Getting through a green card application is a special kind of administrative hell. I was going to tell you that the worst of it is the waiting and the wondering, but let's be clear, every stage is awful. From insisting your marriage certificate is real even if the scanner rotated the document by 90 degrees, to hunting down, assembling, and labelling every last bad photo you ever had as a couple, to prepping for an interview by quizzing each other about random relationship facts and figures that most normal couples are allowed to forget, it's all demeaning and degrading, as though my government were punishing me for marrying outside the tribe.
Yesterday, the waiting and wondering closed up when Nicolas opened an envelope. Finally, here is the (photoshopped) fruit of this year's labor:
In case it can help anyone who's still in the dark, or just as a testament to the journey we've taken, here is the run down of our green card red letter days:
mid-December 2017: We begin assembling documents for the I-130 petition submission.
February 3, 2018: Completed I-130 Petition for Alien Relative is prepared, lovingly assembled, and mailed off to the USCIS Texas Service Center, which processes applications from petitioners living in the western half of the US.
February 6, 2018: The Texas Service Center receives our application. (This was our "priority date.")
February 10, 2018: The Texas Service Center notifies us of our application's receipt.
March 22, 2018: We file a K-3 visa application (I-129F) which would enable Nicolas to move to the US while waiting for a response on his CR1 visa (green card for immediate relative of US citizen)
May 21, 2018: Our I-130 petition is approved! On this date, our K-3 visa application is rejected, as is unfortunately standard practice these days. The application was not evaluated while his I-130 was being processed. Once the I-130 was approved, he was no longer eligible for the K-3. With that decision, he officially had to keep waiting outside of the US for the remainder of the green card application process.
July 16, 2018: Our application is assigned a case number with the National Visa Center. We pay the fees immediately and begin assembling documents (and feel like fools for not having anticipated these documents and assembled them ahead of time).
August 7, 2018: We file our documents with the National Visa Center.
August 16, 2018: The National Visa Center notifies us that two of our documents have been rejected and require resubmission.
August 30, 2018: We submit a second filing of documents with the National Visa Center.
September 12, 2018: The National Visa Center approves our documents.
September 26, 2018: The US Embassy in France receives our application and assigns Nicolas an interview date: October 3!
October 3, 2018: Nicolas interviews at the embassy and his visa application is approved!
October 17, 2018: Nicolas's passport, which was taken at the end of his interview, is returned to him with a visa!!
Still to come...
November 30, 2018: Nicolas flies direct from Paris CDG to San Francisco SFO
Several weeks later... Nicolas's green card and social security card will arrive in the mail at our home. Can you believe it, ours? I just can't wait for us to start calling the same place home again.
Yesterday, the waiting and wondering closed up when Nicolas opened an envelope. Finally, here is the (photoshopped) fruit of this year's labor:
In case it can help anyone who's still in the dark, or just as a testament to the journey we've taken, here is the run down of our green card red letter days:
mid-December 2017: We begin assembling documents for the I-130 petition submission.
February 3, 2018: Completed I-130 Petition for Alien Relative is prepared, lovingly assembled, and mailed off to the USCIS Texas Service Center, which processes applications from petitioners living in the western half of the US.
February 6, 2018: The Texas Service Center receives our application. (This was our "priority date.")
February 10, 2018: The Texas Service Center notifies us of our application's receipt.
March 22, 2018: We file a K-3 visa application (I-129F) which would enable Nicolas to move to the US while waiting for a response on his CR1 visa (green card for immediate relative of US citizen)
May 21, 2018: Our I-130 petition is approved! On this date, our K-3 visa application is rejected, as is unfortunately standard practice these days. The application was not evaluated while his I-130 was being processed. Once the I-130 was approved, he was no longer eligible for the K-3. With that decision, he officially had to keep waiting outside of the US for the remainder of the green card application process.
July 16, 2018: Our application is assigned a case number with the National Visa Center. We pay the fees immediately and begin assembling documents (and feel like fools for not having anticipated these documents and assembled them ahead of time).
August 7, 2018: We file our documents with the National Visa Center.
August 16, 2018: The National Visa Center notifies us that two of our documents have been rejected and require resubmission.
August 30, 2018: We submit a second filing of documents with the National Visa Center.
September 12, 2018: The National Visa Center approves our documents.
September 26, 2018: The US Embassy in France receives our application and assigns Nicolas an interview date: October 3!
October 3, 2018: Nicolas interviews at the embassy and his visa application is approved!
October 17, 2018: Nicolas's passport, which was taken at the end of his interview, is returned to him with a visa!!
Still to come...
November 30, 2018: Nicolas flies direct from Paris CDG to San Francisco SFO
Several weeks later... Nicolas's green card and social security card will arrive in the mail at our home. Can you believe it, ours? I just can't wait for us to start calling the same place home again.
