Immigration, how hard can it be?

Hello all and welcome back to the blog! I hope you've all enjoying your weekend. For those of you saying 'Well, I work weekends', believe me. I know the feeling and used to actively curse those who had a Monday-Friday kind of week.

So I had promised on this blog that Fridays would be the days that I would go and post little personal snippets, and this so far will be the first one I put up if only because it's so relevant. Not only to myself, but a number of people out there as well. (sorry that this is now two days late!)

I will start off by saying that no one thinks that they will ever find love in the form of a LDR (Long Distance Relationship), I know I certainly didn't. I was that girl that watched a few too many crime documentaries and felt that was how you had bad things happen to you. After my mom passed away, I joined up in my very first MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game) with some friends from my job. I can honestly say it was one of the best things I had ever done. I was able to meet so many people from all walks of life and make new and lasting friendships. It's actually through this that I met my husband.

So fast-forward about a year and a half and tadda! We are now happily married. This is where the fun comes along (I'm of course kidding because there is nothing fun about immigration, anyone who says otherwise is a liar). My husband and I printed out our papers, filled them in, got together the money and set our application along smoothly! ... Just kidding, due to an accident where papers ended up spilling out, a few of our papers were not included in with our application, so it was swiftly returned to us with a note about what we were missing (thank god they had sent back the check too!). So a few months go by and I decide to save like a mad woman and then come down to the US from Canada and stay for about 6 months. I bought my tickets early, got my cat up to date on everything he needed, since he was coming with me, and the day off I was tired but happy to be heading to be with my husband and his family.

Well silly me, when going through security at the airport mispoke about my intent of going down, and nearly wasn't let through at all, but the officers gave me a break. Except that now I would only be allowed to stay until the end of March, rather than the late stay until June. And here I was thinking that the entire reason for being pulled aside was due to my cat, and would have willingly gave him to the officer if it meant I could go! (I kid, I love this cat, even if he bites me when I try to serenade him).

Christmas rolls past along with the new years and everything is going great (except that I went broke quite early on in the trip. Darn exchange rates!) and we're discussing what we're going to do once I have to leave. Now it's around valentine's day and my mother-in-law tells me that she has found a local immigration lawyer and that for $100 we can go and have a meeting with him to see what our options are. This man ended up being a bit of a god send and placed on the right track, not only for our I-130 form, but also a I-485 (this would allow me to work and live here while waiting for approval for permanent residence). It was costly, but it was worth it. By mid March we finally had everything we needed together and sent it off, me stressing the entire time that some men in black were going to come bust down my door and tell me that I had over stayed my welcome.

That was not the case; rather quickly I had my biometrics appointment, and in June I was given an appointment for an interview, which I had been deathly nervous for. What if I said the wrong thing where it could be misconstrued? Would I be immediately removed and banned? My husband and lawyer kept trying to reassure me, and that I don't need to over think my answers, just answer honestly. My thoughts were what if that's just it, what if I answer honestly and they say 'You know what? We don't really like you. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.'

But it was less than five minutes and the man interviewing us said the only issue he had was with my medical exam papers. Nothing was wrong, except that the doctor had written the wrong year! Mind you this exam as done in February, so people were probably still writing the wrong year, but the same day we got a new one and had it sent out.

It is now July 28th, and I have received my employment card, as well as notices that approves me for my permanent residency! So a fairly quick process for us, and something I am so happy to have behind me.

For those of you out there looking to do this process, I would highly recommend getting an immigration lawyer. They may be pricey, but what they give you is completely worth it, and without ours we would have missed so many key items that made our story successful.

I hope that this helps people who are either going through this currently, or will be going through this in the future. My only other advice would be to just keep calm and take a deep breath. Things will always work out, and there is no need to drive yourself into a frenzy of worry.

As always, happy reading y'all!

*Update I have no received my permanent residence card! Let the job applications begin!