Legal Alien Advice - How to Play the Green Card Game - Part I

No, this is actually not me. I am however since just recently a new legal alien in the United States. The process I underwent in order to become a legal alien has been lengthy and quite frankly not very much fun. This could be due to the fact that my closest immigration service center is one that serves a vast area in the southern US – Texas that is. 

By the way, kudos to all those immigration service officers who despite huge backlogs, files getting lost and angry applicants tirelessly process tons of paperwork and handle huge loads of cases with varying complexities. I do not envy them their job, but for those of you getting ready to apply for permanent residence – the famous green card which is not even green – being an applicant can be tough as well. While I will not get into a long story of all the obstacles that I had to face and stumbling blocks thrown my way, but will attempt to give some advice from personal experience on how to make things go a bit easier.

LAA - Legal Alien Advice

LAA 1. – Go for the overkill. In other words, when the requirement is to bring for example 2 or 4 photographs, have 6 on hand.  If pictures of you and your spouse are required to prove that you are truly living together – not just getting married for green card - bring an entire album or 2. It does not mean that the immigration officer will actually look through each one of them. Most probably they will hardly look at them at all, but this telegraphs an attitude that: "I am serious and treat this process and immigration officers that I'm dealing with seriously."  You cannot go wrong with that.

LAA 2. – Dress code. It really doesn't matter if you are going to the immigration office in order to obtain information, for an interview, to submit paperwork, to a citizenship examination or the grand finale which is the citizenship ceremony. What matters is the impression that you are going to make on the officer.  And trust me you want to make the absolutely best impression on the person(s) in whose hands is your "to be, or not to be" in this country. No matter how hot it is outside, anything even remotely resembling beach attire is a NO GO. A summer blouse preferably with long sleeves and long pants/skirt for a woman is the safest way. Men should wear a casual long sleeve shirt, long pants and dark or white socks. Any kind of extravagant fashion statements are not going to be appreciated. Basically, be conservative and modest. The same goes for jewelry and makeup. Less is better. And please do not pour on yourself a load of perfume/cologne before coming to the office. You may give everyone around you a bad headache.

Who Am I?

Some of immigrants living in the United States are not documented and sometimes this due to no fault of their own.  They were brought to this country by well intending relatives and may not have even been aware of their "illegal" immigration status. There are millions of such stories, but one prominent person decided to give them all a voice.  

Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer prize winning journalist just recently announced that he is an undocumented alien.

Here is a quote from what he wrote:

“There are believed to be 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. We’re not always who you think we are. Some pick your strawberries or care for your children. Some are in high school or college. And some, it turns out, write news articles you might read. I grew up here. This is my home. Yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn’t think of me as one of its own.”

This remarkable man launched a campaign to respond to the concerns of other illegal immigrants and promote immigration reform in the United States.

His experience is shared by many and if you wish to participate in the "Define American" campaign you can do so through this website:

http://defineamerican.org/page/about/about-defineamerican

 

So what does it mean to be an American? How old do you have to be when arriving here in order to blend in and develop a feeling of belonging?

Does being an American mean that you have to give up your roots? Or maybe there can be a happy, harmonious marriage between cultivating your native traditions, language and also cultivating US traditions?

Think about it and let us know.

Welcome

Welcome to the Blog of US Certified Translation Service, USCTS.com - well-known as the # 1 company for certified translations.  We have been recommended to our clients by immigration officers, lawyers, doctors, educators as well as family and friends. We offer a 100% guarantee of acceptance of our translations by Homeland Security under which the immigration service falls, as well as other US government agencies, educational institutions, law offices, courts and private corporations nationwide.

We also prepare certified Spanish translations which are legal documents recognized by civil registries in Spain, and by South American and Latin American countries. This is a great, convenient service for those of you planning a dream wedding in Mexico, Dominican Republic, etc.

The translation that you get from us is much more than a translation. It is a document with full legal force and recognition. 

When you chose USCTS.com for your translation needs, you cannot go wrong. Our representatives are with you all the steps of the way, always ready to assist and answer any questions. Our weekend coordinators respond to queries on days when the regular staff is off, so that you may always get the answers that you need.

Now, a few words about this blog.  This blog is written by many authors who are ordinary people driven by inspiration and enthusiasm to do extraordinary things. Some recently arrived in the United States while others are children and grandchildren of "aliens" who found a home in the United States.  They bridge language and cultural divides, they deliver messages across miles, capture and translate legends and fables from far corners of the world preserving them for posterity, they research languages considered obscure trying to bring knowledge about them to wider audiences. They are linguists, enthusiasts of languages and cultures from many different parts of the world. One of the things that they have in common is that they decided to become professionally involved with us, USCTS.com.

This blog is for those of you who have embarked on the journey of immigrating to the United States, who are applying to universities here, who wish to adopt children from abroad, basically for anyone who needs legal documents translated – USCTS.com is the place to go. 

In our posts here we will try to address some issues related to immigration and have people who have undergone various processes share their experience. We will also write articles from the amazing world of languages. We shall attempt to bring cultures together and learn from them. As the old Chinese saying goes: "Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere."