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2011 DV Lottery Winners from Australia Report Here!

Ack! didn't Superkruz just do the exact same thing?? Went and activated everything and returned to Australia? Perhaps he may know the details...

And yes, thank you, we finally have a date, in the middle of May!! We just squeaked into April's bulletin for May processing which was a huge relief and lucky because it was quite a healthy jump in the numbers :) It's still a hideously stressful wait though...and so much to do...
 
TamaraM said:
Ack! didn't Superkruz just do the exact same thing?? Went and activated everything and returned to Australia? Perhaps he may know the details...
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If you are going to be absent from the US for more that 12 months you must get a re-entry permit to enter the US - you must apply for it before departing the US. For absences of less than 12 months, you'll be okay with just your Green card. From what I understand ACK is coming back to Aus for 3 months - you should be fine mate, don't stress.
 
Tamara, if you're after more info about the DV lottery you can have a look at this forum. It is a forum for South Africans moving to the USA and has a specific section for the DV lottery. It is quite informative and I learnt a lot from reading the posts on that site. Thought I would mention it as this forum can be fairly quiet at times and I also found it hard to find the exact info that I'm looking on here.
 
Good luck with the interview Tamara :) Have you had the medicals/police check done?

Superkruz, when are you intending on heading back to the States? I'm curious as to how long an absence (<12 months) is considered "acceptable" and wouldn't be considered as abandoning your green card status.
 
Ack, I am planning on going back to the US within 6 months (for a week or so) so that I maintain my continuous residence for citizenship eligibility purposes. Then I am coming back and will then move to the US within the next 6 months, ie Feb next year. From all the information I have seen there is no hard and fast rule about this but generally they dont give you any grief for the first 2 years but once it becomes apparent that you just go to the US every year for a holiday they will question you. Bottom line is that <12 should not pose a problem at all for the first time. Second time you should be okay as well but after that you're taking a risk. Also, they don't simply take your PR away unannounced - they will warn you first and if you continue to be absent from the US for prolonged periods (even if less than 6 months), you run the risk of losing PR.
 
Thanks Superkruz, very informative and much appreciated. I followed your link to the SA forums - also very helpful!

I had originally intended (and already booked my ticket) to head over "for good" in June this year. However, my work circumstances here have changed, so I am now considering going over to activate, coming back and finishing off my employment contract, and then heading back to the States. This puts me in about the September-November timeframe, which is possibly not the best time to be job hunting! Does anyone know (roughly) the months to avoid looking for IT work in the US? Besides the Christmas/NY slowdown that seems to happen here in Sydney?
 
Hello fellow DV winners. I was selected in the DV2011 but did not send my application back to KCC yet. (I know, ) but do you think that I still have a chance to have the interview before the Sept deadline/all visas are exhausted? My number is current already, so I guess that would just schedule an interview upon receipt of the forms yes?
 
hello,please i see you are in here now.could you kindly answer this bothering question on my mind?
can anyone tell me the cheapest airline to take from europe to the usa?also,is there a particular port of entry for all green card visa holders,or you could fly into any city of usa?i once heard one has to first get to new york for checking,and the n procedd to your final destination.is this true?
bboyd41@yahoo.com
 
olujojo said:
can anyone tell me the cheapest airline to take from europe to the usa?
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This is a thread for people from Australia, not Europe. Maybe post this question in a thread for people from Europe.

olujojo said:
also,is there a particular port of entry for all green card visa holders,or you could fly into any city of usa?i once heard one has to first get to new york for checking,and the n procedd to your final destination.is this true?
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This not true. You can enter at any port.
 
Region All DV Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed Separately
AFRICA 49,300

Except: Egypt 34,300
Ethiopia 28,525
Nigeria 17,150
ASIA 28,600
EUROPE 29,450 Except:
Uzbekistan 27,800
NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS) 12
OCEANIA 1,300
SOUTH AMERICA, and the CARIBBEAN 1,300


Case No : 2011AS00033XXX
1st NL Received : 30/05/2010
2nd NL Received :waiting
Status : Processing completed confirmed by KCC (04/10/2010)
Current : July
Medical :
Interview Date:
Interview successful :
Visa pickup :
POE:
GC Received :
SSN Received :
 
Hi everyone

I am sure this has been answered before, but I am at work so don't have time to read through everything.

I know you cannot take any bags into the interview. But being a woman I was wondering if the security area will look after a small bag/purse. I don't feel comfortable leaving my money, credit cards, drivers licence etc in the hotel room. If not, can you carry the above in your pocket (have to make sure I wear pants with a pocket).

Thanks
 
aussiedudette said:
... I was wondering if the security area will look after a small bag/purse. ...
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Hi aussiedudette,

Security wil certainly look after a small bag. My wife took her handbag with her for our interview and there we no problem with that. It's the standard leave your bag, recieve a tag system.

By the way, good luck with your interview... I see you're only a week or so away!
 
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Good luck at your interview tomorrow aussiedudette :)

Thanks for that link supercruz - I had a good read!

We have done our police checks, renewed passports (that were about to expire), and also gotten the dreaded medical over and done with (6 hours later!!) and are really just down to the wait...Have even sorted the documents and photocopies in the correct piles/order...Interview is 4 weeks tomorrow - hurry up!!!!!!!!!!!! Lol.

Zootfish I see you've set your flight date in your sig - ;-)
 
TamaraM said:
Zootfish I see you've set your flight date in your sig - ;-)
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Certainly do TamaraM, we booked those in last week and are getting very excited. Only 49 days to go! Right now we're trying to sell off all of our stuff and trying to get some work and a place to live sorted out.

Good luck tomorrow aussiedudette!
 
Superkruz said:
Zootfish, how did you go with job and house hunting? How did you go about securing a place to stay without being there?
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Just to clarify, I haven't yet secured either a job OR a place to live... but we're making progress.

A few weeks ago I uploaded my CV to a couple of different job sites, namely Career Builder and Monster. Since then I've had contact from 7 different recruitment agents about job positions. Unfortunately, all of those positions were for immediate start however I've called each of the recruiters and explained my position and so far they've all been very understanding and have said they will be back in contact as my time of arrival gets closer.

As for accommodation, we've been doing a lot of looking on http://www.apartments.com/ to see what's around. Next step is going to be to call a few of the places we've found and talk to them about our situation as well. Hopefully they'll be just as understanding as the recruiters have been.

Our current plan is to try and find a very basic, cheap apartment for the first 3 months just so that we can get ourselves settled a bit. Then we'll have a look for something more suitable to live in permanently.

One last link to round things off. Robert Half recruitment have a list of salary guides available for various industries here: Global Salary Guides. I've found the Technology one to be very helpful in figuring out what I should be looking for in terms of salary.
 
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Zootfish,
thanks for the Global salary guides link, it made for some interesting reading. I am an accountant and sadly the salaries in the US are significantly lower than those in Australia. I hope the salaries in your industry are more similar to those in Aus.

Let me know how you go with securing short term accommodation as I will be in the same position as you in the not too distant future.

By the way, if you're going to make calls to the US, you should check out Google Voice. I have a Gmail account (with Google Voice installed) and can make calls to US landlines and mobiles for free directly from my Gmail account. It is very handy to be able to call and talk for as long as you like without worrying about the cost of the call.
 
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