In this chapter, we will dive deeper into the nuances of the green card (GC) process and being able to live in America like a regular human being, so stick with me. Quick disclaimer that this is all from my perspective of applying for a GC when you are already married.
So, it’s August 2020, I’ve forced my way into America via Croatia and Turkey, I’ve pulled together Alana’s family and friends and I finally propose to my girl on August 22nd, 2020. Sick and tired of this long-distance pandemic bullshit, we waste no time and get married 13 days later, September 4th, 2020, on Alana’s back deck in Raleigh, and thus began the next journey in coming to America.
When starting the GC process one of the first questions that you will ask yourself is whether you want to get a lawyer or do it yourself. Luckily for us, with Alana in vet school at NC state, we were able to get a ‘free’ immigration lawyer through the university who would oversee our entire case through its conclusion. Meaning when Alana graduates, he’d still be our lawyer for no additional charge. But let’s quickly contextualize ‘free’. ‘Free’ in this instance comes in the form of 4-years vet school tuition. You can google the numbers. However, for those not in vet school, let’s go over the options.
Do it all yourself.
Use an online lawyer service specifically for GC applications.
Hire an immigration lawyer.
Doing it all yourself is very doable. Yes, it will require quite a bit of reading and often questioning yourself, but at the end of the day you will get to the same place. The worse that can happen is that you delay the process because you don’t mail all the right forms or information, and because USICS operates out of the 1920’s with everything done via mail (although I hear this is changing), it may take time for a case to be updated. Having just witnessed a friend go through this route, it’s pretty simple with the amount of information online and likely friends who have gone through the same process and can offer advice.
An online lawyer service will make the process a little easier with a single source for all your questions and submissions and will also be cheaper the hiring an individual lawyer. Hiring a lawyer will of course be the easiest option as you have a real human looking out for you, answering your questions, and completing the submissions.
Boundless
In my opinion, the right option for you comes down to your budget and how well you manage stress. If money is not tight, get a lawyer or service and relax a little. If you’re a complete stress-head, get a lawyer or service and relax a little. If none of those apply to you, do it yourself and you’ll be completely fine. Our personal experience with our lawyer was fantastic, with me being outside America and being a slight stress-head when it comes to this stuff, it was very re-assuring to have someone who was taking care of it and answering questions we had.
So, it’s September 2020, we’re married, we’ve got our lawyer, we’ve completed a million and one forms, and we’ve mailed them off to the US government. So begins the fantastic waiting game. Once we mailed the initial application we were filled with hope and optimism of a quick process, receiving notice that our application had been received October 30th, 2020.
But as the months started to pass and the pandemic lingering on, that hope and optimism started to disappear. With me being in England at the time and initially filing our application through the US Embassy in London, we were shit out of luck. Throughout the whole pandemic the US embassy was practically shut, open only to emergency cases and international students. My mental state at this time was firmly on the decline. Stuck in the house every day, checking the USICS status daily/weekly to be constantly met with the same message “Your case has been received”.
Fast forward 10 months to August 2021, we’ve had no update on our GC and I haven’t seen Alana since we submitted the application. At this point, I’m losing my mind. So, just like the previous year, minus the detour, I hop on a plane and fly back to North Carolina. A week after I arrived back in North Carolina, our lawyer reached out to suggest a new alternative route to getting the GC. He stated at this point, with the ever growing back-log of applications, the embassy closure, new COVID strains on the horizon, and the potential to continue being separated for another long period time, that our best option may be for me to just stay and apply for an adjustment of status on top of our original application.
Now, this option is not one to be taken lightly. While it’s great that I have an option for me to stay, it comes with a list of restrictions:
No official status within the US
You cannot work within the US.
You cannot have a driving license.
Plus, it wasn’t exactly the plan I had in mind for my return to the US, with one suitcase of summer clothes, no real goodbye to my friends or family and gate-crashing Alana’s house and roommates. But after a week of deliberation, we decided that it was the best choice for us in the long run. Mainly because we would at least be together throughout the remainder of the process, and it couldn’t be much harder than the last year we had just endured.
So, in August 2021 we submitted our adjustment of status application, along with the temporary work and travel permit applications, that act as an intermediary should they be able to be processed sooner than the GC (How this works or makes sense, I have no idea). On August 21st, 2021 we received our second notice that our application had been received. Two months after our adjustment application, and 12 months after our initial application we receive our first glimmer of hope, a biometrics appointment. A biometrics appointment is simply an appointment for the US government to take your fingerprints so that they can track you for the rest of your life. Something that at this stage in the journey, I was ecstatic to do. So, on October 29th, fingerprints were taken.
I’m now living in Raleigh with Alana, her two college roommates and our two dogs. A full house! Christmas is around the corner, my summer suitcase has now become obsolete, and it’s been 14 months since first submitting the application. Just to re-iterate my earlier point of this process being the great waiting game, THERE IS NO WAY TO GET AN UPDATE FROM THE US GOVERNMENT ON YOUR CASE. You just continue to check the stupid little website and look at the same stupid status, until one day out of the blue, it changes. However, while this time was tough with no status and no updates, it beat being stuck in England feeling like I had no control of the situation. At least this way we were together and could start somewhat planning our future, as we didn’t have worry about borders anymore.
