Green Card Signings

The Green card contract was finally signed today....it's always a moment of 'gulp' in that it's a lot of money and a lot of work from here on out. Now I am going to be staying put in the US for the rest of the year (a requirement), the doctors appointments have to be booked (funny, after 14 years of living here they require me to have a whole list of vaccinations and want to know if I am physically & mentally sound), the 'marriage' interviews will be scheduled (I use a red toothbrush honey), the pages and pages of supporting evidence will be filled out in double and we will both be signing our information away.

See, gulp, right?

It feels very serious and very adult. I'm so use to going through the motions of my visa every three years that it seems old hat now....but this is a whole other beast. The questions they ask are invasive, the assumptions they make that we are lying about our relationship to obtain a green card are extreme and unnecessary but, here we are. What this means is that I won't need to submit and pay $3000 every three years but my $4000 contribution will give me about 10 years and then after 3 I can move onto citizenship if I want. Of course, because we haven't been legally married for more than 2 years all of this will give me a 'conditional' green card and we will have to go back and have another appointment to prove that we are still together in a years time. You know..incase we were lying.

Sometimes I am over this 'jumping through hoops' but I have done it for so many years now that I'm not going to know what hits me when I move from 'non resident alien' to 'resident alien' and my drivers license, social security # and taxes won't be subjected to extra scrutiny because of my status.

Anyway. As I sit here in our home, with a sweet breeze blowing through our window and my wife sitting across from me creating a new piece of art, I am grateful. So many others have lived lives separated because they haven't legally been able to be with the one they love and this has never been my reality.

Incase you missed it, here is our green card fund from last year and if you are looking for some new art, this might be a way we can help each other. The piece Jamie created for this will never be produced again and you can buy the original or buy a copy of the original here: http://www.gofundme.com/3u4ajs