Illegal Aliens by
Elizabeth Patricia
Once upon a time, my husband and I began a shitty journey through the land of immigration.
He is from Uganda and traveled to the U.S. when he was 17 years old. When we got married, we knew we needed to apply for his temporary green card and start preparing for the crappy process. By the way, since I've been married to the dude, there have been sooo many people that assumed he didn't enter the country legally and perhaps jumped into a boat and rowed on over. He did enter the country legally......I mean, who would paddle all the way from Africa?
Now that I got that lil rant out of the way...back to the topic at hand. So if you marry someone that is not a considered at U.S. Citizen or permanent resident, you have to pay almost $2,000 (just paperwork) to apply for temporary permanent residency. You can do this with the help of a lawyer or not. We chose to find a lawyer, which was a bit annoying...but that's another rant for another blog. You receive a letter in the mail that alerts you things are looking good and that you can go get your biometrics (fingerprints) taken and the INS also sends your work permit. After that, you receive another letter with an appointment date and time for the dreaded interview.
At the interview, since I was in the military, I dressed in my ACU's (fatigues), and he dressed in slacks and dress shirt. The lawyer advised him not to wear a full blown suit so as not to look over the top. This whole process we had been (mostly me though) so nervous for the interview, going over ever subject and topic about each other's families that we may not have covered in our dating or marriage thus far. I knew we married for love, so I knew deep down that it would be ok......errrr but you never know what to expect when someone else is going to decide that. The interview took........7..........maybe 8 minutes tops. WTH??? All the guy did was ask my husband if he was planning on prostituting himself in the U.S. and asked me what Michael's father's name is. After that we were advised that as long as everything looks good in our paperwork, Michael would receive a temporary 2 year green card in the mail. And he did receive the card....maybe a couple weeks later....ya!
So 90 days before the 2 year temp period ends, you are supposed to pay another $545 and send in paperwork and helpful information to the INS for approval of the permanent 10 year green card. We did this ourselves this time and a month later, we got his biometrics appointment letter and another letter stating his residency is extended another year. As long as everything goes well with the paperwork, he should find his permanent green card in the mail in about 6 months. A couple years after that, I believe he can take the test that will make him a naturalized U.S. citizen (like I am!).
The process is annoying, time consuming, and expensive. But it is worth it if you love someone who happens to be from another faraway land. I know I didn't know a damn thing about this before I had to go through it. And now I understand what hundreds and thousands of people have to go through to be able to set down roots here.
I don't care what anyone else might think. There is no doubt in my mind that if my husband wanted to marry for a green card he could have married someone nice and quiet. I put him through the crap hole during our dating period so I know for a fact that he really wanted to marry me for ME. And now he's stuck with me.
The End
