This past weekend I attended a birthday party for a friend. During her toast, she mentioned that she got an early present from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) two days ago! Her permanent residency application had been approved after 6 years. Now she can finally “safely” go back and visit her family in her native country. She can freely look for employment, got to school, get loans, and go about her life. She can forget about the importance of having the greencard now that she has it.

We were all happy for her. We cheered, toasted and moved onto the next conversation. But it made me think about my own application. For the past couple of months every morning (even weekends) the first thing I have been doing is check the status of my case online and see if there has been any change! I am at the very last step right before getting done and every morning I have been disappointed.

I always wonder if the people who work on these files understand how much they mean to the applicants. It’s really hard to phantom the anxiety unless if you had been waiting for it yourself before. Even then, you might not remember how it felt when you didn’t have it. I have heard from many friends who have had their cases approved that once you get it, you forget about it. It doesn’t matter anymore, like it shouldn’t in the first place.

Then I saw the cake! And there was a huge copy of here greencard on the cake. I eagerly took a bit out of my portion wishing to get my own card pretty soon. If the tradition of birthday gifts keeps on, I should expect mine next month:-). Believe me, I even have the champaign bottle ready!