Settling In
Four questions for the first year
A review to run at six months and again at twelve, when there is no checklist left and it is genuinely hard to tell whether a household is making progress.
#records
Settling In
Settling In
Keeping the immigration record clean during the quiet years
Once a family is settled, the immigration side goes quiet — and that is exactly when the habits that matter for every later application are either formed or not
Settling In
Some things only elapsed time can produce, so start them before you need them
Effort shortens most tasks. A few cannot be shortened at all, because what they require is months passing. Those are the ones to start in the first weeks, long
Settling In
Nothing you built in Vietnam came with you, and that is a records problem
A person who was established, creditworthy and professionally respected arrives with none of it visible. Understanding why that is a records problem rather than
Your First Month
Four questions for the first month
A review to run at the end of the first week and again at the end of the first month, when everything feels unfinished and it is hard to tell what actually matt
Your First Month
First-month mistakes with long tails
Most things that go wrong in the first month are fixed in an afternoon. A handful create records that follow a family for years, and they all look harmless at t
Getting Ready To Fly
What you will not be able to do once you have left
The useful way to plan the last weeks is not a list of tasks but a single question: which of these becomes impossible, or merely very slow, once the person is o
Getting Ready To Fly
What must be hand-carried, and why it never goes in a checked bag
Some of what travels with an immigrating family cannot be replaced from abroad at any price. That set of items belongs in one bag that never leaves the person c
The Consular Interview
The only preparation that works is knowing your own file
There is no list of questions worth memorising. There is a file with your name on it, and the preparation that helps is making sure you know what is in it and t
Petitions & Evidence
What evidence actually does, and why more of it is not better
Evidence establishes facts. It does not argue, persuade, or make up for a situation that does not meet the requirements — and a thick file of the wrong kind can