Successfully arrived in Seattle!

After a trip that took more than 23 hours I arrived safely in Seattle at Tuesday October 6th. Don’t expect much from American airlines like Delta Airlines, Continental Airlines, American Airlines or US Airways. They are all pretty basic and fly with old Boeings. This means no fancy in-flight entertainment or personal video screens. There were overhead video screens instead but the sound was so horrible I didn’t watch any movie. The second flight had free wireless internet which made time pass more quickly. I could check my e-mail, chat and do some work. I can tell you, internet on a plane is a valuable add-on. I wouldn’t mind paying $10 extra for it.

At my check-in in Brussels I had some trouble with my documents because I didn’t enter an online ESTA form. Instead I had a temporarily resident and work permit in my passport that said it was valid for one year starting from my date of entry (which was June 26th) but the expiration date said “August 16th”. So Delta Airlines required me to have an ESTA form. New rules say you have to enter this form at least a few days before entering the States. After some explaining Delta Airlines let me in assuming that I would return on October 14th and that I would apply for a tourist visa when entering the States. This was very nice of them because the amount of luggage I was taking with me proved that I was not going to return at October 14th. Upon entering the States I dealt with better informed people that understood my status and who let me enter the country without any problems. I have to admit I was a bit scared to be refused. Now and then you hear stories of people being deported. I hope my actual Green Card arrives soon so I don’t have to go through this another time.

There are many discussion on whether people in my situation need to enter an ESTA form and/or fill in the white and green forms you receive on the plane. The answer is ‘no’. You don’t need any of these. The expiration date Delta Airlines was confused about was referring to the six months time frame in which I had to enter the States to finish the procedure. The document itself is valid until June 26th 2010 and thus not expired. But you can’t blame Delta Airlines, they just don’t know any better and end up in trouble themselves if they transport people without the right authorizations.

If you think this was the only paperwork I had to go through then you’re wrong. The first day after I arrived I first went to the Department of Licensing to get my drivers’ license ID. This is an ID card which is often required as identification to open a bank account but also to prove your legal age when entering a bar. They couldn’t issue an ID card because besides my Belgian passport I needed a second proof of identification which I didn’t had. This is a bit contradictive because I was there to get a proof of identification! The only way to get out of this chicken-and-egg problem was to prove my place of residency in the States by providing them for example an electricity bill. But because I’m living with my friends I don’t receive those kind of bills…

My next stop was AT&T to buy an iPhone. This would get me a bill by the end of the month which I then can use to get my drivers’ license ID card. At AT&T I bumped into another problem – which I expected -  the lack of a credit score (I will get in depth about this in another post). In a nutshell I couldn’t prove I will be able to pay my bills at the end of the month so I had to pay a deposit of $500 which I will get back after one year. Together with the cost of the phone and state taxes I ended up paying $718 but walked out with a brand new iPhone and phone number. First achievement of the day!

Later that day I visited Bank of America and opened a bank account. This went rather smoothly. I expected they would require my drivers’ license ID but luckily they didn’t (eTrade Bank for example requires this). I immediately got a temporarily debit card until I receive my WWF Polar Bear debit card and plush animal! It can take a little longer until I receive my credit card. Bank of America first needs to do a background check about my credit history. I don’t know how they’re going to do that because they don’t have access to any of my banking data. Oh well, we just have to wait and see. I’ll probably get a card with an extremely high APR but – in contrary to most of the Americans – I don’t intend to live on credit.

Today I also found a rather thick envelope in my friends’ mailbox from the Immigration Service. It included a nice little guide (see picture above) about my rights and responsibilities in the United States. I’ve quickly scanned the contents but there is nothing in there that I didn’t know yet.

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