Our out of the blue day came on April 6th, 2022, when I finally received my work authorization card. 18 months on from our initial application. This is a major milestone in the whole process as the EAD card practically gives you all the benefits you need within the US, i.e., you can work and you can drive. For me this meant finally feeling like a normal human again and being able to have freedom over my movement, along with the reassurance that the process is actually moving forward, and things are actually getting approved.
With my new work authorization card in hand, I ran to the DMV to get my temporary license and I began the job hunt once again. Now a word of warning for all those who are in this stage of the process. There is a false sense of security that comes with forced immobility. By that, I mean the idea that when you’re finally released from the shackles, everything will be fantastic. It’s especially true for those of us that come from the US student background. It’s as if we forgot all the other bullshit obstacles we had to face earlier in the journey, while we are trying to work as a student or on OPT. In theory it should be easier with our nice degrees in hand, no restriction on work hours a week, industry we can work in, or duration of employment, but is that the reality?
The reality for most is that we have weak work experience due to these restrictions and poor connections outside of our university bubble. This means before we get our work authorization, we should be doing our best to build a network and then the minute we have the card, doing whatever we can to get our foot in the door of where we want to go. For me, this took me back to my OPT days and some of the experiences I detail in part 4 of this series. Luckily, this is where moving back to England and having some separation from the visa processes gave me an advantage, as I was able to build 3 years of solid experience in a global industry and then leverage those connections in our network group to land a job with another agency in America, which was a huge a relief.
Getting the job allowed me to finally put my feet on the ground and look positively toward a future for possibly the first time in America. It took all the pressure away of waiting for the green card and travel authorization to come and allowed Alana and I to plan our lives together after her graduation. That summer we would move to Denver, Colorado for a change of scenery, Alana started her first job, and on Aug 27th, 2022, I received my travel authorization allowing me to travel in and out of the US for the next year.
Two years on from our first wedding on the back deck of Alana’s college house, we had our second ‘proper’ wedding on September 4th, 2022, with all our friends and family in attendance in Asheville, North Carolina. The timing of it felt incredibly symbolic given the journey we’d been on and where we were at in the process. It wasn’t just a celebration of our marriage, but a celebration of the journey we’d taken over the last 2 years through the pandemic, and the journey of the 5 years prior through college, OPT and moving back to England. It was special.
Like the rest of this chapter, it doesn’t finish in a straightforward way. A month on from our second wedding, I finally travelled back to Europe for work and then back to England for the first time since August 2021. I could finally get my clothes! Whilst in England, I got the email I’d been longing for 2 years… Your green card is approved! My initial excitement was quickly squashed by an email exchange with my lawyer in which I asked him what the process for travelling back to the US would be considering I left with travel authorization papers. His initial suggestion was that Alana mail the card to England so that I could fly back with it… mail it. MAIL IT. 2 bleeding years and you think I’m going to risk mailing the bleeding card across an ocean. NOT A CHANCE. After some back and forth and online sleuthing we landed on a photocopy sufficing and travelling back on the same papers. A few days later, I travelled back to America with no issues and told Alana to bring the card to the airport so that I could hold this thing with my own hands.
So, there you have it. A 24-month journey from initial application to green card in hand. Today, I’m seeing my friends who have applied for their GC in America get their’s in about 12-months. While that would have been nice, it wouldn’t have given me this story to tell and challenges to overcome which has made ‘coming to America’ all that more rewarding. A few things I want to point out before I close this chapter:
I used specific dates and timelines in this blog because the most common thing I searched at home during the GC process was timelines. With no solid information from the USICS website on timing, the only thing I found useful was other peoples experience.
That being said, my experience in which I have detailed is likely different from 95% of those who apply for a GC due to the facts that it was during the pandemic and that I initially filed my application through the embassy in London and then switched to a change of status application.
If we didn’t have a personal lawyer, we would never have known to apply for an adjustment of status.
Moving back home was always the right choice for me and I’d do it again if I were to go back.
There is no chance I’d be doing the job I’m doing today and living in Denver had it not been for moving back to England and the pandemic shifting the world to WFH.
If this situation relates to you, try your absolute best to celebrate your marriage properly. It is way too easy for immigrants in America to skip the whole celebration thing because quite frankly, you have bigger things to worry about. It doesn’t have to be a big wedding, but it must be something that requires effort, you’ll be better for it, promise!
Our GC interview got waived due to the back log of applications. Friends who are also applying now have had their interviews waived also.
If you ever go through this green card process and have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out and I can do my best to point you in the right direction. Part 8 will be the final chapter in this series and will be a summary of all my key learnings during my time on this coming to America journey.