Saturday, October 07, 2006

Diddlbiker is now a permanent permanent resident!

The last Tuesday of september was a historical day in Diddlbiker's life: I-751 (Removal Of Conditions) was approved! No more INS (at least not for a long, long, time...). For the un-initiated, which I guess is about 99.9% of humanity:
After marrying my American wife I applied for a "Permanent Resident Status", usually referred to as 'Green Card' (it's pink, by the way). There are many ways to get a GC, and pretty much all of them are slow, unsure (capped) and take a tremendous amount of red tape.
Getting a GC through marriage, however, is relative straightforward (notice the use of the word 'relative') and has a 99% succes rate (that is, if you're married).
Now, you can call the INS many things, but they're not stupid. Bureaucratic, slow, anal, a lot of things, but not stupid. So, they want to know if you're really married, and not just faking it. This is where The Interview comes in. During the interview the INS officer will go over the proof you submit for having a shared address and life. Mind you, this is a bit of a catch-22 situation. Without the right papers (green card or visa), you pretty much don't exist in American society. You can't open a bank account on an expired tourist visa, you can't get a driver's license, get a credit card, etc, etc. So, proving that you live together is kind of sketchy regarding the address thing. Luckily I did get some services on my name (rent, phone, utilities) and my wife had the rest, so that worked out for the first interview.
So, three years ago we had the first interview, 21 months into our marriage. Why is that important? Because as long as you're not married for 2 years (24 months), the green card will be 'conditional' - you have to come back for a second interview, two years later.

Now, here's where things get weird. The second interview is to confirm that you didn't have a 'convenience marriage'. However, if you get divorced between interview #1 and #2, everything is pretty much just fine. The alien can file a waiver and skip the second interview. Any letters from the ex-spouse stating that the marriage was fake are routinely ignored sinces ex-husbands and wifes tend to send nasty stuff to the INS all the time, just to make life of their ex hell. So, the INS ignores that.
So, basically, divorce and you don't have to prove that your marriage was real. But, if you're still together, you do have to prove that you're still married. Go figure... Anyway, we passed that interview, and for being a PR, the INS is done with me. I'll receive my unconditional green card soon (valid for 10 years, renewing is a no-hassle operation) and I can finally move my 4-inch immigration binder from home into our storage space.

And if you think I got the name wrong: yes, nowadays the Customs and Immigration Service (CIS) is doing all this. But all the letterheads still read "Immigration and Naturalisation Service" - as said before, it's an organisation that moves very, very slow...