Hi! to the TR!
Your very first! And you chose mine!
I'm very flattered!
Thank you!
Yeah, you'll need some coffee
for that one. It's a bit on the
"longish" side.
Well, howdy neighbor!
(See how I used "howdy"?
him being basically a cowboy
and all. )
Congratulations!
Can you tell me a bit about that?
I'm interested as someone else
recently said that it was quite
the process.
Will he have dual citizenship?
Pretty good gift!
Slightly warmer in winter.
Glad you liked it.
Oh! Then there's a chance
that I've already met him!
You're welcome!
Come back and comment
some more if you feel
so inclined.
Thank you, thank you!
Hahaha to the "Howdy". He's the furthest thing from a cowboy, but his dad was actually a real cowboy back in the day! When I got off the plane on my first trip to Calgary, there was a man wearing a big white cowboy hat who gave me a smile and big ol' "Howdy!" My initial reaction was to laugh, until I realized he was serious. Then a year later I went to the stampede for the first time and everything made sense.
The immigration process is very lengthy, especially over the last few years. First, I have to send a petition to the government asking for permission for him to apply for a visa. In this application, I had to provided a TON of proof that we have a bona fide marriage. Since we don't live together yet, it's a bit tougher to prove since they prefer joint bank accounts, mortgages together, etc. So, I had to provide things like invoices from our wedding (to prove it wasn't a shot-gun wedding just for a visa), photos with friends & family (to show that others know about us), receipts from trips taken together, samples of chat transcripts from every month we've been together, and the list goes on.
About a week after you send that through, you'll get a receipt telling you which USCIS processing center it went to. After that, you wait. And wait. And wait some more. The processing center we got takes an average 8-10.5 months to process & approve this part of the application. And that's one of the faster centers!
Once this part is approved, you'll get another packet in the mail explaining your next steps. This involves a 40 page online application for the beneficiary spouse (the one applying for the visa, I'm the petitioner). I also have to fill out another form called the "Affidavit of Support" and send off my last 4 tax return transcripts, proving that I can support him until his finds work.
During this time he also has to get finger printed and request a police record from Canada and gather tons of documents and copies of those documents to get ready for this interview. At some point after he sends everything off he'll get a notice with his interview date.
The only consulate in Canada that does immigration interviews is in Montreal. After he gets his interview date and at least a week before his interview, he has to go for a physical. There are only 4 places in Canada that do the physicals (one in BC, 2 in Ontario, and 1 in Montreal). One interview location and 4 physical locations...Because, you know, Canada is so teeny tiny, it's obviously easy to just bounce around to these places. So, the easiest thing for him to do, is go to Montreal a full week before his interview and get his physical there. Then wait 4 days at which point he'll be able to pick up his physical packet (which comes in a sealed envelope that he is NOT allowed to open...ever). Then he goes to his interview with all of the paperwork.
He'll have his interview and (fingers crossed) get approved. Then he goes back home to Calgary (with his still sealed physical envelop) and waits for his passport to be mailed back to him which will have his visa in it. Once he has this in hand, he has 6 months to go through a POE (point of entry), one just so happens to be at the Calgary Airport. So he'll go through immigration and get taken to one of those scary little rooms where he will hand over his sealed physical envelop and his passport with the visa. They then open the envelop. (I swear the whole envelop thing is just a test to see if we can follow instructions). He'll get a stamp on his visa which basically activates it and will start of the process of his green card getting created.
Then we wait for the green card to be mailed to his new address in the US. After he gets that, he can go get his SSN and will officially be a "Conditional Resident" for 2 years. Before those 2 years are up we have to apply for his "Immediate Relative" visa which will last 10 years. He can either keep renewing this or apply for citizenship after 5 years.
The fun part is that each one of these steps costs A LOT of money. And then they go and throw in that week long trip to Montreal. I don't know how we're going to afford Disney after all of that, but he's certainly going to have earned it!
Sorry for the lengthy reply! We probably have the visa in hand now as I'm sure it's taken a year to read through all that, haha!