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The "been there done that" thread: life in the US after DV

Britsimon said:
AGAIN. YOU ARE CONFUSED. It would be helpful to the conversation if you could realize that.

ACA healthcare Plans are insurance plans that meet the standards prescribed by the ACA which is the current law. ACA qualifying plans are available to brand new immigrants, even outside of the open enrollment period either through the exhanges or via employment and so on.

Medicaid is a public assistance program for low income individuals. So NO it is not for everyone to register. PLEASE READ the link below.

https://www.healthcare.gov/immigrants/lawfully-present-immigrants/
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Ok. Now I understood. You are saying she can get any insurance she wants however under ACA it will cover her son pre existing conditions.
 
tinaina said:
Ok. Now I understood. You are saying she can get any insurance she wants however under ACA it will cover her son pre existing conditions.
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You keep saying things in a way that makes me think you still don't understand.

So - I taking your sentance and changing it I would say.
"she can get any insurance she wants and it will cover her son pre existing conditions."

Everyone living here is "obliged" to have health insurance (although people not yet "living" here could choose to defer that if they wanted to take that risk). Every "proper" healthcare policy has to comply with certain requirements that were introduced under ACA such as "Minimum essential coverage". Pre-existing conditions were also required as minimum coverage except for grandfathered in plans. Therefore, with a few exceptions EVERY plan someone looks at will be an ACA compliant plan, which covers a set of 10 essential coverages AND covers preexisting conditions.

https://www.healthcare.gov/fees/plans-that-count-as-coverage/
 
The heath insurance system here is a pretty big blight on an otherwise fantastic country. I have a guy at work who hates his job but is too scared to leave because it has a good health insurance plan (he's still paying $500 a month for his family though).
 
Bob22 said:
The heath insurance system here is a pretty big blight on an otherwise fantastic country. I have a guy at work who hates his job but is too scared to leave because it has a good health insurance plan (he's still paying $500 a month for his family though).
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And it would probably be around $1800 for the same plan if he did it privately.
 
Happy to announce that, only a few months after getting my Green Card, I have a job interview for somewhere I could stay forever. Great pay, 401k, rostering flexibility and medical benefits included. Super stoked for the opportunity. Hoping it happens for me, but it's still so awesome to even be doing it, irrespective of the outcome.
 
Hi Guys,

I have 2 questions:

1- For you green card holders who travel in and out of the US, do you always carry your passport along with your GC ? and is it usually checked/stamped upon arrival ? I just saw on the CBP website that we don't need to show the passport and that the GC is enough.

2- In some airports, like LAX for example, upon arrival, passport control is automated, I had a machine read my tourist visa last year. How will they control then if you stay out of the US for over a year ? Maybe the machine will detect and defer you to be controlled by an immigration officer ? (out of curiosity)

Thanks!
 
Kassem said:
Hi Guys,

I have 2 questions:

1- For you green card holders who travel in and out of the US, do you always carry your passport along with your GC ? and is it usually checked/stamped upon arrival ? I just saw on the CBP website that we don't need to show the passport and that the GC is enough.

2- In some airports, like LAX for example, upon arrival, passport control is automated, I had a machine read my tourist visa last year. How will they control then if you stay out of the US for over a year ? Maybe the machine will detect and defer you to be controlled by an immigration officer ? (out of curiosity)

Thanks!
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Yes, you always carry your passport, mainly because you can’t go anywhere else without it and airlines want it as proof of ID even if the US doesn’t need it.

And yes the machines know when a human is required, lol, otherwise imagine who and what would get through the border if they just let anyone in because they scanned a travel document. By the way you go through a separate line once you are a LPR.
 
SusieQQQ said:
Yes, you always carry your passport, mainly because you can’t go anywhere else without it and airlines want it as proof of ID even if the US doesn’t need it.

And yes the machines know when a human is required, lol, otherwise imagine who and what would get through the border if they just let anyone in because they scanned a travel document. By the way you go through a separate line once you are a LPR.
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Yes definitely I need a passport to travel. but since I have 2 passports (dual citizenship), my point was to avoid renewal of my GC-linked passport in case they don't need it upon arrivals to the US. This way I can use my other passport.

re separate lines for LPR, yeah, I remember at LAX, a woman shouting: Citizens and greencards to the left, visa to the right lol :)
 
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Someone told me in the past that it's not a good idea to use 2 passports in the US anyway, if you're a LPR, apparently it confuses the whole system and will get you extra scrutiny from immigration... So maybe better renew the original passport and avoid that :)
 
Kassem said:
Someone told me in the past that it's not a good idea to use 2 passports in the US anyway, if you're a LPR, apparently it confuses the whole system and will get you extra scrutiny from immigration... So maybe better renew the original passport and avoid that :)
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Really? Considering all nationalities would have been disclosed in the DS260 etc I can't imagine why it would be a problem any more than using a new one after the old "GC linked" (you mean the one the immigrant visa was put in, I guess?) expired?
 
SusieQQQ said:
Really? Considering all nationalities would have been disclosed in the DS260 etc I can't imagine why it would be a problem any more than using a new one after the old "GC linked" (you mean the one the immigrant visa was put in, I guess?) expired?
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I agree. I used to travel a lot and at one time had two passports (from the same country). This was when visa processing could take substantial time for some countries, and so you might not have a passport for travel if you had only one. It is a little unusual, but my government had a process to follow and provide justification for your need. I also cleared it with the country I was living in at the time as a PR, and they were fine with it. There was never a problem coming in and out of the US (naturally, I used the same passport in and out each trip, although not the same passport for different trips). A German colleague had three passports (he was a really heavy traveller) and would visit the US frequently, he had no problems. OK, we weren't US LPRs but I hope this story indicates that the border systems are pretty smart, at least for the US and the countries I was going through. Dual nationality is not an uncommon thing either, and will have been met many times by the immigration staff.
 
timothybanks said:
I agree. I used to travel a lot and at one time had two passports (from the same country). This was when visa processing could take substantial time for some countries, and so you might not have a passport for travel if you had only one. It is a little unusual, but my government had a process to follow and provide justification for your need. I also cleared it with the country I was living in at the time as a PR, and they were fine with it. There was never a problem coming in and out of the US (naturally, I used the same passport in and out each trip, although not the same passport for different trips). A German colleague had three passports (he was a really heavy traveller) and would visit the US frequently, he had no problems. OK, we weren't US LPRs but I hope this story indicates that the border systems are pretty smart, at least for the US and the countries I was going through. Dual nationality is not an uncommon thing either, and will have been met many times by the immigration staff.
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I think the US links it all by biometrics anyway, whatever they have it works... when i check my i94 online with my current passport number it brings up my old ones too...
 
Yeah indeed it makes sense that it's all connected by biometrics. I somehow thought that since my GC is linked to one passport (country A), traveling in and out from the US using GC + another passport (country B), was going to be problematic. But maybe it isn't !

When I move to the US, I'll check if both my passports show up on the online i94.

On a totally different topic, I had a valid B1/B2 tourist visa in my passport, which the CO said they were gonna cancel, but they didn't. I mean there is no stamp 'cancelled without prejudice' as I was expecting. they forgot ?

P.S: @SusieQQQ , you rock, clear, concise & to the point :)
 
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They may have forgotten to stamp the cancellation, but assume it's cancelled.

Your GC is not linked to a passport, it's linked to you.
 
Hi everyone

I know this may be a personal question so please don’t answer this if you don’t want to share (and please delete this if it isn’t appropriate mods). May I ask roughly how much you all had saved up in savings before you moved to the US? I am unsure if I have enough saved or not (roughly $20k USD) for any expenses that may pop up.
 
If it’s just you it’s more than enough to prove funding at the interview. I wasn’t asked about financials at the interview but the guy before me was so I guess it just depends on the officer.
 
Dolphintail said:
Hi everyone

I know this may be a personal question so please don’t answer this if you don’t want to share (and please delete this if it isn’t appropriate mods). May I ask roughly how much you all had saved up in savings before you moved to the US? I am unsure if I have enough saved or not (roughly $20k USD) for any expenses that may pop up.
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It also depends on your field and where you’re moving to. 20k will go further in Vegas than it will in California for example.
 
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