Jobs, Storms and Greencards.

So, most people reading this will probably already know that I managed to find a job. I started in the last week of September and I seem to be pretty good at it so far. The job is in call centre customer service, which I seem to be unable to escape, for a Health and Benefits Outsourcing company. That might bear some explanation for my NZ friends and family so here goes: the company basically takes the work from HR departments of other companies (outsourcing the work but not off-shoring it - as Mitt Romney likes to point out) to manage the benefits that the employers offer. One cannot survive long in the US without medical, dental, vision, long and short term disability and probably a number of other insurances. Employers here tend to offer these benefits to employees at a lower rate than they could purchase them on their own - known as group policies because the insurer gives a discount since it's expected to be bulk coverage - and also subsidise the premiums heavily - usually around 70-80% from what I've seen of good employers.

I like the job, it's interesting and it's certainly teaching me important skills to do with dealing with insurance carriers and understanding benefits that I would never ever had needed in New Zealand, but there is one problem. Well, perhaps 2, really. It's only a temporary job, to start with, so I don't have the stability I need to move out on my own with my husband. This time of year is known as "Open Enrollment" for the insurance industry and it's when most employers allow their employees to make changes to their benefits. They usually can't make changes any other time or year unless they have something major happen they they get married, have a child, get divorced and so forth. So, as you can imagine, it's a very busy time of year. The company I am temping for hired about 200 extra employees for this season and they won't have work for all of them once the season is over. That means that some people will be out of a job come January 31 of 2013.

The other problem is that it doesn't pay well enough for me to be able to support my husband as the main (if not technically quite sole) breadwinner. It doesn't offer employer subsidised group insurance at all unless I get "converted", as they call it, to permanent employment. I don't even know what hourly rate I would be offered if they wanted me to convert or if I would even get a pay rise except for being offered benefits. So much uncertainty.

To top it all off: my in-law just lost his job because the contract, which was meant to be for 3 years, ended due to the research project he was hired for being cancelled. So he has less resources and is stressed and taking it out on us by expecting us to pay for everything we need - which, as mentioned previously, we cannot afford to do. I'm trying to save up so that we can purchase our own car and pay for a deposit on an apartment and all that expensive stuff. The sooner I can do those things then the sooner he can sell his house and move closer to work opportunities and the entertainment that he enjoys. I guess it's hard to see the medium and long term when money is tight and you're not feeling very reasonable.

You may also have heard of Hurricane (or tropical storm as she was down-graded to) Sandy. She passed this way and I was forced to stay overnight away from home in a hotel paid for by my employer. It wasn't too bad as it was a nice hotel. I had to share the room with a co-worker but she was really nice and into RPing and LARPing so it was a nice evening. I sort of want to be friends with her now but I'm not sure how to approach her. I don't even know where she sits at work because the place is a maze of cubicles that I still get lost in occasionally. At home during the storm the power stayed steady and no damage to the house or people was sustained. Many are still without power in New York and New Jersey so we were very lucky that it we just got an edge of it and not the full force.

Lastly, my greencard arrived unexpectedly last week. I was expecting to have to apply for another work authorisation card since mine was only good until April 2013 and the processing time for greencards at the California immigration services (where my application was moved to expedite it, apparently) was 16 months when I last checked so that would have put me at July 2013 before I received my greencard. And I wasn't even certain if they were going to request a second interview here in the US, as they are entitled to do, so I really wasn't expecting it to arrive so soon. Still, one less thing to worry about it always good. So, as of October 2012 I am officially a conditional permanent resident of the United States of America for 2 years. Complicated, huh? Well, once the 2 years is almost up (90 days before it is up, in fact) I will be required to apply to have my conditional residency removed if I wish to remain in residence in the US of A. Then, after 3 years of continuous residence in the US (and if I meet a list of other requirements like still being married to a US citizen, having lived with him the whole 3 years and having been present in the US continuously for 18 months prior to applying, to name a few) I can apply for Naturalisation to become a US Citizen.

At first when I was considering moving here I thought that I would never want to be a US Citizen. And I still don't, really, if I have to be honest about it. But there are downsides to being only a permanent resident. Such as: if I leave the US for more than a year they can refuse to let me back in. They can also refuse to let me back in for any reason at all, if they so choose, and they don't even have to tell me why. That uncertainty really sucks. There are downsides to being a US Citizen too. Becoming a target for Anti-US forces (paranoid, huh?), having to file tax returns in the US for the rest of my life even if I don't live there and being targeted by the nasty and big dollar political industry as a potential voter. That last one really gets my gall because I feel like Abby from youtube (If you haven't seen the "Tired of Broco Bamma and Mitt Romney" video on Elizabeth Evans' channel, you should) and I'm not even targeted by all the ads, volunteers, cold callers and flyers that SuperPACs and campaigns are sending out. I really do feel badly for the voters of the US.

Well, if anything else interesting happens then I'll try to update. I'm so homesick it's not even funny. Keep NZ warm (figuratively speaking) for me, guys! I'll be home as soon as I can. I think even husband is sick of the US now. He's even said he could put up with Wellington's earthquakes and he was not as all tolerant of them previously so it's a good sign. Now, just to figure out how to afford to return. Put your thinking caps on and let me know if you have any brilliant ideas that are within the law.

I miss you guys!

~Be

P.S. I have my driver's license now also. I have to get it before I could really start applying for jobs in earnest as driving is really the only reliable way to get around here with jobs 20+ miles away.

