October 25, 2011: Mike got his residency! (A.K.A. Yay--the government believed that our marriage was actually legit.)

Hooray!  This could have happened earlier, but since Mike had legal status as a student for the last several years, we didn't worrying about moving through all of the paperwork for residency as quickly as we could have.  However, as our graduation approached, we realized we need to make our US living situation a little more permanent.

It's all kind of a long, complicated story, but basically Mike now has most of the same rights that US citizens have, the main exception being voting.  He can apply for citizenship in three years.  However, now he has his "green card" for working and all that jazz (before he could only work on BYU campus as an international student.)

We had heard a bunch of horror stories about the interview that we had to have to basically prove that we are really married.  (The only way Mike was able to get residency in the US is because I was able to "claim him" as my husband.  The vast majority of people who would like to come to the US have NO LEGAL OPTION to do so.  There are a small number of working visas available, but your employer has to pay a bunch of money to "sponsor" you, and this is not a possibility for most people.  BTW, Mike would have liked to have gone back home to Ecuador to live if it was up to him, but I am making him stay here in the US.  :)  So, no he did NOT marry me for a green card, but the government approaches immigration from a "guilty until proven innocent" standpoint in many cases.)

Anyway....!  We had heard horror stories about people getting grilled and asked ridiculous questions like "What side of the bed do you sleep on?" and etc.  We had to prepare this huge binder full of any and all legal documents and evidence that could support our relationship (bank statements showing joint financial assets, insurance cards, licenses, photos with our families, etc.)

However, it turned out that the lady who interviewed us was super nice and friendly.  She didn't ask us any weird questions (I guess it was easier for us because we obviously wouldn't have waited 4 years if we had a fake marriage).  Best experience we ever had with immigration people.  (We had an opposite experience coming back through customs after our honeymoon in Mexico; this lady on a power trip wouldn't let Mike back in with his student visa because she said he had the intent to immigrate but hadn't yet filed to change his status as such.  She went on about how she "had the power to deport" him, but in the end she had to let us go through after her supervisor basically told her she had no grounds to detain us--his student visa was completely valid!  GRRR!!!)

Anyway, in conclusion, this was a happy day for us.  Hooray USA!