₦airaland Forum

TeamclicksAir: Which of this 2 is true....

Phema: All of the above.

TeamclicksAir: you mean the visa was issued before he applied

Phema: Yea yea. Some people are blessed like that

U guys are cracking me up

sayoberry: I'm searching Google and everywhere else for apartments or cheap hotels in sugar land o. can't find any. the ones I found are like five star hotels and the apartments are so expensive.
pls I beg o. na beg I beg. if anyone knows of accommodation in sugarland. (I'm planning to use Dr. Le) pls inform me.

Hiya I am planning to use Sugarland as well.

Started looking for accommodation (with cooking facilities) also because my host in Sugar Land will be away from town when I get to the USA initially, so I need somewhere to stay for like 3 weeks.

The best deal I saw was Studio 6 - just go to Studio 6 website and search for Sugarland (was US$35/day if you are booking for exptended period of time)

Alternative was Extended Stay Apartments in Sugar Land - much better reviews, has a pool et al, but more expensive (about US$55 /day if you are booking for 2 months or so)

These prices are before taxes, and for 1 bedroom apartment (Queen bed, sleeps 2).

Meanwhile you can look at Richmond area as an alternative, its about 15 min drive from Sugarland to Richmond, if the difference is worth the additional cab fare to Dr. Le's office.

Hope this helps.

thanks so much for this, I appreciate

bloggerina: Hello,

U can't take in animal products and that includes maggi chicken, knorr chicken & indomie chicken. you can risk it tho, but if u r searched, those items will be seized. If dey don't search u, den u r lucky. Also, u can't carry seeds eg egusi, ogbono etc, you have to grind dem. So grind your crayfish sef. If u carry beans, make sure therz no single weevil in it otherwise na dustbin straight. No yam tubers (even if u slice them up). Ofcourse palm oil is a no-brainer, na from naija dem go seize dat one sef.
You can generally carry leaves (ugwu, okazi etc) as long as they are nice and dry. Groundnut in plastic bottles is fine too. If u r carrying dryfish, kindly de-bone everyth.

Try not to carry large quantities that make them feel you are planning to sell food in the US and remember to declare your food items in your landing form. Just use style/sense and declare small because if you don't declare and you are searched, the story begins.

Hope this helps. Cheers

anonymousmum: Slowly but surely, we are getting there!

Please yet another request directed to those who have scaled POE with food items-

I know there is some US website/internet link that states what is not allowed, but in real life, what and what is allowed?

Initially I was on the school of thought of no food items, but mehn...in order to avoid a miserable 2-3 months. best to plan ahead

Thanks house.

please any response to this request?

kykes: Hiya....lol
I just called methodist sugarland. What's ur email so I can forward what they sent to me.

Nice, I guess it really depends on who you speak to.

I called and they said they don't give out correspondence...

Please can you also forward to anonymousmom2014@gmail.com?

Thanks

see as thread full

MHIS you have broken hearts o... #teamhouston

BVNO: All the mum in the house.....Please guide me on this...
Is there something wrong not taken folic acid during early trimester?
Actually, I was advised by my doctor not to take any medication during my trimester. I adhered to his advice.
I later discovered while searching the net, that it is good to take folic acid before and during pregnancy.

Folic acid is good to take prior to and during pregnancy. This is a fairly standard fact.

What I can bet your doctor meant, was taking certain drugs that may be harmful to your growing baby.

It is possible that it is a case of misinterpretation, let's not bash the doc yet.

My 2 cents, before we are accused of derailing the thread

Slowly but surely, we are getting there!

Please yet another request directed to those who have scaled POE with food items-

I know there is some US website/internet link that states what is not allowed, but in real life, what and what is allowed?

Initially I was on the school of thought of no food items, but mehn...in order to avoid a miserable 2-3 months. best to plan ahead

Thanks house.

kykes: @ijaymama, @santa2 and anyone who used Dr. Le,
I just got off the phone with his office and was billed 2700. I hope I can renegotiate when I get there like some of u did but I have booked an appointment.
The issue is they say they don't give any email correspondence to back up dr cost or confirm appointment. I believe these docs are crucial at POE. What do I do? Does anyone have a cost breakdown that I can work with for POE? SOS!!!!!!!

this was my identical situation...i believe we should be able to beat Dr. Le's price down.