Biometrics and Combo Cards

My biometrics were taken back in early April, about a month ago now, and it was a relatively painless process. I filled out a form and waited for a little while then had someone roll my fingertips over a scanner a few dozen times, I assume to get perfect prints, then take my photo and let me go. I took the subway and commuter train back from Boston to get home from the appointment. I only got slightly lost - went one stop too many and had to back-track - but hubby picked me up at the station and now I feel like I could take the train again. I was pretty hesitant about it at first and so concerned that I would get lost but it's pretty well marked and there were station staff around for when I did get lost.

As I said, it's been about a month since the biometrics appointment and I received my Combo card in the mail yesterday. For those of you not going through the US immigration process; a Combo card is a combined Advanced Parole and Employment Authorisation Document (EAD) which basically means that I am now allowed to travel outside of the US without abandoning my Adjustment of Status (immigration) application and I am legally allowed to work for pay in the US. The combo card is valid for 1 year but I should have my green card by that time so I'm not concerned about that. Besides, I can renew it if my case is still in processing after a year.

So now the problem of getting a job. I want to work in IT. I know I'll have to start low on the ladder, as I only have a diploma and zero paid IT experience, but I'm not even sure I can get on that ladder here without 2-3 years IT experience and local references. I can't work food service because of my sensitive skin which causes excruciating eczema and contact dermatitis on my hands if they get wet too much (even wearing gloves my hands sweat) or come into contact with allergens such as cleaning liquids and essential oils (like orange oil which is in a lot of cleaners). I also can't really work retail because I can't stand for long periods without experiencing back and foot pain. If I'm cooking at home for more than an hour I get pain so I doubt an employer would put up with that. That leaves low-level desk jobs like data entry, call centre operator and receptionist. I really want to run a mile from those jobs but work is work, right?

The other thing to consider work jobs is the commute time. Living in Wellington city it wasn't really possible to have more an a 1 hour commute because I never lived that far away from the CBD even by bus. Now it's 2 or more hours one way from here to the closest major city - Boston - depending on the traffic. The closest job openings that I am finding are 20 miles away and I'm not even sure they're on the train route. I can't drive a car, I never learnt and don't have a license for it here or in NZ, and I doubt hubby would be up to driving that far and back twice per day and especially not if I have a morning start. But these are all puzzle pieces that will come together if I just keep trying to make them fit, I guess!

Wish me luck, guys.

Back in the USA

We arrived back in the US at the end of the first week of February. The point of entry (PoE) we used was Los Angeles because the airline we wanted to fly across the US with didn't fly direct from San Francisco. I was sort of nervous when we got there because everything had been such a trial up until that point that I was expecting something to go wrong or to have to wait around for hours to be processed as a fiancée to a US Citizen on a K-1 visa. Much to my surprise and delight it was the easiest and quickest part of the process thus far. The immigration officer opened my sealed envelope with all my documents in it from the US consulate in Auckland and asked a few questions then took my fingerprints and a photo, stamped my passport, told me we had 90 days to marry and let me through.

It took us a few days to manage to get to the Town Clerk's office to apply for the marriage license and then there is a 3 day wait for the license to be issued. The day that it was ready we had booked an appointment with the Town Clerk to officiate the marriage and we were married that very morning on 16 February. It was just the 4 of us: the Town Clerk herself, my (now) father-in-law, the groom and me. We couldn't stop grinning at each other, hubby and I, throughout the ceremony. We just wore comfortable clothes and funnily enough I was wearing the very same top that I wore when I first met my husband back in 2010 at the airport. He had joked in the past that I should wear that top and some jeans when we got married because I had expressed how wasteful I felt it was to buy a lavish dress I would only wear once. The words that the Town Clerk (who had the same name as my late mother-in-law) used were beautiful and religiously ambiguous enough that we were comfortable and pleased with them. The Town Clerk then gave us 3 official copies of our marriage license with our brand-new name on it. We both changed our surname to a portmanteau combination of our father's surnames. I won't list it here since, as far as I know, we are the only two people in the world to have that surname.

Since days before the ceremony I had begun to prepare my Adjustment of Status (from K-1 fiancée to immigrant/permanent resident wife of a US Citizen) application documents. It's been about 2 weeks now since we were married and I finally, yesterday, sent off my package with all the documentation needed for this next stage. The package was huge and it took a long time to complete. While I was in the process of preparing it I actually applied for a Social Security Number (like an IRD number for NZ readers) and it arrived very quickly so I was able to include that information in my application. Now that I have an SSN I can apply for a bank account and a driver's license. I've never driven a car before but I have drive motorbikes and scooters for a few years so I think I'll be a good, defensive driver. I find it hard to imagine being comfortable driving a car - they're so big! I feel like it would be hard to gauge how close to other cars, the edge of the road and other objects each side of the car would be while driving. I don't even want to think about parking yet.

I'm not authorised to work or study in the US yet - those privileges are part of the approved permanent resident status perks - so I'm still chafing for that right. The next step in the process is to hear if US Citizen and Immigration Services receives and accepts my adjustment of status. Once that happens then they will give me an appointment for biometrics. After that I may or may not have another interview to establish that my marriage in genuine and I'm not an undesirable immigrant. I think that's their reasoning, anyway, but they don't give any details on the purpose of much of their requests. Anyway, hopefully one interview is enough and that will be the final hurdle until I have to renew my permanent residency 21 months (it lasts 24 but you have to apply again 90 days before it runs out) and ask for the conditions to be removed.

Immigration to the US is certainly not for the faint of heart or people who can't stomach paperwork. If I had known all the work involved ahead of time then I might have looked for another way to be with husband. But, as it stands, I still don't know how we could have done it an easier way. Our circumstances don't leave much opportunity for flexibility. Hopefully things will change and there may be a time, if we so decide, that we can move back to New Zealand. But the foreseeable future is here so I guess I should start getting used to it.