Those who know me well know that I hate paperwork, filling out forms, and dealing with any kind of administration, and that I will only do these things when coerced. So when faced with the fact that my H-1B visa was going to expire at the end of July 2012, I finally decided to apply for legal permanent resident status (also known as the “green card”) in March.
I did so after nearly four years of post-marital procrastination. Indeed, spouses of American citizens have a much easier time when applying for legal permanent resident status. Since my wife is an American, I did not need to do much in order to get my green card save for gathering a number of identification documents and filling out a number of forms.
Last Friday, less than three and a half months later, I received my green card in the mail.
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
Two people deserve credit for this.
I first got in touch with Chris Blattman, who had talked about his own application for legal permanent resident status on his blog, since he also obtained his green card through marriage. More importantly, Chris had successfully navigated the travel authorization form. Indeed, you are normally not supposed to leave the US while your green card application is pending, but there are exceptions. It turns out everything went so fast that I did not really need the travel authorization after all. Chris also recommended getting an initial consultation with an immigration lawyer, but I ended up not doing so.
More importantly, my wife, being the organizational genius that she is, spearheaded the whole effort, assembling all the required documents she could find and by filling out all of the required forms to the best of her abilities. I practically only had to sign my name here and there, and we submitted everything. About a month later, we were summoned to the USCIS office in Durham so they could fingerprint me. A couple weeks after that, we were summoned to the same office for our interview. Contrary to Chris and Jeannie’s interview, ours was jarring. So much so that I came out of it somewhat upset — something I definitely should not have felt after being told that I my application for legal permanent resident status was approved.
Still, I am glad it is done. There is also something incredibly liberating and Palahniukian in the realization that I am no longer dependent on my employer for the right to stay in this country and that, if I wanted to, I could become that elusive “waiter with a Ph.D.”