March 21, 2005

Green card tales

So this morning Kath and I had the interview for my green card, and I’m pleased to report that it seemed to go pretty well. We were both kind of nervous about it, but (as these things usually do), it turned out to be pretty simple and hassle-free...

The interview itself took about 30 minutes, including a large amount of paper-shuffling, form-stamping and tapping away at the computer. The interviewer was a little cold to begin with, but she seemed to relax when she realized that we really are an old married couple, not just two strangers pretending to be. She asked us a few questions, asking why we had filed separate tax returns (mainly because, as a non-resident until recently, I had to) and how we met. She also asked about our wedding, who was there, where we went on honeymoon, etc. I really got the impression that she didn’t care that much what the answers were – she was more interested in the way we replied, if we backed each other up and that we didn’t sound rehearsed or fake.

So we answered all of her questions, and she seemed happy. She said that everything seemed to be fine, but they didn’t give me the card there and then: they are still waiting for the FBI name check, where they look me up to make sure that I am not an international arms dealer or mass murderer. I’m pretty confident that I am not either, so hopefully I’ll be all fully carded within a few weeks…

So that’s good news! I’ll save the celebrations for when I have the actual card in my hands, but it’s definitely progress and is a big weight off our minds.

Some things that they didn’t ask (but which we were prepared for)


  • What color socks is your spouse wearing? (black for me, grey for her)

  • What color toothbrush do they use? (we have an electric toothbrush with two heads: hers is green, mine is blue)

  • To see the wedding pictures. I’d spent a lot of time putting together an album of wedding and other photos, but they didn’t ask to see them. Mind you, they would have wanted to see them if we hadn’t brought them, of course...

Posted by baggers at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)