We saw in an earlier diary today that the IRS is working VERY fast on death benefits. From today's New York Times we learn that ICE is working every bit as fast. It's Monday. The court announced its decisions five days ago. So it comes as no small surprise to read "Gay Married Man in Florida Is Approved for Green Card." This stuff has taken YEARS.
Below the great orange turnstile for more. This is GOOD news.
Here is our couple:
Traian Popov, left, with Julian Marsh, has been approved for a permanent resident visa.
Mr. Popov is Bulgarian, and his husband, Mr. Marsh, is American. The couple lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which tells us that your legal marriage in a state that marries you legally is portable just like the marriages of opposite-sex couples. Mr. Popov and Mr. Marsh were married in New York. (Yes, come to California, PLEASE!!). Their attorney was surprised, it was so fast.
“I thought, ‘Am I reading this wrong?’ ” Mr. Soloway said in an interview on Saturday. Although it was a professional setting, he said, he began to weep with emotion when he realized the significance of the notice.
Touching, touching, touching! It seems as well that the federal agencies were waiting for this and were prepared for the idea it would happen:
For the last two years, the [visa agency, United States Immigration and Citizenship Services] has kept a list of same-sex couples whose green card petitions were denied, the officials said, anticipating that the Supreme Court would eventually weigh in on DOMA. Those denials will now be reversed without couples having to present new applications, if no other issues have arisen. Gay couples with no denials, like Mr. Marsh and Mr. Popov, will move through the system at the same pace as traditional spouses, officials said.
For the last two years!
Want to tell me government is the problem, Teapartiers? HAH! Not for me it isn't.