Im a canadian living in the U.S-I have been given a date for an Interview to hopefuly recieve my green card. Are there any glitter people who have gone through this- im getting very nervous and would love to hear other stories/advice.

I have a greencard (and my new one actually has some green on it--wahoo). However, since I became a permanent resident as a minor, I didn't actually go through the interview process myself. I did have to go down to the INS office with my parents though. And I've since been back to renew the card. My experience is that the INS is not terrible, but there is a lot of really obnoxious bureaucracy. If you're from a non-threatening country (i.e. Canada), and you have a job, etc, I imagine you won't have any more hassle to deal with than is usual. Be warned that "usual" can be quite a lot. For example, here's how my renewal process went:

Arrive in Charlotte INS office at 6:30 am so I can be at the head of the line to get in. Because at this office, they let one batch of people in at 8, and then batch #2 does not get in until 11. So you want to be in batch #1.

Office opens at 8:00, go in, take a number. Wait in line for a bit. Get to the head of this line. INS employee asks, "what do you need?". "I need to renew a greencard." "You're in the wrong building. We don't do greencards here. Go to building #6."

Go to building #6. Which doesn't open until 8:30 (I really don't understand how that works). Fortunately, not many people are in line at building #6. Building #6 opens, in I go to stand in another line. Get to the head of the line. "What do you need?". "I need to renew my greencard." "That will be $180." "Okay." (write check and hand over with old greencard and filled out form. "Oh, we don't renew THESE greencards here. You need to go to building #10." "But I just came from building #10 and they told me to come here." "No, we only handle the greencards with the expiration dates. Yours doesn't have an expiration date, so you need to go to building #10." "Okay, the only reason I am here is because I found out I was supposed to get a new greencard when I turned fourteen. So since I was under fourteen at the time this card was issues, doesn't it have an implicit expiration date of my fourteenth birthday, even if it isn't on the card?" "Nope. Go to building #10." *sigh*

Trudge back down the hill to building #10, hoping there were not enought people in line to constitute a full batch #1 so I can go in immediately instead of waiting until 11:00. I'm in luck. Go in, take another number. Wait in line for a hour or so. During this time, observe fellow immigrants. A guy who only has one name and isn't sure if it's his first or his last gets chewed out by an INS employee for filling out the "name" section on his form incorrectly. Small children run around and their parents look hassled. Everyone looks fed up and somewhat forlorn. The whole thing is eerily reminiscent of our first trip here to get greencards. I guess being absorbed by DHS hasn't changed much.

Finally, get to the head of the line again. Different INS employee this time. Don't want to get sent up to building #6 again, so I start talking "Hi, I need to renew my greencard, but it's too old for building #6, where I came from. Here's my form, my card, my money, and my new pictures." Pause. Employee "Okay, calm down. Let me take a fingerprint and get some information." Give fingerprint and information, go to sit down for another half hour. Receive a form to take up to building #6 where I need to get a full set of fingerprints taken. Get a stamp in my passport saying I have been processed for renewal.

Go to building #6. Wait around for an hour. Talk to a nice guy from Jordan whose daughter is my age and studying engineering. Get my finger prints taken by an ex-navy guy who tells me I need to smile more and asks me why I don't include my middle name in my signature as if it indicates some serious defect. Finish fingerprinting and then get herded to a table with stuff for removing ink and a lot of paper towels. The INS person rudely tells me I should use more towels, they have plenty.

I fill out the "how was your INS experience?" form and leave.

My experience was that there it totally brings home the fact that you are an immigrant, and that the INS likes to make you feel demeaned and stupid. As if being American meant some part of your brain just wasn't functional.

However, it's worth the hassle. I'm applying to get naturalized though, because I don't feel like going through it any more times than I have to.

Yikes, this is long!

Catherine

I'm a canadian living in the US as well...but I'm a resident alien...I think that's a different thing. I loathe dealing with INS--it's like a cesspool of cretins who should have never been empowered, yet have this one certain authority over your fate, and ooze smugness, caprice, and cruelty because of it.

Reminds me of how Hitler liberated a bunch of thugs to become his brownshirt patrols.

