Latest posts
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Transfer California Driver License to Georgia: What the DDS Visit Actually Took
My DDS visit to transfer California driver license to Georgia took about 15 minutes, but I spent more time before it checking my documents than I did at the counter. I walked in without an appointment about 30 minutes before closing, there was no line, and I left with a paper temporary license. I’m writing…
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My California Real ID Driver License: Six Weeks, Two DMV Visits, One Borrowed Car
Getting my California Real ID driver license took about six weeks, two DMV visits, and eventually a coworker’s car. The paperwork wasn’t the hardest part. Finding a car and a licensed passenger for the road test was. I had never lived in the US before, so this was a first-time application, not a transfer. In…
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Filing US Taxes as an Immigrant: Two States, the Kids’ ITINs, and a June Refund
Filing US taxes as an immigrant family turned out to be less about the forms and more about the waiting. Waiting for a W-2, waiting for the kids’ ITINs to arrive, and finally waiting for a refund that showed up at the end of June. I’d already filed once before, in 2025, as a nonresident…
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Georgia Pre-K Is a Lottery, Not a Sign-Up: What Actually Happened When We Applied
Something I never once worried about in Germany or Korea became a real concern the moment we got to the US. Enrolling our first child in public Pre-K here isn’t first-come, first-served. It’s a lottery — the kind of thing I’d only ever seen on TV. This is the story of our first Georgia Pre-K lottery application…
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Visa Stamped, Flight in 10 Hours: What Actually Happened When I Returned to the US
Visa stamped, passport back in hand — and my flight to the US was leaving in 10 hours. Moving from California to Georgia meant redoing my visa from scratch. My E-2 visa — a treaty investor visa tied to a specific employer — had been issued based on my original California employer, and it didn’t…
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ITIN vs SSN for My Kids: What Actually Happened When We Filed Taxes
The first thing that stalled our tax filing wasn’t the return itself — it was getting my kids an ITIN. To file taxes in the US, you need either an SSN or an ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number). Our kids weren’t born here, so an SSN was never on the table. That left one real…
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Opening a Bank Account and Building Credit in the US: What Actually Happened, Step by Step
Nobody hands you a manual for this when you land. Opening a bank account in the US, getting a Social Security Number, and building credit from zero — here’s the real timeline of how it happened, and how it compared to doing the same things in Korea and Germany. Getting the SSN The earliest available…