Green card ---not so green

I am writing this in my Blog so that it will be useful to those who may apply
for U.S.Green Card in future.

My son sponsored me and my wife for Green Card
some time in 2007 before his return to India. We started getting communications
from National Visa Centre,USA, some eight months ago. The extent of
documentation provided and the enormous procedures to be gone through made us
feel frustrated many times.

There are two ways of processing Green Card---one through
consular processing and the second through adjustment of status. The second
alternative is possible only if the Applicant stays in USA. In our case, we
had no

alternative but to go through Consular Processing..Surprisingly , the
National Visa Centre does not ask all the questions at the same. If two
questions are asked in the first communication and if we answered their queries,

they would come up with a fresh set of questions in their next mail. This
surprised me, to say the least. Either, they were alarmist or they were asking
questions just to delay matters. There is also some inconsistency in their
approach. For example, they do not accept the birth date given in the Indian
Passport, but they accept Police Certificate only from the Passport Office. I
was not sure whether they were trusting the Indian Passport Office completely.

In the first place, let me clarify that we did not have birth certificate and
marriage certificate. In our days, children were born in the house and the old
ayah who

delivered the child was given Rs 10/- for her efforts. Likewise, marriages were
not always registered in early seventies.

In their first communication, they The National Visa centre wanted to know
whether the sponsor ( my son)was born through a legal marriage or out of
wedlock.
We forwarded our son!s birth certificate issued by the Corporation Madras, in
which the
names of parents were given along with the
date of birth. Unfortunately, in the column for the child!s name, my son!s name
was not

mentioned. There was only a remark";Name not mentioned". This was not
accepted by US Immigration.. They maintained that the relationship is not
clearly established. To satisfy them, we forwarded a sworn affidavit mentioning
that we were married on 18th February 1970 and that the our son was born out
of proper marriage. We had also enclosed our marriage invitation. The affidavit
was notarised. We thought they had accepted our explanation.

In their second communication, they had asked for Marriage Certificate. In our
times, as mentioned already, marriages were not registered.We went to the
Registrar!s Office
in Bangalore and obtained a Marriage Certificate, duly incorporating our
photographs. The

Registrar mentioned in the certificate that the marriage, solemnised in Feb 1970
,
was now being registered at our request. This Marriage Certificate was accepted
by the National Visa Centre.

In their third communication they had asked for
our birth certificates, as well as Police Certificate from India and Police
Certificate from Singapore. As I had worked for more than five years in
Singapore as Chief Manager of a Nationalised Bank, they wanted Police
Certificate from Singapore. In their letter, they also advised us as to how to
get the Police certificate from Singapore. There are no birth certificates
issued for me and my wife. The birth date mentioned in our Secondary School
Leaving Certificate (SSLC BOOK) was accepted for all purposes in India such as
for issue of Passport, Voter Identity Card as well as for employment purposes.
We sent a communication mentioning this. We also forwarded a Police Certificate
issued by the Commisioner of Police,Bangalore (obtained from them after paying a

bribe of Rs 12,000).We received a communication stating that the Police
Certificate issued by the Commisioner of Police, Bangalore was not acceptable to

them. Instead, they insisted on a Police Certificate from the Passport Office.
They did not realise that the Passport Office also relies on local Police only
for issue of their certificates.

For Singapore Police Certificate, we checked the procedure in the website of
CID,Singapore. We applied for the same with two photographs, copies of Passport
and proof of our stay in Singapore together with employment pass details issued
by Singapore Immigration.. I could not get a letter from UCO Bank, Singapore
about
my stay in Singapore asrelevant records for that period were not available with
them.
Fortunately, I had a character certificate issued by Mr Manmohan Shenoy,
Chairman of the

bank,-- issued to me by him while accepting my resignation from the Bank. In
that letter, he had mentioned about my Singapore experience. The papers were
sent to the address mentioned in the website. There was a requirement of finger

prints to be submitted along with our application to CID,Singapore. We went to
the Finger Print Bureau in Chennai and obtained the finger prints. The Officer,
Mr Jothiramalingam, was extremely helpful.For the first time, I was seeing
a very honest government servant. My daughter-in-law, Vidya!s father helped us a

lot in the matter.

