Border guard versus green card.

[marie007 1]

Hello Carla and all;

I know that your only about 40 minutes from me. Can't remember where your from tho. I'm from N-B. Ok, for what I can understand and remember at the Montreal interview is that in order to get 10 years, I had to have 10 years married at the interview itself, does that make sense? The date of married is June 16,2007. The interview was on April 22,2009 . The consulate mailed me the visa in May, 2009, so that would not make two years married. POE, was on July 19,2009.The card arrived, which is called the green card, on July 31,2009. Pretty fast, huh! The card says, "permanent resident," card expires on July 19,2011, resident since July 19,2009. Why doesn't the card say Conditional???? On the back of the letter that contained the card it explains that if I am permanent resident, the expiration date does not affect my status, but I am to use Form 1-90 to apply for a new card If I am conditional then apply for removal of conditions 90 days before the card expires. Is it possible that immigration made a mistake and wrote" permanent", on the card? I do have the letter "A" before the numbers.

The passport also has the letter "A" before the number. But, it says CR-1.Dated for July 18,2010, enter on July 19,2009. I am so worried of making a mistake, and Homeland would come a knocking. I tried calling, but it's all machines.

I did all the immigration paper for close to 3 years without a lawyer, so if I got that far, you would think, I could figure this out.

You know Carla and everyone, why can't things be easy and simple? And I remember Catlett's words, he said, "No such thing as two years", it keep ringing in my ears and gives me headaches. I miss Tim Horton coffee.But the weather is amazing, 84 degrees in late August, going to be 88 degrees this Saturday.When this is all done, the immigration part, I don't want to even hear the word "Immigration", for at least 10 years. Thanks to all who responded.

Marie.

[Marilyn. 340]

you have to be married only 2 years not 10 years to get the 10 year card

you would have bee married 2 years at the time you entered the POE.. that is what they go by...

ok oops, yeah you should have gotten the 10 year card ....

Edited August 31, 2009 by Marilyn.

[Danu 19]

Hello Carla and all;

I know that your only about 40 minutes from me. Can't remember where your from tho. I'm from N-B. Ok, for what I can understand and remember at the Montreal interview is that in order to get 10 years, I had to have 10 years married at the interview itself, does that make sense? The date of married is June 16,2007. The interview was on April 22,2009 . The consulate mailed me the visa in May, 2009, so that would not make two years married. POE, was on July 19,2009.The card arrived, which is called the green card, on July 31,2009. Pretty fast, huh! The card says, "permanent resident," card expires on July 19,2011, resident since July 19,2009. Why doesn't the card say Conditional???? On the back of the letter that contained the card it explains that if I am permanent resident, the expiration date does not affect my status, but I am to use Form 1-90 to apply for a new card If I am conditional then apply for removal of conditions 90 days before the card expires. Is it possible that immigration made a mistake and wrote" permanent", on the card? I do have the letter "A" before the numbers.

The passport also has the letter "A" before the number. But, it says CR-1.Dated for July 18,2010, enter on July 19,2009. I am so worried of making a mistake, and Homeland would come a knocking. I tried calling, but it's all machines.

I did all the immigration paper for close to 3 years without a lawyer, so if I got that far, you would think, I could figure this out.

You know Carla and everyone, why can't things be easy and simple? And I remember Catlett's words, he said, "No such thing as two years", it keep ringing in my ears and gives me headaches. I miss Tim Horton coffee.But the weather is amazing, 84 degrees in late August, going to be 88 degrees this Saturday.When this is all done, the immigration part, I don't want to even hear the word "Immigration", for at least 10 years. Thanks to all who responded.

Marie.

As far as I know, the green cards don't say conditional, but they are only given a validity of 2 years (as yours was) at which time you need to apply again to get a 10 year card. You are still a perminant resident. The condition for a 10 year card is that you have remained married to the USC for 2 years, so the cards are the same, its just the time they are valid for is different.

Your A # is your Alien number, which will be part of your life in the states for a long time (not sure if you start going by your citizen number once you do naturalization, but basically its the number assigned only to you, to use to track everything to do with you and immigration)

No matter what Catlett said, he may have been wrong. Border guards are not known to be the best info source for things on immigration. The 2 year card definately does exist. Its what all people who come in on a K1 visa get when they do the AoS process, and then they have to apply for removal of conditions to get their 10 year card. If you had been married over the 2 year mark when you did your PoE they should have done something to get you a 10 year card instead of a 2 year as you would have been entering on an IR-1 instead of CR-1, even though the CR-1 is what was issued in your passport (based on its issuance before your 2 year mark) Thats why Carla recommended making an infopass appointment to make sure that its taken care of properly, eitherwise you will need to do removal of conditions as well.

[Carlawarla 1]

Hello Carla and all;

I know that your only about 40 minutes from me. Can't remember where your from tho. I'm from N-B. Ok, for what I can understand and remember at the Montreal interview is that in order to get 10 years, I had to have 10 years married at the interview itself, does that make sense? The date of married is June 16,2007. The interview was on April 22,2009 . The consulate mailed me the visa in May, 2009, so that would not make two years married. POE, was on July 19,2009.The card arrived, which is called the green card, on July 31,2009. Pretty fast, huh! The card says, "permanent resident," card expires on July 19,2011, resident since July 19,2009. Why doesn't the card say Conditional???? On the back of the letter that contained the card it explains that if I am permanent resident, the expiration date does not affect my status, but I am to use Form 1-90 to apply for a new card If I am conditional then apply for removal of conditions 90 days before the card expires. Is it possible that immigration made a mistake and wrote" permanent", on the card? I do have the letter "A" before the numbers.

The passport also has the letter "A" before the number. But, it says CR-1.Dated for July 18,2010, enter on July 19,2009. I am so worried of making a mistake, and Homeland would come a knocking. I tried calling, but it's all machines.

I did all the immigration paper for close to 3 years without a lawyer, so if I got that far, you would think, I could figure this out.

You know Carla and everyone, why can't things be easy and simple? And I remember Catlett's words, he said, "No such thing as two years", it keep ringing in my ears and gives me headaches. I miss Tim Horton coffee.But the weather is amazing, 84 degrees in late August, going to be 88 degrees this Saturday.When this is all done, the immigration part, I don't want to even hear the word "Immigration", for at least 10 years. Thanks to all who responded.

Marie.

Hi Marie,

Thanks for clarifying things for me. I think you should have gotten a 10 year card, as when you crossed you had been married for 2 years. It's worth looking into. You're not that far from St. Louis at all, and personally, I think you should make an info pass appointment, which you can do on-line and go in person and try to get this straightened out.

I don't live that far from you at all, yes about 40 minutes, I'm in St. Louis. I'd be willing to meet you downtown at the Immigration office even and go with you to the info pass appointment and help you out if you'd like. I think you should do it soon. I'm leaving for Canada for a vacation on the 23rd of September, but if you want to do it say next week, then let me know please and I'll meet you there at the office. PM me if you'd like.

Edited September 1, 2009 by Carlawarla

[S & J 0]

Yup, you totally should have received a 10 year card.

The same thing happened to me - we waited until the day after our second wedding anniversary to cross the border.

You need to fill out the form I-90 (use reason 'd') and provide support for why you should have been given the 10 year card (ie. marriage cert, etc). The instructions are pretty clear.

Trust me, it is worth the effort and will only cost you a bit of time and postage. I think it took them 6 months to get me the new card and I stressed myself out in that time, but once I got the new one it was all worth it!