We left China early November, packed-up and ready to setup our new life in the US – Seattle. Before we can ‘setup’ and get to work, we had to take care of some immigration and administration routines. Our current status is something like “non-immigrant alien resident”. We had all the paperwork done in Canada (see previous blog entry) and are now getting together the other crucial pieces that will puzzle together our American life. The US was one of the places on our short list, ‘where would we choose to live?’. There are some considerations that made the US an attractive item on that list; such as career perspective, sports, nature, no language barrier, convenience. But once you get into the process of applying for this that and the other, it becomes evident; this country has a long history in handling immigration. For us, it’s a matter of checking off a few basics: > social security number [2-3 weeks, or 2-3 months depending on which VISA you have], > US bank account [not obtainable without social security number], > car [to buy one you need to have one to drive to a dealer], > house [need a US bank account to write checks for deposit and start making direct deposits], > job [need a social security number and work authorization for that], > insurances [health, car – including insurance against other drivers who are not insured!], > US drivers license [beats running around with your passport as your picture ID, although my PADI Dive certificates seem to be widely accepted too!]. We’re both well organized, so we can tick off most of the above already. Still, for a couple of weeks you feel like the unwanted child trying to fit into the well-established family…
Popularity: 19% [?]
Leave a Reply