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DV 2015 Oceania winners

guestgulkan said:
Two more tricks:
  • Get a 28Degrees credit card (Australian Credit Card). It has no FX fees and seems to use the mid-market rate from my tests. Use it to buy all your furniture and everything. The net result is you've transferred your money for free-ish. Not suitable for cash withdrawals.
  • Get a Citibank Debit card (Australian Citibank). It has no FX fees on ATM transactions. Use this when withdrawing cash however you need to avoid the local US ATM Fees if possible, maybe at a US Citibank.
Or alternatively, my normal practice is to just leave my money where it is. You could just leave it in Australia as a nice little parachute incase things go pear shaped and you want to bail.
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I have the 28 Degrees card and plan to use it as much as we can for purchases.... the only tough thing will be needing cash for a rental deposit/rent up front & quite a large amount of $ for my husband to buy a car as well :/ (my credit limit is very low!)
 
jaynin said:
I received my passport and visa with the sealed envelope today, less than 1 week after the interview, including public holiday considerations. I was surprised there was no welcome pack or instructions on how to pay the the USCIS Immigration Visa fee. I guess I will work it out but would have been helpful to have this information, regardless, I feel very pleased to see the visa and passport… by the look on my face in the visa photo, they probably wanted to get it out quick smart!!! Stunned Mullet indeed!!!
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Sydney does seem a bit slack from the reports here.. A number of other embassies give info about the immigrant fee. Anyway, you can find all you need here: http://www.uscis.gov/forms/uscis-immigrant-fee
(Cj27, you are confusing the interview fee with the immigrant fee - the latter is only paid by those who are successfully issued visas)
 
jaynin said:
I received my passport and visa with the sealed envelope today, less than 1 week after the interview, including public holiday considerations. I was surprised there was no welcome pack or instructions on how to pay the the USCIS Immigration Visa fee. I guess I will work it out but would have been helpful to have this information, regardless, I feel very pleased to see the visa and passport… by the look on my face in the visa photo, they probably wanted to get it out quick smart!!! Stunned Mullet indeed!!!
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Damn! Why haven't I got mine yet? I always seem to get delayed.
 
Hi CJ, You are correct, I paid the Visa Fees (US $330) at the time of the interview but this is the fee for the distribution/processing of the SSN and Greencard, which is activated if the USCI fee is paid online, after you receive your visa back in your passport and before you depart for USA. ($165). On entry to US, the SSN and Green card will be processed an sent to the US address you nominate. I managed to navigate the site and pay my fee, there is a video and a lot of information on how to set up the account and pay, so it is quite straight forward.
 
Essey, I live in Sydney whereas you are interstate, so postage, especially over this Christmas and New Year (with postman's holiday 31st) may take a little longer. I will emailed the day after interview, that they had sent my passport/visa and package that day and I would be expecting the documents in the mail. I would have had next working day service living in Sydney. I hope you have a pleasant surprise in the mail very soon!!!
 
jaynin said:
Hi CJ, You are correct, I paid the Visa Fees (US $330) at the time of the interview but this is the fee for the distribution/processing of the SSN and Greencard, which is activated if the USCI fee is paid online, after you receive your visa back in your passport and before you depart for USA. ($165). On entry to US, the SSN and Green card will be processed an sent to the US address you nominate. I managed to navigate the site and pay my fee, there is a video and a lot of information on how to set up the account and pay, so it is quite straight forward.
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No, the $165 is NOT for the production/distribution of the SSN and GC. It is only for the GC alone. No fee is charged for the SSN.
 
jaynin said:
Essey, I live in Sydney whereas you are interstate, so postage, especially over this Christmas and New Year (with postman's holiday 31st) may take a little longer. I will emailed the day after interview, that they had sent my passport/visa and package that day and I would be expecting the documents in the mail. I would have had next working day service living in Sydney. I hope you have a pleasant surprise in the mail very soon!!!
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Ok that makes me feel a bit better. I'm in Melbourne and it's an Express Post envelope so it shouldn't take that much longer. They gave me the tracking sticker from the Express Post envelope which I have been refreshing religiously but hasn't been marked as posted yet, not that that is necessarily an indicator. No email either but knowing Sydney, that's not necessarily a guarantee either. Will be checking the post box tonight as soon as I get home from work!
 
Has anyone used the qantas cash card thats comes free with your frequent flyer account? Thinking about using it for transferring some cash from AUD to USD.
 
ozimattskey said:
Has anyone used the qantas cash card thats comes free with your frequent flyer account? Thinking about using it for transferring some cash from AUD to USD.
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Nope...but I imagine the rate isn't very good.. I had a look into other travel cards (commbank/velocity) and they were only giving around 0.77USD per 1AUD...
 
Has anyone who's interviewed tried looking up their number on the CEAC status check? I can't get it to work, just keeps saying Invalid Immigrant Visa Case Number.
 
Britsimon said:
I check it every day - they haven't loaded any data yet.
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Well that's annoying, especially seeing as the 'Important Notice' seems to indicate it will be updated after you get an interview. Still no passport. I know they said 1-2 weeks so I should just sit tight but now I'm getting impatient because Indollie got theirs.
 
Essey said:
Well that's annoying, especially seeing as the 'Important Notice' seems to indicate it will be updated after you get an interview. Still no passport. I know they said 1-2 weeks so I should just sit tight but now I'm getting impatient because Indollie got theirs.
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LOL Simon! Essey ours says the same thing
 
Essey said:
Well that's annoying, especially seeing as the 'Important Notice' seems to indicate it will be updated after you get an interview. Still no passport. I know they said 1-2 weeks so I should just sit tight but now I'm getting impatient because Indollie got theirs.
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Email them requesting an update - it was only after we emailed that they told us what was missing (daughters oath/other documents). Our interview date 27th Nov received visa packs 24th December. Put urgent in the subject heading, they normally respond by 10:30-11am the next morning (we had a few emails back and forth)
 
AimLK said:
Email them requesting an update - it was only after we emailed that they told us what was missing (daughters oath/other documents). Our interview date 27th Nov received visa packs 24th December. Put urgent in the subject heading, they normally respond by 10:30-11am the next morning (we had a few emails back and forth)
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Thanks for the tip - would you mind giving me the right email address?
 
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