The Citizenshop Chronicles, #8

So yesterday was the fingerprints and photo deal (or, to give it its official name – the biometrics). For some reason, you are not allowed to show your teeth when you get your pic taken. Isn’t that strange? But I have found the INS seems to like their little photo quirks, because for the photos for the green card, your left ear has to be visible. WTF is that all about?

Most of you know about my driving phobia, so I was extremely nervous about finding the offices, especially because it is in a part of Vegas I have never been before (which, frankly, is about 75% of Vegas). But thanks to Mapquest’s neat little trick of being able to click and drag the route to your liking (which in my case is no highways and as few left turns as possible) I managed to map out a fairly me-friendly route (there was a left turn involved but it was at a major intersection so it involved lights). I was fine up until the last street which appeared suddenly and out of nowhere. Thankfully, the car behind me was far away enough that the sudden turn did not cause an issue. The good news is that the interview and test (the next part) take place at the same location so I won’t have to go through a driving nightmare again (no effing clue where the swearing-in ceremony takes place, though).

And I have no idea why this did not occur to me, but they take your fingerprints digitally now. I guess it is just part of my Luddite nature (that and watching way too many police procedurals on TV) but was I expecting ink. I had planned on ink, because I was going to take a picture of my ink-stained fingertips for you to see. So, instead, you are stuck with this, an artist’s rendering: