After the paperwork, the background check, and the fingerprints, comes the interrogation.
My green card interview is this week and I'm a nervous wreck despite reading several encouraging posts about others' experiences and having a reassuring chat with the lawyer who's helping us through it. I don't deal well with this sort of situation and I'm very very nervous about forgetting something important, or giving the wrong answer and having everything delayed because of a stupid mistake. And the appointment is at 8:30am in Baltimore, adding traffic to my list of terrors - what if we're late? The lawyer said that no matter what else happens, do not be late, so I guess I'll be sitting in the car at 5am to be sure.
I've got piles and piles of paperwork to bring with me. They want originals and copies of our birth certificates, passports, and marriage certificate. They want proof that my husband can support me financially - never mind that I lived on my own for a year when I moved here and was perfectly successful in supporting myself thankyouverymuch. He's got tax returns and pay stubs and letters from his employers saying he's working there. I'm bringing the same information for myself, just in case. I have every single document USCIS has sent me since the beginning of the process, from the "we got your application" letter to my work permit and my appointment notice for this interview. And then we have the evidence that we're in a legitimate good-faith marriage.
Because, you know, so many Canadians are rushing across the border and entering into sham marriages with Americans so they can live here and escape from universal health care and hockey.
So we've got a wedding album, several pictures of us from the last few years, including many of us with various members of both our families. We've got the mortgage documents with both our names on it, the joint accounts at the bank, the title to the car, even the paperwork from the last vet visit because the vet gave my little Horton my husband's last name. I've got a Christmas card and a birthday card from a few years ago (I'm sentimental, I save things). I have some emails with travel plans from when we were long-distance and racking up the miles on USAirways.
I hope it's enough. I hope they don't deport me. Or waterboard me.
My green card interview is this week and I'm a nervous wreck despite reading several encouraging posts about others' experiences and having a reassuring chat with the lawyer who's helping us through it. I don't deal well with this sort of situation and I'm very very nervous about forgetting something important, or giving the wrong answer and having everything delayed because of a stupid mistake. And the appointment is at 8:30am in Baltimore, adding traffic to my list of terrors - what if we're late? The lawyer said that no matter what else happens, do not be late, so I guess I'll be sitting in the car at 5am to be sure.
I've got piles and piles of paperwork to bring with me. They want originals and copies of our birth certificates, passports, and marriage certificate. They want proof that my husband can support me financially - never mind that I lived on my own for a year when I moved here and was perfectly successful in supporting myself thankyouverymuch. He's got tax returns and pay stubs and letters from his employers saying he's working there. I'm bringing the same information for myself, just in case. I have every single document USCIS has sent me since the beginning of the process, from the "we got your application" letter to my work permit and my appointment notice for this interview. And then we have the evidence that we're in a legitimate good-faith marriage.
Because, you know, so many Canadians are rushing across the border and entering into sham marriages with Americans so they can live here and escape from universal health care and hockey.
So we've got a wedding album, several pictures of us from the last few years, including many of us with various members of both our families. We've got the mortgage documents with both our names on it, the joint accounts at the bank, the title to the car, even the paperwork from the last vet visit because the vet gave my little Horton my husband's last name. I've got a Christmas card and a birthday card from a few years ago (I'm sentimental, I save things). I have some emails with travel plans from when we were long-distance and racking up the miles on USAirways.
I hope it's enough. I hope they don't deport me. Or waterboard me.
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