What I did was to get correspondence from some other Dr in the houston area that I will use for POE

I got correspondence from Dr. Fabgohun, and Dr Sayegh...has full break down that you can use for POE.

folusho2001: try Dr Fagbohun. Fagbohunmd@yahoo.com

Thanks a lot though he is in Richmond, it appears that Richmond is not far at all from Sugarland so I may be able to use him

oluloveme: There are 3 doctors in that office and its better you let them know you specifically want doctor LE, he is the youngest....but when he sees you in person I believe he should give you a discount, because I experienced the same, ....I wish you all the best,

Good stuff...thanks

Oghobahase: Dr Amaro Micheal,Goggle him and his phone number will pop up.just call his office

thank you!

oluloveme: He charges like $1600-$2000 depending on how you can negotiate,... Cool and calm guy...well known in Methodist sugarland....he does circumcision as well ( he calls it nigerian style, cos I had to explain and explain...then he said "I understand the nigerian style"....that helps in saving cost., cos we didn't have to do it in the hospital.

Just a comment on the price, when I called Dr. Le's office on the phone they told me 2k5, i tried to negotiate to no avail.

But i think he can come lower when they see you in person, so I am optimistic.

oluloveme: Try Dr Torres / Gilbert sayegh.....WHMC....281 496 2496....Gilbertsayeghmd@gmail.com...They give breakdown plus appointment letter.....hope this is helpful?

thanks so much, will reach out to them.

Does their correspondence cover hospital too?

kykes: I have the price quote for the hospital but I don't know how to post it here for u to see. I got it from dr. Zimmerman's correspondence. Vaginal delivery is 3100 and cs is 4800 and they say that is the discounted price o You can contact rgamez@houstonmethodist.org. He is the financial counsellor.

My heart has settled for duc le but na how to find am na the problem. I will check on the hospitals website and let u know what I find.

Congratulations on your twins!

When you say the quote, do you mean for Methodist Sugarland (hospital)? or for Dr. Zimmermann (doctor)?

On the phone Methodist Sugarland told me $2536 for vaginal delivery and 4k for CS... ijaymama confirmed this figure and she is there now...

I don't mind at this stage, when I get there I will go and negotiate discount... I just need the e-mail correspondence.

Thanks. I will reach out to the financial counsellor that you indicated - please confirm that this is for Methodist Sugarland...

For Dr. Le's contact, you can check Ijaymama's posts, or just go to http://sugarlandobgyn.com ... I don't want to put any phone numbers here
as I am not sure of what the rules are.

Hello house,

I am in need of some help,

the Doc that I have received a quote from, and I have decided to go with does not provide e-mail correspondence (Dr. Duc Le of Sugrland Methodist), even the hospital does not provide correspondence, even after trying to psyche/beg them on the phone...naija style no work

As I am sure we will all agree this is critical for POE...

Please do you have any Dr and Hospital in Houston/Sugarland area that will provide e-mail correspondence/cost breakdown, I just need something to hold for POE purposes...Also please provide e-mail address if you have it...

Thanks muchos

Varvara: Hi, me dears! I'm here in Phoenix, in Crossland Mc.Dowell Road. It's true that rooms smoking smell. I tied to change room, but in the next one the same situation. Right now I'm just trying to blow up it with air-cond and some freshners.

My POE was San-Fransicso. They ask about purpose, I answered medical treatment. For how long? Three months.
Then he was just curious and was Asking what did I did in malaysia and Taiwan before I came in USA. I declared it.
I explained that in malaysia I work there, but my country of residence is Russia and in Taiwan I had just transfer flight.

he asked why I choose Phoenix? I answered that they have very good maternity package. He didn't get that I come to have my baby here ))))
In general, nothing special. No any second inspection.

By the way, it seems that they don't see that I'm pregnant )))) I forced in United Airliens and US Airways take my fit fly letter )))
I'm already 36 weeks.

Good luck for everybody!

Hello Varvara,

Congratulations!

I have followed your posts - when you came on here initially, being a Russian, and the delays in getting your visa. I am very happy for you and I wish you a safe delivery.

Great to see that this thread is going intercontinental

oyinkay123: hello all, its my first time here, i went for my interview on tuesday, i told the VO i will be having my baby in the US. after all the questions and answers session, the VO requested for my evidence that i've contacted a hospital in the US, which i then handed over my email correspondences to her. after going through it, she said i should contact the hospital and equest for a detailed budget for delivery and then return to the embassy on thursday, which is tomorrow. she gave me a form to come with. what are the assurances of getting the visa.

There are no assurances, but really, all you can do is to do as she has asked.

At least she did not deny you outright so you are still in the game, good luck

TokyoBulls: That was the quotation (1,600 USD) I got from the OBGYN (Dr. Geoffrey Andrews Zimmerman). That's all inclusive for normal child birth. IF you will be going through a C-section, he charges 2,100 USD. His address and contact are 2222 Greenhouse Road. Suite 300. Houston TX 77084. Tel: 281-398-8484. Note that they close 12.30 pm on Fridays and I think same on Wednesdays. They usually work between 08.30 am and 5.30 pm so you can schedule your calls. I think the best time to call is around 3 pm Nigerian time.

hey tokyo,

thanks so much for this info, will reach out to them.

