Green Card requirements

[pbateson]

I have a green card.

[uy707]

Thanks again Iceman.
It reminds me of a movie, now quite a few years old title of which is
you bet : "GREEN CARD"
directed by Australian born Peter Weir, whose last movie is "Master and Commander" starring Russell Crowe.
Starring
French actor Gérard Depardieu
British actress Andy Mac Dowell.
Depardieu portrays a waiter in his late 40s who illegaly took up a job in New York, he shares MacDowell's character's flat, in this movie she is a prefectly US woman. They convene not to sleep in the same room, but each other will transfer as many intimate details as possible in order to face an INS forthcoming cross-checking session. The guy finally fails on one detail , I don't remember but I guess it's over the brand of the lady's knikkers, and is deported.
Regards
Alain

[Airigami]

I have a green card.

Thanks for letting us all know.

I got a green card through the easiest route possible (however, all things are relative - it is still a long and tedious process) through marrying an American. It cost us about (if I recall correctly) about US$600 filing fee (it might have been more) and lots and lots of waiting and lining up outside the INS offices on cold mornings. It is a miserable time, but definitely worth it. The soonest I can qualify for citizenship is in 2008.

[Airigami]

Incidentally, just to clarify, I did not marry my wife in order to get a Green Card. We met in Sydney and actually planned to live in Australia (where she would have had to have gone through the Australian immigration process). The only reason we're living in the U.S. is because of my wife's job...

[iceman]

I remember that movie! It was a long time ago! But I never saw it. Maybe I should rent it to get a good laugh!

Actually, the interviews are usually not so bad – at least at the consuls. They only last a couple of minutes. I am not sure about INS interviews within the US though. They’re probably a bit tougher because they’re mandated to assume that every marriage is a sham. And it’s up to the couple to prove otherwise.

Airgami: You married in the US, right? After you married, did you have to go back to Oz? Or were you allowed to stay? I know once you marry an American citizen in the US, you get a temporary greencard (I forget the exact name) and that lasts for two years until you file an adjustment of status for a permanent one.

Anyways, I’m curious about the procedure you went through because I may have to do the same thing for my girlfriend, depending on the circumstances. PM me if you want.

[Airigami]

iceman, I'm happy to help.

Yes, we did get married in the U.S., in Md. I was on a J-1 student visa at the time and visited Canada twice immediately afterwards and was readmitted to the U.S. without any problems. Although, the Canadian authorities recommended that we not volunteer the fact that we were married to the U.S. border guards because they thought that getting married on a J-1 was not allowed. Turns out they didn't know what they were talking about.

Not long after, I returned to Australia for a few weeks to straighten out my affairs there, after my wife had got her new job here and we had decided to stay in the U.S. Upon my return I was detained at LAX for four hours because I was re-entering on an extended J-1 that my school had screwed up the paperwork on. Because I was married to an American combined with the screw up quite clearly not being my fault, they let me in on a 90-day tourist visa (visa waiver).

The process from then on was straight forward, but just time consuming. (And yes, even a tourist visa waiver can be used for a status adjustment, which is something not many people know. I assume that is still the case, but it is worth checking.) I submitted the paperwork with every i dotted and every t crossed + our bucketload of cash in mid-May. By early June, I had my temporary work permit. My wife and I had our residency interview (both the applicant and their American spouse must attend) in the following January. I got my Green Card in the mail about a month later. The interview was so funny. The interviewer was convinced my name was Jaime (as in the Spanish "Hi-me") rather than James, despite me being quite pale and obviously not hispanic. And with all my official documents from Australia (i.e., birth certificate, etc.) she kept asking me if they were the originals or the English translations. Despite me telling her that Australia is an English-speaking country, she complemented me on my "excellent English".

Just a hint - between application and getting the actual Green Card, you are placed on 'advance parole' and for international travel, you must carry travel documents. Try not to leave the country during this time, because upon return you'll be detained for about an hour while they verify your details. They'll let you back in, but it's just a pain in the butt, especially if you have a connecting flight to catch. There's no re-entry problems with the actual Green Card, though, thankfully!

Hope this helps somewhat. Tell me if there anything else you want to know. (I didn't PM you because I thought this information might be useful to others, too. )

[iceman]

James, thank you for the outstanding analysis! Yes, this absolutely confirms a few hunches I had. I knew that you could change your status on student, tourist or work visas (so long as you prove that you did not obtain those visas with immigrant intent). This is not something that’s recommended – or suggested, for that matter -- by immigration attorneys, however, and the INS (now BCIS) doesn’t necessarily approve of this practice, but it is difficult for them to argue against it. They really can’t stop you from doing it. I have heard it causes more headaches when applying for the Green Card, though.

And yes, I knew you could adjust your status on the visa waiver. I was checking out this immigration forum and one of the immigration attorneys on there said this was not possible, but I knew he was lying. I think they get more business of done the other way.

This is interesting because it does give me a few more options about what to do in order to bring my girlfriend up here. The problem would be getting her the tourist or student visa, however. You’re lucky that it’s easy to get a student visa from Australia, but my fiancée lives in Brazil and it’s almost impossible for Brazilians to get these unless you are super rich.

I was looking into the fiancée and spousal visas, but those take far too long to process and there’s so much uncertainty during the wait. Ironically, the K (or spousal and fiancée) visas were created to quicken the process to bring your significant other into the country, but it’s actually slowed everything down significantly. What used to take three months (which is tolerable) can now take over a year for some countries.

James, I utterly commend you for totally using the system to your utmost advantage. The INS makes it extremely difficult for people to go through this process their preferred way, so it is no surprise that other (not illegal) methods are used to hasten the process. I wish more people were aware of this and not duped by some greedy lawyers.

[uy707]

Airigami, this lady confusing your first name with Jaime provides for interesting information. I will be better to avoid meeting her since
I think I could be confused with a lady, since Alain soundly yield HA-LA-EEN !!!

Otherwise, your experiences of both of you Airigami and Iceman provide for more good reading.

Regards
Alain