Saturday, December 22, 2007

It's Official....I'm a Permanent Alien!

As many of you may have realised I have a slight non-Maryland accent (no I'm not from West Virginia!) and that's because I haven't always lived on the western side of the pond. Yep, until four years ago Sarah and I lived over in England about 50miles east of London. It was in early 2004 that we relocated to Bowie, Maryland and were in the United States on a three-year employment visa.

We liked Bowie and Maryland so much (or is it just that the UK is just so rainy and grey?) that two years ago we decided to try and stay here permanently as "Permanent Resident Aliens". We took the risky move of selling our house in the UK and bought a property in Bowie, despite not knowing whether or not we would be allowed to stay!

As anyone that has ever dealt with the US Immigration Services, they work to their own beat with no huge sense of urgency. After a long (and expensive!) process over a 26 month period, this past Friday my "Green Card" turned up for an early Christmas present and now we are just waiting for Sarah's to arrive. So what does this mean....well, we are now able to live here permanently for the rest of our lives!

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