Kedar's Log, Stardate 2010

Like many people from my homeland, I came to the US, seeking opportunities. At least that’s what I kinda’ like to think. If you ask me, I don’t really know why I came here.. back in those days, there wasn’t a great deal going on in the IT world back home – yes back in the last century – the year 1999. For a youngster, waiting desperately to break free, going away from home and the homeland, made perfect sense! I was already living in Dubai, working in the IT arm of a successful airline. I flew all over the world. Dubai is a small place and after 4 years I outgrew it. I wanted to continue my journey outward – away from my homeland. So I consciously looked towards the West.

It was great.. I had a big country to explore, big cars, lots of do, see and experience. Part of being here was to ensure some stability, brought about by the permanent resident card – ubiquitously known as the Green Card! Sure, I wanted to get that.. it was the legal way of staying here for longer than the 6 years that H1B initially offered. So I talked to my employer and started my long journey towards this goal… Memories have already started fading and before I forget, I want to document everything I went through to get this done..

…only thing is, it is not done yet.. Every time I hit a snag (even though every date is current for me at this time), I laugh because I am immune to it now.. after having spent 7+ years trying to get this done. Here is the timeline for the continuing ordeal…

• Mar 8, 2001: First blood.. filed for the first stage – Labor Certification (LC) receipt received from VEC (Virginia Employment Commision)
• Jun 2001: First trip to India – 15 days vacation – Had to renew my passport and get the visa stamped. Spend 10 days doing ONLY that. With last minute visa stamping!
• Nov 2001: Renewed my H1B upto Sep 2003
• ~2001 end: Big layoffs at job.. LC application pulled back since company can’t justify filing for GC when it is laying off employees
• ~6 months of wait, advertisements etc for my position
• Sep 2002: Second blood.. filed again for LC
• Sep 2003: Renewed H1B till Dec 2004
• Oct 2004: End of official 6 year H1B period. I have to renew my H1B on a yearly basis now. If I get laid off, and can’t find a job within a month or so, I am out of this country.
• Dec 2004: Renewed H1B till Mar 2006 for the last time in my 6 yr H1B period.
• Feb 2005: LC goes to Backlog Elimination Center
• April 2005: H1B stamped at Halifax, Canada.
• Mar 2006: H1B renewal upto Mar 2007 – premium processing, stamped at Mumbai. I had not sent the documents to the embassy in advance. So they cancel my appointment while I am on vacation! I had to extend my vacation and I somehow manage to get an emergency appointment for the stamping. I submit everything and wait. Nothing happens till the day I am supposed to travel! I go to the embassy and they tell me my DD did not go through since the bank that issued the DD had an employee strike! I postpone my return date by 5 days. Everybody who had come to see me off at the airport that day had to go home.. I then scramble to get a new DD drawn on a different bank so that I can get the visa stamped. I finally get it and return back to the US
• Aug 14, 2006: LC got approved!! Yay! Apply for EAD/AP for both me and my wife
• Sep 13, 2006: I-140 Immigrant Petition filed
• Oct 26, 2006: I-140 approved! Wow!
• ..waiting for my priority date to get current so that they can file my Adjustment of Status (AOS)..
• Dec 2006: Medical tests and reports. Collect necessary documents.
• Jan 22, 2007: AOS filed. Notice received
• Feb 10 2007: First Biometrics appointment (fingerprints)
• Feb 26 2007: FBI requests for second Fingerprinting, only for me.. They could not read my fingerprints – fingers too dry, broken lines, etc..
• Mar 2007:H1B renewed till Mar 2008
• Mar 2, 2007: Second fingerprinting appointment for me. I apply lots of cold cream on my hands in the hopes that the fingerprints will come out well.
• Mar 2007: We get EADs..
• Mar 20, 2007: Second fingerprints were illegible too!! USCIS asking me for police clearance from every city/town where I have resided during the past 5 years!
• Apr 11, 2007: I get police clearance from Fairfax, Herndon and Loudoun county since I stayed in all these places during the last 5 years
• Dec 2007: EADs/APs renewed for another year
• Jan-Mar 2008: India trip. We come back on AP. No issues there.
• April 2008: India trip again.. father expires. I come back on AP.
• April 2008: Lawyers file an inquiry since everything is current for me, but no processing is being done. They are told, that the city I had mentioned on the AOS is not the official city for my zip code. (although post office uses it) So that may be why they are delaying my application! But not sure..
• May 8th, 2008: AOS application transfered to National Benefits center for further processing. “The case has been sent for a standard interview”. Apparently, this does not happen to everyone, but I am special!
• May 29th, 2008: An “update” that the case is now pending at National Benefits Center.
• June 16th, 2008: A request for biometrics again since it has been a year since that was done last! The appointment is on June 24th..
• June 24th, 2008: 2nd Biometrics round – Second for my wife, Third for me.
• July 11th, 2008: FBI was unable to process my fingerprints yet again! I am some unique individual for sure! So a fourth appointment for me on July 26th now. I am sure it is of no use. I will need to get a second police clearance after they are unable to process these repeat fingerprints.
• July 21st: I hear from the lawyers that I am supposed to attend the interview at USCIS on Aug 25th. While it is not required for employment based GCs, I somehow got it.
• July 26th: I take my 4th biometrics appointment which I am positive will give the same negative result. Just waiting for USCIS to let me know that I need to get police clearance now!
• Aug 25th: I go for the interview. Everything goes smoothly. They tell me this is because of the fingerprints. The lady officer is very nice and courteous. She tells me I need to get an updated police clearance and if I can get it by 3pm, I will get my passport stamped (which means my Green card will be approved right that day). Bingo! I am almost there! I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel finally. I take the day off, rush to the sheriff’s office all the way, get the police clearance by noon, go back to USCIS by 2:30pm. She is happy, says she has everything she needs, off she goes to get our visa….. comes back after some time and says, – somehow the state department system is not giving her visa numbers – even though they are available for my date! She sends an email and tells us to wait for half an hour to see if she gets a reply.. she is really trying to be helpful. Half an hour later, she comes back and says “no luck”.. not sure what happened but it seems this is not happening today! We will have to wait again.. She was nice enough to say that she will call me if she hears anything. And that’s it…!
• The immigration officer was really nice enough to call me the next day to let me know that they had received a memo that she wasn’t aware of – that the visa numbers for that year had already been used. New ones will be available in October 2008. So another month of wait..
• Oct 1st: Waiting…
• Oct 14th: Drumroll now!! Green card has been approved FINALLY!!! Should get the actual card in a couple of weeks.. so I can now say that I am almost at the end of this story – with just one more update to go.
• Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd, Oct 20th 2008: Green cards arrive in mail! I can officially come out of this long bullet list now..

.. and declare victory! It’s a victory of patience and hope. And believe me, this is not the only such victory in my life so far. Life has taught me the merits of patience time and again. And I just want to say, I think I have learned it fully.. so Life!, if you are reading this from anywhere, let me just say that I don’t need any more lessons