I am Expired Yay!

Last night I suddenly and for no reason thought, "I wonder if my green card is expired." So I checked, and yes -- it expired at the end of August. So even though it was 11 and I was trying to think about sleep, I went back online and looked up what was what about expired green cards.

In the Olden Days the green card was green and didn't expire. You had to register every January at a post office.

If you have green card status you are required by law to carry your green card with you at all times.

The American border people confiscated mine once when I was coming back from Canada, thereby making me guilty of a crime and also unable to leave the country.

I got another card. My purse was stolen. At great expense in money, time, and trips to Seattle, I applied for another card. The (then) INS is a horrible place where no one speaks English (I mean the people who work there) and you have to wait in line all day and they treat you badly because they are overworked and you count for nothing. After I applied I was given a paper that said it would take a year for the card to be issued to me.

Ahead of schedule by two months, the card flew to my mailbox. I decided to leave it at home, which was smart since 6 or 7 years later my wallet was stolen.

The card had an expiration date. It expired in 10 years.

That was 10 years ago.

So now I think -- well, do I care, since there's no way I could go through all that hassle again -- plus my parents are dead, and there's a couple of questions on form i90 I'm not sure of. If I fill it in wrong I lose $130 and have to do it again. If I fill it in right I have to go to the BCIS (formerly INS) and wait all day in a line to be told my photographs aren't right or something. Or maybe they are right and everything goes fine -- but still, why do I care? I'm not going anywhere because I'm too sick... so if I can't go anywhere because of the ms etc. -- which also makes it impossible to go there in the first place -- then why care at all?


Additional Meaningless Note: The brother of Alison ( on Norfolk Island) is Gareth, who is a guitar player. If any people could be referred to as people I grew up with, I'd reckon it would be them. Once a teenaged Gareth was coming back from Canada, having been for a visit to see his mother. He was not allowed in because they said he was trying to evade the draught. He pointed out that he was trying to get in -- their complaint made no sense. His documents were correct and their argument was false. He had to go back to his mother's -- I believe he was able to go to his father's in the USA after a few months, but I don't remember what he had to do.