Jon1905

After much waiting, and waiting... and.. waiting.. I finally have my green-card interview tomorrow. It's only taken about 3 years to get to this stage..

I wish I'd found this place a long time ago, looks like there's plenty of good advice kicking around on here. There's really no reason my process should have taken 3 years, if it wasn't for the lies sold to me by the INS help(less)line..

Ah well, hopefully tomorrow it will all be over for a couple of years at least..

Hi by the way, I only just found this place this weekend.. Never considered looking for such a place before...

Any other brits in "New" England

~ Jon

nathan barley

I'm not in NE, I'm in NYC personally, but welcome to the boards

What caused your app to take 3 years, or did you apply via the blackhole that is NYC CIS?

Jon1905

Well I first contacted the American Embassy in London, and after paying an extortionate fee for speaking to a real person, I was faxed information on how to proceed.. That's where the miss-information started...

Ignorance was my greatest downfall.. I was reliant on the INS helpline for information, and they kept telling me the wrong information.. One time, I documented specific questions, and I called three times in a row, and got three distinctly different answers..

The most helpful people were the Information specialists.. (The people who actually know things, and don't pull it out of their butts)..

My biggest hinderence was a lack of communication from the INS, they would make a decision, and decline to inform me about it.. the put my case on hold once, and didn't think it appropriate to tell me..

Ah well.. Such is life... I've learned alot from doing it the hard way,
one of those is, never trust the INS helpline...

Just today, questioning something on my interview form, the reply was "Well that's strange, I've never seen that before, I don't know why they'd put that on there".....

I was actually processed through Vermont, and now through the Manchester Satelite office.. who, I must say, have been abundantly more helpful than their helpline counterparts...

But it's all comming together.. I passed my driving test, and I should get my pink-green-card tomorrow...

Jon1905

:scared:

My Green-Card, turned into a Red-Stamp...

How.... Cheap..

the DMV can give out cards in a couple of minutes, and charge about $50.. the INS told me it would take them 6-8 months, to get me a real card.. and they charged me in the thousands...

And once again, the INS helpline was useless... the information they so carefully neglected to understand, was telling me to bring as much proof as I could, of my relationship with my wife...

I believe our 13month old daughter did an astounding job in that area..

And I was fortunate enough, given that I've been married for 2 and a half years already, to skip the provisional status on my green card.. I am now a full permenant resident..

~ Jon

Emm

Congratulations on your green card and welcome to the site.

Emm.