Happy 3-Year Blogiversary!

Wow - I've been blogging for THREE years now. I never thought I'd keep this up as long as I have.

Interesting that we are dealing with one of the same issues we were dealing with when I first started this blog three years ago! We got a letter in the mail this weekend from the Office of Homeland Security. (I know our postman must wonder who lives here. We're always getting stuff from that office!) It seems they have finally gotten to Steve's application to make his greencard permanent. We sent in the latest set of papers six months ago -- and they're just now saying - hey, yeah - we got these - can you send this and this and this and we'll get this finalized. Six months - not too bad. (If you're from the Phillippines, and in the 4th preference level, they're up to date on applications from November of 1982. Yes - 1982. That means if you submitted your application in 1983, it hasn't been processed yet. Oh yeah! We do the website for our immigration attorney - and every month she has us posting the Visa Bulletin - which shows how up to date they are with applications. It's pretty interesting! After September 11 - it was amazing how the numbers slowed down. They were already REALLY behind ... and then the terrorist attacks happened ... and they were being even more careful with applications. Now they're backlogged so much it's unbelievable. But that's good. If you've ever been in an INS office, you completely understand why they are so tough and require so much documentation.)

Anyway - when we had our original interview with INS for Steve's greencard - 2 years ago - we were 3 months shy of being married two years. At the time, we were glad to be getting the interview over with - and excited they processed him so quickly (quickly = 21 months). But then at the interview we learned that since we hadn't reached our 2 year anniversary yet - he would only be getting a conditional green card. When we were married for 4 years - they would review the paperwork and then give him his permanent green card (which is then good for like 10-12 years). If our interview had been three months later, we wouldn't have to do anything with INS for another 10+ years. Soooo ... the 3 months early interview ended up being more of a hassle than it would have been had they been a bit slower processing his forms. Because now we're having to get more paperwork together, file more forms, and, of course, pay more money. Perhaps that's the reasoning behind it. They can pull in even more money by interviewing people before the 2-year anniversary.

Anyway - 3 years ago - Steve and I were battling with INS over some paperwork that they DIDN'T file quickly. This blog has been through it all. Now we're still dealing with INS - but we're both used to it now.

Anyway - back to the original reason for this post - Happy 3-Year Anniversary Blog!