BRUNO IS FINALLY A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!! Wow! I’ve been dreaming about this day for almost 6 years now! And Bruno has been thinking about it for over two decades! We’ve been so excited to share our story (well, it’s mostly Bruno’s), and now that we finally can, I don’t even know where to begin!
I guess I’ll start from the very beginning! I’m going to keep this part brief because it’s super personal to his family. Bruno was born in Bolivia. His parents divorced when he was a toddler and his father decided he didn’t want anything to do with him. His mom, with a student visa, moved to the states when Bruno was three. She went to school and graduated from BYU. Bruno’s grandma, who was also divorced, actually came to Utah first and also graduated from BYU. Now, I’m not going to debate this, but I believe that everyone (with a few exceptions) deserves a chance to be here. I still would have loved Bruno and his family just as much if I had found out that they had “jumped the border.” Long story short, everything was fine until 9/11. After that, it became much harder for his family to stay legally. But, by that point, they had already established themselves here, learned a completely new language, had multiple jobs, Bruno was in a good education system, etc… Anyway, because things got complicated after 9/11, Bruno was never able to renew his visa. So, after it expired, he then became known as an “illegal alien.” This is something that has haunted him throughout his life. It wasn’t until a couple years into our marriage that this burden was somewhat lifted.
Fast forward 11 years - to our second date. Bruno told me he had a secret that he needed to be upfront about. With my dating history, I remember thinking, “Great, here we go…” I don’t know what I was expecting to come out of his mouth, but I definitely didn’t expect it to be about his legal status. That night, we spent a great deal of time discussing what it would mean for us as we continued to date and if we were to get married, start a family, etc… Honestly, hearing his family’s story… how they sacrificed EVERYTHING to come here, and hearing how hard they worked to make ends meet and how going through all the trials they had endured up to that point was still better than life in Bolivia… it just made me love him more. NOTHING was ever just handed to Bruno. When I eventually met his mom, grandma, & sister, I remember thinking that they were the most humble people I had ever talked to. Of course I wanted to raise my kids with them around! Haha!
Obviously, Bruno and I got engaged and married less than a year later. By that point, we had told only some of my family and maybe a few friends. It was still a very personal trial and burden for Bruno to carry. He did not marry me for a green card, or else he would have left 3 years ago. ;) Anyway, with me as his sponsor, we were able to start the immigration process shortly after we were officially married. We knew it would be a long road to citizenship. (I’m crying as I write this because I remember our lawyer warning us about the timing of everything and I remember thinking that this day would never come.)
The first step was his work permit. In the past, he had always been able to work without one. He has a social security number and so he never had trouble getting a job. (However, because of E-Verify, nowadays, it would have been a problem.) But, he paid taxes and worked like any other citizen. Obtaining a work permit didn’t take long at all -- probably a couple months at the most.
The next step was his temporary green card. It was called a “conditional marriage” green card. Meaning, he would be given a green card after we could prove that we were legitimately married. I remember this interview being one of the most nerve wracking things I had ever done. Bruno probably felt it even more. We HAD to get it right the first time or it would have turned into a nightmare. Our lawyer gave us a lot of good advice about what to bring. One thing he suggested was to bring photos of us traveling together and photos of me with his family and vice versa. And, of course, wedding photos, mementos, etc… I remember printing pictures of me with Bruno’s mom and sister when we went to San Diego and also pictures of Bruno with my dad in Gettysburg. We brought a picture of all our guests that attended our wedding ceremony. Not to mention, ALL the paperwork under the sun. Our interview went pretty well, but I remember we were both sweating bullets after it was done and they put us in the waiting room and said they’d tell us whether we passed or failed a few minutes later. I was SO glad that our lawyer was there to support us that day and that he advocated for us. It was nice to talk to someone who felt confident that we had done everything right. HOWEVER, I almost screwed us up. I had kept my PA driver’s license, which still had my maiden name. I was selfish in wanting to keep my PA status as long as I could. They questioned us about that and I promised that I would change it the following week. And I did. Anyway, we passed! I think this was the hardest step in the process - at least for me.
