Food for Thought - Lawyers, Birth Certificates and Working

Hello everyone,

Just some food for thought this afternoon.

First off, I am still waiting for my full UK birth certificate to arrive. Apparently it is being sent out today! I'll be glad to finally have it in my hands!

Second, I want to mention our experience with the lawyers so far.
As you may recall, Jon and I decided to take up the free offer from Masliah-Soloway. Unfortunately they haven't really proven themselves to be very helpful or efficient so far.
I assume their offer was not only to help same sex bi-national couples, but of course to also drum up business. I mean, a company offers a free consultation, and if you're impressed, you'd hire them, right?
Well, according to their Facebook page so far they have helped over 200 couples on this "offer" and filed over 100 immigration petitions.
I emailed them within the hour they posted about their offer way back after DOMA was struck down.
All we have had so far is some rather vague emails asking if we can Skype during the evenings. And that was well over a week ago.
If anyone has had a better experience with them, please feel free to share it with me, but thus far we are probably going to ditch them and hire a more reliable lawyer.
A shame since Masliah-Soloway are meant to be experts in same sex immigration. Oh well, c'est la vie.

The last thing I wanted to mention was something just bugged me in a conversation I saw online, and actually made me think about my own situation.
When I come to the US I'll probably lose a lot of the benefits that I get now in my adult working life.

Workers in the UK are entitled by law to 5.6 weeks paid annual leave per year (equivalent to 28 days full time; pro-rata for part time). Armed forces get 38 days. Our minimum wage for working adults is £6.19, rising to £6.31 on 1st October this year (that's just under US $10).

As a comparison, the US Federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 ($2 less than the UK), and companies are NOT required to pay you for time off, according to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
That's not to say whoever I end up working for won't be more generous, and I know some companies are fairly decent, but it's the fact that there is nothing that binds them in law to give me those benefits, whereas here in the UK it's my right.

Like I said, some food for thought for you today.

Dan.