As there was no communication from Singapore Police for a
long time, I telephoned them. I was told that they had not received the papers.
I was told that they had shifted from the address mentioned in the website and
that they were operating from a new address. I then requested my friend Mr
Jayachandran to move the papers from the old building to the new building. He
helped me. Even then, I was surprised when CID,Singapore returned my two drafts
for Singapore Dollars fifty each, mentioning that they were not payable in
Singapore. In fact, the drafts were issued by the ICICI Banki Ltd,Bangalore
drawn on Chase, Singapore. Till to-day, I fail to fathom why they did why they
did. I then requested Mr Jayachandran to pay in person fifty dollars each for
the two applications to CID,Singapore.He not only paid the money, but also,
through his Secretry Sheila, expedited the matter. This ensured, I got the
Police Certificate from Singapore without any further
problems. That Mr Jayachandran is currently the Ambassador of Singapore to
Mauritius must have helped a great deal.

We then applied for Police Certificate to the Regional Passport
Office,Bangalore.We were promised that we
would get the certificate in three weeks time. In reality, we got the same after

two months. The papers were stuck in a Police Statiion, which again was shifting

to a new building.We went to the Police Station personally
and pursued the matter..

8) We sent the Police Reports from Singapore and India to National
Visa Centre along with copies of the first page of our S,S.L.C book together
with affidavits we obtained from my brother-in-law just to satisfy their
requirement regarding date of birth,

9)We received a communication for an Interview with the US Embassy in Chennai on

17th May,2010.

We were also asked to appear for medical check up at the Apollo Heart
Centre,Chennai. In their communication, they once again asked us to establish
that Kaushal is our son at the time of interview. I was wondering for a moment
that whether I should have tattooed on Kaushal!s back";Made by Bala and Anu
with great love and

efforts".He could then show his back lowering his pants,like Amir Khan in
Three Idiots. Fortunately for us,our names were mentioned in the cancelled
Indian Passport of my son. This convinced the Interviewing Official that Kaushal

is fact our son.

10)We spent two days in Apollo Health Centre and obtained the
medical reports to be produced at the time of Interview. As we did not have
vaccination records, we were asked to take vaccination. I was given three
vaccines and my wife,two. I belong to an era when vaccines were free. I was
therefore surprised when they charged Rs 4,600/- for the five vaccines. The
medical tests are aimed at finding out whether the potential immigrant is free
from TB, chest infection and venereal disease.. They take tests for VD and chest

X-ray. When the society has advanced from VD to AIDS, I do no know why they are

taking VD test instead of test for AIDS..

11)We were interviewed by US Embassy in Chennai on 17th May.
Though my son had filed US Federal Tax Returns for the last three years, there
was no Income
Statement attached for the last two years.

This was because of the fact that for the last two years,he had been working in
India. The Official wanted Indian Income Tax returns for the last two years and
an affidavit from my son that he is planning to shift back to USA. He was very
understanding and pleasant.He also asked that when we had visited US already
eight times under Multiple Entry Visa, where was the need for Green Card. I told

him that I wanted to spend the remaining few years of my life with my son,should

he choose to go back. For this purpose, a Green Card will be a better option
since we can stay for longer periods with our son (as against six months in
Multiple Entry Visa). I was not sure whether he was satisfied with my
answer.).

We submitted the papers on 18th May. We received the Passports
after a week without stamping for Green Card. We were informed that since my son

did not qualify under the "domicile" clause
the Embassy would not approve of Green Card.

My son and daughter-in-law returned to USA on 24th September on transfer---my
son to Yahoo,Sunnyvale and my daughter-in-law to Google,Mountainview,California.
We received an affidavit from him stating that his primary residence is now in
USA.
He had also enclosed his appointment letter from Yahoo. We sent the papers to US

Embassy in Chennai on 9th December December
along with our pass-ports. We received the passport with Green Card stamping
within ten days. We may have
to leave for USA within six months.

This then is our Green Card saga.Our experience has been very exasperating to
say the least.

We are not enamoured of living in USA. It is only because of my desire to spend
the last few years of my life with my only son, I went through the whole
process.

The Green Card formalities are not so Green after all.

V.K.Balasubramanian