patrick's legal again!

After 5 years of marriage and over $3000 in filing and attorney fees. Why do people assume that being married to a U.S. citizen automatically confers legal status?

Our previous petition was denied in 2002. Thanks to a pilot program called DORA (Dallas Office Rapid Adjustment?), the 1-year green card application process (I-130 + I-485) has been accelerated to just 90 days for family-based petitions.

Processing times vary from one immigration office to the next. To follow up case status, or view processing dates, follow the links from the USCIS website (US Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly INS)

Over the past three months we've been compiling all sorts of documents to prove that our marriage is real. We spent most of today at one of the satellite buildings of the Dallas immigration office and got our filing and interview done all within a few hours.

It amazes me that some people marry for status, because I don't know how I would have made it through the interview if our marriage were bogus. Besides being asked how we met, what each other's birthdays are and when our anniversary is, we were also asked point-blank whether we had "been living together continuously as man and wife since" the day of our marriage. And what if we'd had problems during that period? Talk about awkward.

Things I've learned:
1. Having a lawyers definitely helps cover all the bases.
2. It's best to keep your cards and IDs updated, and preferably complementary: we were asked to pull out our car insurance cards, debit cards for our joint checking account, as well as our driver's licenses, to see how things matched up.
3. InfoPass rocks! Gone are the long lines and walk-ins of the past; now the only people entertained are those who have gone online and set an appointment, which makes for a shorter visit and a much more pleasant experience.
4. Some people, particularly older Americans who had home births, have no birth certificates, or have delayed or questionable ones that could delay processing of immigration documents, including passports.
5. Till October of this year, a number of Caribbean nations will not require travelers from the contiguous U.S. to have passports.
6. I probably priced myself out of that legal assistant job offer. Owing to caps on medical malpractice cases, firms onces dedicated to this multimillion-dollar legal specialty have had to cut back, and as a result there are scores of experienced paralegals and legal assistants looking for work.

We're expecting some sort of letter to arrive in the mail next week, stating that our application has been accepted and is being processed, along with a case number we can use to follow-up the status of our application online. Patrick may or may not need to go in again for fingerprinting in that time. Within 90 days we should receive an approval notice, or on the 75th day a communication that our application will not be processed within the 90-day period. If that happens we can apply for a new work permit for him in the meantime, and our petition will be processed the usual way.

Assuming we get an approval notice right off the bat, Patrick should get his permanent residency card 3 to 4 weeks after, and it's smooth sailing from there. And then we can travel!