Goodbye My Sweet Sweet Money Part 1.

Sigh.


International moving is not cheap.


Here is today's topics:
1. Rabies Tests
2. FBI Fingerprints
3. FedEx




1. Rabies TESTS!
Hooray we are now in the countdown for Reno and the Lions (Newcastle and Liverpool) to get in their crates for shipment. This test is the first test they go through and is the you have to have at least 3 months before shipment. Reno is still looking at September shipping, lions are December (see "Fur Balls" to see their delay reasons)
For those keeping track at home.... That adds another $200 EACH to their costs of import.

The current excel sheet looks like this. I still have to buy the Lions' crates. Someone tell Louis I love him and having my pets will make me happier than he knows.


2.FBI Fingerprints
So for the visa, I need police certificates. That means getting my fingerprints taken and sent to FBI for them to come back with "she used to get speeding tickets"
Louis and I both got this done at our local police department to send in in early June. *For permanent partner based residency Louis also has to have this done, not the 2 year one we are applying for.*
Paid our money ($80 to police department and $36 to FBI). Time frame per FBI was 6-8 weeks.
YOU HAVE TO HAVE THESE FOR YOUR VISA.
The next week I check the time line again... Now 8-10 weeks. OK time to worry. We look up how to get this faster as we want my application in the agency's hands next week (Early July).
For US Citizens, I can go through a FBI Channeler. This means going to a private company (Fast Fingerprints and National Background Check) and paying them to refingerprint me and run my paperwork.
I have now paid $20 for fingerprints, $50 processing, $75 same day service, and $50 for overnighting it with me. That's $200 because the FBI is looking at 4 months to get prints back out.


Moral of the story.... Just go to the channeler early.


3. Because of our buying airline tickets, we need our answer quickly. That means getting things to officials quickly. Goodbye money for a FEDEX overnight shipping label for my application.




So this past week has been very expensive. My awesome partner Louis is helping, this is just me whining to whine.


Next week we will talk about shipping a big box of stuff and the medical exam.

Sadly this is Georgia. My thoroughbred mare who is the one member of the family who can not join us. She is very sad over it but I am working on making sure she has a wonderful home after I move.

General Pregnancy Issues and a Zoo

How do you say "Good Morning" in Kiwi? Is it a "Flat white please?"


Either way, morning y'all.


So yesterday we went to the OBGYN yesterday and talked to her about the big move.
WE ARE CLEARED TO MOVE! HOORAY!


I still have all the tests and appointments to do here (iron, diabetes etc) but per her, these should not put me in any issues with being on a long haul plane ride. We talked to her also about how we need to see her the day before we get on a plane.


Doctors major concerns:

• Comfort- I will be 32 to 35 weeks and on a long plane ride. 
• Movement- I will need to get up and walk the plane to keep blood flow often.
• Stress.

Some other fun things my doctor is now giving me the "bad pregnant lady" stare is my balance. I have been falling more often than I should. Luckily years of being accident prone and horse back riding has helped me be able to tuck and roll however.....


Saturday I went to the zoo. And a sidewalk tried to eat me. I hit hard. Right on the stomach. I have not had the wind knocked out of me in years and I swear it hurts more as an adult.


I was cut up, bruised, and my poor Kiwi was very worried trying to decide if he needed to get us to a hospital or just let me be for a minute. Never seen him look more scared and we've jumped out of things with rubber bands attached to our legs.


Dr. Google and my own gut said I was likely fine, checked for special parts bleeding, and sat down a lot. Got home a few hours later and laid down (I was tired!) and a big strong TUMP from baby boy. Thanks kid... Glad you are ok...


Next up is the 4 legged kids having their blood drawn for rabies tests. HOORAY!

Telling family and friends you are moving across the world...

So my first post might have made my family was all on board with my move across the world with my foreign gentleman. Well they aren't.

To quote my Aunt Katie "Are you really moving to New Zealand before you have the baby???? I FORBID IT!"

Now put down the pitch forks, this is how my family jokes but yes, there are some upset people over our move and its timing.

My family is grumpy about it and while some members see the reasons and say they would make the same choice, some feel that a US passport should be enough. After all, CAD does have rights to residency in New Zealand even without being a citizen. But what does that mean?

First off..... Money.

