It is interesting to see how the news coverage spun the different rallies today. For some reason, the fact that the target of immigration reform is illegal immigration is hardly mentioned. People who were called illegal immigrants only a few weeks ago are now simply called immigrants. There were even shots of people holding signs stating that they were not criminals. How can people who have broken immigration laws claim that they are not criminals?

I am now a Legal Permanent Resident. I have a "green card" (It's not really green, but that's a whole different story). I earned the privilege of living and working in the US by following the immigration laws and processes, filling forms, getting fingerprinted, paying fees and waiting. It took a few months, but I was then able to adjust my status after being a legal H1-B guest worker for many years (one might almost say an indentured servant to a large corporation...) and a TN-1 worker before that. Even earlier, I came here as a student on a student visa. All along, I was careful to remain in status and within the bounds of my visa.

Now, Mollie and I are working with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services in order to adopt a little Chinese girl that we will call Sophia. Again, great care is taken to follow the immigration laws and make sure that she will be welcomed to the US as a US citizen. It is actually likely that she will be a citizen well before I am. We are now anxiously waiting for a document called the I-171-H, which gives us permission to bring Sophia back to the US.

I can certainly understand people's desire to live and work here. This is a great country, and it is the country that I chose to remain in. But I must insist that people coming here go through the same process and regulations that I had to go through and follow the same rules that I had and still have to follow. Not that they are perfect, or simple or even fair. But these are the laws of the land, and these are the rules that you have to follow if you are to live and work here.

After all, it's only fair to me, and it's only fair to Sophia.

I received the actual card that document my status as a permanent resident. It makes it feel a lot more real.

Sorry guys, looks like I'll be around for a while ;) Of course, Mollie is very happy about that fact.

-- Fred

Technorati Tags: Immigration

Today was a very good day. Two wonderful events occurred today.

Mollie and I woke up very early this morning to get ready and head to the USCIS offices in Denver for my adjustment of status interview. This was the last step in becoming a Legal Permanent Resident (aka Green Card).

We showed up early. Very early. We made it to the offices well before the building doors opened. We spent some time waiting in the car for the building to be unlocked, and then we waited in the lobby for the USCIS offices themselves to open. We were greeted by a grumpy security guard asking us whether we were in a hurry.

We were the first couple to be interviewed this morning. The officer was all business at first, which really worried Mollie. The officer started with basic questions such as birthdays, Mollie's maiden name and where we got married. It so happened that the officer recently got married at the same place that Mollie and I got married. The whole process got easier after he asked us whether we had children. Mollie told him that we didn't and that our next destination was the CCAI adoption agency if the green card was approved. We did get the green card approval and the appropriate stamps in my passports. At this point, we knew that we would be able to proceed to the next step in our plans for the day.

We headed down to the Chinese Children Adoption International agency after a celebratory breakfast at Racines. We handed in our adoption application and had a chat with one of the adoption coordinator. This is something that Mollie had waited for for a very long time. We discussed the process with the coordinator and signed up for the next orientation meeting. Mollie was positively beaming with joy once we came out of the CCAI's offices.

This turned out to be a very exciting and eventful day.

Update: You can go to Mollie's blog to see her perspective on the day.