Packet 4

hiya

no, i havnt had a letter, just the man with the rather disjointed voice on the telephone at the NVC telling me it had been sent there.

i suppose there is a chance if there was a letter it went to the sponsor (agency) rather than to me

I have emailed the embassy in London to see if there has been any progress, but i havnt recieved a reply yet but they are quite slow to respond, or so im told, anything from a week to 14 days to reply!!!

Hi the US Embassy normally responds 1-2 days after you email them, they are very good. Once packet 3 has gone to them it takes 3-4 months for your interview due to the amount of work they have. This time frame is the only fixed part of your immigration time line.

when did you email them-I have emailed them on a fair few occasions and have always had a response very quickly

[email protected] this is the email addy i used

I would say that coming here in the lovely 'winter' months is great to get used to the weather but to be honest the summer hasnt been as bad as people warned me about. When we got here all we heard was OH wait until the summer you wont like the weather but it has been fine. HOT but hey air con lol.

Try and rent a house with a pool you with thank me for that advice next summer because all you want to do is swim it is the only time your cool outside.

We have a community pool v close by but now the summer is half way through the chlorine is awful and I wont go anymore

You'll be able to rent one for about $1500-$2000 a month. Here they talk about sq feet of a house, we live in a house about 1956sq feet so that is a good size. We dont use it all. No pool which is a big mistake I was trying to keep costs down and I looked in the winter, otherwise I would have had a more sensible head on and got a pool house. My house is $1200 a month so not bad but other utilities are more expensive

TV, Internet, Phone $200

Electricity $70 winter and $350 summer ( rent a one storey house cheaper)

gas $50

water $60-$70

Garbage $100 per six months

When you first come here you translate from dollars into pounds and then after a while-a dollar is the same as a pound so when I say $1200 it is like saying 1200 pounds. I dunno if that makes sense?

You earn about $1200 in your hand every two weeks so that is the rent. Then the next $1200 is living expenses I just mentioned. Then you need to eat. Just a guide.

I pay $550 health insurance $287 car loan $259 car insurance all per month