One Step Closer...

Dan got his EAD (Employment Authorization Document) today! Now it's just a waiting game until the Green Card interview and Permanent Residency! Hooray!

Adjustment of Status to Permanent Legal Resident

AOS Package required contents:

• Cover letter listing contents for - Immediate Relative (Spouse) Family Based Adjustment of Status Application. List the major contents of the package (i.e. I-485 and evidence, I-765, I-131,etc).
• - G-325a – For DAN
• - I-765 – EAD application
• Application
• Copy of passport
• Copy of Visa
• 2 passport photos
• On back: Name & Alien Receipt Number
• Mail to:
• USCIS
• P.O. Box 805887
• Chicago, IL 60680-4120
• I-485 – Application to Register/AOS
• Mail to:
• USCIS
• P.O. Box 805887
• Chicago, IL 60680-4120
• Copy of birth certificate
• Copy of passport with visa page
• 2 Passport photos
• Vaccination supplement i-693a
• G-325a
• Copy of NOA2- I129f Approval
• Copy of Marriage Certificate
• Copy of Form I-94
• Check or money order for $1010 – payable to U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security
• I-864 – For EMILY
• Most recent tax return & W-2
• Copy of passport
• I -864 – For KAREN
• Most recent tax return & W-2
• Copy of passport

Getting married is like buying a gun...

You apply for a license...
And then they make you wait three days.

Things to Do in Boston Next Week

A collection of more to-dos, in the vaguest of chronological order.

• Add my name to the lease for proof of RESIDENCY (Asap)
  
• Sort out health INSURANCE add to Emily's account, or get a separate one. (Asap)
• Start contacting people about JOBS: (Godine & Sedo done), direct e-mails for: Beacon, Boston Magazine, Liz's company, Crimson Life Sciences, Club Passim, Perseus, Shift Comms, German School, Blink Music & others (Asap)
  
• Get an affordable civil ceremony RING (In the first week)
• Apply for marriage license: go to City Clerk's office. Bring ID (passport, birth certificate), and cash (I think $25 if we file in Cambridge). (Asap, by 4th Aug. at latest)
  
• Take a look at the AOS Adjustment paperwork and get applications together (In the first week)
  
• Get a Social Security Number (SSN) (After 2 weeks)
• Open a bank ACCOUNT and a joint account (After getting an SSN) DONE
  

Hopefully most of that can be sorted out before 08.08.08, so that there is less to do then. And I will have a job, I hope! Zaz.

Updated 7/26/08

Movies to see

Feel free to add to or edit this list!

1. BATMAN - out July 18
2. X-FILES - out July 25
3. Indiana Jones - still playing here
4. Iron Man - may still be playing (Did you see this one? I forget.)
5. Wall-e

Photos a day

People look like their dogs I suppose.

Oscar stealing people's seats.

To-Do upon Dan's arrival.

1. ASAP, but a minimum of 4 days before the civil ceremony: apply for marriage license. Go to City Clerk's office. Bring ID (passport, birth certificate), and cash (I think $25 if we file in Cambridge).
2. ASAP, but no more than two weeks after Dan arrives (wait for him to be entered in the system): Apply for Social Security Number. Bring passport, birth certificate, all visa documents, and application form.
3. ASAP: File for AOS and EAD. Much more on this later.
   

Wedding Planning - Dispatch No. 4

Things to do while in EVV 8/20-8/26:

• Marriage Counseling with Pastor Joe (3 hours)
• Meet with cake decorator Carolyn (about 1 hour)
• taste, decide on flavors and design
  
• Meet with coordinator/florist Doug (about 1 hour)
• confirm colors, talk about specific flowers
  
• Dress fitting in Owensboro (about 3 hours, with driving time)
• Meet with chef Doug to set menu for Rehearsal Dinner (1 hour)
• Meet with chef Scott Schymik and Coordinator Andrea at Kirby's to set reception menu (1 hour)
• Meet with photographer Lvonne (probably upwards of 1 hour)
• she may want to do some photos of us, but mostly she'll want to get to know us and talk about our style

Photos a Day

A picture of me, now that the digital camera is fixed again, with a slighlty wonky nose and self-cut hair.

Oscar looking relatively coy for a bulldog. His nose is flatter and his hair whiter than mine.

Wedding Planning - Dispatch No. 3

In the grand tradition of To-Do lists, I give you: Wedding Stationery To-Do List.

• Invitations: design and make
• Invitation, Reception Card, Driving Directions, Hotel information card, Registry card, Rehearsal dinner invitation, Reply card, Reply card envelope, Cocktail party invitation (night before)
  
• Place cards & Table numbers/names
• Menu cards
• Ceremony Programs
• Weekend itinerary card, directions and city information for welcome bags
• Schedule for wedding party
• Napkin rings
• Thank you cards - design our own?
• Cards for pastor, parents & attendants
  

Photo Flashback, 2006

Now that my digital camera is working again, here are some lost-in-the-aether photos from Herm and from Coventry 2006.



