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DV 2015 Oceania winners

martinskypemartin said:
Dear @alwaysrose123 @SusieQQQ @Sm1smom I sincerely apologize for my question snowball! But on the other hand I got a really frank and honest discussion of the topic, and value all that has been said. It has really made me wake up and think of things in a different light - I have a lot to learn about the US school system - actually not so much the system but the politics and real-world end-effects of the choices made for our kids in the system. Yes, we absolutely do it for the kids. Thanks once again. And for what it is worth - I really appreciate all your candid personal disclosures. It is not easy with strangers in a public forum, and I want you to know that I treat this with a great deal of respect. Thank you. Martin.
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Sm1smom said:
No Martin, you don't owe me an apology. I narrated my personal experience as a means of showing Susie and Rose that they could agree to disagree - having lived in the U.S. for about 10 years now and having a first hand experience of the educational system, I see both the valid points and the flaws in their personal stand on the issue. Apparently my effort didn't have the intended effect on either party.

And of course I also went personal as a means of benefiting some observing third party. I'm glad to know you where able to pick a thing or two from it.
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I do however need to apologize for allowing my emotions to get the better of me, which happened following the uncalled for post about the slide in morals which is unsubstantiated, vague (one person's moral decay is another's human rights, like gay marriage) and entirely misses the point that religious or not, the primary place children learn morals and values is in the home, not at school. So an unreserved apology to the thread for my reactions, and I'll probably be taking a bit of a break to cool off as I don't seem to have the ability to just ignore certain a people like I should! Peace out.
 
EmilyW said:
And good luck to @Smeeggy!
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Hi Guys,

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the helpful information and well wishes from Emily :)

Approved as well and very similar to Kiel with the process.

documents checked a few times and interview questions were very informal and was finished really quick. the longest part was queuing to pay at the cashier and waiting for the US consulate to open!
 
Smeeggy said:
Hi Guys,

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the helpful information and well wishes from Emily :)

Approved as well and very similar to Kiel with the process.

documents checked a few times and interview questions were very informal and was finished really quick. the longest part was queuing to pay at the cashier and waiting for the US consulate to open!
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Easiest way to get a Green Card, by far!
 
2NL received! Literally 10 minutes after I got off the phone from KCC (because I was a little impatient).

All set for our June interview in London!
 
SusieQQQ said:
Yes have heard Bank of America doesn't need SSN or proof of address to open, I know people who have opened accounts there just using passports.

Funnily enough my banker (different bank) also won the DV lottery!!!!
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Hi SusieQQQ, are we able to open an account with Bank of America online or do we need to be physically present?
 
Maisy said:
Hi SusieQQQ, are we able to open an account with Bank of America online or do we need to be physically present?
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I've opened US bank accounts online but this was only after a year or so. In your case, you'll need to be physically present since there is no record of you in any of the systems ie they can't cross-reference you against ChexSystems, Experian, TransUnion etc.

(btw anyone intending on moving to Colorado, don't bother with BoA since they only have a single branch in the entire state, try Chase, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Citi.)
 
Nikilee_nik said:
Yay! I got my interview too! 9 June :)

How much earlier did everyone do their medical tests? Is it possible to only do it a day before so I don't have to travel to Sydney twice? Or should I do it a couple of weeks before?

Thanks all :)
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Why would you have to go to Sydney for your medical? Is there no suitable doctors where you are?
 
MattWatt said:
Why would you have to go to Sydney for your medical? Is there no suitable doctors where you are?
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Unfortunately not :( I'm in Canberra and there are no authorised panel physicians here. It's only a 3 hour drive each way, but definitely need to prepare since it will take a whole day to go up and back.
 
Hershal said:
In regards to getting your SSN sent to Australia. I don't think they will directly send it from the office. We even had issues getting it sent to New York while attempting to apply for it in Florida. (However we have been told that this is lies as it can be done, anyways sending internationally I don't know).

We applied for the DV through a German Agency, as my wife has been doing it for years. To be honest they have been extremely helpful. We were able to use their address in New York to send our green cards and SSN. (Still Waiting) then they will forward them off to Australia for us. We couldn't of done it any other way as we didn't know any one in the US or have a postal address.

Now when it comes to the bank accounts. Yes you will need a postal address. They don't want to see proof, just it can't be a PO Box or anything like that. The only mail that comes to the address is our Debit Cards and our Secured Credit Cards. We then asked for everything to be paperless. We had to set up a mail forwarding postal address for this. Again people have said no to do this but we really had no other option if we wanted our secured cards sent to Australia and our Bank Account setup. You don't need your SSN to open your Bank Account, however you will need to attach it to the Secured cards once you have them so you can start building a credit score (if you are going to go down this path).

Once we have received all our Cards etc we will be shutting down our mail forwarding address.

