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DV 2019 Oceania Selectees

Mathew540 said:
Ok just thought id give you a quick update. Arrived in Hawaii about an hour ago to activate our visa's all went well. As soon as you walk into the customs and border protection area and they see your envelope's they guide you to the area to be processed. They were very friendly, all they doubled checked on was our address and a contact number for the USA. They checked through all our details in the envelope's for all four of us. All up the process was about 30mins long. Thx everyone such an amazing feeling. Will be in touch in a few days once we reach Seattle
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Awesome Mathew, thanks for the update..
I leave in 2 days but will be processing through LAX - hopefully it'll be just as smooth and quick as yours (not holding my breath though lol)
 
Congratulations Matt and family I’m so excited that you’ve now gone through and can start your new life in America!

Question do you have a job lined up already.
 
Aidyn said:
Awesome Mathew, thanks for the update..
I leave in 2 days but will be processing through LAX - hopefully it'll be just as smooth and quick as yours (not holding my breath though lol)
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Can wait to hear about your experience in processing through lax Aidyn. Good luck and thank you for all of your help.
 
Mijoro said:
Congratulations Matt and family I’m so excited that you’ve now gone through and can start your new life in America!

Question do you have a job lined up already.
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Yes i have work in construction. My wife is still looking. We will sort the kids schooling out next week along with drivers license's etc.

Bob we just came over with travel insurance, we will sort out a health insurance in the next couple of weeks. Ill let you know what we get. I might be covered with my job yet.
 
For those of you with no place to stay, how are you organizing a place to stay? There are lots of online leasing places is that how you are doing it? Problem is my credit history over there is probably ten years old with nothing new.
 
Bob22 said:
For those of you with no place to stay, how are you organizing a place to stay? There are lots of online leasing places is that how you are doing it? Problem is my credit history over there is probably ten years old with nothing new.
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Leasing directly from another person might be a problem but leasing in a complex from a company is normally pretty easy. They’ll ask for a larger deposit due to lack of credit but it is refundable at the end of the lease. 7 months will be more expensive than 13 months etc.
 
Mickwford said:
Leasing directly from another person might be a problem but leasing in a complex from a company is normally pretty easy. They’ll ask for a larger deposit due to lack of credit but it is refundable at the end of the lease. 7 months will be more expensive than 13 months etc.
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Thanks, that is what I am doing. They seem quite communicative. Definitely seems to be a big jump in rent if you drop below about 10 months, so will probably just do the standard 12 months.

They are asking for me to notarize a document, does that mean I need to pay a notary public or will a JP do?
 
Bob22 said:
Thanks, that is what I am doing. They seem quite communicative. Definitely seems to be a big jump in rent if you drop below about 10 months, so will probably just do the standard 12 months.

They are asking for me to notarize a document, does that mean I need to pay a notary public or will a JP do?
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UPS has notary's - I believe there is a fee. The USA doesn't recognize JP's and I also discovered Australia doesn't recognize US Notary's.
 
Careful with online leasing agreements, there are a number of scams out there. If you do it online do as suggested above, through a management agency. I’d also suggest checking out citydata forums to ask about the areas you’re looking at in terms of anything that may be important to you- crime, commute, schools, walkability, etc.
 
Bob22 said:
For those of you with no place to stay, how are you organizing a place to stay? There are lots of online leasing places is that how you are doing it? Problem is my credit history over there is probably ten years old with nothing new.
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Have you considered staying at "Extended Stay" type of hotel for the first couple of weeks? There are plenty of options in a big city like ATX. Price is not that expensive in comparison to what you're gonna pay for rent anyway, but it'll give you comfort of being there and seeing the property before you actually sign a lease.
 
Xarthisius said:
Have you considered staying at "Extended Stay" type of hotel for the first couple of weeks? There are plenty of options in a big city like ATX. Price is not that expensive in comparison to what you're gonna pay for rent anyway, but it'll give you comfort of being there and seeing the property before you actually sign a lease.
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Extended stay are a great option just be sure to check yelp etc for reviews prior to booking in. Also if you email them for info more than likely they won’t respond so just give them a call.
 
The other option is Airbnb in the suburbs you’re interested in living in. For stays of 1 month they usually give great discounts.
 
So, the main difference between Airbnb and extended stay hotels is the latter is much more flexible if you want to leave earlier or stay longer. Check the rates, because some of them say they give you a long term discount but don’t really. We used Hyatt house (the room was a 2 bed 2 bath apartment with lounge and full kitchen, hotel had a pool and provided daily breakfast too) , booked for a month, got a great rate, found a rental sooner than we expected, checked out earlier than we had expected to - but they still honored the reduced rate, which was nice. If we’d booked Airbnb we would have been on the hook for the full month cost, and conversely may have had to move elsewhere rather than just stay on if we had taken longer than expected to find somewhere.

Also if you stay at an extended stay - make sure you’re signed up for the hotel group loyalty program. We got a pile of points from Hyatt for our stay which came in very useful for vacations!
 
Hi folks, long time lurker first time poster here. My thanks to all of you regular contributors for your information along the way! I am looking for some specific advice and wondering if anyone here can help me out.

I am a DV 2019 lottery selectee from Australia who had my interview earlier this month at the consulate. I haven't received my passport back as yet - I was waiting on medical exam results to be delivered- but I expect that my visa will be valid until the end of the August (as in, that will be the deadline for me to enter the USA and activate my LPR status). I am interested in waiting as long as I can before entering the USA, while staying within the conditions of the visa.

My two questions are:

1.
I am travelling to Canada for the month of June for work from Australia. While there are some direct flights from the east coast of oz to vancouver, many flights from Australia to Canada transit through LAX or SFO. I am wondering if anyone can tell me if transiting through LAX (say, MEL>LAX>YVR/vancouver) on a qantas flight is going to count as an entry to the USA and activate my LPR status? Or if it definitely won't, since i'll only be transiting?

&

2:
is the visa expiry date almost always 6 months from the date on your medical examination appointment? or can it be later under some circumstances?
 
Ok I figured it would have been september but no you have to go prior to your medical or your police check expiring which ever is first.
 
Thanks for all the great tips. Got some good ideas now!

Also I am curious about this police report expiry. I thought that only applied to the interview? So you also need to go before the police check expires?
 
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