International Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
IN newbie here
Hi everyone,
I've been meaning to post here for a while. Things are finally getting into full swing, so I thought I would come out and say hello.
Long story made as short as possible:
I am an American and he is a German. We met almost six years ago when we had both just moved to New York City. The past 8 months have been spent long-distance: I have been working on a volunteer placement in Ghana and he has been "setting up shop" in London. I hope to be able to join him there in July as an "unmarried partner of an EEA resident." We will be getting married this December in Germany.
There are many things up and coming, so it's nice to be able to talk to people who have similar experiences. I have my interview for the EEA Family Permit next week, and I am a bit nervous. Additionally, I know there will be plenty of red tape and bureaucracy when we try to get married in Germany. Then of course there are the joys and miseries that come with living in a developing country, as I write to you I am laid up in bed with Typhoid.
At any rate, I'm looking forward to getting to know you all!
I've been meaning to post here for a while. Things are finally getting into full swing, so I thought I would come out and say hello.
Long story made as short as possible:
I am an American and he is a German. We met almost six years ago when we had both just moved to New York City. The past 8 months have been spent long-distance: I have been working on a volunteer placement in Ghana and he has been "setting up shop" in London. I hope to be able to join him there in July as an "unmarried partner of an EEA resident." We will be getting married this December in Germany.
There are many things up and coming, so it's nice to be able to talk to people who have similar experiences. I have my interview for the EEA Family Permit next week, and I am a bit nervous. Additionally, I know there will be plenty of red tape and bureaucracy when we try to get married in Germany. Then of course there are the joys and miseries that come with living in a developing country, as I write to you I am laid up in bed with Typhoid.
At any rate, I'm looking forward to getting to know you all!
Re: IN newbie here
Hello! Wow! That is a really interesting intro. I hope you feel better soon. How are you liking Ghana?
I am American living in Spain.
There are many things I really enjoy about Ghana. Generally speaking people have been enormously kind and friendly towards me, the food has been amazing and my house is on a hill overlooking the ocean. I've had ample time to travel and see different parts of the country, I really can't complain!
At the same time, I have had my fair share of health problems related to my environment: countless stomach bugs, Malaria and now Typhoid. That can kill your spirits a bit! Cultural misunderstandings can be frustrating here just like anywhere, and communication is a challenge even though English is the official language of Ghana.
I'm also finding it harder than I anticipated to be in a long distance relationship. The fact that FI has already gone to London and found us a great apartment makes me really excited to go and join him, so a big part of me is looking forward to "the next thing."
How long have you been in Spain?
Thanks, I'm already starting to feel much better. I should be back at 100% soon. That sucks that you were hit twice in one month!
Thankfully I get to avoid any wedding craziness with flowers, cakes and centerpieces. We're just doing the paperwork portion with a small gathering afterward for our parents. From what I hear, there is quite a bit of paperwork involved when a non-German is marrying a German in Germany.
I too hope that we can easily get the EEA Family Permit as "unmarried partners" this month, that will make the transition much smoother and hopefully speed up my job search.
Where in France are you? Not that I'm a France expert by any means...
Hi. *waves* I married my German DH in Switzerland while we were living there. The process there wasn't too bad for us. I had to send off for a new birth certificate and go to the US consulate to sign a paper saying I was never married.I kind of forgot about all the other stuff we did. We had to go to the offices a lot for stuff though. *sigh* They were also confused as why we would want to get married ASAP.
Does Germany require you to have a birth certificate issued within the last 6 months? Just curious and thought I would pass the info on that you may or may not need.
2012 Reading Challenge
Now Nesting from Chicago, IL My nail blog:
Welcome! I am an American living in Mexico with Mexican DH. We have 2 kids that have dual citizenship. We got married in Mexico and it only took a weekend to get our paperwork together here. Good luck! I hope you feel better soon!
Hi and welcome! DH and I are Americans living in London.
I have a good friend whose partner is German, and this has made citizenship issues so much easier, as he falls under EU laws instead of UK laws. So bravo for that!
Hope you feel better soon.
Yes allibally, it sounds like you went through the same things I am going to.
