Green Card, Green Card, Just Need the One Green Card

Just the one. I know it's been a fairly short time - at least in immigration time - but by golly I'm ready to get my husband's permanent residency! I believed we started filing through this most recent channel last June (2008). So that means it's been seven -almost- eight months.

See, this is where it gets fun. The last step, the one we are waiting on, is the interview. We both show up at the appointed time in the appointed place and they ask questions relating to our relationship and how it came to be. Our attorney attends with us to help. Not long after (hopefully!) we receive Royal's permanent residency - green card.

Well, we received an email from our attorney in late October saying that we had an interview date in November - BUT it was set up for the wrong district (just a few hours away) and we couldn't go. THE WRONG FREAKIN' DISTRICT. We were totally prepared to drive as far and wide as we had to (What? You want we should drive to Maine? Okay!!) but it doesn't work that way. Our attorney immediately got in touch and had it sent to the correct district.

That's not all, try this: The accidental district (as I sometimes refer to it) we were sent to processes applications and receives appointments much faster than the district we've been sent to now - the correct one. So, from the fingerprinting stage of the process it was 2 1/2 months before we heard about our (fake) interview appointment. Since the mistake and the resend it's been about three months already.

Somebody in the government let the ball drop and we are having to pay. Yuck. I've said before that it's not such a big deal waiting now. At least we're together now, right? But the waiting is starting to wear. There's just more to it than that now.
The faster he becomes a permanent resident, the faster we can file for U.S. Citizenship/Naturalization. We have to wait 3 years from the date he becomes a permanent resident (even then, it takes anywhere from six to 18 months to get that taken care of). This is a big deal not only because Royal wants to be a United States Citizen, but because the careers that he has been looking forward to (policeman, various security positions, etc.) all require it. I want it to be over for him.

Past immigration posts.

Comments

[Pat]

Thank goodness it's not just the UK who get's it wrong sometimes. It must be frustrating all the waiting but once he's got it it's for life. I hope things speed up in any case- he deserves it.

[Kath]

Nope, not just the U.K.! Though I hear many horror stories from there as well. Guess it happens everywhere.
Thank you for being so sweet to say he deserves it! He really, really does. He wants to settle here, make a life here, work hard for a living and raise our kids here. We want to do it right :o)