Being a U.S. citizen is something that most of us take for granted, but becoming one if you’re not, is a milestone event. Duane Brown was in the front row and ready to celebrate in July when his husband, Pasha, was granted American citizenship. It happened on Pasha’s birthday, and getting to that moment took a lot longer than anyone expected.
In 2017, Pasha came to the U.S. on a Visitor’s Visa after graduation from medical school in Moscow. While that kind of visa is good for a number of years, it limits the length of time you can stay and the frequency of visits. Pasha and Duane already intended for him to make his life here, so the next step was to get him a Resident Visa, aka a Green Card, which is good for ten years and renewable.
They planned to get married and turned to an immigration attorney for guidance on documenting their shared life to make it clear they weren’t doing it strictly for immigration purposes. They were advised to wait until he had filed the required documents with the Department of Immigration and Naturalization. Afterwards they could get married and they did on December 5, 2017, at San Francisco’s City Hall.
With an interview looming for the Green Card, they started collecting. Household receipts, boarding passes, photographs, proofs of joint ownership and more, to prove their legitimacy as a couple. They hauled it all over to their lawyer who whittled it down to a manageable and organized stack that would impress but not intimidate the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization officer who could approve the visa.
The next step would be a joint interview—Duane, of course, played a role as important as Pasha’s. Their attorney expected it would take place about three months after the filing.
Then Covid! Government offices closed and three months turned into three years.
Pasha finally got word that an Immigration interview was scheduled for him and Duane for September 29, 2020. Their attorney did practice interviews with them and the actual interview was very simple and straightforward because they were so well prepared. Pasha got his Green Card, making him a lawful permanent resident, a key step on the way to citizenship. Because of the Covid delay, he was told he could apply for citizenship after three years. Normally it’s five. He waited four.
Now things really got serious. There was a very detailed application form requiring an extensive history and background, and then a tougher verbal interview. Duane drilled Pasha several times a day leading up to it. The content was based on a list of 100 questions about U.S. history, states’ powers vs federal powers, legal holidays, and various laws. Duane said, “I learned a lot!”
On the big day, they went to a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization office for Pasha to have his interview and take the citizenship test. The test took about 20 minutes, he was asked a handful of questions, and that was it. Pasha and another man were called up, he swore allegiance to the United States of America and was sworn in rather unceremoniously as a citizen of the U.S.A.
Seven years after coming to the U.S., Pasha was now an American citizen. And the first thing he did was what every other American citizen should do: register to vote!
Comments