Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Testing Knowledge About Family Members

Do you know what a Stokes unit is? In New York, it's the next phase in the immigration process if a couple flunks an initial interview related to a citizen attempting to get a green card for a spouse. As a recent article demonstrated, these interviews (in theory) help immigration staff assess if a couple is truly married or whether the marriage is a sham to help someone get a green card.

Sorts of questions asked might include: what did a spouse wear at the civil wedding, what are favorite foods or music, what birth control methods are used, who cooks?

A follow-up article looked at a couple that has been married for 17 years but keeps flunking the interviews. That prompted a frightening thought: would our teen and her parents pass a Stokes unit interview after nearly 15 years together? I view us a pretty involved family but I suspect we'd not get some questions right. Some answers might change daily, others we're simply not going to know.

In other words, would the Horton family pass a Stokes unit interview? I'd hope accommodations would be made for parents of teens.

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