Receieved

When I pulled three envelopes from the mailbox bearing the return address of the Home Security Offices I felt a little tight in my chest. My mind turned towards my husbands Green Card and wondered if something had gone wrong with that. Staring at the envelopes I walked numbly back into the house, calling out to Andrew.

"That's the 800-A," he said coming into the dining room, wiping his hands on a dish towel. He leaned over my shoulder to look at the envelopes. I glanced at him as I sat at the table. I laid the mail down but kept those three Home Security envelopes in my hands.

"Is it?" I asked, doubtful and still worried there was a problem with the Green Card. I opened the first of the envelopes and pulled out the letter inside. Quickly I scanned the document but found nothing about the Green Card, instead it was a notice that we had an appointment scheduled for fingerprinting.

Breathing a sigh of relief I reread the document just to be sure it was an appointment notice. Indeed, our I-800A application had been received and we have been scheduled for our fingerprinting on the 25th of September. The relief fades and I find a bit of irritation settling in.

Next month? The end of next month? We've been fingerprinted so many times, and no one ever wants to use another agencies fingerprints. They could save a lot of time and simply make use of those other records.

Not to mention we could have been told weeks ago they'd actually received our application instead of just leaving us to wonder all this time. Even a little postcard saying it was now in the queue for processing would have been nice.

But of course, they say jump and we jump.

Doesn't mean I'm not going to grumble though.