carvanaragon

welcome to california rep

also, along avenida, near jose reyes memorial hosp, or within the area of national orthopedics hospital. they are also cheap there. usually any color would do but try to contact your facility if they do have a particular color. goodluck.

congrats rep. dont forget to bring a lot of scrubs when you come here. you will be saving a lot while you are starting. i am so happy for you and your family.

while waiting for your papers to be done, find a hospital where you can practice as a nurse and get the necessary skills to prepare you to work here. while many employers get new grads, it is for your own consumption. it is very difficult to come here and work without any clinical experience at all. so while you have time there, get a nurse job and learn the most of it. this is just my advice.

in california, deductions include social sec,medicare,fed, st tax, st disab insurance, union if u belong to one. so roughly, deductions ranges 31 to 33 percent of your gross income. but you need not worry because u will still have a lot to spend. it is really expensive upon starting because u start anew, u will be purchasing many new necessities but after the first few months to a year, all will be well. another thing is that being new in this country, you wont have a credit history so it is a little more difficult to get credit cards. when starting, applying for gas, public utilities, electricity etc, i had to go to their offices when normally they can do it by phone. so a piece of advice, once you get here, go to dept of motor vehicle, get a ca ID and drivers license if applicable. also prioritize your ss number. everything you fill up in here needs an ss number. welcome to california

you can file for an advance parole concommitantly with AOS and EAD to enable you to leave the country just in case you need to. it takes 60 days or less for processing. it took me 8 months from filing of I-140, AOS to receipt of green card. i was able to go home to my country and come back to US using my advance parole before i got my green card.

it is easy to get a SSN, they have form which you sign. better, download a form from their website try searching social security administration. instructions for filling up and needed documents are also available in that site. prepare your form before going to their office. you will be asked to present 2 valid proof of identification like passport, birth certificate (NSO), etc. It is also necessary to bring proof that you are elligible to work in the US. (mine was EAD). goodluck and congrats again.

In my case, i also paid for my lawyer's fees but still went on and took the services of the lawyer recommended by the hospital HR. It made the process easier for all of us, the HR, the lawyer and me since most paperworks are already with the lawyer and all she did was update data and the HR had no second thoughts in giving some of the information since trust has already developed between them. It took us only 6-7 days to accomplish and file my paperworks to the USCIS and were able to beat the deadline set last December 30, 2004. My lawyer went ahead and file my paperworks even without my visascreen because of the deadline we were trying to beat. If you have the visascreen on hand or is nearly at hand, perhaps it is better to submit them all together. By doing so, you will bypass the RFE stage which in my case caused a delay of approximately 2 months. Discuss these things with your lawyer and decide which one is best for your case because each case is unique and different from any case. This was what happened to my case, so i hope you can pick up something from it.

congratulations!!!!!

in my case, i was given 84 days to submit with a closing statement that says, failure to do so may result in the denial of my AOS. move fast....

Apply for an advance parole also called travel document (I131) to the USCIS. Usually it is approved within 60 days. The fee is about 165 dollars. goodluck

My EAD expires on Feb 28, 2006. I will still be renewing my EAD on October for the first time. I submitted my VS soon after i received it from ICHP.

Do you have any idea, how long it would take service centers to process AOS? i have my EAD and currently working but i still would want to have an idea how long should i wait for my AOS. i already submitted my VS.

my PD is December 28, 2004. my papers were filed in California service center. i had the approval of my I-140 this may 2005. my I-485 is still pending up to this time.

thanks for the info.