At some point I have to get a certificate saying I'm not already married. I have already to sent away for a new birth certificate. In a few months, I will send that certificate right back to where it came from for a "re-certification" of sorts. An Apostille as they call it, basically the state of New York needs to confirm that it is a legit document.
FI and I were under the impression that it was the Apostille could not be older than six months at the time of marriage, not the birth certificate itself. Now that you've mentioned it though, I remember seeing this someplace else. I have already texted FI, and he is looking into it. Thanks so much! I really hope I don't have to send away for a third birth certificate just because we didn't read the fine print.
Were you able to get married ASAP? It seems like there are a lot details involved that would delay things. After some frustrations with the 'unmarried partner' visa application, I suggested that we just move our wedding up but that doesn't seem to be an option because of all of the paperwork and red tape.
Ah ha, now I've figured out the quote function! Sorry, total newb error.
That's interesting, I didn't consider how things might be different if I was marrying a British dude and moving to the UK. I am very grateful for the fact that we can live anywhere in the EU and also the US (he was there long enough on a green card to get his passport). It makes life so much easier, I know visa issues can be a big problem for some couples.
I'm pleased to meet one of the London ladies! I hear there are quite a few around, I'm very excited to be joining you all in the coming months.
Thanks!
If I can assume that those are your kids in your profile pic, they are very cute
It's always interesting to see what the different requirements are in different countries, it was also fairly easy for me to get my resident permit here in Ghana.
It took a month from us going into the office the first time till our marriage date. Maybe about 2 weeks. I knew I needed the birth certificate before I moved so I ordered that ahead of time. DH held a residence permit for CH and I was on a visitor visa. DH actually accepted the job in Zurich because it was the only canton we could get married in while I was on a visitor visa and he had to reside there. I didn't need an Apostille either. Thankfully, as we didn't have enough time to wait for that. But they kept my new fancy not wrinkled birth certificate. I'm sure it's on file in some underground vault in Zurich. haha
In Switzerland it had to be less then 6 months. I don't know about Germany but definitely worth looking at to make sure.
The marriage was the easy part for us. We filed for his green card a month after our marriage. Now that was full of red tape!
2012 Reading Challenge
Now Nesting from Chicago, IL My nail blog:
Hi, welcome to the board! I hope you get well soon!
MH and I live in NYC but are both from Rome. We got married here in the US and haven't visited Rome since so I still don't know what kind of paperwork I'll have to present to have the marriage registered in Italy. Sometimes I feel like we're going to drown in paperwork. Congrats on your upcoming wedding! December in Germany is going to be coooooold
)
Hello, welcome! Glad you're starting to feel better, hope you make a full recovery soon. Ghana sounds so interesting. You probably said this, but when exactly are you making the transition to London?
I'm American, he's Indian. I'm engaged. I'm in the US now, he's in India, I'm moving to India and marrying him sometime in the fall, we hope.
"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." -Isaiah 61:10 NKJV
I'm in Paris
No need to be a France expert for that one! Good luck with your papers. At least your birth certificate has to be less than 6 months old, mine had to be less than 3 months old which left me ordering birth certificates right and left for a while!
Hello! Good luck on your upcoming move and it's very cool that you're in Ghana now!
DH and I are living in a small town about 1 hour and 15 minutes from Geneva, Switzerland. I'm American and he's Swiss/Argentine.
Welcome to the board!
Welcome, welcome! I hope your typhoid gets cleared up soon. (Does that kind of thing "clear up"? I don't know much about typhoid...)
I am going to be living in Frankfurt in about three weeks (!!!) myself. Are you guys going to be moving to Germany? I wasn't sure from your post.
Oh, and I'm an American living in Spain with my Spanish H, but on April 29th we're moving to Germany (like I already mentioned).
I don't have anything useful to say, other than Hi! and Welcome!
I'm an American, living in Oslo. I used to be married to an Indian (technically I still am, because the divorce isn't finalized), and I used to live in Beijing.
Out of curiosity, did you have a typhoid vaccine? I took the live-culture pill version before we moved to China (so it expired years ago), and I guess I always figured it was nearly fully effective! Maybe not?
