Husband & Cat Arrived Safely

I know its a bit past the date, but I’m finally getting around to posting about the arrival of Pisica (my cat) and Marius (my husband).

Both arrived safe and sound just about a month ago. Marius had no problems getting through immigration, though they told him it would take six to eight weeks to get his Green Card in the mail. They didn’t even mention his Social Security card.

Pisica arrived safe and desperate to get out of the travel kennel she’s been in for over 24 hours. It did take awhile to retrieve her because I had been told we would need to pick her up at the cargo area but she was actually brought to the baggage terminal. Marius didn’t know to look for her and left baggage area without her. Of course once you pass customs you’re not allowed back in, so he had to go to the airline’s customer service people who had to call to have her brought out, which took about a half hour.

Both Marius and I are very curious to what her trip was like, but unfortunately no amount of asking her has elicited a response yet. Interestingly enough, she was clearly jet lagged for several day. She slept more than she usually does and was fairly quiet — and believe me, my cat is NOT a quiet cat! After about four or five days, she was back to her normal meowing, crazy self.

A few days after Marius arrived I called Social Security to find out about his getting his card, and if he could legally work before he received the card. The first time I called it was clear the woman I spoke to wasn’t sure of what she was saying. She told me he couldn’t work and that we’d have to file a whole new set of forms for him to be legally allowed to work — according to her the Social Security card he was being issued was only for identification purposes and not for working. This sounded very weird to me, especially as I’m sure the staff at the Embassy in Bucharest told us he’d be allowed to work. So I called again. This time the person I spoke with said, the immigration process we’d been through did allow him to work before he got his social security card. I called two more times after that and both times got the same answer that Marius was allowed to work without the Social Security card in hand.

With that taken care of my dad started making calls to people he knew in the Electrician’s field. Within two days of making calls, and two weeks of Marius’ arrival in the States, he had a job as an electrician. Just like that! He’s now working for a private contractor as part of the guy’s “crew” of electricians. He’s underpaid but its a great start. And while I’m thrilled he got a job so fast, it’s also annoying that he got a job within two weeks and I’ve now been here almost two months and I’m still looking!

We are, however, still waiting to receive Marius’ Social Security card. The paperwork we received about it said he should expect the card within three weeks of arrival in the States. But when I called, again, to see what was happening I was told that it was going to be closer to six to eight weeks, just like the Green Card. It’s annoying, since he can’t apply to take the driver’s license test until he gets it, but at least he’s allowed to work.

So as of now we’re a one income family, but hopefully that’ll change, as I’ve got three interviews and a callback interview this week!

Wish us luck!

Advertisement