Okay, so here I am living in new York City.  Beyond the sirens and the gunk on the sidewalks and the slow crawl the seasons have toward Spring and a few other gripes I'll post along the way, this blog will be used to post general comments both positive and negative about life in the Big Apple. 

First will be the process that I went on to get my recent J1 visa...excuse the formal tone of the piece, it was originally intended for a piece in a newspaper column...

Recently I have gained entry to live and work in the US under the J1 visa. Had I not completed a Masters degree in the last twelve months I would not be eligible for such a visa. You can apply for a J1 within 12 months of graduation. An organisation in Sydney called Student Placement Australia will, for a fee of around $1500, help you through the process and act as your work sponsor while you are in the US and provide all paperwork to expediate the process.

Trawling through US consulate and visa requirement sites can be both frustrating and nerve-racking. Particularly when, as I found, one is trying to organise said visa, consulate interview and any supplementary paperwork from out of Australia. I was in NY as a tourist for 3 months when I was doing this. My partner, an Australian who lives and works in NYC, and I decided that we would return to Australia in February to enable me to go for the J1 visa and her to renew her E3 visa...

The only thing hanging over my head was a DUI (Driving under the influence) incident some nine years ago, which caused this process such a great deal more anxiety and stress then it ordinarily would have. Something worth mentioning is that a single drink driving conviction is not considered to be a crime of moral turpitude. This means essentially that you are not of an immoral character, you have not committed fraud or murder - the law recognises that you made a stupid mistake once and agrees not to hold it against you.

So what do you do if you have had a drink driving conviction recorded against you? Firstly, fill in the Supplementary Form on the US Consulate site concerning DUI convictions.

The other thing that I did was set about obtaining a Police Clearance Certificate. You have to provide them with a set of fingerprints. And when you are trying to do this from overseas it can be very difficult. There are two ways to do this. If you are within Australia contact your state police. If you are in the US you need to get fingerprint sheets to send back to the Aust. federal Police. Biometrics or fingerprint scanning are not as of yet used for this process. There are two sets of fingerprint sheets, green and blue. I spent a frustrating few days going to every agency I could think of including the FBI, trying to obtain fingerprint sheets. The NYPD have sheets but I was told to provide my own. I finally found them in a small rundown shop downtown on Broadway advertising passport photos, fingerprints etc.  Some NYPD precincts such as the First Precinct will do your fingerprints on certain days. Check online. Also you must have a US postal money order made out to the NYPD for the sum of fifteen dollars. So, now armed with my money order and finger print sheets (take spare copies!!) I went to the NYPD 1st Precinct only to be told that they did not do it. I knew otherwise. I knew they were wrong. I had phoned twice to make sure that it could be done on this particular day. Sometimes as was this case, people just don't want to help. This is when you learn to be patient and polite and courteous. Finally the young officer took me to get my prints done. He was a rookie and nervous about not doing the job correctly. He took the fingerprints to his supervisor only to be told that they had not been done correctly. Luckily I had a spare set of sheets. The rookie also brought a set of fingerprint sheets the NYPD use. So I was able to get two sets of fingerprint sheets, blue and green sheets made. By this time the police officer and I had become mates and he didn't bother charging me for the service. I was up $15!!!

I then had to get an International money order made out to the Australian Federal Police, to send with the fingerprints for the service of providing the certificate. I think it cost over US$100...You can get this done by most leading banks. I used Chase Manhatten bank on W34th Street, right beside Madison Square garden. I organised the clearance certificate to be sent to an address in Sydney, to coincide with both my arrival back home in Australia and my visa interview at the US consulate. I sent it special post via FedEx...another US$50...

Naturally, when we returned home to Sydney the Police Clearance Certificate had not arrived, even though the Federal Police website advises that it takes 3 weeks, (we sent it 4 and half weeks beforehand). This meant I had to cancel my interview at the US consulate and reschedule it. Phoning the Federal Police I found out that the certificate would not be sent out until another week. (5 weeks!)Being home for only 2 and a half weeks meant that time was limited. The only other visa interview opportunity was five days before we were scheduled to return to the US. 

The day the certificate was supposed to arrive came and went, as did the next and the next. It was by far the most frustrating experience of this ordeal, made worse by the attitude of some of the federal police call centre personal. On one particular occasion after waiting on hold for three quarters of an hour I was answered by a giggling male who told me that he and his co-worker were laughing about a joke they were sharing. My subsequent tone made the smile disappear from his face quick smart. I wanted to make a more concerted effort to formally complain about that but I guess in one way this is it. So, yet again they told me the certificate was in the mail. This did me little good as my interview was first thing the following morning. I had my supplementary formfrom the US consulate website outlining the conviction, but would this be enough? 

It turned out it was. The interview went well. It was friendly and informal. I was more nervous than need be. They asked about the certificate and I said it was in the mail. My wonderful partner had extracted an email from the Federal police certifying that I had applied for said certificate and that is was being processed, so I was able to produce that if called upon. But, beyond questioning me once about the drink driving offence, that was it. When I heard the interviewer say 'I have decided to grant you a visa' I almost fell over and cried. My passport stamped with my beautiful J1 visa arrived less than twenty four hours before we flew back out of Australia....

So what have I learned...be prepared more than well in advance; create a calendar of a things to do list, get every document you can and then some, for J1 go through an organisation such as Student Placement Australia and rely on them...after all you're paying a fee. Finally take heed from the people who have been there and done it - when we say 'don't let it overwhelm you', or 'one things at a time' have faith that our experience counts for something. You can do it. Just pay attention and look smart. 

Was it worth it? I'm living in New York City with the woman I love and tonight I start working....legally. (although they havent yet asked for my visa...)

A footnote to this...the first day I was back in NY I ran into the police officer who did my fingerprinting at the 1st Precinct and shook hands like old mates and had a chat. When he went to walk away he said, 'see you 'round the neighbourhood!' I felt like a New Yorker!