It's official!

As of two days ago when we held Felix's Permanent Resident ID in our hands it was and is finally official! We can both breathe easily knowing that the biggest hurdles have been overcome. In two years we apply to remove the conditional status then after that it's time for full-fledge citizenship.

We've both been feeling kind of overcome with all the possibilities and it put us in overdrive for trying to make a lot of things happen at once.

First on our list, Felix contacted Sac State to change his residency status since he was admitted for the fall. Guess what? The CSU system goes off the entire year prior to Sept 20th when establishing residency. After further doing our research and lots of vague responses from both Sac State and FAFSA we've figured this out to mean he is NOT eligible for financial aid until next Fall semester. Further digging on my part though has shown that community colleges are much more lenient with their residency standards which takes us to the second item on our list.

Felix can finally do CRC's EMT program like he's been wanting to. He's all signed up to do the American Red Cross' CPR Certification for the Professional Rescuer since it's a prerequisite for the EMT program. He's pretty stoked though I can't get that excited about 9 hours of anything let alone learning how to resuscitate people. He'll probably do the EMT class instead of going to Sac State since we'd be on our own for funding either expenditure. 6 units at $36/unit ($216 total) beats 6 units at $1769 total. Fo'get you, CSU system.

Third... we're working on replacing Felix's Mazda, may it rest in peace. We're buying my niece's Civic which Felix is excited about. Lemme tell you, I am excited too, but spending $3000 was not in my summer plans as I wanted to move to a bigger apartment! Still, it's a fantastic deal and we love the thought of getting a car from a well-known owner. Plus it's nice enough to last for a good long while. The thought of paying for both our auto insurance makes me wanna hit my head on something hard. Felix went and got his permit at DMV this past week and his driving test is coming up. May I please point out that the BEST part of him driving is I can get drunk when we go out and just make him drive? Yep.

Going back to that apartment idea is our number four. I threw the biggest PMS-fueled fit today about how much I hate our tiny apartment and with the anticipation of our huge monthly insurance payments it's looking like we won't be able to afford a better place. Mom has stepped in saying she'll help but I have to quit my job in August to do my senior internship so I still have to look at the money stuff. Big sigh. How much longer until Fall financial aid disbursements, again?

Five although it's probably the biggest is Felix's big job hunt. He's planning on sticking with Crepe for a bit but it would make 1-4 so much easier if he had a better-paying job. We're working on his resume right now. He's applying pretty much everywhere, full time only. Cross your fingers!

So that's where we are for now. Lots going on with only four weeks left in the semester. I'm aiming for those A's again. Gotta get into grad school so all these challenges will just be a strange time to look back on and laugh about.

Where we are in the process

A couple of weeks ago we met with out lawyer again. He forgot how much he said he'd charge us so he knocked his remaining fees down to $1700. Score for us, big boost of good energy for him! Every little bit counts right now.

He collected a lot of our preliminary information so they could start putting our package together. That afternoon we got an e-mail with a questionnaire for each of us, I being the petitioner and Felix the beneficiary. There was a section on each of our forms where we had to list our addresses for the past ten years. We practically ran out of space. He could hardly remember all the addresses and I just couldn't believe how many we each had. It was a nice reminder of what we're working so hard for. 'Home' is a very important goal for both of us.

We have to gather a bunch of documents still. He also needs a $200-400 medical exam. We'll be working on that throughout September. We really wanted to get all of that done in August so we could send our paperwork off in September but it looks like September or very early October is more plausible. So many things to do! We both have to take passport-style photos. I don't know what both of our pictures have to do with him becoming a resident but hey, I'll jump through any hoop at this point.

That's all for now. We're just assembling the package before we send it off to the big scary gov'ment.