1. Sign up for a new Skype account (it’s best you don’t use your primary one, since you won’t be able to receive calls on it anymore)
2. Add an Australian Online Number to this account through the Skype website
3. Add some Skype Out credit to the account, or sign up for a subscription that includes calls to the US
4. Open the Skype application and turn on call forwarding for unanswered calls for this account. Set your Google Voice number as the number to forward to, and set it to forward after 0 seconds (this just tells Skype to forward right away)
5. Open Google Voice in your browser, click Settings in the top right, then click the Calls tab. From here, turn on Do Not Disturb mode. This is a crucial step, as it makes Google instantly pick up your call for voicemail
6. Set your Australian phone to forward unanswered calls to your Skype Online Number. The online number will then forward to Google Voice which will pick up the call for voicemail.

Skype occasionally messes up the called ID on forwarded calls, but it get’s it right 99% of the time. With this method you can now get free voicemail transcription to your email, or use the built-in Google Voice application on Android phones. If you have a Google Voice invite but don’t know how to activate it from outside the US, the easiest way is to get a US Skype Online Number and give that to Google in order to activate your account.

I am writing this to let people that are thinking about going through the process for an E3 visa know that while there are a lot of forms to fill in, the process is overall very painless. The actual interview session, which is the part most people are most worried about, took no more than two minutes.

What follows are the tips and processes that I followed. This is by no means legal advise, but is what I did to successfully secure my working visa.

• Have your new employer complete a Labor Condition Application – this is key, and best to get done early on. An LCA certifies that your new job is a ‘specialty occupation,’ and is a simple form for your employer to fill out. This will get approved within a couple of days
• Sign up for VisaPoint – this is the U.S. Embassy’s online visa system, and allows you to book your interview and fill out forms
• Fill out your forms – through VisaPoint, you can fill out your DS-156, which is the main application form. You must fill this out online, but since the system takes the information you put into VisaPoint it makes it easier anyway. If you are a male aged between 16 and 45, you must also fill out a DS-157, which is linked from within VisaPoint and asks a few questions about whether you have ever performed military service and the like. You can fill the DS-157 out by hand.
• Make your appointment – do it early. While I was able to get an appointment within a week, it can get busy. You do this through VisaPoint.
• Be prepared – this, in my opinion, is the most crucial step in the process. Before my interview, I went back and got references from many previous employers, recruiters, a University Academic Registrar, and even my high school computers teacher. The key is to show a high level of skill over a long period of time (which was not the 15 years the embassy recommended, though). If you have your University degree, get your transcript. Collect as much information as you can, put it in a folder with your visa, DS-156, DS-157, and LCA ready for the day. You will also need a self addressed Express Post Platinum satchel, and will have to pay your application fee at the Post Office (ask at the counter for the Non-Immigrant Visa Application Fee, $180 at the time of writing). Make sure you bring the envelope and receipt for the payment on the day.
• On the day – first and foremost, wear a suit. A lot of people don’t, but it makes you look and feel far more legitimate and professional if you do. These people must judge your character in a very short period of time, so anything you can do to make yourself look trustworthy is helpful. On the day, the process is:
  • Check in with security, have your visa ready for this
  • Queue and wait to be called for the person that checks your forms. This is not the interview, but instead just an officer that makes sure you’ve brought everything
  • If you have everything, you will be put into another queue to wait to be called to the special elevator, which will take you to another security checkpoint, followed by another waiting room.
  • After waiting in this new waiting room, you will be called to hand in your forms and passport, then (wait for it) – be asked to go back and wait to be called again.
  • You will be called back again – and this is the actual interview. You will be asked about your academic and employment background, and also about your ties to Australia (this is a non-Immigrant visa, after all). To satisfy the ‘ties’ requirement, you need only to have family left over here. The academic and employment part is completely up to the interviewing officer – in my case, he trusted that I was suitably qualified just on my word (this is where the suit comes in handy) and did not even look at my references. Despite this, I would never try it without having lots of documentation.
  • Head home, and wait for your passport to be delivered back to you in your Express Post satchel with a shiny new U.S visa inside

The whole process of going to the embassy took around three hours, but 99% of this is waiting in queues. Do not be discouraged by the information from the embassy – when it comes down to it, the only requirements are a DS-156, DS-157, LCA, Express Post satchel, receipt for the application fee, and your Australian passport. The rest is just proving you’re worthy, and the really key things are: get as much documentation on your work and academic history as possible, be organized and keep everything together for the day, and on the day dress professionally.

If anyone looking to get an E3 would like to discuss the process further, I’d be happy to help. Leave a comment or get me on the contact page.

For a start, I truly want to publicly thank the guys at Happener. Markus and Greg totally blew away any and all preconceptions I had about recruitment by being personal, fun, and actually caring about the outcome. It pains me to put them in the same category as recruiters. These guys went so far above and beyond the call of duty, and have become both people I respect greatly, and very good friends. If you are sick of the old ‘bums in seats’ approach to recruiting, give these guys a call – they are in the business of hooking up fantastic companies with fantastic people. In any event, I’ll have more to say about them some other time…

Secondly, I’d love to give a big shout out to the folks at Massive Interactive, who I have been working with for the last two months. Had I not had the opportunity to travel to SF, I would have signed with them permanently in a heartbeat – they are a bunch of incredibly smart people working on incredibly cool things. I hope that if I do come back to Australia to live in the future, they might consider having me back. This is despite them being a .NET house, and me being an OS guy, so that has to tell you something.

I’d also like to thank all the fine people at 3jam, the company that I’m trekking across the world to be involved in. They have bent over backwards to help me out at every stage, and I look forward to meeting them all over a few beers tomorrow night.

Then, there are all the wonderful friends in Sydney. You are all fantastic people, and having so many come up to me at STUB to wish me well last night was a fantastic feeling. While I haven’t been a Sydney boy for that long, you have all been very welcoming, and are very important to me in your own special ways. I look forward to coming back for visits, and I hope that if any of you find yourselves in San Francisco that you get in touch.

Of course, I wouldn’t be at this point in my life without the help and guidance of my parents, and the companionship of my girlfriend. But I will be talking to them in a not-so-public forum…

There will be a few posts coming up over the next few weeks about the process I’ve gone through to get here, and of course the experiences I’ll be having over there. I especially want to post information about the visa process, which was far easier than I thought it would be, even though I have never completed my University degree. Stay tuned, and I’ll be life streaming the whole trip on Twitter and Brightkite, of course.

Statistics include:

• Tweets per hour of the day
• Total Tweets per day of the week
• Total Tweets per day of the month
• Top @replies
• Top overall @s

Please keep in mind that there are probably a lot of bugs in it, and it can take a very long time to process if you have a large timeline. Other than that, enjoy!

The reasoning the FIA has given for this is that F1 engines are already incredible pieces of machinery, revving to 19,000 RPM whilst still being surprisingly reliable. While this might be true, F1 has always been the pinnacle of motoring – demonstrating what could be possible in consumer motoring in the future. Stopping this incredible innovation might have short-term benefits, such as limiting the huge budgets that these teams must operate with, but curbing this pool of innovation will also remove the goal that is being set for consumer brands to aim for.

Instead of putting a freeze on development, perhaps the FIA should instead set environmentally friendly targets for teams, such as reducing emissions. This will truly make F1 a target for general motoring. If F1 teams can work out how to pull this incredible performance out of environmentally friendly engines, then it may open people’s eyes to be more acceptant to these kinds of technology.

The FIA has a real opportunity to make F1 a leader in motoring for the world, but instead they have put a total halt on the amazing innovation possibilities.

So without further ado, here are five blogs not already on Kent’s list that I think he, and others, might enjoy:

• Blogging Pro
  Lots of news and tips for personal bloggers and pros alike
• D’Arcy Norman
  Works at the University of Calgary, has an interesting insight on the education scene and internet trends in general
• Daily Cup of Tech
  Timothy Fehlman’s blog, full of freeware and really great guides to doing fun things with technology
• UNEASYsilence
  “Observing the unobserved,” full of interesting little bits and pieces on all sorts of topics
• PaulStamatiou.com
  Young blogger from Georgia Tech, interesting insights and reviews

I have tried to steer away from the larger, professional blogs in favor of the smaller outfits. Also, I mainly subscribe to technology feeds, which may have limited appeal to some. Hopefully someone will get something out of that lot though.

Remember, my main reading list is always available in OPML format here, and a rotating selection of links from that list that refreshes every ten minutes appears in my sidebar.

Update: To make matters worse, I’ve been dealing with Conjunctivitis in both eyes for the last few days. Great…

Personally, I hardly ever have the need to go into a bank branch. The last time I found myself in a bank was to sign the papers for my car loan over a year and a half ago. ATMs and EFTPOS serve me very well for withdrawals and deposits, and I use internet banking for bill payments and other monetary transfer needs. I would be more than happy to have lower bank fees in exchange for not having a branch nearby to go to.

ING have its ING Direct banking service here, wherein there are no branches and all transactions to and from the account are electronic, but it is only for savings accounts – no ATM card. I think there could be a market for a purely electronic banking account, but so far I have not seen it from any of the banks here. I don’t know what the situation in other countries is, but I really wish someone would capitalize on it in Australia.

I guess there will always be the need for bank branches, mainly for business banking and for people in more remote locations, but for my needs I would be more than happy to have an electronic-only account.

• Q: Why are giraffes so slow to apologize?
  A: It takes them a long time to swallow their pride.
• Q: What two fish are needed to make a shoe?
  A: A sole and an eel
• Q: Why did the boy blush when he opened the fridge?
  A: He saw the salad dressing.
• Q: How can you tell which spiders are the trendiest?
  A: They have their own websites.
• Q: What button won’t you find in a tailor’s shop?
  A: A belly button.
• Q: What do you get when you cross a lighthouse and a chicken coop?
  A: Beacon and eggs.

Bah-dum cha!