This morning Erin, Conner and I went back to USCIS’ Wichita office to get my biometric information taken, basically fingerprints and photo taken. The bitch queen from hell (more information can be found here) was there but thankfully we didn’t have to deal with her. The woman we dealt with my very friendly and nice, the service was prompt, efficient and friendly, we were in and out in 20 minutes. Now we just have to wait for either a letter for an interview or they may simply send out my green card. We also sent additional information as requested to USCIS PO Box in Missouri; hopefully they’ll be satisfied with evidence we sent. The evidence is confusing because we get a free apartment; Erin’s wages are about $4 more per hour than she gets for tax reasons. The free apartment is included as earnings to be taxable; we put a note explaining the discrepancies between the letter of employment and wage slips. Hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel now, being able to find work shouldn’t be too far away now!
And it continues; budget-cap-gate rumbles on as FIA president Max Mosley turns up the heat on FOTA. Max Mosley has sent out a letter to all FOTA teams stating that they would be required to sign up unconditionally before the 12th if they want to have a say in the future of Formula 1. FOTA are poised to respond to Mosley’s letter very soon if what Autosport reports is correct! This is what I predict will happen; both sides stick to their guns; Mosley ends up extending the deadline because he doesn’t want to loose such a big chunk of the current grid, it’s not just about Ferrari and Toyota anymore. Eventually we’ll end up with a compromise of something like a €100m cap and technical assistance to new teams. I’ll be very surprised if the FIA will want to start 2010 with all new teams bar Williams and Force India. Personally I would just exclude all the current teams if they don’t sign up and push ahead with new teams, every sport goes through a revolution at some point, F1 will survive; faces change but F1 will always be F1.
And finally I’ve been having a heated “debate” about the McLaren F1 on the Forumula1 message boards with two McLaren fanboys. I’ve lost count of how many times I have been insulted by the pair because I don’t agree that the McLaren F1 is the best thing since the Ford Model T. It all got blown out of proportion when I wrote “and frankly the McLaren F1 wasn’t that great a car to start with” when commenting on the owner getting the full value of his $3m insurance policy after the car spontaneously combusted! Seriously though it’s a car; it’s not that important in the grand scale of things! You can read the full thread here if you have 15 minutes to kill!