Permanent Resident !

It's official ... Philipp has his Green Card!

What more can I say? This is our big news of the day! We can't believe how quickly he got it, and are relieved that it's taken care of. Now all we have to do is buy our plane tickets!

OK, maybe it's not that simple ...

As far as the US Government is concerned, it is that simple. He's got the visa, and now he's free to come and go as often as he wants. He isn't allowed to spend more than one full year in France, but as Philipp says, "I don't think that will be a problem."

But for us, it's a little more complicated than just buying the tickets and going. We will visit the States this summer because it'll be nice to take a vacation, and Philipp is required to set foot on US soil in the next six months to validate the visa. But we won't be ready to move till the beginning of 2009. As you may know, he and a friend bought the ruin in the castle that is next to our former apartment. The renovations are coming along, but won't be done for this summer. So we're going to stay a few more months until it's finished and sold, and hopefully move to Charleston soon after.

You may wonder why we applied for the visa so early, when we don't plan on moving right away. It's simple, really: we thought it was going to take much longer! From what we'd read, it takes 7-12 months for the entire process. But for us, it took exactly 2 months and 4 days. The consul told us it was because we applied in France ... it takes much longer if you're in the States when you apply. (Plus, if we'd done that, Philipp wouldn't have been allowed to leave the States for a full 2 years after getting the visa! This was definitely not what we wanted.)

This is how the application process worked for us:

We took the train to Paris on February 15th, and started the application process by turning in some forms and paying the first fee. The following week, we received an envelope with a list of additional papers to collect: birth and marriage certificates, military records, police report, etc. When we'd collected all these papers, we notified the embassy that we were ready. They sent us an envelope with more forms to complete, a list of doctors authorized to do a medical exam, and the date for the interview: April 17th. We went to Paris on Wednesday, and Philipp had to have blood drawn, see the doctor in person, and have a chest x-ray done. Thursday morning, we returned to the doctor's office to collect all the results. The interview was in the afternoon, and involved a fair amount of waiting to be called (as was expected), paying another fee, and turning in our paperwork. We were prepared to show wedding albums, old e-mails, photos of us in various countries ... But they didn't ask for any of that. The "interview" consisted of just one question: "Why do you want to live in the United States?" And we had a nice, simple answer ... "I'm a French teacher." Done! Approved! The passport (visa inside) arrived Saturday.

So congratulations to Philipp! New Permanent Resident of the United States of America!

(feel free to hum patriotic music ...)

:)