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.
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