By the time my husband got his green-card in the mail, we were so sick and tired of visa & immigration forms and paperwork to fill out! I never wanted to see another form as long as I lived! The average American has no idea of all the time and effort that is involved in getting a green-card for a foreign spouse. All we wanted was to be able to live and work in the same country! So we were subjected to form after form and month after month of waiting.
It all culminated with the final interview at the US Customs and Immigration Services Office. We had to both be present, at a given time, on a specific date, and we were sent a list of things to bring with us to the interview to prove that we were indeed married (and not just a marriage of convenience!).
I had carefully gone through the entire checklist and packed a cute little bag with anything and everything that I could find. I put in bills (to prove we lived together), letters addressed to both of us, copies of our marriage license, copies of our birth certificates, and passports, and dozens of other documents that we just might need!
We left quite early for our interview, since we had to drive approximately 2 hours to reach the office. I grabbed the bag of goodies and we were off. We were both slightly nervous, for no reason other than the slight chance that they would deny our application. Our case was pretty cut-and-dry, but you never know!
About one hour into our drive, I started going through the documents and putting them in order. Then I suddenly realized - we had left our photo album at home! How in the world I missed that, I have no idea! I had specifically printed out photos that documented our entire relationship. That is one of the top things that they recommend that you bring to the interview! My husband was ready just to forget the album, but I was bound and determined that we would be denied if we didn't have it. So...you guessed it, we had to turn around and go all the way back home!
My husband wasn't too happy - to say the least! We ended up still making it on time to our interview. So we got inside, and the woman asked us some questions like, How did you meet?, How long have you been married?, What common interests do you have?, and other similar questions. Then she asked to see our proof that we were married. She listed off several specific documents. But she made no mention of photos! So I very enthusiastically offered to show her the album that I had painstakingly put together (I didn't mention that we had driven 2 hours out of our way to retrieve from our couch!). She could not have been more disinterested! She made some kind of response that I couldn't make out, so I tried again... Would you like to see any photos for proof?
She politely but firmly turned me down again! By this time I was quite offended, but I tried not to show it. She went and made copies of our forms and then it was over, within 10 minutes, all the worrying, planning and agony was over. My husband got his green-card!
The whole drive home, while I was happy about the green-card, I was still bitter about the photos, and all my husband could do was laugh at me. I pointed out to him, I was quite sure that if we had NOT gone home to get the photos, that is exactly what she would have demanded to see first!
Somewhere Murphy must be laughing....
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4 comments:
yeah, haha, that figures! for our interview the appointment was set like 3 months in advance and there were all these notices on the forms not to be late, to try and come early, etc... so we get there and still have to wait 2 1/2 hours for our interview! :P the actual interview only lasted like 10 min though. i had heard all these horror stories about the interview but ours was easy breezy. we were happy about it till we got his greencard in the mail and they spelled his name wrong! :P now we have to deal with these forms all over again. :(
-mpathak
We can relate! We had an interview for the 2 year GC(conditional card b/c of K1 visa), we didn't have to go for an interview for the 10 year card thankfully. I'm not sure which visa process you used(If you wrote it somewhere, sorry if I missed it!). We used the K1 fiance visa. We are done with forms for now, and we are not sure when or if hubby will apply for citizenship. We would just like a break from the forms and fees for now. :P
We went for a K3 visa - a spousal visa. The other thing I didn't mention in the post was our green-card interview was only a couple of weeks before our 2nd anniversary.
So because we hadn't been married for 2 yrs - we have to do the whole thing again this year to get the conditions removed. Do they PLAN it this way or are we just lucky??? :-)
I'm with you christina - i'm SO done with forms and fees!
Mpathak - i feel your pain - crazy that you have to do it all over again for their mistake!
We had a family immigration lawyer for the whole proceedings, thank goodness. He took care of all the paperwork and accompanied us to the interview and everything - it was money really well spent.
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