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Here is
my story of how I went about going to the USA…
Over the
past 5 years as I’ve built the Electric Scotland web site I’ve worked at
home with only a couple of views, one into my back garden but only to see
tree tops and then later looking onto my garage door.
I had
decided that it was time I moved to a nicer location where I could look
out onto some nice scenery while I worked on the site. Problem was
finding such a new home that also had access to broadband connections to
enable me to continue working on the web.
In a
conversation with Steve he said why not come to America? Himself and his
wife Deb would be happy to put me up at their home for my first year and
if I liked it in the locality would help me get a house in the area. So
after thinking it all through I figured why not :-)
I had
always thought that as my business was web based that once it got properly
established I could take off around the world and still be able to keep
the business going so wasn’t this what I’d always said I’d like to do?
So…
decision made it was just a question of how to get to the USA and be able
to work there. At first Steve said just get yourself here and then we’ll
sort it all out. I couldn’t really believe it was that easy and folks I
spoke to said that since 911 it was even harder than usual to get a visa
to work in the USA. I thus decided I’d better check with the US Embassy
in London and that’s where the problems really started.
After
sending several email queries it looked like there was no visa that would
allow me to work in the US on my own behalf unless I could come up with 1
million dollars <gulp>.
In fact
through the US embassy all they could say for certain was that if I went
over on the visa waiver program I would not be allowed to work and if I
did and was caught working then I would be chucked out of the USA and
could not apply for a visa for another 5 years.
I of
course already have a steady income from the web site so I wanted to
continue having that and growing it of course. So it was now over to
Steve… how could I get in and still be able to work on my own account?
Steve
contacted the BCIS and after much switching around between various people
eventually got to a person who in Steve’s words “could speak English”. He
had various questions and eventually said… “you need an L-1 visa” which is
an Inter-Company transfer. This is where two companies had been working
together for several years, one or other being an agent for the other. Of
course this was a perfect solution as I’d been Steve’s agent for a number
of years introducing companies to him for his web hosting service. So, we
at last had a solution!
This was
the start of a long process of getting material together. I had to
produce things like 3 years accounts, include information of any
organisations or societies I’d ever belonged to, copy of my passport,
company articles of association, etc. All this had to be notarised by a
lawyer as well before being sent over to Steve. On his side Steve also
had to get similar information together for his company. While this was
going on we found out that all this could take six months to go through
the system so we decided to take the express route and pay an extra fee to
get approval within 15 business days.
Now if
all this was approved they issued an approval form, which would be sent to
Steve along with all the documentation we’d sent to them. I checked with
the US Embassy in London to find I needed to arrange a visa interview and
the earliest they could book me in was in 6 weeks time. So… I took that
and started to arrange to sell my house as I’d be going to the US for at
least 3 years.
So you
can see lots of work was going on by both of us to arrange for me to move
over to the USA.
Anyway…
things did not go quite to plan which is why you really need to take more
time to arrange all this as you can bet your bottom dollar that there will
be unforeseen problems and delays.
The first
problem was in selling the house. The estate agents advised that I really
needed to reduce the clutter before letting people view the house. That
took me 2 weeks to do that and only with the help of the contract
cleaners, Merry Maids, in Stirling. Ken and his wife were absolute stars
and I doubt I could have done it all myself without their help. Anyway
the house was eventually de-cluttered but Ken though I really should put a
bit of paint on one of the bedrooms as being my old office it really
needed freshening up and so we did that as well.
Then it
was onto advertising the house and the day it hit the web site the phone
kept going. In the first week I had 18 appointments booked and even when
I had accepted an offer there were still another 9 other people wanting to
view it. The eventual purchasers had been the first to view it and they
moved very fast to have a survey done and before the week was out had made
an offer. As the figure was really what we’d hoped to get it was decided
to accept so we could get moving and so the deal was done.
Talking
of delays however… they decided to go for a 2 week holiday and so we were
unable to actually sign contracts until they came back so that was the
first of the delays.
Meantime
I had booked my appointment with the US Embassy but not being aware of how
long a lead time is was it was now 16th September before I
could get the appointment and if that went well it could be up to another
10 business days before I’d be issued with my passport. That meant I had
to try and negotiate an extended leaving date for the house as I was meant
to vacate on 29th August.
