Our POE Experience

We'll Martin and I are back from our sojourn to the US. We left on 09 Feb and got back on the 20th. It was a fantastic little trip and our determination and enthusiasm has been reawakened.

We entered the US at Houston Intercontinental (IAH) in Texas on Martin's permanent resident visa. I'll recount the events so people about to embark on the same adventure (especially arriving at Houston) can have a head's up.

When we got off the plane we followed the path to the Immigration hall where you have to choose a line between US Citizens and Residents or All Other Passports. Choose the Citizens and Residents line. When you finally enter the hall you can see everything layed out below you. Carry on down the ramp until you see the assistants and ask what window you should go to for New Immigrants. They'll probably say window 32 (I think it was 32) which was all the way down at the far end of the room (if youre facing the immigration booths its all the way to the right). There's a sign on the booth that says New Immigrants.

There werent any other people in line so we walked up to the booth and a nice gentleman took our papers and asked us to have a seat. There was a row of chairs next to the wall so we sat and had a rest and listened in on the conversations between all the incoming cabin crew and pilots as they went through their special immigration line.

About 20 minutes later we were called back to the desk and Martin did all the new immigrant things. He signed a form twice and had a thumb print taken. Btw, while Im thinking about it - the cabin crew hand out landing cards on the plane for you to fill out under normal circumstances. Theres a white I-94 card and a green visa waiver card. If you have a permanent resident visa you dont need either.

So after Martin signed the paper work he was welcomed to the country officially by Mr Nice Immigration Man ("Welcome to the United States and Congratulations.") with a hand shake. His passport was stamped with a temp I-551 which is the stamp equivilent of a green card. Its valid for 1 year and can be used to enter the country until his green card arrived. Mr Nice Immigration Man said it should take between 3 and 6 months for the green card to arrive (or at least thats what I heard - Martin said he heard 6 to 8 months). Mr Nice Immigration Man accidently stamped his passport upside down Oops. Under it was writen Martin's Alien Number and the visa type he was admited under - CR1. More on this in a sec.

We were asked if we had any questions. Since I had been forwarned to check and make sure the right visa type had been picked up I chirped up and said I was under the impression that Martin would be a permanent resident without conditions (in otherwords IR-1). MNIM (Mr Nice Immigration Man) said that he was CR-1 because we hadnt been married 2 years yet (blah blah) and I said that we had - our 2nd anniversary was this past January and the visa was granted in Oct 03. He said he couldnt do anything about it on the spot but seemed to understand our situation and suggested that we head over to the District Office in Houston to fill out the paperwork to have him adjusted to unconditional. We asked when we could have this done and he said we could go straight from the airport if we wanted to. I also mentioned that I wasnt aware we had to fill out adjustment paperwork in our situation and would have supplied the letter we got from the Embassy when Martin's visa was granted if I'd been smart enough to remember to bring it with me. Doh! He said everything needs paperwork with INS/BCIS/USCIS/WHATEVER but I think he was just lazy and couldnt be bothered.

I called the Houston District Office and the National Customer Service line however I, as expected, couldnt even get through to a Human and thus got no usefull information whatsoever. The District Office opens at 7:00 am and offers tickets to see an Immigration Officer in person on the day on a first come first serve basis. They also offer tickets to see someone for help on forms and information until closing time at 3:00 (maybe it was 4:00). Anyway, since we were on holiday we couldnt bring ourselves to get up at 7:00 and get down there to see someone. We did attempt to go down for some information but since it was 2:30 when we finally got downtown I decided we'd have a better time shopping than potentially sitting around until 4 having seen no-one or not getting the information we needed anyway.

So our adventure is still open-ended. MNIM said that we could adjust Martin's status whenever we liked and seeing as we already did the affidavit of support mumbo jumbo obviously the traditional AOS (Adjustment of Status) just doesnt apply to us. I dont know what on earth we have to do to adjust his status but we'll find that out after we move. It should be a few months but I'll make sure to keep you all posted.

The chattering at the desk took about 10 minutes, maybe less. And the wait was about 20, so all in all it took us 30 minutes or so to get through Immigration. It was pretty fantastic and Mart was keen to wave two fingers at all the poor foreign buggers from our flight still waiting at the back of an hour long line Tee hee.

MNIM said that we could go and get Martin's social security number taken care of anytime after 24 hours of being admited to the US. So a few days after ariving we trucked on down to the nearest SSA and got it sorted. It took us about an hour and a half in all. There were hundreds of people there and it was cramped and hot. My suggestion is go first thing in the morning or have it done via the post if you can wait. If youre in a smaller city its probably a lot different but Houston is a huge immigrant hub - many of the people there were newly admited Hispanic immigrants and didnt speek any English at all. It was a very cool experience in a way.

The lady that took care of Mart's application was very nice and said that we should have his card in about 2 - 3 weeks. She said usually it comes in 7 - 10 days. We asked her if she could give us his number on the spot so we could go get a bank account but she said after September 11th they couldnt give out that information anymore. She did say that if the card hasnt arrived in 7 days you can call the social security administration and ask for your number. A nice tip. The card didnt arrive before we left so we wont bother calling - we'll just wait.