I'm sorry to say all this, but that has honestly been my experience. My advice is to make sure you have all your paperwork in order and be patient and unruffled on the day of your interview. Is it a set appointment, or do you have to go wait in some line? Because if it's a line, make sure you've brought snacks, water, and a good book. Just remember--this too will pass.

Good luck!

Nope. A resident alien is someone with a greencard, basically. My old one actually said "alien registration receipt". Although I believe they threw out the "alien" term a few years back.

"I loathe dealing with INS--it's like a cesspool of cretins who should have never been empowered, yet have this one certain authority over your fate, and ooze smugness, caprice, and cruelty because of it."

Oh God yes, those people yelled at me until I cried and then tried to send me out on impossible tasks like getting a legally submitted rental agreement from my parents for the time I lived with them as a minor (What?) and backtracking to all the various places I've crossed the border and getting my passport stamped. I've never had my passport stamped. In fact, US customs officials have told me to not even show them my greencard or passport, just my drivers license (I still show them everyting because those people are bizarre).

Anyways, I was eleven when I got the greencard so I don't remember too much about that but trying to get my citizenship was demeaning hell involving verbal abuse. Which sucks because I like my adopted homeland and it's polictics and would like to be able to vote. But apparently, I am pathetic scum who deserves to be kicked around for thinking that (But the dude who walked up with, I swear, a gun tucked into his pants leg seemed to be quite a favorite there).

That being said, there seems to be a lot of people who were rubber stamped (Um, 911 hijakers come to mind) and a lot who were treated like pathetic scum and no one in the middle. It seems to depend on which officer you get. Here's hoping they rubber stamp you.

Everyone told me that since I spoke english, was canadian, was university educated, was in a professional career (trust accounting) that I wouldn't have a problem. Well, I got turned down for citizenship anyways. Apparently I am not knowledgeable enough about American social studies to be a citizen despite having taken four years of american social studies in an american high school. Just to give you an example of the tedious pettiness of it all, according to this guy, you only got the question "right" if you got the exact phrasing exactly right. So my answer of "the house and the senate" to "what is the legislative branch of the gov't" was wrong because the correct answer was "congress." Then he gave me a lecture on studying.

I'm a little bitter about this, can you tell? Now I can see telling me I don't fulfill the qualifications, but yelling insults at me until I cry? Asshole.

Hah, INS is bad. Try INS in downtown Detroit, when I went to apply for my citizenship papers
(from having a greencard since I was five so I'm no help) the help is right out of a bad UPN sitcom. This is not a comment on race, people of all races from detroit act like they are in a bad UPN sitcom.

I do remember when we were little and trying to move to the states my mom had to haul me and my four year old sister down to the "approved" doctor in Toronto. Basically we went into the office she said take a deep breath, and that was it. Apparently she only had to verify we were living and breathing. Needless to say my mom was thrilled to have dragged two scared pre-schoolers down to Toronto in the middle of winter for that.

Beth

hearing other horrible stories about INS, or now called CIS, makes me feel better in some strange way. In the year and a half i have been waiting for my green card, ive been through a lot with INS- and just today i took a 2 hour trip to be fingerprinted for the 10 millionth time. I feel grateful and extremly lucky that i made it to this point - without an immigration lawyer or very much money!
But i am so scared of this final interview. I have to bring every stitch of documentation that proves we have a legitimate marriage - which we most definately do- but im afriad they will grill me because we got married at city hall and i didnt change my last name!
my worst nightmare is that they will deport me at the end of the interview and that will be it!
i still appreciate reading everyone's stories and remembering that there are sooooo many people (many in worse positions than me) who have had to deal with this. thanks!

I think the fact that my parents had different last names was the least of their problems when we moved here. My brother and I also had kind of odd birth certificates--they were just copies of our baptismal certificates with the Quebec government seal stamped on (the Canadian government finally threw those out and now I have a "real" birth certificate with not a whiff of the Church on it). Those weren't a particular problem either. Probably more because EVERYTHING was a problem than because those were no problem at all.

Good luck with it and let us know how it goes!

Catherine

p.s.-mishy, you have got to be kidding me about the test! Now I'm getting a little scared.

