Thursday, June 20, 2002

Immigration crisis!!!

The worst happened yesterday...

I have been waiting for the INS (immigrations) to send me forms for my permanent resident card renewal. After you marry you have one for 2 years kind of temporarily, and then after 2 years you get the card that will be permanant forever. We remeber something about this form being sent out automatically...

Well, my card expires on June 23, and I was getting worried. I know INS probably are busy, heck their entire organization is about to be shaken around. No form... So I finally tried to call my immigration attorney who helped us in the first place with all the forms and such. Couldn't get through, only voicemail. I left a message on June 10 for them to call. They didn't. Finally a week ago I e-mailed them. No answer. So yesterday I had my husband contact them. He works for a company that do a LOT of business with that law firm, so he got to talk to someone right away *rolling eyes at injustice*. They then called me.

Apparently this form is NOT sent out automatically!!! So we had to do a mad dash and scarmble to get all kind sof proof gathered that we are indeed still living together. Leases, tax returns, insurances, photografs. I was so stressed out! I drove like crazy down to my husbands work so he could give me a check for the $944 it is going to cost! And there is still no guarantee it will be at INS in time!

So I am a bit stressed, but there is nothing I can do about it. We are going down to the law office to sign the forms today, and they are going to give us some affidavites for friends and neighbors to sign, certifying that we indeed live together. The attorney say these applications usually are approved with no problem, and I beleive her. For our first interview with the INS we had brough a ton of proof. They only looked at the leese!

I think we are ok, but still... If I would have know this earlier I could have filed myself for a measly $144. Now it is so close so I don't dare to. Which costs us another $800. Blah!

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