• The cost of a vaginal birth with no issues is out of pocket anywhere from $3000-$9000 USD depending on insurance doctor hospital etc. Cost in New Zealand? Nada. 
• Cost of plane tickets for us to move with a screaming upset infant and my sleep deprived self? Another $500 for a bassinet seat. Additionally the issues with US car seats vs New Zealand standards and to put up with me on a long haul flight is a high cost in airline booze. I do tend to get bored demand attention. Lucky for Louis, I could take a sleeping pill the last time.
• Visas.... I could not do the free two year US citizen partner of a NZ citizen visa with a child. I would have to do a permanent visa with CAD being listed OR CAD would need his own visa. Not ideal and do I really want my son having a goofy passport photo at 2 weeks? Honestly, potatoes are more attractive than a fresh baby to me.
• Child care---- ok this one is a cost no matter what but the real issue is time away from work. Now being a Type A career focused feminist, I assume I will want to return to work within 6 weeks... However I don't know if that is what I want. Infant child care in the US at a care center is so high that many women in the Northwest Ohio area do Nanny shares or use "baby sitters" (a person who watches a few kids in their home, maybe licensed, maybe not), OR do not return to the work force. The not returning to the work force is a solution many multiple kid families use because the mom has stalled her career due to child birth (not going to a promotion, changing job locations, picking a job with more flexible hours, etc.) and have lesser pay than the cost of child care. While these women may return to the work force at some point, their choice to stay at home to save money age 6 weeks to 6 years will affect her earnings when she returns with employers seeing her choice to leave the work force as short sighted or as a loss of work ethic/technical skill set.    OK I'm off my soap box. Point being--- I have some other options if I would choose to.

Now that I've bored you or made you mad.... Here's the grand thing... 

No, it is not easy for your family to be OK with a big huge move and "take away" the baby. 

They will call you selfish, they will pout, they will cry, and try to talk you out of your plans... Please stay focused on WHY you made these plans.

Are you off on a grand adventure of a lifetime? Good, you do you.

Are you making it hard now so its easy in the future? Good on ya.

Are you seeing that your life is going to be better to leave? Head west and seek your fortune!

Either way... You know what is right for you. Be strong!

Louis and Me at Waiotapu Thermal Pools

http://www.waiotapu.co.nz/

The Fur Balls

So here is the real reason for the blog.... I couldn't find anyone answering from a personal side how they moved their pets and time lines. I got the New Zealand paperwork, no worry but there was gray I couldn't figure out.

***THIS BLOG IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE JUST A GUIDE TO MY EXPERIENCE****

***THIS POST IS A START OF THE PROCESS AND WILL HAVE MORE UPDATES AS TIME GOES ON***

OK now that everyone knows I'm just a normal-ish human... Here where we are in getting my pets to New Zealand in our move.

May 2017--- Micro Chip the Cats $125 each

June 2017--- Rabies booster for Dog, cats, and various other normal shots $500

Late June 2017--- Testing for rabies titer and a few other dog only issues $200 each rabies, $188 and $123 for "other dog issues". (NEXT WEEK)

This is where we are. I love how:

1. I don't know when my well cared for 11 year old dog is going to get on a plane. Likely 3 months after his blood is drawn for the titers.

2. Free barn kittens don't get microchips! ARGGGGGGGG Enjoy your $250 of fancy you silly fur balls.

3. Only one place in the United States can do a titer test. I got my degree in Econ and that seems like a BIG issue with prices staying artificially high... Just saying...

But its all worth it for these sweet fur balls....

Meet Reno... 11 year old Golden Retriever/Doberman/Beagle... Been with me since I was in college....

And Liverpool (red collar) and Newcastle (blue collar and tag)... My long haired black cats that were "adopted" from a friend's barn during my divorce proceedings. Liverpool is known to try to wake you up by loudly purring and Newcastle is my adventurous cat who in 98% of pictures has a "disapproving cat" face.

New Zealand Citizenship FUN

Kia Ora!
So in my first post I shared Louis and I are expecting our first child sometime in October. Original plan was to move to New Zealand in January 2018 so AFTER baby.

And here's the first step of where things went funny.

We find out its a baby boy! YAY! Because of wanting our son to have both New Zealand and US citizenship  we start looking into our steps.

Normal process for Unwed American Mothers with US citizenship:
1. Any child born in the US is a from birth US citizen.
2. Any child born to an USA citizen mother (unwed) born outside of the US, is a US citizen from birth so long as the mother has lived in the US for 5 consecutive years.

