Thirteen months after we got married, and almost six YEARS after we were engaged, I got my greencard today! Now I can come and go as I please and they'll have to let me back into the country! Of course the first words out of my mother's mouth when I told her were 'when are you coming home to visit'? Not for awhile, because I really don't want to leave my husband for a month when we've only been married for a year, though I might change my mind come midsummer when the temperature hits 95 and the humidity matches it... Now I can start my countdown to citizenship... in two years I remove conditions and get a ten-year greencard instead of my temporary one, and three years after THAT I can apply for US citizenship, and then I'll get to know that I can live here forever without ever having to deal with the Immigration people ever again!
OT:A brief announcement
Jan 27, 2006
15 Replies
Congrats Karen!
Hooray for you, Karen!! We will be looking to hear when you are a citizen. What a neat thing to have dual citizenship !
Hugs, Sabrina
Great news Karen and congratulations on the temp greencard :o)
Congratulations Karen! What's your home country? That seems like a long time to wait. I thought it was just five years (depending on what country your from) to get citizenship.
Katrina in KS
Congratulations! Hope everything goes well.
Lynne
That is great news Karen. How exciting. Congrats
Congratulations Karen!
Congratulations Karen. Counting down now........ Sandy
Hi Katrina! I'm from Australia... but it doesn't matter where you're from - it takes a long time to get citizenship. Yes it is five years, but it's not five years from the time you get here or the day you get married - it's five years from the time you get your greencard. If you want to marry an American first you have to apply to be allowed to come here to marry them (or to join them if you married overseas). That takes six months to a year, or even longer if you're from the middle east or certain other countries becuase they want to do a bunch more security checks... Once you get here you have to apply to ajust status so that you're allowed to stay. That's the greencard. The application takes anywhere between four months and four YEARS to process depending on where you live and how big a backlog your service center has. If you've been married less than two years when they give it to you they give you a temporary one in case you're only in it for the card. So in two year's time I have to lift conditions on my greencard and get a ten year one... and three years after THAT I'm eligable to apply for citizenship (which can take a couple of years in itself because of the backlogs). They sure don't make it easy!
Congrats Karen!! I know that you must be really excited!
Congratulations Karen!
Congratulations Karen. I understand what a relief that is having been there myself! What a relief when you have that 10 year card and you can not worry for a little while about immigration paperwork and where it's at! I'll be filling citizenship papers as soon as I'm settled in Florida again.
Congrats!!
Susan
Congrats Karen!!
Teresa in MD
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