I just got fingerprinted!
No, wait! That’s a good thing! I’m applying for citizenship.
And as you can see from my hopeful title – “Part One” – I am assuming that there will be a “Part Two” and so on, eventually leading up to actual citizenship. (If not, you may see a post from me entitled “Preparing for Deportation – Part One”.)
We’ve been in this country 14 years. We have our Green Cards. So, why didn’t we do it sooner?
First of all, the original plan had been to maybe move back to Canada at some point. And we truly do love Canada. But, we realized, maybe not as much as we hate real winters.
Secondly, there was the long and winding road towards actually getting our Green Cards. We had been living here seven years before we even got those.
Another reason, believe it or not, was that our friends kept forgetting that we were foreigners — and so did we. Americans love Canadians, and don’t really consider them to be “real foreigners”. They just treat us like someone from out of state.
But then again, whenever there was an opportunity to vote for something — presidential, state, municipal, even school board – it would suddenly dawn on us that we were mere spectators. And that’s an odd feeling considering how many years of US tax returns we have filed at this point. Even our American kids have told us that they want us to be able to vote in the next presidential election. (I think they assume that they will have the right to tell us who to vote for as well.)
But good lord! The paperwork! We are typical over-scheduled parents, and every time we would think about finding time to sit down and start on the application, something more urgent would come up and we would put it off again. If you think doing a long-form tax return is fun, you would definitely enjoy tackling the INS forms! However, I must admit that I did find the section entitled “Good Moral Character” rather amusing. It’s a series of yes or no questions such as: Have you ever been in jail? Are you a habitual drunkard? (Can you define drunkard please?) Have you ever been a prostitute? (For this question, I was tempted to write a note in the margin about how difficult it is to find part-time work with flexible hours these days, but then thought better of it.)
Stay tuned for Part Two!
Happy Independence Day!!!
