Wednesday, January 10, 2007

A good two days at Immigration

My wife is not an American citizen.She was born in Philippines and has been in the U.S.A. since April,2004.I've been dealing with the Immigration Service (USCIS) since early 2003.I can't even begin to say the number of times I've been on the phone with them.Likewise,I've been to three different USCIS offices in Atlanta countless times. Most of those visits could be called "neutral" at best, though I have had negative experiences there too.

My wife received her permanent resident card this past September.Someone in the USCIS location in California made an error in making the card by putting in the wrong birthdate.We had to send the card to Lee's Summit MO. so it could be made right.Without that "green card" she is unable to work or travel outside the country.

We made an appointment to see an Immigration officer yesterday AM.There is a public parking lot across the street from the Federal building where we managed to get a spot almost immediately upon entering.There were very few visitors ahead of us and we were able to talk to an especially helpful man right away.He told us that if we returned today with my wife's birth certificate he would stamp her passport so we'd have prove of her residence status until her corrected "green card" arrived.

He didn't make us wait in line.....we could see him as soon as we arrived.Now, she can work and we can go to Dumaguete to see our son's "Lola and Lolo".
We were even able to take advantage of an "early bird" discount at the parking lot this AM.(on the way home we cashed in a $2 winning scratch off ticket and won $28)

Over all,I'd say it's been a very nice day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well at least your got your wife to the US. My wife was denied a visa by the bigots at the embassy in Manila based on what they think the law should be and then illegally denied our legal right to file for a waiver.

Anonymous said...

Jim's story is unfortunate but judging from the number of Filipinas who do receive visas you cannot honestly call the people at the embassy bigots.