Renewing the Green Card (started in June)
Ok, well after phone calls (negotiate a log phone tree, get put on hold for 45 minutes while a looping sound plays and periodically a recorded voice breaks in) with employees who gave incorrect information, a rejected application (because the amount stated on the form as the application cost was incorrect), then an application that SEEMED to be accepted - the check had been cashed - but no receipt had been send, then ANOTHER phone call resulting in a woman saying, "They sent it," and me saying, "Maybe they did but I didn't receive it," and more incorrect information given, plus a promise of a receipt, finally the receipt itself arrived. After reading I realised there was no quarter given for physical disability at all, so I emailed SJ and Michael and asked them to scout the location and report back. SJ replied that it would be easy to take the day off work so she could help me and to STOP WORRYING. This morning I left at 8:45 and met SJ up there, and she was wonderul. The experience was awful, horrid, etc. - as I knew it would be. Having ages of crushing anxiety plus then having to spent all day in a Hell-hot room full of terror-stricken people made me almost unable to function at all, but SJ was great. After waiting for a couple of hours we were taken into a room to wait for another length of time. This was the Biometrics-taking room. There were several stations but one was empty until about 1:30 as the operator was (presumably) at lunch. There was a jolly young man, then a woman who seemed somewhat... mmm... uh... well anyway, SJ leaned over and whispered, "I hope you don't get her." We watched while an elderly woman in a wheelchair, unmoving and seemingly out of it entirely, was moved into place by her daughter. When picture-taking time arrived the operator tried to level-up the unmoving woman's tilted head by physically moving it. The head just fell back as it had been. I had that operator next, then we left and I drove home, arriving at 3:45 dying of starvation. I don't wish to relive it any more than that so don't ask me. At least it's over. By the time it rolls around again I'll be dead.