Welcome to the board! Newbies rock
Ghana, that is way impressive. I can only imagine the incredible, albeit tough on the health, experiences you are having there. And, London is going to be fab! There are lots of Nesties in London, you'll meet lots of cool people!
I'm also an American married to a German, but we live in Germany and got married in the States. We didn't get married in the States to avoid red-tape, instead we thought we were going to live in the US. Didn't work out, and I've been here for over 10 years now.
Where in Germany is your FI's family? You will have a lovely wedding, and it isn't as cold here in the winter as some people think
Looking forward to hearing about your wedding and move. Hope you're feeling better soon!
Phew, I go to sleep for a few hours and look what happens. Thank you all for your welcoming words! In reverse order:
ctgirl: It's awesome to meet another American-German couple! FI's family lives in a small village near Leipzig. Where in Germany are you living? I've had the pleasure of experiencing a few German winters. Each time was pretty darn cold, but comparable to where I was born (Upstate New York). I only encountered problems this year when I jumped off the plane after living on the beach in Ghana for several months. I spent my entire Christmas sniffling and sneezing. Did you guys have any problems when you moved to Germany with your US marriage certificate? It seems like there is always a loophole with these things, once you fill out the right paperwork.
GillC: It's funny you ask. Yes, yes I did have the Typhoid vaccine. Unfortunately, I thought that gave me the green light to hit up every kebab stand in Ghana. Apparently the typhoid vaccine is not 100% effective if you are stupid like me and love to nosh on questionable street food. How do you find Oslo? Quite different from Beijing I suppose!
LadyMadrid: That's awesome! Best of luck with your move! That's very exciting! That's coming up very soon, do you feel like you have everything ready? Moving can be so hectic. Right now FI and I plan to live in London. We haven't ruled out the possibility of moving to Germany someday, but as of now it's not in the cards. To answer your first question, apparently Typhoid can keep returning if it's not properly taken care of the first time. I was pretty on top of it, so I hope to get rid of it completely. I'd hate to get it again back in the developed world. It's extremely contagious, I don't want to be "that girl" that starts the Typhoid outbreak.
ktk09: Thank you for your kind words of welcome! I hope to be able to visit Switzerland, it seems like a very beautiful place. AmericanIn: I am SO happy to hear that you had the unmarried partner visa! All of my Googling thus far has led me to stories of people getting denied. Hearing that you were issued one gives me hope that I might actually be approved. I'm very excited to go to London. You say you miss it, where are you now?
myblueangel: Ooh, Paris, I know that one! What a lovely place to be. Do you enjoy it there? That's crazy about your birth certificate! I thought asking for one issued within 6 months was strange, 3 months is even worse.
RyansBeloved: Thank you very much, I'm already starting to feel much better. I'm not entirely sure when I will be transitioning to London. After Ghana, I am going to stay with my parents in the US for a few weeks while I regroup. If everything goes according to plan, I will head over in mid July. If my unmarried partner visa is denied, then we'll have to move onto plan B. I guess I will come and go on a tourist visa until we are married in December. Right now I'm taking it easy and playing it by ear, but the goal is definitely mid July. Congratulations on your engagement, and best of luck with all of your wedding plans. India strikes me as a big move, that should be quite an amazing experience for both of you!
Stellina: That's awesome, I already miss New York so much. We lived in Washington Heights for a few years, and then we moved down to 96th street near Riverside. We both loved it there. I can imagine that there is plenty of paperwork between the two of you? what a hassle! Where are you in New York? Do you have plans to return to Italy?
Stever: Thank you so much. I love your sig pic, he is so cute and happy!
Allibally: Oh man, everything you described sounds like such a headache. Your German H applied for a green card. You may have said this, but did you/will you return to the US? I didn't realize they were going to keep my birth certificate! That kind of irks me. I was adopted and only had an adoption certificate, so this is my first real "birth certificate" - now they're going to take it away? The nerve! It bothers me enough to complain about it, but probably not enough to pay the $30 to order another one.
I'm sorry, this has become an epically long post. I wanted to address each of you, but I'm not sure of the proper Nestiquette for doing so. Anyways, thank you all for welcoming me to your community!
2012 Reading Challenge
Now Nesting from Chicago, IL My nail blog: