So the final stage of my residency adjustment happened on Monday. And I figured since this blog is technically supposed to be about my journey through the immigration process and all that, I should probably dedicate an entry to it! So here we go :)
My interview was scheduled for Monday at 8:30am, in Minneapolis. Since it was so early, we went down on the Sunday and stayed with Matt and Sarah. For this interview, I needed to have a whole swagload of paperwork: birth certificates (for me, Aaron and Adelaide), marriage certificate, passports, any and all immigration-related documentation ever issued to me, documentation demonstrating a financial commitment to each other (bank statements, insurance papers, etc), and anything else we wanted to bring that would demonstrate our commitment to each other. Since my application was based on marriage, we had to show them that, yes, we got married because we love each other; yes, we are still married; yes, we intend to stay married for a long time; no, we did not just get married so I could get into the country; and listen, the noisy and fussy toddler we have brought with us shows that we have obviously consummated the marriage at least once.
For most of the immigration process, I've been quite nervous about doing "official" stuff. Since most of the process has been me waiting for them to contact me for the next step, paranoia has been allowed to grow in such pauses. And you'd think this last, final step would have freaked me out, but... I wasn't too freaked. Comparatively, I mean. I was still nervous, but not so nervous that I can't sleep the night before and feel like I'm about to barf on whichever lucky immigration officer is lucky enough to be handling my case that day. No, this time I was pretty calm about it. We were organised (we brought two file folders with us - one with original documents of all the aforementioned paperwor, and one with copies of every piece of original documentation), we had everything, we didn't have to pay to get anything (except to get to the cities and back), and -- well, it was the last step. The past three years have almost felt like I've been holding my breath, waiting for someone to say, "okay you can breathe now". So knowing that the end was so, so close was enough to calm me down a little.
So anyway. Matt and Sarah live about a half-hours' drive away from where the immigration services office is. We Mapquest'd the directions the night before, we knew where we were going, and we were organised. It wasn't until we got on the road the next morning that we went, "...oh shit, we're going to be on 494 at 8am on a weekday?!" FYI, I-494 is an extremely busy interstate highway that runs halfway around Minneapolis and the surrounding suburbs. There are several connections between other interstates (394 and 35W, for example) that make those particular sections absolute hell. And we had decided to tackle this highway at 8 on a weekday morning! Woohoo! THANKFULLY, due to Aaron's fantastic driving skills and some incredible luck on the roads, it wasn't too bad, and we rocked up precisely at 8:30am.
As we drove there, my nerves did start to pick up a little, despite our super organisation. There's a incident in the real-life story of the Von Trapp family (The Sound of Music family) where, upon arriving in America and being asked about the duration of their stay by immigration, Maria Von Trapp in her excitement burst out with, "I love America! I want to live here forever and ever!" At which point the entire family was sent to a detention camp for several weeks. I know I have more self-control than THAT, but I also know that the filter between my brain and my mouth can sometimes fall asleep for short bursts. So I was a little wary!
The first thing you do when you get to the immigration services office (and I presume it's like this at any office around the country) is go through the security check-point. Just like at the airport, you empty your pockets into the little conveyer-belt basket and place your bags on the belt for the x-ray machine. Then you walk through the metal detector. If you have a baby pusher, you push the baby through, then you go back through and walk through on your own. I pointed out that Adelaide can indeed walk, but they said not to worry about it.
Then up to the visa interviews waiting room area. The room was full of chairs, a few people sitting on some of those chairs, and a flat-screen TV switched to CNN. Guh. Cause that's what I want to watch to help keep me calm - deep insight into the country's financial crisis. Woo.
Adelaide provided a little entertainment to some of the other interviewees. Her favorite thing at the moment is to smile adoringly at strangers and say "Hiya!" (although it sounds more like "Iya" - maybe she'll 'ave a Cockney accent, guv'ner) It's much too cute. Once again I was reminded of just how much of a blessing she is for me, helping to distract me from thinking too much about the interview.
Our interviewer, Officer Lang (I think that was her name), was a lovely woman who looked not much older than Aaron. She led us back through to her office (through about three PIN-coded doors), and we settled in. She then invited Aaron and I to stand, raise our right hand, and did the whole "do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth?" thing. Of course we both said "I do" (the last time we both said "I do" somewhere it was a little warmer, a little more romantic and we were dressed up quite a bit more).
The interview itself was not very harrowing. The officer explained that she would be asking a series of simple questions based on the information I'd already supplied to USCIS over the months and years. Simple questions like my parents' names, my birth date, my daughter's name, where Aaron and I met, when did we marry, when did I first come to the States, what is my employment status, etc etc. We answered them truthfully, as we had sworn to do, in between wrangling the now fussy, bored and hungry child.
Finally, after maybe about fifteen minutes of being in the office, Officer Lang said (and this is verbatim), "Okay well I'm going to approve your application, so I'll get this stamped today, and you should get your green card in about two to three weeks."
I just about fell off my chair.
I was gearing myself up to be told, "Okay we'll go through this and you should hear back from us in about six to eight weeks," -- instead I'm told that I'm actually APPROVED and that my green card will be here before MARCH!?
It's a weird feeling. Even right now, as I'm typing this on Tuesday night, it doesn't feel real. And that's because it really doesn't change anything much. I still have the same rights as I had before -- I don't need to be specifically authorised for employment, since that comes automatically with my green card, but otherwise it's pretty much exactly the same. I'm still Aaron's wife and Adelaide's mother. I'm still half a world away from my family. I'm still allowed to be in the United States. Only now I *know* I can stay. The reason it doesn't feel real is because it's not a huge jump from one state of being to another. When I moved here back in 2006, that WAS a huge jump from state of being to another. Now that I've been here two and a half years, and now that I know I can stay here, I feel... calm. I admit I did a little dance in the elevator on our way back to the car, but aside from that I haven't really celebrated much. It's just another day.
I would like to take the opportunity of having this public soapbox to totally sing praises of my husband. Talk about an ego boost -- it really hit home yesterday just how much Aaron must love me, if he's been willing to go through all this for me and with me. He could have just as easily found himself a perfectly nice Midwestern girl to marry, without having to worry about immigration and visas and bloody thousand-dollar non-refundable application fees and plane tickets and the like. But the fact that three and a half years ago, he promised to love, honor and respect me above all others, and has in my opinion gone above and beyond that a thousand times over, it really makes me feel special and loved. There have been times when we've both been so despondent about immigration stuff, wondering whether we can afford the next lot of fees, wondering whether we can afford a trip to Duluth to spend five minutes in an office being fingerprinted and photographed, filling out an application form then realising we've filled out the WRONG one and having to re-write all that information... it's a lot to have to deal with, and the fact that he's done it virtually without complaining (but having to deal with ME complaining and having panic attacks about the whole process) is a real testament to his character and to his commitment to this marriage - and to me. I know he doesn't read this blog (he's into car forums, if you can believe that), but... thank you Aaron. I love you.
Okay, mushiness is over.
^_______^
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