The Immigration Saga – Finally something good!

Well today has been a great day, and not only cause I was treated to a much overdue mani and pedi.

But today I finally received what I have been waiting for from the dear immigration people. OK I now, I got my work permit yesterday which is pretty important too, but today I was granted Advanced Parole.

The mail man (who was getting scared I would start stalking him) brought me a letter today that in big bold letters at the top states. “Authorization for Parole of and Alien into the United States”. Now seriously, can they not think of any better way to put it?

Anyway, call me what you will, this alien will be coming home for Christmas and nothing is stopping me!

All in all I cannot complain as this whole process took a lot quicker than the suggested time and it has actually been pretty simple. I would like to apologize to the poor call center people who had to endure my daily calls and subsequent huffing and puffing. I’m sure you’re not really as stupid as you sound.

So now, all that if left to complete is my permanent residency, but I have my parole and my work permit so take your time!

The Immigration Saga Cont…

So I received a letter in the mail saying that in order to speed up the processing of my green card they have transferred my case to another department.

A little confuzzeled, I phoned the help line to get someone to explain how transferring can hurry things up and whether this had anything to do with my request to expedite my Advanced Parole.

Well the lovely lady on the other end of the line was helpful and intelligent enough to read to me exactly what was written on the letter I had received and told me that she could not tell me anything further but she could say that this probably had nothing to do with my advanced parole.

So although I appreciate you hiring people that can read but it would be fantastic if they could actually help with my queries.

The Immigration Saga

I guess this is something I should have started writing about 9 MONTHS AGO!

I now take it upon myself to explain the process and the drama to anyone who may be contemplating putting themselves through this nightmare. Please do not hesitate to ask any questions along the way – although I have not found any loopholes and am not yet through this drama I may be able to shed some light.

Step 1 – File for Fiancé VISA (K1). I actually found this process to be relatively painless; this could have had something to do with the fact that my fiancé is a big, strong and gorgeous US Marine and actually worked out of the embassy where they process the visas. But not being above the rules and special enough to skip a few steps, I still had to fill in mounds of paperwork, get police clearances from both SA and UK, go to interviews and of course go to the most expensive doctor’s appointment of my life.

Step 1 complete but days before I’m due to travel to USA – I am now an Alien Fiancé and may enter the United States.

Step 2 – Apply for Change of Status to become a Permanent Resident. Well my Fiancé is no long a marine working at any embassy (he’s still big, strong and gorgeous though) so I am left to fill out these further mounds of paperwork by myself. I have to go to another extortionist who calls himself a doctor and go get more fingerprints and photographs done. Why can America not just trust the fact that the previous people did it correctly?

Now they tell me that this process can take a long time… so in the interim I have applied for Advance Parole (I am a prisoner in the USA and would like to visit my family for Christmas) and I have also asked for a temporary work permit so I can earn back some of the money I spent on trying to do things the right way (it would have been easier and cheaper to jump the border!).

Step 2 underway, they have cashed the check and acknowledge receipt.

Today I politely spoke to the lovely lady on the other side of the telephone and asked whether there is anyway to speed up this lengthily process as Christmas is coming soon and with the plane flights booked and the presents bought I need to get there. Expedition requested . . . pray for me!