Today, I paid a visit to my friendly neighbourhood Department of Homeland Security… where all the instructions are written in Spanish.
The nice lady behind the six-inch bulletproof glass (no, really! They were nice to me! Bizzaro.) took my green card away, and cut it up into pieces. Boo hoo. But they traded me a passport stamp for it, and assured me that I will have a shiny new card by May 18th. (An exact timeline? Further evidence of Bizzaro.) And I was in and out of there in less then half an hour. WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?!?!
Ahem.
Apparently, while the new automated internet appointment system the USCIS is using is *damned* hard to get an appointment with (read: weeks and weeks spent refreshing one’s browser, hoping an empty timeslot will finally appear), it has streamlined things greatly. No more of this “take a number and wait for four-to-six hours” disaster. Also, they’ve changed the picture dimensions AGAIN. From that strange “3/4 with right ear” pose, to plain old passport photos.
So, unless something goes wrong while my new card is being processed — which is quite likely, all things considered — I shall be DONE DONE DONE with the immigration headache for a whole ten years. ‘Bout damn time.
I’m keeping my hooves crossed that things go sMOOvely! I don’t have to apply for mine until the beginning of April, but it’s good to be forewarned that some things have changed. I should totally do pink hair for my photo, too :).
Hooray! I fervently hope that nothing goes amiss.