green card in the mail!

my green card arrived in the mail today, yey! now i can finally let go of my excitement which i had successfully bottled up for the past 12 days. it really was torture for me pretending not to be excited about it but i wanted to be sure so i decided to wait...wait until i have the physical card and be able to touch it with my bare hands before i make the official announcement. and it's real! it says "permanent resident card" and has my name and photo, thumbprint, alien registration number, birthday, country of origin and validity dates.

the whole process took me 5 1/2 months! i filed my application for adjustment of status to legal permanent resident last December, had my biometrics in january, got my employment authorization card in february and had my interview last May 30. That day, Fil, racrac and i left our house at 8:00am and reached the USCIS office in San Francisco around 9am. We found a public parking right in front of USCIS charging $4.50/15 minutes (!!!), passed the building security check (cellphones, digicams not allowed!) and went to the 2nd floor where a lady stamped my interview appointment notice and instructed us to proceed to the 3rd floor, wait and have a seat. at exactly 9:45, a lady officer (chinese) called my name and we followed her to her office.

the interview was a breeze! it took less than 10 minutes. she only verified and updated our biographical information and asked the usual questions like our birthdays, whether i have ever been to the US before, date and place of our marriage, whether we have ever been married before, if Fil and i have children from another marriage/relationships in the US or other parts of the world. she also asked me the series of "yes-no" questions which i already answered in the I-485 form e.g. are you a terrorist, intend to engage in espionage, overthrow the US government, plan to practice polygamy, etc, etc.

she requested for some supporting documents so i presented my completed medical form, our joint 2007 ITR, health insurance benefit statement and racrac's birth certificate. that's it! she did not even ask for our marriage certificate nor bothered to look at our photo albums. i offered the rest of the documents i have but was told to keep them. she said that baby raclif is enough proof of our marriage who, by the way, was peacefully asleep in his carseat. good boy! to think i spent a couple of sleepless nights worrying that he might cry or fuzz during the interview.

the lady officer did not say we are approved on the spot but instead told us she will review the documents one last time to be sure everything is in order before she decides on it. she took my expired i-94, made us sign some papers and escorted us out of her office. she is such a nice lady, made us feel comfortable and interviewed us like a new friend interested in our story rather than the probing/doubting/rigidly straight-faced officer i saw in my dreams. On our way out I noticed my employment card missing and Fil told me the officer took it so i asked her and she said "yes i took it 'coz i will approve you and you won't be needing it if you already have a green card." wow, did you hear the magic word? my AOS is approved!

that same day, i got an email that card production has been ordered and on June 6, i received the "Welcome to America" letter. and today's the day - my green card finally arrived! it's a conditional green card good for 2 years which means i have to go back in 2010 to apply for removal of conditions before they issue me the permanent 10-year green card.

for now, it's time to celebrate! *jump for joy! kiss papa, kiss baby* yipee...no more USCIS for the next 2 years!
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Biometrics Appointment

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