Keepin it legal
Usually, if you’re an international couple, and you’d like to stay together after you get married you have to file for an AOS. This stands for “Adjustment of Status”, we need to adjust Mr.D’s status from fiance to spouse! But wait you say, “I thought you guys were married, I’ve seen the photos!” But for the US government a marriage certificate from a municipality just isn’t enough.
You’ve been with the D’orsays through the K1 Fiance Visa Process and I’m happy that the hive will be along with us as we continue attempting to stay together despite the governmental roadblocks.
First, we made another ginormo packet of personal info. As for what goes into the packet? That info can be found here. Mr.D realized that he needed his previous vaccination form transcribed by a civil surgeon on the the I-693 form to be included in this packet so he searched high and low to find a doctor who could do that. Prices ranged from $25 to $100! So be sure to shop around if you to do this, some doctors also told us that he needed another full medical exam. In our case this was FALSE and in our opinion, the offices were either misinformed or attempting to make more money off us. Mr.D could have had his vaccines done at the doctor approved by the US government in London, but it would have cost even more money! So he had them done free on the NHS, only to find he had to pay for a doctor to transcribe the form here.
We sent off a wedding gift of $1,010 (*gasp…choke choke*) to the government (on 10/1) and waited. We received the usual “we got it” receipt (on 10/6) from the government and waited some more. We sent the package off in late September and on October 16th were sent a letter letting Mr.D know where and when to go for his biometrics (fingerprinting) appointment (rescheduled for 11/20). A week or two after we received that letter we received another letting us know our case had been sent to California (10/26).
Having our case in California means there is a slight chance that we get to skip the interview portion of the AOS and skip straight to the swim suit competition. Mr.D also applied for an EAD (authorization to be employed) and that should be coming soon. Here is a general timeline for the EAD from Visa Journey. Another approval you can file for is advanced parole, my understanding is that the advanced parole is supposed to be used if you have any specific travel dates that take you out of the country. We didn’t apply for this at the time, because we didn’t have any specific travel dates.
So where are we now? The D’orsays are waiting on our EAD to come. We don’t feel we have any hopes for knowing when our AOS will be complete as most people say it can take anywhere from months to years (fingers crossed for months!). So I try not to worry about it. Maybe we’ll do an interview, maybe we won’t. The process isn’t very transparent, and that part is amazingly frustrating. So the D’orsays just check out mail, take lots of photos together and wait.
Anyone else in the process?
D’orsay immigration posts
and omigod this post you’re reading is post 9!!!
November 30th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Wow, it’s so confusing. All countries have weird processes, but the U.S.’s always seems to have the most steps and forms!
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
And you will have more.
I’m not looking forward to getting back into USCIS stuff. In April we need to remove the AOS conditions since we’ve been married less than two years at the time they gave me the GC. Yeah an other present to immigration of $500+.
I get mad when people think that by marrying an american you get automatic citizenship. Thank God for Visajourney. Wouldn’t have made it without the support there.
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:31 pm
I swear, if I hear one more person say “I thought he automatically got citizenship because he married you” I’m going to scream. Except in reality, I just laugh and start explaining and by the time I get to the 2 year conditional perm. resident card… they’ve usually shut off. sigh.
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Ah ah, that’s exactly what I tell people too, and then I tell them how much it costs and they simply cannot believe it.
Although I do have to admit I’m pretty ignorant when it comes to the French immigration laws, but at least I try not to make assumptions.