Seeking permanent residence - my adjustment of status application and other epic tales of woe

You might have thought that getting my K-1 finance visa was the end of the story, as far as my entanglement with bureaucracy goes, but you’d be wrong.  Now that I’m here in the USA, I’ve got to apply for a status adjustment in order to get permanent residence and my green card.  Seeking permanent residence means filing an adjustment of status application, booking a USCIS biometrics appointment and possibly having to attend an adjustment of status interview too!

It’s actually the collection of evidence that’s the major pain, however rather than the adjustment of status application itself.  As well as the proof that we were are married, Abby has to present proof that she is financially solvent and can support me.  That means piles of tax returns that have to be sorted through and copied, as well as letters from her boss and months and months of bank statements, amongst other things.  As well as the green card application, I’ve also had to apply for temporary travel documents and temporary employment permission, so that I have the option of traveling and working while we wait for the adjustment of status application to be processed.  The whole package of five application forms and status adjustment evidence that I needed for seeking permanent residence was so big and heavy it cost $14 for the postage!  (That’s on top of the $980 we had to pay for the processing of the application!)

As we were married in February, we could have applied for my permanent residence earlier, in theory, but getting a joint bank account to use as evidence of our partnership turned out to be more trouble than we anticipated and stalled us.  Plus, it’s especially tough for Abby having to spend what little spare time that she has in the evenings and weekends on collecting and sorting all the financial documents for my status adjustment.

Anyway, the forms are all in and we’re there now hopefully.  I will have to go for a USCIS biometrics appointment at some point, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem hopefully (though I wish they could just use the existing collection of iris scans and fingerprints that have been collected from me at customs on my regular trips to the USA, rather than me going through it all again).  The USCIS adjustment of status interview is discretionary, so I hope they won’t call us in for one of those.

It will be such a relief when my permanent residence is finally granted (assuming it is!) and I get my green card!

Gator and snake update

I am still seeing the gator in the pond on my daily runs.  No snakes in the past week, though.  I wonder how long it will take before I stop finding the idea of having large, dangerous reptiles living in the neighbourhood surreal?