From my research on the internet, there appeared to be 2 avenues to take toward legalization, the K-1 (Fiancee) visa and the Adjustment Of Status process. Because the K-1 visa would have required her to return to her country and would have taken a few months, we figured the adjustment of status would be preferable. It seems to be the way to go if you've managed to get the object of your affections into the country already.
We actually went to the local INS district office to pick up the Adjustment Of Status packet. I hear now that they might mail you this packet if you request it properly, but for us this required tolerating the rude security personnel at their office... and the customary 2-hour wait... and all of that for the 30-second process of picking up a packet of papers! Oh well, the government never changes it seems.
Adjustment Of Status requires that you take the big step of getting married first. For us this required a trip to the courthouse for permission, a trip to the JP to do the deal, and another trip to the courthouse to file the resulting marriage certificate. My fate was sealed! :-)
Most of the papers the INS gives you are related to getting some sort of promise that you're not a welfare case or terrorist. The IRS also gets a hit in, too, with an offensive paper you have to sign promising your life away to them. As an interesting aside, Alys and everyone else I know from Venezuela are positively shocked at the amount of taxes we're paying here. Where it counts, in the pocketbook, we are much more socialist/communist than a lot of places.
The INS wants $455 for your Adjustment Of Status application. They also required that she turn in her passport for some reason (more on this gem later). After tolerating the rude security personnel and the 2-hour wait again, we were done with the 30-second process of handing over the papers, the money, and the passport. They told us we would be contacted about the next step, the appointment for the permission to work, soon. Meanwhile my poor baby was sitting around the house going nuts during the day. She'd much rather be doing something useful.
I think that the appointment was 3 weeks later; I don't remember exactly. Nevertheless, when the day arrived, we went to a different INS installation, where a rude security man made a huge fuss about searching my paper-thin cloth bag which had our papers in it. Meanwhile I was holding my motorcycle helmet to my side; it could easily hold 2-3 automatic pistols. Did the rude security guard bother to check that? Not at all. I think those guys are more interested in feeling powerful than in doing a good job. Oh well, in spite of all of that, we sat politely with a huge crowd of applicants while immigration lawyers sailed in and out ahead of us, getting preferential treatment for some reason. After a reasonable wait (1 hour?) she was called with a group of about 8 people and they all had their pictures taken and received their cards.
The next step is to apply for a social security card. We figured she would be able to apply and immediately receive something paperwork-wise so she could get to work instead of wasting her time sitting around the house. We were pretty disappointed to discover, after the 45-minute wait at the Social Security office, that no receipt of that type was forthcoming, and in fact it would be 10-14 days before anything showed up in the mail. Posters on the wall promised rapid/improved service and all of that. Don't believe them; after about 3 weeks her card showed up in the mail and she was able to get a job shortly thereafter.
We got the pictures and dutifully followed all instructions, paying the $95 application fee (for some reason, a money order was required for this). I will spare you the details about how rude the security personnel were during these visits, except to note that the use of pagers and cell phones is prohibited for some ridiculous reason... and so you have no productive way to pass the time during your by-now-familiar 2-hour waits. By now I am convinced that these fellows generate more hostile acts towards the government than they prevent.
We asked for her passport yet again, since common sense would indicate that is might be necessary for travel, especially now in this post-9/11 era. But we were repeatedly assured that the Advanced Parole papers were all that would ever be required of us. Well, the government wouldn't lie, would it?
We did have trouble with these papers in Houston, although we did make our flight. In Miami we worked around the lack of a passport by flashing our driver's licenses. In Caracas they almost didn't let her into the country, but I think that the fact that she had her Venezuelan ID did the trick; after about 25 minutes they let her go and we were able to spend a nice week there in Venezuela!
Things went so well that we weren't really expecting any trouble leaving the country. After all, it's the U.S. authorities you have to satisfy to enter the U.S., right? But we were stopped by American Airlines security and her lack of a passport questioned intensively. Even though we had a copy of her passport and all of the supposedly-sufficient INS papers, she was not allowed to board the plane. This was on Friday afternoon; I left her there, crying, to face the 2-hour drive back from Caracas to her house while I returned to the good old U.S. of A. to figure out her paperwork problems. It was not the high point of our lives, to say the least. I wasn't that worried about getting the paperwork straightened out; I was more worried about her losing her job, which was waiting for her return on Monday.
When I got back I called American Airlines to talk about her ticket and return. Let me tell you how unimpressed I am with American Airlines now. Maybe it's the post-9/11 money crunch or something, and maybe I just happened to get rude operators when I called them, but they were about as unhelpful as possible. They told us that because she had missed her flight and their personnel in Caracas hadn't written down the reason on her record, we'd have to pay the $100 change fee. I complained that we hadn't had any trouble flying into the country, their personnel were the ones that stopped us from leaving... and then they hadn't made the notation to boot! The operator's scheme for dealing with me must have been to wear me down by putting me on hold repeatedly... and after she did, she came back to notify me that there was nothing to be done about it; we'd pay the $100.
