Too busy to blog

Between juggling two small children, selling furniture, packing suitcases and generally deconstructing our English existence, I haven't really found the time to blog. Then a week ago we discovered our plan of tackling the visa process on arrival in the US was doomed and stress levels are through the roof. Apparently it is very unwise to turn up on a visa waiver and adjust status from non-immigrant to immigrant, although technically possible and managed by some. It is all a question of your intention when you travel to the US, I can't go with the intention of staying long term without a green card. It would possibly be worth the risk if it was just me, but with a whole family to look after, we simply have to play it safe and play strictly by the rules. This means six weeks of total stress while we attempt to get my green card issued before our planned flight date of 6th December. We have been through the mill the last week or two trying to work out exactly what is possible and what needs to be done, apart from a zillion complicated forms, there is also a medical, taxes to be filed for Jeremy, police certificates to apply for and finally an interview at the US embassy. We have already been down to London this week to register Josie's birth and to get her US passport sorted out.. an extremely simple process in comparison to getting an immigrant visa. While we were in the city we also visited an immigration lawyer, who answered a couple of questions, but in my mind didn't earn her £300 in the 45 minute conversation we had.. she even steered me wrong on one thing and I've ended up paying for a police certificate from Germany that I don't need, since I was there for less than a year.

Anyway, we don't really know if we will get things sorted before 6th, so we could end up delaying our departure or we could go for Christmas and I could fly back in January to do my visa interview.. either way we are in limbo for a few more weeks. And since getting a visa has taken priority over everything else, so the house is still bulging with stuff to be sorted before we hand back the keys to our country cottage and move in with my mum again!