WE managed to get these things sorted on our activation trip. Make sure you go to the SSA (Social Security Agency) and make sure that they have been processed. We had to redo our as the auto fill on the DS-260 didn't work (Surprise). It apparently only takes 2-3 weeks to be issued and sent.

I know its a lot of fussing around, but I do believe it will be beneficial for us so we can build our score while we are in Australia for the next 8 months.

On a side note and don't know how true it is I was told by the agency that handled our DV Visa and who is forwarding our green card and SSN to us that you can apply for a SSN at a US embassy in your home Country. If someone could confirm the accuracy of this it would be great. For us the information came after we already went to the US to activate and apply so it was pointless for us.

Hope it helps
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Thanks hershal, was it hard to get a secured credit card at bank of america and what was the minimum deposit required? Did you get the debit card on the spot or will both cards be sent to the German agency you are using? Did you go into a USA postal service to set up the mail forwarding address, or is it part of the service the agency provides?
 
sorry in advance for my retarded questions lol. I'm in a similar situation of not having a reliable residential address to send my green card to. My so called American Facebook friends are not being very helpful unfortunately. One will give me his address but not his phone number lol. There's an advert on los Angeles craigslist to use a letterbox residential address for 50 a month. May have no other option
 
james mathers said:
sorry in advance for my retarded questions lol. I'm in a similar situation of not having a reliable residential address to send my green card to. My so called American Facebook friends are not being very helpful unfortunately. One will give me his address but not his phone number lol. There's an advert on los Angeles craigslist to use a letterbox residential address for 50 a month. May have no other option
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If your friend will let you use his address then I'd do that and maybe buy an american sim card online for the phone number.
 
thanks GG, the easiest part of this whole process was the interview and getting the actual greencard lol....the actual move is a whole other series of issues. I should go in head first like ozimattskey and suicide blonde. Have the "I'll figure things out as I go along" attitude.are there any reccommended immigration support services that assist in the early stages?
 
james mathers said:
Thanks hershal, was it hard to get a secured credit card at bank of america and what was the minimum deposit required? Did you get the debit card on the spot or will both cards be sent to the German agency you are using? Did you go into a USA postal service to set up the mail forwarding address, or is it part of the service the agency provides?
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We needed a "Physical Postal Address" to open our bank accounts at BoA. We ended up getting a joint account and a savings account opened. To start with they require a $100 deposit to open the account which we did, plus you need to have $300 for a secured credit card so all up minimum it was $700 for the 2 secured cards and the initial $100 deposit. We ended up putting more in there as you need to keep a minimum balance of $1500 a month so you don't get slugged $12 fee every month or deposit $250 per month to the account. Our Debit Cards we did not get straight away but we did get a "temporary" card to start with which we didn't bother using. The cards got sent to the Mail forwarding address. We are still waiting for them to come to Australia as we only send the mail once a month other wise it would be costly. The Secured credit cards we have not got yet, we are again waiting on our SSN to arrive before we set these up, again they will be sent to the Mail forwarding place and then on to us. One thing to keep in mind is that you must fill in a form and get it signed by a notary in the US to allow them to forward your mail. It is a USPS thing.

Hope this helps
 
@james mathers
Also, I should elaborate some more. We actually have TWO different mailing addresses. When we applied for the Lottery we used an agency as I mentioned, when we won and filled in our DS-260 we used their address as the place to send the Green Card - They are in New York.

Now when we entered the US last month to activate we went to the Social Security Agency in Florida and were told that a) our SSN was not proccessed and we need to do it again, and b) we were unable to use a New York Address to send our SSN to and it needed to be a Florida Address, We have since found out that this was probably lies. Anyways. We wanted to open Bank Accounts too and Since we were in Florida, they required a Florida Address. So, we ended up looking online for a mail forwarding company (there is a few, just have a look, they are not the cheapest idea but they are the only option we had so we could continue to move forward). So we signed up for this as well. Once we signed up we were emailed a form to fill out and get Notarised to allow them to forward mail. We ended up getting it done at BoA while we were setting up our accounts.
We were lucky enough that we were going through New York for 2 days on the way home, we went to the SSA there and filled in our application for a SSN and go it sent to the New York address (German Green Card Agency)

So our Bank Cards go to the Mail forwarding address (Which is based in Florida) and our Green Card and SSN go to our German Agency based in New York. We didn't want to send anything else to the agency as they really are only a green card agency and not a place to send all your mail. Anyways thats the way we did it.

You could always just set up the one Mail forwarding address and use it for everything. But look into it first and if its for you. Don't take my advice on it as I haven't been using it long enough to find out if its Good or Bad.

Once I receive mail from them Ill let you know. We have only had it for a month so we requested the mail be sent yesterday to Australia (If there is any).

Regards
 
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