Silly sunglasses ahoy.

Back in Guernsey: Doing Things

Done in Berlin

1. Mailing things: books, jackets, jumpers, clothes
   
2. Kündigen insurance stuff (automatic via Helios)
   
3. Went to St. Oberholz
4. Eaten falafel on Oranienstr
5. Paid pre-requisite excess baggage to QUEasyjet
   

To Do in Guernsey

1. Find out temp. possibilities (contacted: OSA, Leapfrog, Dreamjobs, Situations, Firstcall): This needs my housing license/rights to work--DONE WITH OSA/SOURCE
   
2. Compare costs of shipping vs. checking extra bags
   
3. Go through things and pack stuff to bring to U.S.
   
4. Buy a new large checked bag. £20 at sports shop. From £50 at Creaseys
   
5. Set aside things to ship to U.S. - Books? Subwoofer? Clothes? Other things
6. Work out whether I get tax rebates--FILE FORM & WAIT FOREVER - needs all income details from Accent/RBC in order to
   
7. Sort out bank accounts (close Lloyds)--DONE & TRSFR TO HSBC
   
8. Have a nice dinner with families
   
9. Hang out with the boys
10. Get a haircut--DONE 7.7.08
    
11. Get an external hard drive
    
12. Walk and play with the Bully--DONE FAIRLY OFTEN
    
13. Make sure paperwork is all together
14. Develop photos (or in Boston?)--DO IN BOS - nowhere develops Ilford HP5
    
15. Take photos of Guernsey and people there
16. Sort out clothes to keep and clothes to get rid of
17. Look for rings? Size R or 83/4
    
18. Check in online from 21/7/08, 13:40
    

Dan to do: One week and one day to departure from Berlin

Preliminary list (strictly fun things italicized)

In Berlin

1. Sort out mailing things: books, jackets
2. Kündigen insurance stuff
3. Go to St. Oberholz
4. Superficially clean room
5. Spend a day wandering around favorite places (Emily's suggestion)
6. Eat falafel at Hackescher Markt

In Guernsey

1. Compare costs of shipping vs. checking extra bags
2. Have a nice dinner with mum (at least once)
3. Hang out with the boys
4. Go through things in room and pack things to bring to U.S. (1 big bag and one guitar)
   
5. Also pack or set aside things to ship to U.S.
6. Develop photos
7. Take photos of Guernsey and people there
   
8. Sort out bank accounts (close one account/transfer money)
9. Sort out clothes to keep and clothes to get rid of
10. Consider making money
11. Get a haircut
12. Walk and play with the Bully
13. Think about what to do with guitars
14. Make sure paperwork is all together

Impending arrival

Now just exactly one month til Dan's arrival... I've settled in our apartment and am just waiting for him to get here and help me decorate and buy furniture.

So, countdowns:

• four weeks from Tuesday: Dan gets here late at night
• sixish weeks: Uncle Sam wedding
• fourteenish weeks: my General Exams
• roughly October: Dan receives Advance Parole and 12 month Employment Authorization
• 189 days from now: the Wedding
• 171 days from now: our fourth anniversary

That's enough of that. Suffice it to say, I'm excited.

Oh, and we have a church, reception site & caterer, florist, photographer, cake baker, and venue & caterer for the rehearsal dinner all booked. And I bought a dress!

Woohoooo!

Progress! Dan received his visa last week, now has tickets, and will be here in just 35 days! Yay!

Wedding Planning - Dispatch No. 2

This is what we're thinking for the reception location. Kirby's. It's elegant, beautiful, has a great chef, and is miraculously reasonably priced. It's a pair of mansions (the one pictured is the one on the left) with a large ballroom built in between. the main reception dinner and dancing will be in the ballroom and the bar will be set up in one of the side rooms in the mansion on the right. There are a lot of lovely little corners where people could escape if they want and the whole place has pretty great ambiance.



This is the ballroom. You see the side walls are exposed brick with windows in - they're actually the external walls of the houses on either side. pretty cool. in the upper right of this photo is the dance floor. You see a big mirror at the top middle of the picture? That's where they usually set up the cake.
This is a big mirror in the side room where our bar would be, showing the main staircase of the house. This is a great spot for photos and will be a good deal quieter than the ballroom during the reception. On the website, you can see menus by clicking on the bottom left picture at the center of the page.

We also stopped at Le Merigot hotel this afternoon to look at their rooms and just see what it looks like. This is the lobby and Blush restaurant and bar ("ultralounge"). It's pretty cool. If people are staying at this hotel, it could be good to go here for the quasi bachelor party.

The next picture is in the bedroom of the presidential suite, looking into the living room. It's crazy. About 2,000 square feet. The master bathroom in this suite has a sauna in it.


