Thanksgiving Abroad

Yesterday was my fourth consecutive Thanksgiving, and my fifth Thanksgiving collectively that I've celebrated outside of the US.

My first Thanksgiving abroad back in 2004, I spent sitting in an office with other fellow Americans who were traveling with me at the time and eating home made chocolate chip cookies and going around the table and saying what we were grateful for.  Skip ahead to 2009, my first Thanksgiving abroad on my own and I remember how much I really wanted to cook and share the holiday with my new family.  All the effort of hunting down food items that were not easily found in German supermarkets and cooking a way too expensive turkey whom we named Tod.  The food was gobbled down happily by my now in-laws, but never the less, it didn't quite feel like the holiday I had hoped to create, because to them it wasn't a tradition that had any back story or memories attached to.  

The next year, I decided to downsize and opt for a chicken instead of turkey and cook potatoes and carrots instead of any fancy sides.  Last year in 2011, I cooked a pumpkin pie from scratch (because canned pumpkin is impossible to find), and skipped the meal altogether.   This year, with my limited kitchen (a hot plate and a microwave) I decided there would be no pies and no bird of any kind -- just a grateful, happy heart.    

The American I was five years ago would never have imagined myself spending Thanksgiving day eating Vietnamese noodles in a Korean shopping mall while being serenaded by Mariah Carey and other pop versions of Christmas songs as I did this year.

 I do miss Thanksgiving and the atmosphere of the holidays in the US, but being abroad has given me a chance to celebrate holidays in different ways.  In Germany I got to experience a Christmas season that feels like it lasts from September to December, including a month long celebration of Christmas markets.  In Korea, I got to celebrate holidays that I never knew existed, like Buddha's birthday, Children's Day and Chuseok with holidays still to come like Lunar New Year.

So I missed out on a fifth American Thanksgiving, but I'll be back next year.  Until then, wishing everyone a happy holidays in the US and in Germany, as they  kick off the Christmas Market season.

My Thanksgiving meal 2012 at Little Saigon, Vietnamese Pho--(photo property of foodspotting.com).

What two days can bring...

Last Friday, DH and I turned in the petition at the US Embassy here in Seoul.  When we did, we were told it would be about a month until we hear the results of that petition.  Well, two (business) days later and Tuesday evening, DH already had an e-mail in his inbox with Packet 3 information.  The petition was accepted and now he can start planning for the Interview!  Talk about efficient.  Even though we don't want things to move too fast, (otherwise his visa could expire before my contract in Korea is up) we both agree that we're off to a good start.

Two days is also the amount of time it took for our baby basil to sprout from the ground.  DH and I have started our own little indoor garden here and after our spring onion's took off, we tried something new.  From what we'd read on the internet, the plant should have taken about 8-9 days to sprout, but we got the little greens already poking through after 48 hours!  Something about Korea seems to get things done.

The basil is coming! The basil is coming!

And what's more, is that in two more days... in two more glorious days, my summer camps will be finished!!!!! Next week I have two days of deskwarming and then, my vacation will finally begin!  Oh, summer, how I've been waiting for you!

Two days. Two more days.

The Petition

So for any and all of you out there who might be curious how to get yourself an immigrant visa to the United States, it seems the process can be broken down into two main parts, the Petition and the Interview.

Yesterday, DH and I filed the petition at the US Embassy in Seoul.  It was a rather painless process which required the following:

A.  I-130 Form (the petition for American Citizens to bring in Immediate Family/Spouses)

B.  G-325 Form x 2 (biographical information about yourself and your family member)

C.  Copy of my passport

D.  Passports (original) - bring along

E.  Proof of Relationship, in our case, a marriage certificate

F.  Passport Photos

G.  $420/500,000 KRW Processing Fee

The US embassy in Seoul has two different entrances, one for US Citizen services and the other for Immigrant and Non-immigrant Visas.  The line to get into the latter entrance was out of this world long :/, but perhaps it had to do with it being a Friday afternoon.  Lots of Koreans in line for visas, but luckily once inside we could skip the queue where everyone else was waiting and head up to the third floor for the USCIS dept. where only one other person was waiting.  

We had gone to the embassy last Tuesday to set up an appointment in person because it was really hard to get a hold of someone on the phone and sending e-mails was useless.  We kept getting automated responses linking us to websites we had already been to.  If you have serious questions, just go in in person.  The guy was helpful and we made the appointment at the same time. He told us both petitioner and the person being petitioned for are required to be present and so we were off until then.

When Friday came, we went to turn in the papers and he told us we should hear the results of the petition in about a month and that at that time we'll get the information that we need to prepare for the next step--the Interview.

All in all--pretty smooth up until this point. We were told on average it takes around three months to go through the entire process here in Seoul, which means we applied fairly early, but just to be on the safe side we started the process now anyway.  Once DH gets the visa in his hands (after the interview) then he has six months to enter the US, and that should coincide nicely with the end of my contract early next year.

Picture of the US embassy, Seoul

The paperwork never ends...

...when you're in an international relationship.  Or at least is seems that way.  The paperwork for EPIK along with a case of bed bugs that we were dealing with at the time makes Winter 2011 a time I will gladly (gladly) let slip into oblivion. Down until the very end, when I thought I had lost my passport after returning from the US (didn't know that one, did ya?), I really wasn't sure if Korea was going to happen.  But I'm here. And have been for five whole months already.

Five months in, and do you know what we're doing now? 

That's right, prepping more paperwork.  

We've been dragging our feet on this one for a while now.  We've had the forms all filled out and were ready to go a couple weeks ago already, but paperwork, no matter how straight forward it might seem, never is.  We're now in the process of applying for David's immigrant visa/green card.  After a quick Google search, we've found that there aren't too many blogs out there with information detailing the process from here in South Korea, so the DH suggested I keep track of the experience for future Seoul-dwellers who happen to need the services of the US Embassy.

This Friday at 2:30pm, we have our first appointment to turn in all the paperwork for the petition.  The first part of the visa process is filing the I-130, the petition to bring an immediate relative to the US. Cost? A cool $420.00.  But from what we've gathered reading extensively online, it seems that applying for a visa/green card from abroad is still cheaper than applying for one already in the US.  But I'll keep track and let you know as we go along.

So dear readers, wish us luck as we officially kick-off round two of 'international paperwork's never-ending story'. 

A Thursday Regular--"Oh, say can you see?"

Can you see it?  Above the windows are the faded words 'US ARMY' on the building facade.  The Bavarian-American Hotel was formerly used by the US Army during the occupation of Germany after WWII.  Nuremberg was formerly part of the American section. (There were four parts: American, British, French & Russian).  Eventually the sign came down and the army left (well at least out of that building) but I guess no one ever wanted to paint over it. A kind of 'where's waldo' piece of history right across from the Hauptbahnhof. Cool, eh?