It has come to my attention that some people would be interested in me doing a bit of blogging about my soon-to-happen relocation to the big country on the other side of the Atlantic. So here we go..
(Swedish disclaimer: Somliga som skulle kunna tänkas vilja läsa mina små underfundigheter pratar inte så mycket svenska. Så jag tar det hela på engelska. Jag måste ju ändå ägna mig åt engelska på heltid snart så det är lika bra att börja med en gång.)
So this is what has happened so far. Five years ago I had some contact with Google about a position in Zürich, Switzerland. That didn’t materialize but after a trip to California last year we had a new contact, this time for the main office in Mountain View. Then after some we-have-no-visas-issues, ten interviews and two trips to Zürich I was all of a sudden a Noogler (New Googler) on my way to relocate to San Francisco Bay Area.
When I got the offer there were three months to go before the move. That means that you have time to
- Talking to FexEd explaining to them that the reason they couldn’t deliver stuff to me is that I am not at home in the middle of the day, I’m working.
- Scanning papers, passports, drivers licenses, credit cards etc to send to different people.
- Having a guy from a moving company over to verify that the stuff in my apartment fits in a 20 feet container.
- Sending endless amounts of papers and answering as many questions about my economy just to have the honour of becoming a Citibank customer.
- Answering even more questions for US Immigration to get to apply for an H1B work permit visa.
- And the near impossible task of going through your stuff and decide what to bring, what to leave behind and what to throw away.
Now it’s two weeks before it’s time to take a one way flight to San Francisco. Tomorrow I have the visa interview at the American Embassy in Stockholm. After that they claim it will take seven days (unclear if it is business days..) before I get my passport back with a visa in it. If they do it on time I’m fine, but there is not much margin. This could be nerve wrecking..
Not only will I not be able to leave the country if they take too much time. The moving company also won’t touch my things unless they get a copy of the visa. Knock on wood..