A year after that, he was able to apply to have the conditions of the green card removed, so that it would just become an official ten year green card. We had to send in more proof that we were still married. We sent them bills, bank statements, Sammy’s birth certificate, pictures, a rental contract with Bruno’s grandma, etc… Luckily, we didn’t have any issues getting the new card, but we certainly stressed and questioned if it would be enough. (By the way -- they took Bruno’s green card and his work permit today. He was so sad, but we took pictures of them!)
At this point, it just became a LONG waiting game. We couldn’t start the road to citizenship until after Bruno had his official green card for two years. Bruno literally sent in his paperwork as soon as he could to the day. Our poor lawyer was probably annoyed with all the, “is it time yet?” e-mails we sent. Shortly after we submitted his application, he got a letter saying he needed to be fingerprinted, with a specific time and day attached.
By the way, nothing about this process is convenient. At least, that has always been our luck. You have to do things on their time schedule, otherwise the whole process becomes significantly longer. Bruno’s fingerprints were scheduled to take place in June, while we were planning to be in PA to celebrate Sammy’s first birthday. Some people may remember when Bruno had “something come up” and we had to reschedule his flight to PA. (It was the first time Bruno & I had been apart for more than, like, 12 hours since we were married.) Luckily, the fingerprinting was only two or three days later, or something, and we were able to book a flight literally right after his appointment. He had to rush like a madman to get from fingerprinting to the airport. Haha Thankfully, he made it.
After fingerprinting, it became another very long waiting game. We actually weren’t expecting to hear anything about his citizenship test until around February of next year. So, the fact that we got it a lot sooner is a HUGE blessing. We got the letter in July, (so just over a year later), stating that he would take his test & have his interview in August… On Bruno’s FIRST day of teacher training. Remember how I said that nothing in this process has been convenient? HA! What are the odds? (We do count our blessings, though, -- at least it wasn’t on the first day of school for the students.)
SO, Bruno then had to explain to his boss what was going on and why he wouldn’t be able to make it to the first day on the new job. Thankfully, his boss was supportive and understanding. How ironic is it that the TWO things Bruno has been waiting over FIVE years for -- to get citizenship & to start teaching -- BOTH happen on the same day at the same time?! Even though citizenship wasn’t “official” on that day, it was still pretty crazy and that’s why I had to post about it. I honestly didn’t think we’d have so many people wondering what that second milestone was! We have the best of friends. Anyway, I was hoping Bruno would let me tell the world on that day, but he wanted to wait until we were COMPLETELY done with this process. I don’t blame him.
Anyway, this became the fun part. I had a lot of fun quizzing Bruno on the 100 questions they might ask you during the test. They would ask 10 questions and you had to get at least 6 right. (They would stop you as soon as you answered 6 correctly.) There were a couple that Bruno, surprisingly, didn’t know and a LOT that I felt guilty not knowing! When he took his test, he remembers answering the first 6 right. But, he says it was all a blur, so he doesn’t remember any of the specific questions. (He told me which ones they were on that day, but we don’t remember now.) He does remember the sentence they had him write, which was, “The president lives in the white house.” One thing that was kind of annoying is that they have a whole list of paperwork you’re supposed to bring to the interview. We were scrambling as we double and triple checked that he had everything. And then, they didn’t even ask for a SINGLE thing, except the letter that was sent to us about the interview! So annoying, but at least there weren’t any issues. Bruno says he can’t really describe the feeling he felt as he left that building. He passed and now this big dream was REALLY going to come true!!
He was told that he would get his swearing in date about 4-6 weeks after the interview and then his swearing in would be 4-6 weeks after that. His interview was on August 16th and we received the next letter in the mail last Monday, September 10th, saying that his swearing in would be just a week later -- today, the 17th! Everything happened in just a month!! We weren’t expecting this to happen until October, so it was really exciting! Again, it’s not the most convenient since we had to take a day off of work for it, but I think we deserve a day after this crazy journey. ;)
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