Hope that helps. If you have any questions about our experience please ask. And if you have any information on this CR-1 immediate adjustment thing - oh my god please tell me!!

Best wishes,
Sarah

I am glad things went relatively smoothly and welcome to the land of conditional permanent residents.  I just love that name.    May your adjustment process be swifter than ours and may the Department of Homeland security actually do something "immediate". Lucky you Texas is moving faster than Vermont.

Won't offer advice as I only know about adjusting from within the USA.  

Well congrats on the stamp - but how aggravating that they didn't stamp him unconditional! I can't wait to ehar how this progresses and what they say about it, as we're considering upping our re-pat date by 2 months *just* to get his unconditional visa... Phtbh, if they might not give it to him anyway we might as well go earlier!

I am glad things went relatively smoothly and welcome to the land of conditional permanent residents.  I just love that name.    May your adjustment process be swifter than ours and may the Department of Homeland security actually do something "immediate". Lucky you Texas is moving faster than Vermont.

Won't offer advice as I only know about adjusting from within the USA.  

Yeah I'm curious as to the definition of "immediate AOS" myself I've heard of immediate EAD (Employment Authorization) and immediate Advanced Parole (Travel Permit) but never immediate AOS which by the way has nothing to do with adjusting from conditional to unconditional ....and another thing I find interesting, if as you say the visa was issued in Oct. of 2003 yet your actual 2 year anniversary date was'nt until Jan. of 2004 (3 months shy) which is the standard used for unconditional permanent residency (2 years upon issuance, not arrival in the U.S, BTW) why would one expect an IR-1 stamp rather than a CR-1 stamp? Please do keep us posted.
 

Ok question here: does that mean the visa has to be *issued* after your 2 year wedding anniversary... I thought you could apply for it before your 2 year anniversary but as long as you flew into the US and *arrived* after that 2 yr anniversary date, you'd get UNconditional residence...

It was always my understanding that If you became a resident through marriage to an American citizen and your resident status was granted before the second anniversary of your marriage, your status is “conditional.”  This means that your permanent resident card (green card) will expire in two years, as indicated on your card. Whether or not they've changed the anniversary date to "arrival" in the U.S I don't know but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Resident Status being granted upon issuance not arrival is how it reads but I'm sure someone will chime in to correct me if I'm wrong...

            This is taken off the BCIS homepage:

"A lawful permanent resident is given the privilege of living and working in the United States permanently. Your permanent residence status will be conditional if it is based on a marriage that was less than two years old ON THE DAY you were given permanent residence. You are given conditional resident status on the day you are lawfully admitted to the United States on an immigrant visa or receive adjustment of status. Your permanent resident status is conditional, because you must prove that you did not get married to evade the immigration laws of the United States"

Seems to read pretty clear to me that they differentiate between issuance date and arrival date.

CONGRATULATIONS Sarah!!
Thank you so much for the details. I am glad to know that you can get the SSN sorted out so quickly too!

so is your residence status granted when you get the visa, or when you enter the US?

Ok Ive been through all of this CR-1 / IR-1 mumbo jumbo in another post here before and I'll say it again. Hell, I'll even quote from the damn letter that came with Martin's visa.

"Conditional Status: If at the time of admission to the United States you will not have celebrated the second anniversary of your marriage, which is the basis of your immigrant status, you are subject to the provisions of Section 216 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under this provision, you will be granted conditional permanent residence by an officer of the US Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service (BCIS) at the time of your admission to the United States. As a result, you and your spouse must file a joint petition with the BCIS to have the conditional basis of your status removed. The petition must be filed within a ninety-day period immediately preceding the second anniversary of the date you were granted conditional residence status. If a petition to remove the conditionall basis of your status is not filed within this period, your conditional permanent residence status will be terminated automatically and you will be subject to deportation from the United States."

That was a small bit of the standard issue letter that was given to all the sucessfull immigrants on the day of the interview. Being granted the visa does not mean "admission to the united states". Admission occurs on the day you arrive in the country and present immigration with your visa document.

In our case:

Martin was granted his visa in London on 21st Oct 2003. Our 2nd wedding anniversary would not be until 12 Jan 2004 therefore he was given a CR-1 (a visa for conditional permanent residency based on marriage to a US citizen where the marriage has not existed for more than two years).

Our 2nd anniversary rolls around. We later enter the US with Martin's visa on 09 Feb 2004 (after the 2nd anniversary). According to the standard issue letter given out to everyone who got a visa - Martin should have been re-classed as an unconditional permanent resident (at the POE) because our 2nd anniversary was celebrated before his admission to the united states.

Now when I mentioned this to the Immigration Officer he said that yes, this was true, but we needed to adjust his status with the District Office in Houston because he couldnt do it. We asked him when we would be able to do this adjustment and he said we could go right to the District Office as soon as we'd picked up our bags.

The process of adjustment that the Immigration Officer was talking about is 100% different to the process commonly called AOS. Sorry if I used the abbreviation - I didnt mean to cause confusion.

