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(!)

Red Tape Blues – My experience of the K-1 Fiance Visa process

Making the leap

One of the toughest things about moving to another country is the bureaucracy that you have to deal with.  Abby and I knew that we’d have to jump through hoops to get me over to the USA, but we didn’t quite appreciate how time-consuming, expensive and downright frustrating  my experience of the K-1 fiance visa process would turn out to be!

The process began a year ago after we both decided that enough was enough and that it was finally time for one of us to make the leap and emigrate.  Abby and I had been seeing each other for three years by then and although webcams and cross-Atlantic trips are useful and great fun, eventually pretty much all long distance relationships require that one or both members of a couple move so that they can be physically together on an everyday basis.  After some discussion, it was decided that I would the one to move, Abby has the complication of having a thirteen year old child, whereas I am childless, plus I fancied the adventure of a major life change.  So we downloaded the K1 visa application forms and begin the visa application process.

Abby and I in 2007 - My First Trip to Florida!

Filling out the forms

There are 22 different types of US visas for people wanting to go to there.  I opted for the K1 fiance visa.  Work and study visas are more common and easier to get, but the K1 fiance visa was appropriate for me because as well as allowing me to marry Abby in the US, it is also an immigrant visa – that means that once I’ve gone through the entire process (including an Adjustment of Status in the US) I can live in the US indefinitely.  With a work visa, I could get into the US okay (provided I’d sorted out a job there) but then I could only stay if I continued to do that specific job, if I lost it, or wanted another job, I’d have to leave the country and then apply for another visa!

Most of the questions on the visa application forms were pretty much what I expected.  They were repetitive and a little intrusive, but I appreciated that the US Government was bound to be careful about who they let into their country.  A couple of the questions did make me smile, however.  The first was one that enquired whether I had experience of bomb-making, chemical warfare, or nuclear technology?  The jester in me was tempted to joke on the form that I had built a couple of nuclear bombs in my spare time when I was at college, but I managed to restrain myself.  The second was one asking me what the name of my “tribe” was?  Us country folk from the wilds of northern England are used to being labelled “sheep-shaggers”, but we did manage to progress beyond our tribal stage some time ago!  I therefore stated, rather emphatically, that I was without a tribe (which provided my embassy interviewer with some amusement later!)

Once all the forms were in, Abby and I waited for 2 months while they were checked over in the US.  When that was done they sent all the forms to the American Embassy in London (I’m a Brit, remember!)  Then we waited around for another 6 months before the embassy sent me a letter inviting me to book a k1 fiance visa medical exam.

The Medical

The penultimate stage of the process involved me taking a K1 Fiance Visa medical examThis meant me booking a day off work, making the 200 mile train journey down to London, finding my way to the expensive district where the medical practise is base, sitting around in their waiting room for ages, paying them £200 for a 15 minute examination and a chest x-ray, then going back home on the train that evening so that I could be at work the next morning.  (By the way, 200 miles is a long way for English people, I know it’s just a mini jaunt in the USA! Hehe!)

The medical went well, anyway.  I discovered that I didn’t have tuberculosis, my blood pressure was normal, and my private parts were all in good order!

The American Embassy

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I got my letter from the American Embassy inviting me for a K1 fiance visa interview.  This signalled that I was into the final straight!  My idea of the embassy was somewhat romantic, however.  In my mind’s eye, it was a rather grand place, a hangout for sophisticated diplomats, where I would be summoned into a plush office and grilled by a pair of smart men in dark suits…



The US Embassy, London (source: Veedar) 



The reality was rather different, of course.  The building looked somewhat grim and grey from the outside, with only the famous eagle attached to the front to give it any gravitas.  On top of that, it was surrounded by anti car bomb defences and mean-looking cops with semi-automatics, (understandable, I suppose, given that the building is probably pretty high on Al Qaeda’s hitlist, but still intimidating!)  Once I’d served my 30 minutes in the queue outside, I discovered that the inside was no better.  The experience reminded me of sitting in a rather run down and soulless British social security office.  You get your ticket with the number on it and you wait and wait and wait…

When I did finally get my visa interview it was at a stand-up hatch, not in a private room, and the person who dealt with me looked more like an office worker, than a dapper CIA agent.  My papers were gone through, then I went back to my seat for another long wait.  Eventually, I handed over a few hundred more quid (I'd lost count by then!) and they told me that my papers would be despatched to me by post.

Does it never end?

So I am now in the US and happily married.  But unfortunately my entanglement with red tape is not over yet.  I have to apply for an Adjustment of Status next.  At the time of writing I am waiting for a phone call I made to a doctor’s office to be returned.  I need to get my vaccination records, which were put together at my medical in London, validated by a doctor here in Florida.  There are more forms to fill out, more documentary evidence to collect, more time and money to spend.  Wish me luck!

Read me at Hubpages

Follow me at Twitter

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!


Follow me on Twitter and Hubpages