Long Time Comin'

So on a recent late January day at the USCIS office in West Philadelphia, only a few blocks from where we lived back in the late 1980's, Amp was sworn in as a US citizen. She was eligible for citizenship about 26 years ago, give or take, on the basis of our 1990 marriage, but for one reason or another never bothered to file the necessary papers and slog through the subsequent bureaucracy to get it done.

She filed the first application (with its large check attached) in March of 2018, and was given an estimated completion date of September 2019, about a year and a half later.

We waited. Filed some additional forms. She went down to the above-mentioned office for an interview and paperwork review in May of 2018. Went for an additional review in late 2018. Was scheduled for her citizenship test (on American government, history and geography) in early January 2019. Passed the test. Was scheduled to come back for the oath-taking later in the month. Did so. And then immediately, on site, registered to vote.

Which I suppose brings us back around to the reason for finally slogging through this process. Having lived in the US since coming to college from overseas in the fall of 1984, the idea of having a voice but not a vote was brought painfully home in 2016.

She missed the 2018 midterms, but that's the last one.

Along with a voice, she now has a vote.