On the Green Card Trail, Step 4. Update Yet Again – Our Status as of July 16, 2012

I am repeating my earlier status update, sort of, because we are still waiting. But we are waiting for an appointment now, not to hear about postponement of an appointment, because our lawyer and Congressman’s requests to indefinitely postpone our “marriage interview” appointment until DOMA has been decided by the Supreme Court or Congress was denied.

We are not happy about what happened. But we will go with the process and see what they say after we have the appointment. We think we know what will happen, but I am holding that for later, in the update I will post after we have the meeting. And, maybe we will be surprised at what happens. I don’t want to jinx anything…

So I talked about this with our lawyer, Lavi Soloway, on the air on July 12 with Marilyn Pittman on Out in the Bay on KALW 91.7 in San Francisco. You can listen to that interview at this link:

cpa.ds.npr.org/kalw/audio/2012/07/20120712oitb.mp3

So far, Karin has been processed like any other spouse of a U.S. citizen
who is being sponsored for a green card by her American spouse. She
was fingerprinted to enable USCIS to run a security background check.
She received an Employment Authorization card which is good for one
year, through March 26, 2013. She has been twice scheduled for the
actual green card marriage interview. This will be our third time for a scheduled interview.

Our first scheduled interview was postponed because our lawyer, Lavi
Soloway, was in court on another case in another state at the time of
the scheduled interview. When USCIS San Jose rescheduled that interview
date to June 12, we did not attend because our attorney had filed a
request for rescheduling based on legal developments that had occurred
in related cases and because of developments in late May and early June
2012 relating to the Defense of Marriage Act.

We are still waiting to hear when our appointment will be scheduled.
Our attorney requested that the interview NOT be rescheduled for at least
six months to allow the dust to settle on the various legal issues that
are currently in a state of flux. So we hope San Jose USCIS agrees to that – stay tuned!

We are not alone in our civil disobedience. We are glad for the company! Karin and I are leading a first wave of same-sex binational couples
defiantly demanding our rights as married couples seeking the same right
to apply for immigration for our non-U.S citizen spouses. We have done
this with our attorney Lavi Soloway as part of The DOMA Project’s Stop
the Deportations campaign. We are about six couples, all at the same
stage in the process. Like three couples in New York and another in
southern California, we are waiting to hear about our requests for our
case to be held in abeyance consistent with a request made by 17 United
States Senators in a May 10, 2012 letter to Department of Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama. We are very aware that there are inconsistencies in what the federal government says and how USCIS
carries it out. We know it is inconsistent to deny green cards when DOMA
is called unconstitutional.

So we are fighting back.

We are fighting so that the USCIS will not destroy our marriages.

I am fighting so that Karin and I can stay together.

We are demanding our rights as equals.

We regard the filing of a green card petition and the demand that it
be held in abeyance and not denied to be an act of civil disobedience to
force the federal government to treat us fairly. But on air on June 12, Lavi said that it is brave, a brave act, so now I feel brave, not disobedient!

So I am bravely holding the federal government accountable for discriminating.

I am bravely not just sitting around and letting that happen.

We do not have time left.

We can’t wait.

We are in our retirement, in our golden years.

Every day, every minute is precious to us.

As President Obama told LGBT folks at the third annual White House
Pride event, “We’ve supported efforts in Congress to end the so-called
Defense of Marriage Act, and as we wait for that law to be cast aside,
we’ve stopped defending its constitutionality in the courts.” We are
taking President Obama’s advice when he says prodding has made LGBT
progress possible.

I am bravely doing that!

His quote at the White House event is our mantra:
“Now, I’ve said before that I would never counsel patience; that it
wasn’t right to tell you to be patient any more than it was right for
others to tell women to be patient a century ago, or African-Americans
to be patient a half century ago,” he said. “After decades of inaction
and indifference, you have every reason and right to push, loudly and
forcefully, for equality.”

We agree! We are  bravely pushing, loudly and forcefully, for equality!

We are bravely ready to do what we need to do to make sure we stay together and
are treated equally. I want Karin to have a legal and safe existence
here with me. I want her to be protected by U.S. law like I am. I am
fighting this as a matter of conscience. I am waiting to hear that USCIS
agrees with my three Congressional representatives that Karin and I are
eligible for a green card, just as any other married couple who meets
the criteria is eligible for a green card.

So that’s the update – as of July 16, 2012. It’s stressful. It hurts. It saps us. But we need to keep going, so we put one foot in front of the other and keep marching down that road to equality.

That’s what brave is, I guess. Keep on going. Keep on fighting. Keep on wondering why we have to…

Here’s my regular sign-off…