Thursday, April 9, 2009

Me No Irregal!

Well I had my immigration interview this morning and I was REALLY nervous about it. They send you the appointment notification with a list of all kinds of documents to bring with you, a lot of it was unclear and I was really worried that we wouldn’t have what we needed and my green card application would get denied.
Troy and I woke up early to go to his office and make copies of document after document just in case we needed them. We brought everything we could think to prove that we were legit, we brought bank statements and insurance statements, our wedding album, I was even tempted to take a giant frame off our wall that had a bunch of pictures of us from our dating days! Haha I didn’t though!

We got to the immigration office at 7:30 am and there were already a lot of people there from all over the world. You walk in and a security guard asks you for your appointment notice and then you have to put all your things on a belt thing like they have at the airport and then walk through a metal detector. Haha Troy didn’t pass because he had a knife on his keys! Hahaha good one Troy! He had to take it off and go leave it in the car.

After walking in I understood why they didn’t allow knives, that place could cause anyone to panic and start stabbing everyone! It’s not what I would call warm and welcoming, the waiting area is just a big white room with chairs and the occasional government poster. The government might as well just put a giant sign on the door that says GO BACK TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY! WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE! It was scary and there was definitely a lot of tension in the room. For all I knew Troy and I were about to be separated FOR LIFE!

Our names got called and we were brought into a woman’s office, she was actually quite friendly and suddenly I wasn’t so scared of being deported until the first thing she asked me for was my license and I realized I had left my wallet at Troy’s office. DANG IT! It also had my employment card, my birth certificate and my social security number in it. OOPSIES! Luckily she was really nice about it and moved on with the interview asking us how we met and if I’d ever been involved in prostitution (I said no). It really wasn’t as scary as I thought! After a few more questions and showing a couple of documents, she said all we needed to do was bring in copies of the documents I was missing and after that we would receive my green card within 7 to 10 days. Yes, I did just say 7 – 10 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it?? Well maybe you can because you don’t know this process, but I was told this could take at least a YEAR and we had just applied in December!! I was also told that things were backed up and so I wasn’t expecting to get it anytime soon! This is GREAT news! In another 7-10 days I will not have to worry about immigration things for another two years (when I will have to go through a whole other application process for a permanent green card). I will also be able to come and go from the United States as I please and will not be trapped here! Although it’s been stressful and a lot of work, not to mention expensive, I’m very impressed with how quickly this all went!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

2 comments:

Jenn said...

Jem you are freakin hilarious! I should tell you the story about me being stopped at the border in Montana, because there was a warrant out for prostitution and drug trafficking on a "Jennifer Smith" with my birthday...let me tell you! Funny and scary all rolled into one. Hope everything is going great, can't wait till you visit us here! oxox

Amy said...

Im glad you publicly cleared up the whole prostitution thing...