After 539 days Kristien finally achieved conditional permanent residency status. Her passport is stamped and the green card is in the mail. The I-551 stamp allows her to travel to and from the United States freely. She may also work without explicit authorization from the government.

We arrived at the Department of Homeland Security office 15 minutes before our scheduled appoinment. After waiting in an air conditioned trailer for five minutes Kristien was called. We then went through the security checkpoint and waited another five minutes. Kristien was called again and we proceeded to the immigration officer’s meeting room.

We were first sworn to tell the truth. After briefly scanning over our (huge) stack of submitted documents the officer concluded that everything was in order. What accelerated the process is that Kristien was previously interviewed at the US Embassy in Brussels. On the negative side is that our $170 for the advance parol (travel document) is probably gone. He said the travel document will probably be approved but the passport stamp should override it.

The next and final step is to remove Kristien’s conditional status 90 days before the 2-year expiration date printed on the green card.

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