At least, that’s my status as of noon yesterday, and about frickin’ time too.
The short version of my story is that I met a wonderful man online, dated long-distance for about a year (which I don’t recommend, it sucks), with him visiting me three times in that period. Last May I came down for a three-week visit and to figure out what our options were for getting me down here permanently. Since the answer was pretty much ‘get married’, and since we’d been apart for too long already, we got married later that month (after I’d already missed my plane back–I don’t think my parents were too thrilled), filed for adjustment of status back in July, and finally had our interview yesterday morning.
Standard IANAL disclaimers apply, although we did retain one (because it is a royal PAIN trying to navigate US Immigration without one). But if you have any questions for someone who has recently undergone the immigration process, feel free to ask.
(I promise to try to keep my cussing at government regulations to a minimum.)
Smarties are nothing like M&Ms. M&Ms are candy coated lozenge shaped milk chocolate, Smarties are candy coated spherical shaped milk chocolate with absolutely no room for a decent peanut anywhere.
And, unless rural whereever Jayn_Newell is worse off than rural central Indiana we have 'em. Mostly around halloween but they can be found other times of the year too. Just have to look for them.
You are so flipping wrong. Smarties ain’t spheres, there’s flatter than M&Ms. Not thicker, but wider across.
Dammit, now I REALLY want some. I should add that to my wedding registry. Except since the store doesn’t sell them them, I can’t…bah.
yeah, but size doesnt matter, right?
The problem with Smarties is that they are way, way way too sweet. The candy coating is pure sugar, and you can’t even tell that there is chocolate inside.
M&M’s actually taste like chocolate.
And don’t mention Marmite, either, or you’ll lose your residency rights.
But since you’re in love, I s’pose he’ll forgive you. Congratulations!
A little. Mostly it’s the small things–stuff like alcohol being sold at the grocery store, having to pay for basic medical care (I pay more for my meds now with insurance than what it previously would have cost me without), and not having certain brands avaliable–mainly McCains, I miss their cakes and fruit punch :(. Not to mention fresh haddock. Moving from a fishing community to the mid-west is a bit of a shock in itself.
One thing that is more NS specific is that we only recently got Sunday shopping, so it’s still a new thing to me. And I hear more religious references than I used to. Fortunately I already knew a bit about how the US government works, so all this election talk actually makes sense to me.
I can’t fully answer this just because I don’t fully know myself. However I’m not eligible for government aid for the next two years (we had to prove that my husband made enough to support me as part of the application–fortunately he makes more than twice the income needed) and we have to keep the government up to date on our address if we move. Those are the main ones I can think of.
He had a a good job and an apartment. Frankly, there was less holding me down. If he’d been able to find a job near me when he graduated, he would have moved instead.
Honestly, I’m not sure, as my husband did that part. It was easier for him since he was down here and I wasn’t. The lawyer we did find specialized in immigration cases and was very helpful in helping us navigate the process.
Smarties are the little pressed sugar tablets that look like pastel aspirin and come in a roll of about 20.
You are right, I can never taste the chocolate in those.
In either case I’m sure if you look around hard enough you can find some. I don’t have a particular question (although my ignorance has been smacked around a little bit by the Smarties, thanks for that) so I’d like to welcome you to America, and thank you for choosing us over America’s Hat.
What’s your general impression of the immigration office?
A friend of ours had trouble with them losing properly filed paperwork for his wife, and I recall a friend of my husband’s and a coworker of mine from college both having horrendous trouble with green cards. To me it’s very irritating to hear these kinds of stories, both because of friends’ irritation and because ideally I’d like the immigration office to be presenting a good side of the country, (welcoming and so on) when it often seems to present the worst of the bureaucracy.
Missed the edit window, but I just remembered this one:
A fourth bad immigration story: Friends of my brother-in-law (more of FOAFs to me, but I know the couple) have been dating for years–I think 5, but maybe more. He’s from Canada, she’s from Seattle. He’s come down repeatedly to visit, and they recently got engaged and applied for a marriage license. It was denied, because the govt. wanted proof of his trips to visit her in the form of passport stamps. The trouble is, when he was first visiting, passports weren’t required, so he didn’t even have one. Then when he got one, he says the border guards rarely bothered to stamp it. So, it seems that the US government is trying to retroactively change their own requirements.
These are the stories I’ve heard, and I hope you have a happier one to share!
Customs agents can be pretty surly too. We reentered the U.S. by train from Vancouver to Seattle, and they stopped at the border for an immigration inspection. They asked us why we had gone to Canada. If I come to your country, feel free to question me about the purpose of my visit, but when I come back to my country, I’d rather our own immigration agents don’t ask me why I left the country for a few days.
( I know, it’s Homeland Security and all that but it’s still irksome.)
