Friday, 12 May 2006

It's been 5 and a half months, but after another E3D visa holder got her work permit in only a month, we figured it was time to stop waiting patiently.

We went to the USCIS office in San Jose this morning to politely go "what the fuck?", and to my amazement, they didn't hesitate in issuing Sarah with an 8 month work permit on the spot. Apparently the full-blown one will come when its good and ready, but in the meantime, she's all good to go. Well, she can go try to get a Social Security number in 10 working days and see what happens...

While we were in the vicinity, we also went to the San Jose Social Security office, so I could have another go at applying for a Social Security card, after what happened last time.

Again, we waited for an hour, only to be told that no, they didn't keep my immigration verification on record, and I wasn't showing up appropriately on their computer system, so they'd need to re-request verification of my status from Immigration anyway. Argh!

Apparently this happens to other people, not just me, so it seems to be luck of the draw as to whether your vital statistics actually propagate through all the various Government systems or not.

So $DEITY only knows when or if I'll receive my Social Security card. At least I'm not sweating on it to get paid or anything.

A while ago, I read an article on The Register, written by a journo based in Mountain View of all places, which had a tagline at the bottom that said to email him if you wanted to "drink like a vulture" on some sort of corporate drinkies or something. Being in Mountain View and all, I could hardly resist.

Said journalist actually emailed me back, after Googling me, and it turned out he was half Australian himself, so what better excuse to catch up for dinner?

Tonight we had dinner with Ashlee Vance and his wife Melinda, at the Cantankerous Fish in downtown Mountain View, and had a really great time. It's cool when you meet the sort of people you can just chat with for hours and get along with, and they're complete strangers you've never met before.

It was a good night out.