TokyoBulls: We are using Methodist West Houston Hospital and Dr Geoffrey Andrews Zimmerman. She will be travelling (by God's grace) on October 3. The total hospital bill for normal delivery is $3,100 and doctor charged us $1,600.

Hello Tokyobulls,

Please can you share contact of this doctor. I am getting dr quotes of US$2,500 and am still shopping around for a cheaper one in the Houston area, if available.

Also does the 1k6 cover ANC visits, USS and so on i.e are there other "hidden charges"?

Many thanks.

justwise: The section in bold says it all, get all your documents ready for the trip.

ah justwise, its not that straightforward, why will everyone else's letter say something and my own says something different?

They have rectified mine though, they sent another one with the edited line.

@freshface maybe you should just prompt them so they will resend the letter, my 2 cents.

Cheers all.

Freshface: So I got dis from lagos us embassy:
Thank you for your email.
There is legal requirement to inform us that you are seeking to give birth in the United States or that your purpose of travel has changed. The ......
 
What does this imply abeg? Yet to hear from Abuja though.

This is the same mail I got too!

I am also yet to hear from Abuja. I thought the legal requirement stuff was a typo but since you got it as well, I am really beginning to wonder what this is about.

I have sent them a mail to clarify what is meant by legal requirement though, waiting to hear back from them.

Thanks twizzie,

I know right? The letter was identical in every other respect.

Think I will just ask them to clarify. Na wah o!

My people o!!!

I got a mail from the embassy stating the following -

...Thank you for your email.



There is legal requirement to inform us that you are seeking to give birth in the United States or that your purpose of travel has changed. The Customs and Border Protection, a branch of USCIS, determines a traveler’s eligibility of....

Biko, is this a typo on their part abi wetin?

I want to mail them back pointing this "error" but that would assume i am presuming

Whaddya think

Hello acubee, SophiaLisa

There is no standard for this, it should essentially cover the line items such as the following:

Cost of Hospital = indicate
Cost of Doctor = indicate
Any other costs = indicate
Cost of accommodation to cover over duration of stay = indicate
Living costs over the duration (transportation, feeding etc) = indicate
Also good to set aside an amount for miscellaneous/contingency = indicate
Total = indicate

Not every line may be applicable, for example if you are staying with family then accomodation would be blank/zero

thank youuu!!! I hope your stay is going well

IjayMama: 2812747080, 2812747000, 2812768562.
Ure wlcm.

Phema: For people going in december, I think we should wait abit to book for flight. This is summer and tickets are still on the high side.

I feel air fare will reduce towards the end of summer.

Yeah I agree with you. Maybe wait a bit make everybody cool down...

lol @ alaroro, Anything to save money though...

U know some of us are jjc for american waka waka .

nefertitiram: Ahhhh, nobody beats an alaroro like me.

I'd rather fly to New York (max. 214k) then take a domestic flight (US airways, american airlines, Jet Blue, return to el paso is 66k and to phoenix is 55k , I just checked on www.dohop.com).

If you have not booked your tickets yet, consider flying to Atlanta or NY then buy a domestic ticket at the airport. and save some cash!

Compare ticket prices on online agent platforms (not the airlines directly) then get the domestic ticket price on www.dohop.com, thank me later.

nefertitiram: No way! 330k to Houston is high o! Or is it because it is december? try wakanow.com worldntraveland.com and travelstart.com.ng to compare prices

Oh yeah?

This was a quote from an agent I use usually, I checked myself online (BA) and I got $1,951 which is like 321k...

I'll check these ones that you have posted...thanks.

Mod Alert!

Grateful2014: Don't know a lot about ticketing, so can't help. However, I think ticket to the US in the range of N280k - N330 will be reasonable.

On UK transit visa, no you do not need it if flying BA. I know this may be difficult to believe, I checked their website at the time and also wrote British deputy high commission in Lagos. UK boarder agency's site said no, Embassy said yes, so had to fly separately with my sis at the time. But when I flew, we didn't go through immigration, so I was comfortable buying a BA ticket for my mum later.

On when to notify embassy, will say asap. I notified the embassy November last year and didn't travel till end of April this year.

God bless sis, i think I should just get the ball rolling. I'm getting quotes for 330k right now for Dec to Houston so I guess that's fine.

I guess I have just been procrastinating...reading forum of what other people have done, and actually getting down to the work of calling hospital, securing dr, booking ticket etc. na totally different matter!

Hi Ijaymama,

I called Methodist Houston Sugarland, they transferred me from one department to another to no avail - no one was able to give me a quote.

I know that you have posted the prices for the hospital here but I just wanted to get confirmation from them directly...

Do you have a number I can call to speak to the relevant person who can give me these quotes?

thanks for your time