Easy right? CAD (baby) was going to be born in the states and I'm a US citizen by birth and have only ever lived here.

New Zealand Citizenship:
1. Children born in New Zealand to a New Zealand citizen parent are New Zealand Citizens by Birth.
2. Children born to New Zealand citizens outside of New Zealand are New Zealand citizens by descent IF their parent is either a by birth citizen (IE born in NZ Parent) or by grant citizen (went through the New Zealand citizenship process).

If you are a "By descent" New Zealand citizen, you can NOT give your born outside of New Zealand child your New Zealand citizenship.

So poor little CAD's dad (remember Louis?) was born in Australia and has "by descent" citizenship to New Zealand. He has live all but 4 years of his now 31 year long life in Auckland.*

GULP... By the way I found out that little issue reading and printing forms to pre-fill them out. Yes I'm the queen of binders.

SO TIME TO CHANGE PLANS!

After a call to New Zealand's citizenship hotline (o my god can you believe its a thing...seriously America... the damned Kiwis are showing us up..) We find that there are two ways for CAD to have dual citizenship:

1. Have child in US, move as permanent residences to New Zealand (more on that later), have CAD become a New Zealand citizen by Grant. (lots of time, money, forms, and me freaking out)
2. Move to New Zealand before the CAD is born.

So we are moving BEFORE CAD is born now...
(first plan October 2017, then January 2018, now September 2017... pardon the panicked breathing over here)

*Please note that New Zealand Citizens by descent can change their citizenship to by Grant but they must have lived the past 5 years in NZ. This is were Louis got stuck. He had lived 2 years in USA working.

Post Nevis Buggy Jump, Queenstown New Zealand 

(Editors note: I was already pregnant and didn't know it yet when we did this. Don't worry, CAD is fine.)

And so it begins....

So let me say this.
1. I suck at formatting.
2. I saw that there were not a lot of "Special Cases" blogging about the move to New Zealand and all the processes it takes.... Just a lot of "O i did this and it was easy"
3. This blog is for when its not easy.



So here's the story about Louis and Shannon.

Louis-- Lifts specialist for an International Elevator company takes a job in Northwest Ohio training people how to make boxes go up and down right.

Shannon--- Spoiled American girl working in elevator finance who was on a "date foreign guys" kick. More on the humor later.

We met "at work". In truth, Shannon (me), heard his accent and stalked him around the halls but failed at talking to him.
Luckily we were both on a popular casual dating app (COUGH Tinder COUGH) and matched up.
Few days later I got Louis to meet me at a bar and we starting dating. This was December 2015.

Of course we can't do anything the normal way.... You see I was still in the middle of a messy divorce... You've heard of the kind, divorce process lasts longer than the actual marriage... I was very upfront with Louis because if he was after a Green Card, it could be a minute. Now Louis is not immune from making this mess... He had just book flights home to Auckland for 3 weeks to spend Christmas/New Years with family and friends. NORMAL PEOPLE would say "cool thanks for some fun over 2 weeks but guess that's it" and move on. But not Louis and I... o no... We used Snap chat and Facetime to continue talking and spent 3 weeks getting to know each other.

Louis and I date and its awesome. Like so awesome I'm waiting on something stupid to happen. year and a half later, his happy, everything is OK personality and my "O MY GOD WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE" works out.

In July 2016 we move into together and both of us agree this house we share is a first place. We start talking and looking at other place to move to. Mostly in the USA at first but as the Election of 2016 got nasty and my views of moderate liberalism was harshly voted out by "Fearless Leader" it became clear we needed to look aboard and naturally we were heading to New Zealand!

We announced to our families we were going to be moving probably October 2017. We went to New Zealand for 2 weeks in January 2017 where I finally convinced Louis to have a family with me. We had lots of... FUN... And of course... We get off the plane back in the US, I'm too tired to see if the pregnancy test worked and went back to sleep. 5 AM the next morning I wake up to see a positive test on the bathroom counter. HOORAY. Of course, I wake Louis up and we hug and happy time. First try worked huh...

Now do some math January plus 9 equals OCTOBER! O shit. So CHANGE OF PLANS! Now we say January 2018 is move date. And this is where our story takes off....

Milford Sound Fiordlands South Island New Zealand