So you fell in love with a foreigner...

 
This is Part 1 of a series on How to get your husband or wife a green card.  Check out the whole series here.

This week marks one year since Dufda and I tied the knot.  Looking back, it was one of the most stressful times of my life because you aren't able to just be married and live happily ever after when you marry someone who is not a U.S citizen.  You get married, fill out a bunch of paper work, pay a lot of money, wait around, go to the doctors, wait around, get some fingerprints, pay more money, get a green card, then live happily ever after until you have to do it all over again in 2 years.  I figured I would do a small series of post on how to make this simple and to break down some of the problems we ran into.

So many people think that getting your husband or wife a green card goes something like the movie The Proposal.

I am hear to tell you it's only slightly like that.  It definitely helps to have a sense of humor going through the process.  So here goes nothing:  My advice to get the love of your life a green card.

Dufda and I are the antithesis of organized people.  An organized person is exactly what you need to be though if you do not want to kill yourself while Immigration Services sends you enough papers that your case alone probably took a whole tree to create (I think at one point we sent immigration 1.5lbs of paperwork).  

Tip #1 - Get a binder that is made specifically for papers received from immigration.  I would tab this binder with a section for your documents, your partners documents, immigrations documents, and a place where you can hold items that need to be filed.  A good thing to include in this binder is a calendar or chart to mark when you sent in the paperwork, when your interviews/meetings/doctors appointments are, and when you receive any receipts/permits/or additional request from immigration.  I would get this binder set before you even get married.  The paperwork starts right away.

You will be sending enough information to the government that if anything gets lost in the mail, say goodbye to your identity.  I always questioned why the government couldn't find all of this information on their own.  I feel like it was survival of the who can take filing out the most forms.  I swear they already know this information but they are testing you and if you complete it all you may get a green card and keep the love of your life in the same country as you.

Tip #2 - Before you start filing out the paperwork, gather everything that you own that identifies you.  So you are getting married next week and haven't seen your birth certificate since you moved out of your parents house 10 years ago, get another one now.  You will need the originals of some documents and copies or certified copies of others.  Make sure that passports and driver's licenses are not expired, or expiring soon.

These are two tips that you should do prior to actually getting married.  Tomorrow will be where to start with all of that paperwork.