transportation costs than the stuff is actually worth (most of my furniture was cheap and modern, bought at IKEA etc), so it would’ve been cheaper to buy it in the USA as a UK expat, than ship it over there.  Plus my wife has all the furniture we need over in the USA, so there was no point in bringing it.  So I sold a couple of items and gave the rest to friends and charity.

The sticker on my guitar case says it all!

I had to sell or give away pretty much all of my electronic goods too, not only would they be difficult to transport, but they use a completely different electric voltage in the USA to what we have in the UK.  I gave the washing machine to a friend of a friend and donated the smaller items, toaster, lamps, etc. to charity.  I was in a rented apartment with a built in cooker, fried, freezer, microwave, so fortunately I didn’t own much in the way of big white goods.

I am not terribly sentimental about things, but I was sad to see my stereo system go.  I am a huge music fan and I figured it might be quite some time before I could listen to high quality audio again (all music, but classical especially, just doesn’t sound good on a portable player!).  My upset turned out to be misplaced, however, if you read on.

It was inevitable that I wouldn’t be able to get rid of absolutely everything that I owned, so I left some books, CDs, and old photos in a cupboard at my mother’s house and my electric guitar and some LPs in her loft.  I arrived in Orlando with the two suitcases, plus my acoustic guitar in a hard case, after a particularly difficult flight journey which involved an unscheduled extra night in Dublin because of heavy snowfalls in Europe.

Dublin airport was hellish – there were still people arriving even after they’d cancelled all flights and declared the place closed!

Since moving in here and becoming a British expat living in USA, things have gone pretty well, however.  We bought a step-down voltage box, which enables me to plug in and use things such as my British toothbrush re-charger and hair clippers.  The furniture situation here is generally pretty good, although there are one or two changes that we’re thinking of making in the medium term that will provide some extra storage space for my possessions.

I have even begun to buy some new stereo equipment.  I bought an amplifier with giftcard money kindly given to me as a leaving present by work colleagues at my old job, and I’ve bought some speakers with some money I made with Mechanical Turk.  I’m using the tv’s DVD player plugged into the amp to play CDs.  I am now trying to convince my wife that having high quality audio is a priority for any household and that we are now in desperate need of a subwoofer box to fill out the bass end of the sound.  It might not be easy(!)

All I want is a non US citizen bank account!

You’d think it would be easy!  Having jumped through all the hoops presented to me by the USCIS in order to get my immigration visa, I rather naively expected it wouldn’t be too much of a problem getting a non US citizen bank account.  Especially as all I wanted was to be added to my wife, Abby’s account as a joint account holder.  But when Abby rang up her branch’s information hotline to ask them what I.D. we should take along to our local branch, the people at the other end seemed bewildered.  Yes, I was a resident but not a citizen, she told them.  No, I didn’t have a social security number, but I could prove my identity and legal entry to the country with my passport and visa stamp.  Yes, we had a marriage licence to prove that we had recently been married in the US (Florida).

After a conversation that went on for nearly thirty minutes, with Abby being passed around five different departments, she was finally told that provided we took along my passport and visa, plus our marriage certificate and my wife’s social security card, the branch would add me to her bank account.  As Abby works fulltime, the only time we could make it to the bank was Saturday morning.  We got there, with all our documents and information not foreseeing any problems, but the young woman who served us seemed completely confused and uncomfortable.  We went through the same questions that my wife had answered during her 30 minute phone call with our young server getting more and more uneasy.  You’ve heard of the expression, “rabbit in the headlamps”?  Anyway, eventually she disappeared for ten minutes.  When she came back she told us that she’d spoken to the deputy manager and I couldn’t have a bank account unless I had both a US Social Security Card and a US green card, because of the Patriot Act.  That was it.

I looked it up when I got home, using the expats.com website, which is my bible on immigration matters.  Rather than going into the ins and outs of the Patriot Act, I’ll quote from britishexpats.com: “Under the Patriot Act, banks are required to 'know their customers' as part of anti-money laundering provisions. Most banks have adopted policies that require at least a Social Security Number before you can open a bank account IF YOU ARE A US CITIZEN, along with some other forms of identification and proof of residence. Citizens of other countries have different procedures, such as passport numbers or drivers licenses or other things to prove they are who they are.”  According to Britishexpats.com the problem of immigrants wrongly being turned down for accounts is really common, with lots of American bank workers not knowing their own rules!

Me with my British bank card.  I naively expected that getting an American one wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

There is no direct equivalent of a social security number in the UK (where I’m from).  The nearest equivalent is probably our National Insurance number, but we only really use that for when we get a job, pay tax, or claim benefits.  The US social security number (SSN) is used much more extensively.  As well as being used for jobs and benefits and tax, the US Social Security Card is also used as proof of ID for many, many things, including opening a bank account, if you’re an American citizen.  I decided to go about getting one.

The Social Security office was pretty similar to a British one in most respects, with an atmosphere of dowdiness, boredom and despair hanging over it.  The only two differences were that firstly you are checked over for guns before you entered (I am beginning to realise that this is a regular occurrence in USA, they even made us go through airport-style security before we were married!) and secondly, the overwhelming proportion of claimants were Afro-Americans (which maybe says something about the general structure of the US socio-economically?).  Anyway, after a long wait, they called my number and all went well.  I received my social security card 10 days later.  Yippee.  But what I really wanted was a bank account!

Three weeks after our first attempt to get a joint account and armed with the same I.D. as last time plus my brand new social security card, we set off to Abby’s bank.  Following our treatment the last time, however, we elected to go to a different branch on this occasion.  The difference in our experience was remarkable.  Our server this time was a friendly chap called Marcus.  He was relaxed and seemed to know what he was doing.  He photocopied our forms, got us to sign some printouts and that was it.  Apparently, I will be sent a bank card very soon.  I won’t believe it until I’m holding it in my hands though!

My new UK expat blog: I got my K1 Fiance Visa, now I'm living in the USA!

Arrival

Welcome to my new UK expat blog!  It’s been a packed 6 weeks since I arrived to start my new life and began living in the USA.  Once I'd got through my K1 Fiance Visa interview and received my immigrant visa from the USA Embassy in the UK, my plan was to come over to Florida in time for Christmas.  But I nearly didn’t make it, due to the heavy snow in Europe and I had to spend an unscheduled extra 24 hours at Dublin Airport en route from the UK to Florida.  I should have guessed what was about to happen when I saw the flakes fluttering down onto the runway as we came in from Manchester.  The worst thing was that they made us board the plane (pictured below) and wait around, before ordering us off it again 2 hours later.  Then they told us that they were closing the airport down because of the weather and we had to leave the building complex.

It’s no fun being amongst a crowd of angry and upset people, especially when there are thousands of them, it’s snowing heavily outside, you don’t have a penny of the local currency, you’re lugging around two heavy suitcases, one carry-on and a large guitar, and you’ve no idea where you’re going to sleep that night!  On top of that there were people still arriving at the airport, unaware that the authorities were trying to evacuate it, due to fears of overcrowding!

Anyway, it all worked out in the end, I got a lift to a hotel in a van full of Americans and Irish and my plane was rescheduled for the next day.  Aer Lingus have since told me that they’re going to refund my accommodation expenses.  I’d always fancied visiting Dublin, but that wasn’t what I had in mind!

Marriage

The journey to Orlando was uneventful after that and I came through customs without any problems, although it was pretty time-consuming.  Upon arriving in the US port of entry on a k1 fiance visa, the official kept telling me that I needed to get married within 90 days, or I’d be kicked out of the country.  I told him that I was aware of the US immigrant visa restrictions and that, despite not having fixed a date for the ceremony, I planned to get married very soon! 

Abby and I have been seeing each other for over three years, ever since we met on MySpace.  We were both involved with the poetry/writing scene there and became romantically involved, communicating with webcams on Skype each evening.  Six months later I flew over to the US and we met in person for the first time!  It was a little nerve-wracking, but luckily we hit it off.  After that we met up every 4 months, me visiting there and Abby and her daughter coming to the UK.  But living three thousand miles apart was never going to be a serious long-term option, so I applied for a fiancé visa.

We tied the knot a month ago in mid-January.

Money and Poetry

I had to give up a decent job to move over here (I worked for the library service back in Yorkshire) and am currently unemployed.  I brought some savings with me, but psychologically I feel a little self-conscious about not having any income coming in.  So I thought I’d look into ways of earning online and came across Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.  It looked interesting.  I’ve since blogged about it on hubpages (I’ve posted the cheesy pic I used for the blog below! Hehe!), basically you perform tasks on your computer and receive small payments that you exchange for Amazon giftcards.  The first day I tried it I did a dozen tasks and received the grand sum of 34 cents!  I now make about $9 on a good day, which usually takes up 2 or 3 hours of my morning.  It doesn’t make a massive difference to the household finances, but it does pay for a few little luxuries that we wouldn't have had otherwise! 

I’ve also been involving myself with the local writing and poetry scene, performing a couple of readings at a local café bar with Abby, and have also made moves to do some (unpaid) work with a local writer’s group, which I’m looking forward to!


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