Moving to a new culture
With the I-130 petition being approved and forwarded to the consulate, the immigrant visa interview will be coming up real soon. If nothing goes wrong and the case does not get caught in the dark hole a.k.a. infamous administrative processing (AP), the visa should be in hand before the end of August. So, I should be leaving for IL one or two weeks after that, depending on the availability of air ticket.
When we got married three years ago, the big boy agreed to live here for a couple of years before we move back to US. But, he changed his mind after being here for one and half year, he was afraid that he would not be able to get a job after being away for too long.
Moving to another country to start a new life in a new culture is not an easy thing. It was difficult for the big boy and I am sure they will be equal amount of challenges to overcome and adaptations to make. Learning about all the baseball lingo, going for baseball games with his family or even put on the Baseball Gloves to join them for a game or two might be just one of those cultural things that I have to get used to. :-)
The cold winter in IL is going to be a major challenge for a person who comes from the tropics. Need to get more warm clothings and insulate myself well to avoid the dragged joint pain and frozen legs due to cold. Fortunately, the big boy likes Asian food and my cooking, no need to change my diet pattern or cooking habits to accommodate him.
Filed under migration | Comment (0)Study cosmetology to be a hairdresser
The big boy told me nowadays the hairdressers also do nails in the small town we are going to live. He thinks they are more and more this kind of saloons everywhere in America and it seems they usually hire Vietnamese girls to work there.
I wonder why? Is it because not many American girls want to work in the saloons? In fact, one can learn how to do nails, blow, cut and dye hair at a beauty school. It’s not difficult to get a job considering the demand for workers is always very high. Though it’s hard work and a service oriented job, it’s a job that pays quite well!
Filed under buzz | Comment (0)NVC approved the expedite request
Good news ! National Visa Center (NVC) has approved the expedite request filed a week ago. The approved I-130 petition will be forwarded to KL shortly. The NVC rep confirmed on the phone that we are to pay the fees and submit the documents to the consulate for further processing. NVC will send the file with DHL express mail and it will take about 3-4 days to reach KL consulate.
The next step is to wait for the consulate to mail me a package of forms and a checklist for documents submission. At the same time, the big boy has to mail the Affidavit of Support package which will contain the I-864 AOS form, his tax transcripts, pay stubs and employment letter to me. He also needs to mail all the proofs of bone fide of marriage.
I have him mail me the letter that has my name on his health insurance plan, the statements of the checking account to show co-mingling of our finances, photos and affidavits from his parents.
See, all the hoops and loops we have to jump through in order to prove to Uncle Sam that we are a genuine couple, not of a sham marriage. All due to some black sheep who use sham marriages for green cards, honest people like us got stuck and scrutinized to no end.
Filed under migration | Comment (0)De-stressing from the endless waiting
The slow expedite processing (what an oxymoron!) and a procrastinating husband are good stress inducer. But, stressing myself up doesn’t help to move things along any faster, why bother? Taking a step backward, went for a facial treatment today. It’s more rewarding to treat yourself nice!
Have been thinking about taking advantage of the airfare promotion to take a short trip to Hong Kong. It’s a sure distraction from all this endless waiting. Going on Caribbean cruises may be far fetched, but the air tickets to Hong Kong by AirAsia is quire low this days, should I?
Filed under slice of life | Comment (1)Free medical applications for doctors
How many doctors you know are tech savvy? I think many of us don’t view the doctors as tech-geeks. However, you may be surprise in actual fact more than 50% of doctors own a PDA (personal digital assistant) or smart phone.
Nowadays, many doctors also have medical softwares installed on their PDAs. Epocrates, Inc., a software company even come out with free medical applications for iphone. Since Epocrates’ medical reference software is now used by over 500,000 healthcare professionals. Having a pocket-size device with medical software in the lab coat may just be part of the uniform one day.
**This announcement was paid for by Epocrates.
Filed under buzz | Comment (0)