Yeah, I liked the 2 hr trip to the office in a suburban strip mall to be fingerprinted too. Why didn't they have the fingerprinting machine in the same city as the INS office? I swear they just make this stuff as tedious as possible. "You can try and live here, but we're going to make sure you bus all over the state first" should be their motto.

The test story IS scary, but I really think i just got a complete asshole who felt the need to bust my little immigrant chops, so hopefully that's a rare case.

My best friend just went through the interview process (her husband is from Morocco) and they spent all of _ten_ minutes in the actual interview. BCIS barely looked at the papers she brought, didn't look at the photos/rent receipts/bills, and asked no invasive questions.
They also did not stamp his passport as they had not yet conducted the background check necessary.
After waiting nearly two years for the interview they now have an indefinite wait period for the background checks. Which can take up to (or beyond) a year.

My new hubbie is from Tunisia and we filed the paperwork last Sept. He was called in to be fingerprinted in Oct. It's moved *slightly* faster than hers, but maybe that's because he was not out of status (as her husband was) and the BCIS center is in the city we live in. (Can make a HUGE difference as to time frame.)

Hope this helps a bit!
~Tamka

It does help Tamka, thanks. ive been reading about other people's experiences online and they have mostly said this same thing. but those people came to the u.s. on fiance visas, and i came as a visitor with a B2 visa- i dont know if that will even make a difference. when i lived in chicago (which had a BCIS office right downtown) everything was slow and basically had to be done twice-since i moved to colorado, i got a much faster response when applying to renew my work permit, and then a letter for fingerprinting as well as a letter for the interview only 2 weeks later! they must have fewer applicants to process in colorado!

bahhhhh This is scaring me- I am marrying a US citizen next year and reading this thread is making me (moreso) nervous about the Greencard thing. Has anyone had more success using an immigration lawyer? I've been recommended one, and wondering if it is worth the fee involved eg. does it improve the pace of processing?

How long did people have to wait until they recieved it?

A friend of my parents recently went through naturalization with a lawyer. It took him nine months and he said he had no hassles at all because the lawyer took care of everything. Given that the average wait for naturalization is 2-3 years, I guess maybe the lawyer was worth it.

As for green card wait times: When I got mine renewed last year they said it would arrive in 6-8 months and it really took 9. My brother's took 14. I believe we received our originals in 1986, and we moved here in early 1985.

Catherine

I filed my papers a couple of years ago for a green card.

I keep ringing up to see what priority year they're dealing with at the moment - I reckon I'll be about 90 when I get the call to have an interview or whatever.

Let me know how it goes with your interview and then I'll know what I have to look forward to.

I got my green card, oooh, just before I turned 21 so, wow, 12 years ago.
Getting it at the time wasn't too bad, got ours automatically piggybacking off of mum and dad getting theirs, and we had in immigration lawyer help. At the time everything was finally done, we has actually been illegal for a year, and the penalty at that time was you had to leave the country to get processed and do your interview and so on. We coulda gone to Mexico, but decided to go back to Australia to visit family at the same time.
The Dr's visit was no probs, just wanted to make sure you were overall healthy, no huge druggie needle tracks etc ha ha.
The interview at the American Consulate in Sydney we were all nervous about, and for us all it turned out to be was stepping up to the counter and chatting with the guy who was flipping through and checking our paperwork.
Now, getting my green card renewed has been much more tricky. I combined that with the name change from getting married, which was OK. But then, after waiting just over a year to get the new card sent to me, I get it, and they have listed the wrong birth country for me.
Now, when INS makes a mistake like that, guess what, you have to do all the work to get it fixed! Wow, don't you feel special!
I went up to the city on a Sat (cause the phone customer service people had said I could go to that office location to fix it. Turns out I could only submit the new applicaiton, get my photo and fingerprints there, and not get the temporary stamp in my passport that I needed to leave the country with over Xmas. Luckily crying works pretty well at the INS, and they got me a special appt for the next Mon morning ar the other office to get a temp visa stamp in my passport.
So, am currently waiting for the revised green card again, sigh.
In theory I need to get around to applying for citizenship, but the politics lately hasn't been very inspiring!
--jo