My NZ Criminal Conviction History (police clearance) arrived by mail today.
Clearance from the Department of Internal Affairs (I had it authenticated)
I photocopied it and took the original and photocopy to the post office to send to the US Consulate, as requested. Now all I have to do is hope my outstanding police clearance makes it to the Consulate.
Addressed to go!
Cost: A$10.15 with registered mail, with tracking and signature on delivery (US$7.71 at A$0.76 to US$1)
After my US visa interview (see here) I was left to check up on my outstanding police clearances.
I emailed the Hong Kong Police, who told me that their clearance had been sent directly to the Consulate on March 17. I checked (twice) with the Consulate, who confirmed they had never received it.
I asked HK for the tracking number (they send my registered post) and checked that with Australia Post who told me that they never had the item released to them on arrival in Australia. That’s right: my police clearance had officially gone missing.
What followed was a back and forth with HK over the police clearance, as according to their records, it has been delivered, although when I checked the same tracking number with HK Post, it only shows the item as having left for its destination on March 18. It seems I’m in a complete bind because HK refused to send another clearance, while the US has definitely not received it. Reapplying for the clearance from overseas will require me to have my fingerprints taken, a service the Australian Federal Police provide (cost: A$26), the filling in and resubmission of the forms (and another HK$210) and of course, a nervous wait to see if that copy is delivered or lost.
Today, HK told me they will send another copy of the police clearance to the Consulate, so fingers crossed this copy is received and does not become another piece of lost mail!
This morning, I went for a run and on my way back to the hotel, I was handed a free box of belVita Breakfast crackers in Martin Place.
Free crackers!
Later in the morning, I headed to my appointment at the US Consulate.
MLC Centre, where the US Consulate is located
Lift bank
The appointment was fine. They asked a lot of questions, but nothing I couldn’t answer. I read Martha Stewart Living magazines from 2006 and 2009 while I waited. I thought the content had aged reasonably well.
As a few of my required documents (my police clearances) had not arrived yet, I was given a document requesting these documents to be sent to the Consulate. When they arrive, they will process my case further.
After a lovely lunch with a friend, I killed time by walking around Sydney before catching my transfer to the airport.
Airport check-in
Inflight meal: lamb curry
Cost of meals in Sydney: A$27.01 (I had meals of chicken, salad and quiche)
Cost of my return airport transfer: A$15, cheaper than my transfer to the hotel because I booked a car transfer via the hotel rather than taking the train.
Cost of WiFi: Free – but only for the first 100MB, which runs out crazy fast. I had to rely on my cellular data plan instead. When I’m travelling and without WiFi, I am always reminded of Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs.
Total: A$42.01 / US$31.93 (at A$0.76 to US$1) + my despair at only having 100MB of free WiFi in my room
Virgin Australia a330-200 short final by Jordan Vuong, CC-BY-2.0
Today I am flying to Sydney, as my interview with the US Consulate is tomorrow. In Sydney, the US Consulate only holds K1 visa interviews on Tuesday mornings, and I was lucky to get my interview date for April 7 at 10.15AM. I’m flying out today to spend the night in Sydney, rather than on the red eye Monday night (that would arrive early Tuesday morning) to avoid issues with tiredness or flight delays.
My boarding pass
My return ticket to Sydney was free (!) as one of the benefits my credit card gives me is a free domestic flight each year on Virgin Australia. I haven’t flown Virgin Australia in years and was surprised when I called the credit card hotline and was able to book this redemption ticket for my visa interview! I had checked in case tickets weren’t available, and the return flight was going to cost me around A$650, so I was super delighted.
Inflight meal: frittata
The crowd at baggage claim. So glad I only had carry on!
My exit out of Museum Station
I also paid the DS-160 fee, which is the fee for one of the online immigration forms the US Consulate requires. It cost A$344.50 (or US$265) at the US Consulate’s self assessed exchange rate of US$1 = A$1.30, which is not too far off the current exchange rate.
Travelodge Sydney
My room
Cost of ticket to Sydney: Free! (Thanks, American Express)
Cost of hotel in Sydney: A$106.25 (US$80.75 at US$0.76 to A$1)
Cost of train ticket from the airport to the hotel: A$17
Cost of DS-160: A$344.50
Total: A$467.75 / US$355.49
I received an email from the US Consulate in Sydney with further instructions regarding the K1 visa that TA and I had applied for. Some of the things, such as police clearances, I had applied for earlier, but one requirement that I had yet to do was the US visa medical.
In Western Australia, there are only two physicians authorized by the US Consulate to conduct these medicals. I made an appointment at the Mill Street Medical Centre with Doctor Sinclair for mine. The clinic told me that I would need a total of 6 US passport photos. I had four taken during my recent trip to the USA, which meant I needed more. I went to Australia Post to have these done. In addition, prior to my visa medical I went to my local physician, who gave me the Tdap-IPV vaccination for tetanus/diptheria/pertussis/polio.
Cost of passport photos: A$16.95 for four (US$12.88 at US$0.76 to A$1), which makes them less than half the cost of the photos I had taken at Kinkos in the USA.
Cost of Tdap-IPV vaccine: A$79 (US$60.04)
The visa medical with Dr Sinclair took the better part of a day, as after the basic medical I had to go to the radiology clinic to have a chest X-ray taken and then return the documentation from the chest x-ray back to Dr Sinclair to complete the visa medical form. It was the first time I had ever had a chest x-ray done, so I found that to be pretty exciting.
Total for visa medical: A$566.60, made up of A$350 for the examination, A$80 for the chest x-ray, A$25 for the US visa syphilis pathology and A$60 for MMR IgG to check if I was immune to measles/mumps/rubella. I had vaccination records for everything else from my local doctor, so that cut down on the tests needed.