The next photo is one of their "three-way" suites. This is the one where Obama stayed a couple weeks ago. This picture is also taken from the bedroom looking into the living room. This suite has one king sized bed (2 people), but they could bring in a couple cots so that the suite would sleep 4. If they did that, it would work out to less than a hundred dollars per person per night. There is also an adjoining standard room (sleeps 4), so that the two rooms could be connected and 8 people could split the $500 price tag. Not too shabby. Anyway, it was crazy beautiful and not badly priced.


For the rehearsal dinner (dinner party with family and wedding party), we're thinking of going to Just Rennie's. It's a beautiful, small private restaurant with a fabulous chef. He'll work with us to come up with an individual menu, but he also has menus on his website (.pdf). Really nice guy and lovely space.

The florist/coordinator we're looking at is Doug at the Olde Salt Box. He used to run a flower shop across the street from my high school. I used to go in and buy myself flowers from him all the time. He's fabulous.

The photographer we're probably going to go with is Lvonne Bennett. Her website is really cheesy and outdated and the sample photos aren't as good as what we saw when we met her. The good thing is she doesn't cost $8,200, unlike one other guy we met with. She's not the cheapest, but she's also not overly expensive and she's really good to work with.

I think those are all the major decisions so far. Let me know if you have any thoughts. I love you.

Wedding Planning - Dispatch No. 1

Two things to report:

I visited two churches today - Trinity Methodist and Central Methodist (my home church). I think it'll be best (money-wise and comfort-wise) to stick with Central, as it's a known quantity. We know the people involved and Rev. Easley is totally scriptable. He said that we can incorporate whatever we want and change the wording of the traditional service if we want. I'll get you a copy of the service as quickly as I can. Anyway, here are pictures of the church:


There will be Christmas decorations up - garland around the altar rail and wreaths up on the balcony. There will also be candleabras on the pews and candles in the windows (lots of candles). Other decoration is negotiable.

The other thing we looked at this morning was The Old Courthouse Wedgwood Ballroom. It is GORGEOUS. Here are pictures.


This venue is probably the most complicated option - we would have to set up rentals for all the dishes and everything as well as contracting a caterer (which is easy... we have a good caterer in mind who is free that day and has worked in this space lots of times). BUT I LOVE it. It's got like... twenty foot ceilings and it's four rooms in total - there's a double foyer area (with a place to hang coats), and a little crescent shaped room in a bay window. there's gorgeous wood and marble work. BEAUTIFUL.

I'll keep you posted on further developments. We're going to have Chinese food and talk about the option of having a Chinese Rehearsal Dinner (Do you like that idea? It's Jimmy's - that good Chinese place - I think you liked it).

This afternoon we're going to meet with Vicker Photography, and to look at Haub's Steakhouse as another option for the rehearsal dinner.

Visa Visa Visa Visa!

This morning at about 3:oo AM, Dan woke me from an anxiety nightmare (in which he was denied his visa) to inform me that he had in fact been granted a k-1 Fiance visa! We're officially, really getting married, for real! It was just under four months from filing to approval, so we got really lucky, time-wise. Now just have to:

1. Get Dan a ticket home.
2. Get Dan a ticket to the states.
3. Get married.

Show Time

Today Dan is finally on his way to his interview in Frankfurt. He has all his documents in order, a little bag with clothes and food, and he took a train this afternoon (early morning my time) to Frankfurt. After a night in a little hotel, he'll report to the Consulate at 9:30 tomorrow morning to have his file looked at and - hopefully - approved on the spot.


I am on my way home to make the first of (probably) a series of wedding planning trips. I have appointments with various officiants, reception sites, caterers, florists, cake bakers, photographers and dress shops. I'm still feeling superstitious, so I'm not making any official decisions or plans until I get the high sign from Dan that all has gone well, but I am getting really excited for all the planning. Updates forthcoming....

Final Pre-Interview To Do

Medical Monday & Tuesday:

• DONE: Get a final vaccination from the far-away doctors' office (varicella: medicine costs €56; previous vaccine medications cost €65 total. Doctor costs €50. In cash. Damn you health insurance.)
• Have proof of vaccinations sent to Dr. Erbenich's office at the Krankenhaus Waldfriede. Only then can they process and fax my results to the Frankfurt US Consulate. This can be a copy of the Impfpass (cost - yes, there's a cost - €3) faxed to their office with my case number etc. [Need to phone to check this.]

Rest of week re-organising:

• Pay for the interview online (cost €86,09) and get an electronic receipt (wichtig)
• Get copies of the NOA2 and fiancee letter of intent
• Copy police reports, passport ID page and check whether other copies are needed.
• Check all interview documents and ensure they're marked and copied sufficiently.
• Get info on Frankfurt (getting to/from places etc.)

Meanwhile feign interest in work and try to do these things whilst working 9 - 6.