The new
owners were very kind and were able to extend my leaving date to 12th
September. I had arranged to stay with Nick and Adele of ScotWeb from 12th
through to 17th with me going down to London for the interview
and returning on 17th. The plan was then to hire a car and go
up to Kinloch Rannoch while waiting for my passport to arrive with the
visa.
All
looked to be working fine but then the BCIS folk came to a halt as they
needed additional information from Steve. They needed a copy of his house
title deeds along with a photograph of it. So, Steve got that organised
but that meant an extra week was added to the process. We were still ok
at that point then another request for additional information. Steve had
sent 6 months business bank statements but they wanted 2 years. Yikes!
OK so we managed to get that to them but that was the killer as that meant
there was no way we could get the paperwork to me in time for my
appointment at the US Embassy. This meant I had to cancel the current
appointment and make another one this time for October 6th.
As it
stands today (16th September) I am still at ScotWeb but will be
heading to the Dunalastair Hotel at Kinloch Rannoch tomorrow but still
waiting for the approval notice to be issued. We understand at this point
that they seem to be happy with everything else and this is the last bit
they needed to see before giving us approval.
So… I am
still keeping my fingers crossed that this week we’ll receive all the
paperwork and that Steve can send it all to me for the visa interview.
I of
course now need to figure out a place to live from 26th
September until around 12th October while waiting for the
interview that also has broadband access to allow me to continue working
which should be fun.
Meantime
I’ve been having some fun at ScotWeb. When I first arrived I had full
broadband access but after taking a day out on Sunday to go walking (more
of which later) I brought the camera back and got the pictures off onto my
notebook. After that for some reason I haven’t been able to access the
Internet at all for some weird reason. Spent hours trying everything but
to no avail. I did have a short visit to TravelScotland on Monday and
they were able to get me access through their network but still no access
at ScotWeb and so am just having to deal with email through my web based
account on another of Nick’s machines.
I hope to
get access again up at Kinloch Rannoch and be able to get the web site
updated but in the meantime am having a wee holiday :-)
On Sunday
14th Adele thought it would be nice to take a picture of the
Scottish Parliament and she knew just the right place where we could take
the picture. So on Sunday we first went down to South Leith Church where
her father is an Elder and he kindly showed us around before the service
started and gave me some leaflets about the history of the church going
way back to the 1600 hundreds. I got some good photos which I’ll put up
later.
These are pictures of South Leith Church with
Adele and her Dad at the Front Door of the Church
We then
headed off to King Arthur's Seat way to take the picture of the Scottish
Parliament work in progress. Now you have to understand that I am a chain
smoker and never take any exercise. So, Adele was saying it’s just around
this corner when she parked the car. So around the corner we went and
Adele pointed out where we needed to go <Arghh>
She
pointed to a long walk over to the West where we could then take the start
of the path which would then take us up the Crags… you mean we have to
walk up that mountain I asked? Hoping I was mistaken… but indeed we
needed to walk up there which is more walking that I’ve done in the last 5
years. I got Adele to take a picture of me standing at the foot of this
huge mountain so you can appreciate the huge undertaking <grin>
This is where I had to go to get to the start
of the path leading up onto the Crags
Adele at the entrance of the Park
Where the bushes stop at the top was the path
I took and that's me at the bottom.
Anyway…
after a couple of stops to rest I did indeed make it to the top but have
to say that it was then a good walk down to the bottom and then a huge
walk back round to get to the car. It must have been at least one hundred
miles… well it felt that way anyway. I think this might be a story I tell
for the rest of my life but was dead chuffed to have made it although I
suspected I might have died from a heart attack in the attempt. I did say
to Adele that I only attempted it as she being a doctor could likely have
resuscitated me if I had a heart attack <grin>
It just
goes to show how unfit you can get without really noticing it so I really
must take some regular exercise and cut down on my smoking. The next day I
went down to see Gordon Howell, an old friend, at Calton Hill in
Edinburgh. Of course the taxi dropped me off so that was fine but then we
went out for lunch which was all downhill. However coming back I did need
to stop for a rest as it is quite a climb back to his office and even when
you get there you have another set of stairs to get up to his house and
then horror another flight of stairs to get to his flat <groan>
And so
after only 5 days away from the house my legs are already shorter and I’m
feeling muscles I didn’t know I had in my legs
J
So that’s
about it for now… I’ll do another wee bit when I get up to Kinloch Rannoch
and hopefully get web access again to post up the newsletter.
Do visit
Nick and Adele's Web Site at
www.scotweb.co.uk
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