The next day on my way to work, I received a call from the clinic as my MMR serology results were back: I was not immune to mumps! I had to go back to the clinic to receive the MMR vaccine so that Dr Sinclair could complete my medical report. I went in that morning and was able to pick up my report in the afternoon!
Cost of MMR vaccine: A$45
Total costs associated with visa medical: A$707.45 or US$537.66
20101217-CA-010 First View of the Lady by longislandwins, CC-BY-2.0
I have been dating an American for some time.
I never thought I would date or fall in love with an American. Their accents always seemed weird to me and to this day I don’t understand what tipping, and the concepts of ounces, pounds and sticks of butter mean nothing to me.
Dating The American (TA) has come with issues, mainly because when we first started dating I lived in Hong Kong and he lived in America. There were meant a lot of long haul flights, during which time I became really well caught up on movies (thank you, personal inflight entertainment consoles!). We lived together for awhile in Hong Kong but currently we live on opposite sides of the world with me in Australia, and him in the USA.
We talked about what to do about this for a long time. Late last year, we decided to apply for a K1 visa, otherwise known as a fiancee visa. TA was strongly in favour of living in the USA rather than Australia.
There are lots of components to the K1 visa. First, TA had to file an I-129F petition form with the USCIS. We did this between Christmas 2014 and New Year 2015. There is a bunch of supporting material you need to submit with the petition, including evidence that you have met in person, evidence that you are in a true relationship and evidence of your intention to marry within 90 days of entering the US on the K1 visa. None of this was difficult for us, given we have met up on many an occasion (as well as living together in Hong Kong).
The I-129F however, is not cheap. This is what it has cost us:
In Australia:
Cost of 5 holiday prints of TA with me and my family on vacation in Turkey and France (family holiday, 2013): A$2.50
Cost of printing and photocopying various documents (including my passport ID page, visa stamps showing us in the same location at the same time, tickets and receipts from the family holiday): Free! (I did it on my own printer)
Postage for the material I sent over to TA via Australia Post by air mail: A$16.50
In the USA:
Fee for filing the I-129F: US$340
Other items we paid for but don’t remember the cost of: photocopying costs for TA at Kinkos, postage for the completed I-129F package.
Subtotal: A$19 (US$14.44 at US$0.76 to the A$) and US$340, excluding the costs we didn’t keep track of.
After you send in the form, all you really do is wait for it to make its way through the system. We received notification that our petition had been received and was being forwarded to the California Service Centre in January 2015, in what is known as the first notice of action (NOA1). In February 2015, they approved our petition in what is known as the second notice of action (NOA2) and sent our forms off to the State Department. From the State Department it goes to the US Consulate.
I happened to be in the US in February visiting TA via the visa waiver scheme and knowing that we would have more documentation to fill in when the forms reached the Consulate, I took the initiative to have some of the square US passport photos taken at Kinkos, as the Australian regular passport photos are rectangular.
Cost of 4 passport photos at Kinkos: US$32.03
I also took the time to read up on the types of information the US Consulate would request from me. One of the things they require is a police clearance for every country you have lived in for at least six months since you were 16. For me this is Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. As I was flying back to Australia via Hong Kong, I decided to apply for the Hong Kong police clearance, known as a Certificate of No Criminal Conviction, in person.
Unfortunately, trying to get out of the US I was hit by a snowstorm. I was flying O’Hare to Hong Kong, however my original flight to O’Hare was cancelled. I was rebooked via Cedar Rapids in Iowa, but weather meant my inbound plane taking me to Chicago was late. Despite the pilots making up great time to Chicago, and me sprinting through the terminals of O’Hare airport, I missed my connection to Hong Kong by 10 minutes (!) and had to stay overnight in Chicago. The folks at Cathay Pacific booked me on the same flight to Hong Kong the following day.
Cost of missing my flight and staying at the Westin O’Hare: US$89.27. I got reduced rates thanks to a “pink slip”, which is a piece of paper the airport staff give you that lets you ring a number/book hotels on a website at discounted rates. Sadly for me, my checked in luggage containing my coat remained at O’Hare, so all I had on me was my carry-on bag. Luckily I had packed my toothbrush in here!
Cost of food and drink while stuck in Chicago: $40 including tip – Yelp told me there was a well rated Polish deli in Schiller Park and well rated Polish deli in nearby Schiller Park, so I took a taxi there and back to get food, then stopped in at Mantra Indian Restaurant down the road for a late lunch.
Cost of taxis from the Westin to food: $30! This was a lot, but the owners at Mantra who I asked to call a taxi for me to get back to the hotel called me a black car instead. No idea why.
Cost of transfers to and from O’Hare airport: Free!
One 16 hour flight and many movies later and I was in Hong Kong. Cost of Certificate of No Criminal Conviction: HK$210 – but they don’t give any change, so I was lucky to have the exact amount!
Train tickets to and from HK Airport and to the HK Police Headquarters: HK$180 for a round trip ticket on the Airport Express, and HK$9.50 for the Jordan MTR (where I went to visit a friend) to and from Admiralty Station where the police headquarters are located. In total, including the cost of the police clearance, this works out to US$51.55 at HK$7.75 to US$1.
Back in Australia, I sent off forms for police clearances from both Australia and New Zealand authorities.
Cost of police clearance in Australia: A$42
Cost of police clearance in New Zealand: Free, but it costs NZ$32 (or US$24.32 at NZ$0.76 to US$1) to have an apostille certificate issued along with it to ensure its authenticity.
Postage costs to for the police clearance forms: A$2.55
Total costs so far: US$655.47