I got to stew about the situation all weekend, and on Monday morning again made the 1-hour drive to the INS offices, tolerated the rude security guy, and got her passport -- without a single bit of objection this time. In fact, I noticed what they wrote in her file: "Passport released to husband for travel purposes." and couldn't help but think that they couldn't care less about the heartache, expense, possible loss of her job, etc. that they had caused us. I was so glad to get the passport in my hot little hands, though, that I just high-tailed it over to Federal Express and had it overnighted to Venezuela. Here I have to note how good an organization Fed Ex is; for $44 my envelope was delivered as promised, and I got to track it all the way there. UPS would probably deliver the same performance, but at a higher price... and they treat their employees like hell.
More joy from American Airlines now. After she had her passport safely in hand, I called them up (Tuesday afternoon) to arrange her return. This time the lady said that we wouldn't get charged the $100 if she spoke with the security fellow and the lead ticket agent over there, and if the security guy would vouch for the fact that she had indeed been denied boarding. This gave me a little bit of hope, and the operator sounded at least sympathetic. However, instead of putting her on a flight for Wednesday morning, taking advantage of the free seats available... she told me that our tickets' fare restrictions dictated that she'd have to wait until Friday to return. I protested that we had been doing everything by the book and I couldn't see why this delay would be imposed upon us when they had free seats the very next morning. But she as adamant; if I paid $720 I could have her back 2 days earlier; if not I could wait until Friday.
Well, we waited... and she made the 2-hour drive to the airport Friday morning... and in spite of everyone vouching for her, she was still charged the $100 ticket change fee. By this time she didn't have much fight left in her and paid it just to get things over with. She was on the plane to Miami!
Because changing planes in Miami involves (1) Immigration, (2) waiting a long time for your baggage to appear on the carousel, (3) Customs, (4) dropping off your baggage again, and (5) finding your departure gate, there is precious little time to waste. For my return flight I had 2 hours to get those things done, and made it to the departure gate with 5 minutes to spare. But my baby was detained in Immigration for some reason, and not told why... and joined a large group of detainees there. Naturally she was worried about missing her flight.
After about a half hour there she asked to use the phone to call me; they wouldn't let her leave and instead grudgingly let her use a phone there. There wasn't much I could do about her being detained and I just told her to call me when she could, if she had time. She was fairly unhappy, and probably with good reason, since her papers were all quite in order.
Apparently my mild-mannered baby had had enough after talking to several of the other detainees, most of which were missing their connecting flights. After watching the INS employees sit at their desks, walk around, and generally talk amongst themselves, she and another Venezuelan woman approached them. The were met by a supervisor who was fairly irate that they should question the speed of the hallowed immigration process. My baby related to the lady that many people were waiting and missing their flights with no noticable action on the part of the government employees... and apparently started a minor revolt on the part of the detainees! The upshot of it all was that suddenly everyone was processed in a surprisingly rapid manner!
With 15 minutes to go until her flight, Alys asked an AA employee what to do next... and the lady suggested that she carry her bag on board, so she could make the flight. My poor baby.... She forgot that her dental instruments were in her bag... you know, those little pokers that they stick inside your mouth, and her drills.... My baby the terrorist was hauled aside and questioned by the police, AA security, airport security, the National Guard.... Of course she missed her flight, and they left her crying there not quite knowing what to do next.
At this point a nice young National Guard man took her under his wing and led her to where she could check her bag and arrange to catch the next flight (6 hours later) to Houston. I would like to thank this unknown fellow for his kindness; I'll bet that as newcomers to the airport security scene, they still have some feelings for the difficulties that people experience while traveling, especially lately.
My baby was returned to me Saturday morning, by the grace of God, tired and frustrated but otherwise intact. Her employers (Drs. Reed and Schwartz, oral surgeons) let her go Wednesday at the close of business, when the pay period ended, but otherwise our lives seem to be getting back to "normal" now. :-)
As far as American Airlines goes... I hear that Continental offers direct service from Houston to Caracas. By now I figure that it's worth whatever it costs!
Alys went to Venezuela for 18 days in December. She flew direct from Houston to Caracas on Continental for $780 and everything went pretty well. The INS guy kept her driver's license when she came back -- probably on purpose, if you ask me -- and she had to go twice for a replacement, but she finally got one. So all's well that ends well.
After mentioning to several people that the INS fellow kept her driver's license, I got a surprising number of replies from people that this had happened to them too! This is against every rule of law, of course, but it happens, and apparently quite often. Meanwhile, the unfortunate arrivals feel lucky just to be admitted into the country, and don't dare question the unfriendly officials. I would suggest making very careful notes about the time, the location, and hopefully the name of the official inspecting you.
Alys got her residency card! There was a checklist of things to do before going there, mainly seeing an INS-approved doctor (who all charge $200 for the privilege, CASH, no checks, no credit cards, no nothing, only CASH, and they're pretty rude about this particular point).
The "interview" wasn't much; they mainly seemed to be curious if we were going on welfare any time soon. Since we're not, it wasn't much trouble.