Our Interview

Our immigration interview was Tuesday, January 18th. We left Monday for the long drive to Chicago. I ended up driving the whole way because my husband was too nervous to concentrate. I found our hotel with ease, talked him into relaxing, and we went out for the night.

Before we left the hotel, I did a google search for malls in Chicago. What I found on google ended up being a downtown Chicago mall. We ended up paying $18.00 to park for 2 hours..yikes! I'm from a relatively small midwest town, not a big city like Chicago. Our downtown traffic was slightly hectic, but nothing in comparison to Chicago. I can't tell you how many times I heard people honking their horns. How rude! Seriously, give me time to get my foot off the freakin' brake and on the gas before you honk!!

Anyway...

We went to the mall, got incredibly lost, and fortunately made it out alive.

Next stop? back to the hotel to drop off the car and head out to Fogo De Chao. http://www.fogodechao.com/ ...we were both dying to eat good food. We avoided paying a ridiculous amount to park by walking.

My husband got a little tipsy drinking caipirinhas, I had a billion pieces of palmito and picanha, and then we walked back to the hotel to organize everything for the interview.

(picanha-YUMMY!)

(mouth-watering palmito)

                               

(my husband's favorite-caipirinha)

(us before the interview)

Here's the point of this entry. Our interview was a complete nightmare and I'm still recovering. I'm sure our interview was handled the same way as they all are, but I was so stressed I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack. My husband had entered and departed the U.S. so many times that the officer kept questioning him. She even questioned me about the times he had entered and departed and I've only been with him since the last time he entered! Thank God for all the long nights we spent talking about our lives when we first started dating. She questioned why he had worked for one guy, then another, then back to the first. Why did we get married when we did? All kinds of random questions. Nothing like, "what color is his toothbrush?!" She kept trying to trick me, which I expected. This officer meant business and she held us for just a few minutes shy of an hour. I still can't remember all the questions she asked. I can barely remember what the building looked like. How sad.

I know the above sounds dramatic, but the interview meant a lot to us.

In the end everything was fine. We were approved, she made some copies of pictures, bills, and bank statements. He already has his work permit so now we're waiting for his green card.

This whole process has been a whirlwind. Everything fell into place after we submitted our paperwork. Everything took about 3 months. Maybe that's a potential blog entry...the papers we submitted, and so on. But only after I swim my way out of the piles of articles, books, and notes for school!!