Was my marriage a Fraud?(Explaining Immigration process, continued...)

Continued from Did i get married Just to stay in the United States?(Explaining Immigration process)

After few months of waiting we finally received a letter in the mail announcing that our interview is on the 03rd December, we were instructed to appear in person for the interview and bring supporting documents (on top of the documents we already submitted with the main application). I also went to the Homeland Department for a Biometrics exam(background check to see if I’m a runaway South African criminal mastermind😏, which I’m not!  or if I’ve committed any crimes in my stay in the U.S)

My husband and I spent a lot of time trying to gather all the documents we could that shows that our marriage is real. This included a copy of our lease for the house we live in, copy of his pay stubs/pay slips, Copy of his employment contract, Tax documents, medical insurance records that shows I am on his health insurance, Life insurance document, Letters (from our Pastor, my previous employer, my friends, etc. to testify that they are aware of our existing relationship as a married couple). We even included Boarding passes from the months we flew back and forth to our different cities while we were still dating (It was long distance😭).

On top of gathering documents our lawyer gave us 66 potential questions they might ask during the interview. Basically what they want to see is if indeed you are married to each other and live in the same household; you would have common answers to these questions..questions like; Where did you meet?, Who gets up first in the morning, What are your spouse's hobbies, where does your spouse work, what is their favourite food, Does your spouse have any siblings (if so, what are their names), did you have a wedding ceremony, who attended your wedding ceremony, did you go on honeymoon, describe the last holiday you spent together, etc. we had to make sure our answers were similar in all the questions but it was not difficult to do so as we have only been married for 6 months.

The day before the interview we drove to and slept at a hotel near the Department of Homeland security which was about 2 1/2 hours away from our house. We went to the interview the following afternoon expecting a lot of questions but the interviewing officer only asked us "How did y'all meet?", my husband replied and then the officer proceeded to ask us to verify our names, dates of birth and address. Since there was already strong evidence that our marriage was not done for the sake of a greencard our officer didn't waste time.  He asked me Security questions as listed on the pic below (to which I replied "No sir") then he told us that our case was approved. We received my greencard in the mail today. Soli Deo Gloria.

Image obtained from: https://mypathtocitizenship.com

2 lessons I took from this:
1. Always abide by the Law
2. Hire an Immigration Lawyer!!!! (Don’t try to be a hero). Having. Lawyer file on our behalf made our case stronger (perhaps because most immigration lawyers don’t often risk their Licenses in order to help clients with questionable cases....)

I Praise God for the opportunity to be happily married and live in this beautiful country😄

Thanks for coming to my TedX 🙏

Did I get married just to stay in the United States?(Explaining How U.S Immigration works)

About a week ago I posted a status on Facebook announcing that my husband and I passed our marriage interview which makes me a greencard holder/permanent resident of the United States of America. There were many "congratulations" written under the status yet there was one person who commented "No malelwa zwone?" (Is that why you got married?). Even though few weeks before we went to the interview my sister had told me someone we both know had made a similar remark to her saying "your sister got married for citizenship" the comment on Facebook stung even more as I began to realise that there might be more people with similar assumptions, after all growing up in South Africa we often heard stories of illegal immigrants who paid&married their way into South African Residency and some people do it here in the U.S as well. I guess it's not fun when you are the one being accused hence decided to write this blog, not because i'm angry at anyone who has assumptions but just to shed some light on the immigration process I went through.

In May 2018 I entered the U.S on a non-immigrant 1 year visa which I obtained at the Consulate General of USA in Sandton, Johannesburg. This means at the U.S port of entry (John F. Kennedy Airport, New York) the immigration officer interviewed me and I was compliant and showed all the appropriate documentation (they detain you or revoke your visa if they feel you are acting suspiciously). I was allowed to be in the country for only 12 months (in the first few months there were times i'd considered going back to South Africa for good or going somewhere else). Fast forward few months later I met the most amazing man, fell in love, got engaged, planned to wed shortly and that's when the reality of how difficult it is to remain in the country hit me. Few hours after we got engaged we went to a coffee shop to map out our immigration options. We had either the option of filing our own paperwork or to hire a lawyer to do the paperwork for us. My husband saw it best we hire a lawyer, at the time I thought it was too expensive (thank God we were able to afford it, it was the best option).

The Immigration process in the U.S is expensive- it costs a lot of time and money, things that we were willing to spend in order to remain in the same place. Before we got married The Lawyer and her team sent us an online questionnaire for both of us to fill in order for her to fill the forms required by Homeland security. We were engaged for only three weeks and got married the day before my Visa expired which meant our Lawyer had to file our case within 30 days "grace" period (this is an additional month an alien is given to leave the United States without overstaying their visa). If there is one thing that I love about America is that they DON'T PLAY when it comes to their Laws. Overstaying a Visa is a punishable crime which may lead to Jail time, fine, aggressive deportation and a 10 year ban from entering the United States.
Our Lawyer was to file our paperwork within that 30 days. By the time she filed we had already been married for over a month and I was not considered an "illegal immigrant" even though I jokingly referred to myself as one. Spouses of U.S Citizens are considered "immediate relative" of a U.S Citizen and thus have special immigration privileges.
Documents we had to submit with our application:
 1. Proof of financial sponsorship-to show that you are not gonna depend on social grant to live in the country (Garrett was my sponsor, my father-in-Law was a co-sponsor)
2. Original Long form birth certificates (My mother had to go apply for one at Home affairs in Sibasa, Limpopo which took a long time to be issues since the long form birth certificate lists both parents names, dates of birth and places of birth)
3. Photos showing our relationship is legit (we submitted photos documenting our lives as dating&married couple, photos with family members, etc)
4. Copy of my I-94 form which is a document you get online to show dates of your previous entry and re-entry into the U.S. 
5. Multiple forms which our lawyer filled for us
6. Marriage Certificate
7. Sealed medical results; I had to do a full body medical exam with an immigration doctor(You pay for the exam out of your pocket)


After our case was submitted we now had to wait for immigration to issue us a date for our marriage interview (this is where you go to the nearest Homeland security department with your U.S Citizen spouse for an in- person interview, they basically want to see if your marriage is bona fide or a scam).
While we waited for the interview date (which we were told could be anywhere between  6 months to 2 years from the date of filling) it meant during that time I was not allowed to;

1. Leave the country (I'd have to re-Do the application from South Africa which would have taken even longer.... I can't imagine the horror of me and Garrett married&living in different parts of the world). I still can't travel yet without a Travel authorization (which we don't know when it will be issued....please stop asking when are we visiting South Africa?We want to...but we can't yet😢
2. Work. Even though I am a homemaker by choice (see my YouTube video Story time: I am a housewife ) I was not allowed to work without the greencard. 
3. Get an American ID: which meant I couldn't drive anymore (I was able to drive for 12 months prior using an International Driver's permit issued by AA in South Africa, it endorses my South African driver's license for up to a year)

TO BE CONTINUED.......