Playing the Waiting Game...

So, as I’ve mentioned before, Apoorva is from India, and is still an Indian citizen. Since he married me he is eligible for a Green Card, which is basically permission from the US government to live and work in the US. Long story short, because of legalities and logistics, we decided to try to get the Green Card before leaving for India. The problem is that it is taking longer than we had originally thought.

All of the documentation has been in for awhile. We are working with a lawyer, so things are going as smoothly as possible, but working with the government to get anything done always has the possibility to be slow and frustrating. The lawyer had all but promised that we would have the papers we needed by now, but apparently the US Citizen and Immigration Services office slows down considerably in the summer. This has caused Apoorva to ask for a delay in his start date at Johnson & Johnson. While they have allowed a 1 month extension until August 1st, we are not sure they will give him another one if becomes necessary.

Delaying our trip isn’t the frustrating part. It’s actually helpful because we have more time to pack and sell off all the stuff we don’t want to put into storage. It’s the complete and utter uncertainty that’s getting to me. At this point it’s possible that we may not even go at all. Then where will we be? Neither of us had anticipated this, especially considering our lawyer’s optimistic attitude, and therefore have not been looking for jobs in the US. Our lease ends in July, so where we would go after that is uncertain. We have enough savings to cover living expenses for quite awhile, maybe even a year, but we had hoped to spend that on paying off student loans or as a down payment on a house. Not food and shelter...

We really have no idea how to proceed. It is impossible to tell if we will actually get our paperwork in time. I cannot figure out if we should assume that we will and continue to pack and prepare for our trip, or if we should assume the worst and start looking for jobs in the US. Either option has its problems, so I’m left paralyzed by this decision and end up doing nothing at all. Add the feeling of being unproductive to uncertainty and you get a very depressing combination.

We are traveling to Boston tomorrow to speak to someone in the USCIS office, hoping that they will be able to give us some indication as to when, if at all, we will be able to leave. However at this point I will not let myself be too optimistic. Even so I cannot help getting my hopes up whenever I check the mail, only to have my heart fall into the pit of my stomach again as I realize that yet again, there is no news. Whoever said no news is good news is full of shit. I’ll take any news over this waiting game!