[mongo_jones]

i have a conditional green card. basically, if you get a green card through marriage and you have not been married for 2 years at the time of application you get a card that's valid for 2 years from issue, and 90 days before expiry you have to file a form (and pay $250) to get the conditions removed and a new card issued. for 275 days i was hyper-aware of this. of course, as soon as the 90 day window opened i completely forgot and now i have 20 days left in which to take care of this. must. remember. to. do. it. tomorrow.

downloaded and printed the form tonight. quite interesting--the form must usually be signed jointly, but waivers are allowed if the citizen/green card holding spouse has died, if the marriage was entered into in good faith but terminated (how would the good faith part be proved?) or if the marriage continues but you are separated due to domestic violence (this can be proved via copies of medical, social-worker or police records). now to find documentary proof that we've lived together for the last two years and taken joint financial decisions.

[Suzanne F]

Do you have any bank account statements or mortgage/credit card/utility bills that show both names? Baring that, do you have bills that may have one name but for have such for each of you, so you can show you share an address? What about tax records (IRS, state, local/property filed jointly)? Affadavits available from your employer?

I mean, that WAS Mrs. Jones you introduced me to, right?

[NeroW]

One time this dude I used to work with on the car lot who was friends with my bosses said that he would give me 20,000 USD if I would marry him so he could get his papers. He said there was no pressure and I could still do whatever I wanted. So I said I was cool with that, but then I found out that the INS would come over and snoop around your house and interview you and make sure that you were sharing an underwear drawer and take genital swabs and shit. Then I found out that this dude was also interested in taking my genital swabs, so I never married him, because that's gross.

Good luck with your paperwork. I am sure it will work out fine. Let me know if you need any help.

[omnivorette]

It depends where the person comes from. If a western European marries an American, there is little if any scrutiny, other than the required paperwork and an interview at the INS.

[tanabutler]

I think it's time for Mongo to open a topic called "Genital Swabs." You know, just to be three for three for the evening.

[mongo_jones]

omnivorette, on Jan 9 2006, 09:05 PM, said:

It depends where the person comes from.  If a western European marries an American, there is little if any scrutiny, other than the required paperwork and an interview at the INS.

not entirely true. a close friend of mine who is english and white married an american woman (another close friend). they had to take wedding pictures etc. to their interview. ditto for an italian friend who married a white american man. we, on the other hand, were armed to the teeth with evidence but were barely asked anything. i also know a couple who got into an argument at their interview at which point it was terminated, the agent saying it was clear to him that they were genuinely married. also, nobody applying through marriage has to do anything other than apply and go in for their interview with supporting documents--regardless of place of origin.

the ins doesn't actually come to you or check you out in any way--they don't have the time or the resources. i know of gay men who've married foreign female friends to get them green cards, and i mean flamboyantly gay men.

it isn't even the ins anymore-- homeland security.

we have all the documents (bank statements, our lease, tax returns)--it is just that i don't know where they are.

(this thread and the "disgust and loathing" thread are meant to be for general use, by the way--there are lots of things that fall outside the purview of "annoyances", "reasons to be cheerful" and "surrealism".)

[omnivorette]

Wedding photos are part of the basic documentation - that's not scrutiny or a home visit or any of the things Nero was talking about.

It is up to the discretion of the INS whether to further scrutinize and investigate, after the presentation of documentation and the interview. The INS does indeed check people out sometimes.

I have a great deal of experience with these issues, both personally and professionally.

Profiling abounds.

[mongo_jones]

omnivorette, on Jan 9 2006, 09:54 PM, said:

I have a great deal of experience with these issues, both personally and professionally.

Profiling abounds.

no doubt. but from my also not inconsiderable experience (having moved in the worlds of both international students and internet companies) i'd say that the proposition that "if a western european marries an american there is little if any scrutiny" is a little too sweeping. if your documentation is fine you're likely to be fine; if not, or if you've messed up with entry/exit in the past, you're in trouble.

edit: england, of course, has a different system.

This post has been edited by mongo_jones: 10 January 2006 - 05:26 AM

[omnivorette]

omnivorette, on Jan 9 2006, 11:05 PM, said:

It depends where the person comes from.  If a western European marries an American, there is little if any scrutiny, other than the required paperwork and an interview at the INS.

Read again.

[hollywood]

Look, I married a woman from Indiana. Where was the goddamn INS then, I ask? Now we're in the middle of dissolution.

[mongo_jones]

omnivorette, on Jan 10 2006, 12:13 AM, said:

omnivorette, on Jan 9 2006, 11:05 PM, said:

It depends where the person comes from.  If a western European marries an American, there is little if any scrutiny, other than the required paperwork and an interview at the INS.

Read again.

yes? how does this alter anything?

[omnivorette]

My statement is not "too sweeping." I meant that aside from documentation submission and interview, Western Europeans married to Americans are not likely to have trouble or be subject to further scrutiny and investigation (assuming that documentation is complete and the interview is uneventful). Of course, if documentation is incomplete or problematic, or the interview doesn't go well, there will be problems for anyone.

But a non-Western European is more likely to be scrutinized and investigated beyond the standard paperwork and interview, the assumption being that non-Western Europeans are more likely to be interested in staying in the US for reasons other than true love. Western Europeans are assumed to not need economic refuge.

[omnivorette]

mongo_jones, on Jan 9 2006, 09:56 PM, said:

the form must usually be signed jointly, but waivers are allowed if the citizen/green card holding spouse has died, if the marriage was entered into in good faith but terminated (how would the good faith part be proved?)

Interview, documentary evidence of shared lives during the marriage, copies of divorce papers indicating reason for dissolution of marriage, etc.

[Kikujiro]

I know a fairly (I think) obviously gay English man who married an American woman. They actually did it so she could move here, but I assume he got reciprocal benefits. God alone knows how whether any officials on either side of the pond believed this was a love match.

[JPW]

mongo_jones, on Jan 9 2006, 11:48 PM, said:

i also know a couple who got into an argument at their interview at which point it was terminated, the agent saying it was clear to him that they were genuinely married.