Marlespo said:  "Ok question here: does that mean the visa has to be *issued* after your 2 year wedding anniversary... I thought you could apply for it before your 2 year anniversary but as long as you flew into the US and *arrived* after that 2 yr anniversary date, you'd get UNconditional residence... "

That was also the impression I was under thanks to the previously mentioned letter that came with Mart's visa. The letter btw, was last updated in June 2003 - only a few months before it was handed out to us and the rest of the immigrants who interviewed at london. Some how I think the information theyre giving out directly to sucessfull immigrants is going to be right. Though, stranger things have happened, admitedly.

CeltictotheCore said: "It was always my understanding that If you became a resident through marriage to an American citizen and your resident status was granted before the second anniversary of your marriage, your status is 'conditional.'"

Yes thats true but the BCIS leads us (or at least some of us) to believe that upon admission to the US with an immigrant visa that if the 2 year wedding anniversary has been had since the visa was issued that permanenet resident status becomes unconditional.

In the quote you supplied it says ... "You are given conditional resident status on the day you are lawfully admitted to the United States on an immigrant visa".

Anyhow, the officer who processed Martin said we could go straight down and get his adjustment sorted on the day if we wanted. I'm going to keep trying to find out what exactly this adjustment entails. The officer at the Airport said it was just a formality that had to be done on paper but that yes, he should be an unconditional resident.

Makes your head spin doesnt it?

Well, I'm sure we all wish you the best however it turns out and please do keep us posted but I'm wondering if what the immigration officer was saying (or meant to say)  is that your husband could immediately APPLY to remove conditions (file an I-751) rather than wait the standard 2 years to do it since by that time (date of entry) you were married for the obligitory length of time required. After years of wading through INS procedures, forms and applications I've found semantics is everything. In any event, good luck

Thanks!! And you make a very good point about the I-751. I'll have to look into that possibility and I appreciate your outside view on the whole thing. Sometimes when youre in the thick of it you cant really see all the sides, as we all know.

You're going though the I-751 process arent you? I dont know much about it - mind sharing?

Congrats  (don't know much about the process.. but i can imagine it's a relief to get through)  

The I-751 also known as the Petition to Remove Conditions is the last step before a 10 year I-551 (Green Card) is issued and only pertains to those who were admitted to the U.S as "Conditional Permanent Residents". The only difference between conditional and unconditional permanent residents is the expiration date on the card and the fact that one cannot apply for Naturalization until they are unconditional. People being legally admitted as conditional must apply to have those conditions removed 90 days prior to the expiration date on their card. This is done by filing an I-751 ($145 fee) to the Immigration Service Center responsible for your state, the list is on the BCIS website. Here in the New England and Tri-State areas that Center is in Vermont.There's a few others in Texas, California, and other parts of the country. Once this is filed you receive a receipt (Form 797 :Notice Of Action) acknowledging that they have received your petition. This serves as an interem green card of sorts for work and travel purposes while the petition is pending and is good for one year. It's important to keep this receipt along with the expired green card especially while travelling because it's the only proof that your petition is pending. If one is fortunate enough to be going through a service center that is processing these petitions quickly, the 10 year green card will arrive before the 1 year expiration date of the Form 797. Unfortunately however, this process is taking literally years in some service centers like Vermont so one has to go to their nearest INS office to keep getting this renewed until it does arrive. The BCIS website also explains the waiting times for each immigration form to process in each of the service centers. For example it takes 1 day to get EAD (Work Authorization) and Advanced Parole (Travel Authorization) in Boston, in another city it may take 2 weeks, it just depends on their workload. Those type things are part of the AOS process though and if a visa is issued through a U.S Consulate overseas ,thats part of the process there (successful interview, medical, police check, etc.).....OK back to the Green Card (I-551) ....basically, if youre issued a 10 year card youre good to go and bypass this whole I-751 process.....if not, then join the club! The only reason that I can think of that youre husband was issued a CR1 stamp instead of an IR1 stamp in his passport is the date on the visa or whatever paperwork you had to give to the immigration officer in Houston that denoted you had not been married for the required 2 years at the time the visa was issued and if I understand this process correctly then that's the day he became a legal resident, not the day he arrived in the U.S. Maybe there's something I'm missing ,and for your husbands sake I hope that I am, but I've always found that checking and rechecking (almost to the point of redundancy) ANYTHING and EVERYTHING with ANYONE I speak to from Immigration saves on unexpected surprises because I've sometimes found that theyre not always understanding the question before they give an answer to something that they THINK you just asked them.

Like I said, makes your head spin, doesnt it? I guess we can only wait and see. But hey - lets remind ourselves of the good part - MY HUSBAND IS A PERMANENT RESIDENT!! *cheers* Better to have to go through I-175 bollocks than not be in the country at all eh?

Congrats to you and your hubby Marsbar  I have alot of questions to ask at some point, as we are considering a move in about 18 months.  For now tho, it's great to know that you two will be set

Oh, by the way,, when I go to visit my girls in Houston, they live near West Oaks Mall, so not that far from Katy. When hubby and I move there,, again, hopefully in the next 18 months or so, I was considering Katy too. Look forward to meeting you at some point at Katy Mills,, we tend to go to 'Outdoor World' whenever we go there,, it's awesome