Looking forward to work
My green card came in the mail today, we are hoping that my SS card will come in the mail next week. So I can get a driver license and start looking for a job. We thought I might need to go back to school to get an IL teaching credential in order to teach in the public school system. I have checked out the website of the local university and a university that offers online degree. But we found out from a woman who used to be a math instructor at the local university and community college that I should be able to teach at the local university and community college with my foreign masters degree.
The local university and community college are not currently advertising any vacancies looking for math instructors. I may just apply for a clerical or secretarial job first. I think I have enough administrative, computer and clerical experience to handle clerical and secretarial job. :-)
*This blog post is based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.
Filed under migration, slice of life | Comment (0)Election day and Social Security office sucks
Today is the presidential election day and T’s day off from work. He voted early so we could go down to the nearest social security office to inquire on the status of my Social Security Numbers (SSN) and Social Security Card. The car park at polling station was full even though it’s 6.30 a.m. Either because many people were exercising their rights before they started work or they thought it would be less people early in the morning!
The nearest local Social Security office took about two hours to and fro, we would prefer to find out the status through phone if someone would pick up the darn phone at the Social Security office. We waited 30 minutes in line, was told the woman who processed our application was on leave and we would not get any information other than the Immigration Services had validated my data.
Though the woman who talked to us was all polite, you know she didn’t care and would not go an inch further. She could have go ahead to assign the SSN or corrected the mistake in my name, but she choose to do nothing. The Social Security office at this location sucks, the people work there are worst than Malaysian government servants.
Filed under migration, slice of life | Comment (1)Employment opportunities at the local community college
It has been more than four weeks now, have not received the SSN and green card in the mail yet. There are a lot of things cannot be done without the SSN, can’t take the driving test, can’t open a bank account and can’t apply for jobs. I spent most of the time organize the home and taking care of the blogs.
The first two weeks, I did check out information on how to get a teaching license in IL i.e browsing the website of the local university and some of the universities that offer online college courses. It seems would need to go back to school for at least one year to be able to teach in the public school system here.
Then, met a woman who used to teach in the local community college, she told me that I could apply to teach in the college or university with a masters degree. She has a masters degree in math and was working as an math instructor before she quit to stay home with her children.
It’s good to know that! I will be looking out for employment opportunities at the local community college and university!
**This blog post is based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.
Filed under migration, slice of life | Comment (0)The immigration services screwed up again
It has been two weeks since the IR1 visa is activated at the port of entry, hopefully the welcome letter, social security and green card will come in the mail soon. It might be some kind of delay since the name was messed up in the system again!
We went down to the social security office last Tuesday to apply for Social Security Number. Was told the name shown in their computer system in different format from the passport and visa. The clerk told us she would need to verify with immigration services on that and would not be able to give me the SSN until then.
It’s not the first time that this bureaucrats behaved that their left hands do not know what their right hands were doing. Though they deal with immigrants everyday, they just refused to learn that not everyone followed the American way when it comes to names. Many other cultures have their names arranged in different format i.e. family name first then given name or some just do not have middle names.
You would think in this computer age, all the immigrant data can be transmitted electronically from the immigration services to social security. Apparently not! I was asked to show every damned document presented to immigration services again! We sent one whole stack of this documents to immigration services and the consulate office, could you imagine all this paperwork created as millions of immigrants migrated to America every year. May be they should engage some IT consultants like New York IT Consulting to give the archaic computer system a much needed upgrade and integrate the different agencies involved in a way that reduce paperwork!
Filed under migration | Comment (0)First day of reunion
Arrived at Chicago Airport at 1.30 p.m and the immigration and custom process was quick, got out at 2.05 p.m, merely 35 minutes after arrival! The big boy was not there yet when I got out of the arrival hall with my luggage. But didn’t have to wait long as he arrived about 5 minutes later.
Got a hot shower, rested a bit and dropped by the in laws’ house to give them the gifts. Theywere watching the baseball game on the TV but have the voice muted so we could talk.
Filed under migration, slice of life | Comment (0)
