Jee Yeun’s green card has finally been approved! The update above from my friends at USCIS indicates the card is in production and soon will be in the mail. And this complicated process should take no more than 30 days to complete.
Now, I can actually start planning my return to Korea. Still some stuff to wrap up here (primarily getting a Social Security number for Jee Yeun and getting my taxes done). And booking our flight to Seoul!
Congratulations! But I’m not sure I understand why there’s all this urgency about the green card if you’re both just planning to return to Korea. Is the Missus eventually going to become an American citizen? If so, doesn’t she have to be a more or less continuous resident of the States to qualify for citizenship? Color me dazed and confused. I await your kind clarification, and apologize if you already explained this elsewhere on the blog. (Feel free to offer a link, and I’ll reread the material, properly chastened.)
No worries, Kevin. The problem was we couldn’t leave the country until the green card was issued. More precisely, if Jee Yeun left without the green card she wouldn’t be able to return and her application for permanent residency would be considered abandoned. So, we’ve been essentially held hostage here.
Jee Yeun does not want to become a U.S. citizen. Based on everything I’ve read, our spending several months of the year out of the country will not impact her permanent residency status. Our plan has always been to live in Korea 6 months a year and the other 6 here. Been stuck here for over a year now which been hard on the both of us, but especially Jee Yeun. Silly girl misses her family and having people to you know, actually talk to in Korean.
Sometime you should take her to Garden Grove.
That’s almost as far as Korea, Keith.
OK.
You have indeed mentioned splitting your time between countries; I just somehow failed to make the proper connection. Sorry about that. I envy that lifestyle, though: having homes in more than one country is something I can only aspire to. In my dreams, I’d split my life three ways: a home in the States, a home in Switzerland (or maybe France), and a home in Korea. Good way to maintain skills in three languages, as well as to bask in three different cultural perspectives.
Yes, but of course my good intentions have not helped me much with language acquisition thus far. For me, splitting time makes me appreciate both countries more. Or it caters to my diminished attention span. One of those.
You may actually be closer to achieving 2/3 of your dream than you think. Once you get those finances stabilized you can spend those long ass breaks from school in the USA or anywhere else you please. Hell, I know a house that is vacant half the time in South Carolina….