US Government Changes Girl From Australia Into Girl From Austria With A Simple Trick

And the trick is: clerical error.

Published 8 years ago in Facepalm

And the trick is: clerical error.

1
Many people were angry at Putin for these words, but Anna from Australia says he might be right. "Yesterday I heard about this article, and it reminded me of one of my own experiences with the US government. I moved to the US from Australia when I was very young, and I got my first green card when I was in elementary school. Then in March 2015, the end of my first year in college, it came time to renew the card. It finally came just as my second year started, and to my surprise (and anger), there was something wrong."

2
"This is the card I got in the mail in August 2015. Clearly there's been a mistake. I am not from Austria. I had to return this card so it could be replaced with a correct one. Then the saga began. The extension sticker on my old green card expired a couple months later (I actually traveled to/from Australia during this period and had trouble with people at the airport who didn't realise a green card extension was a legitimate thing). After that, I thought I would be fine because the new card was supposed to come soon. But then it didn't. After being kicked out of a GRE examination in summer 2016 because I didn't have the necessary ID, I had to get temporary proof of residence (which, by the way, is a very unofficial looking stamp in my passport). I ended up needing a few of these stamps, since they expired in smaller and smaller intervals, and I didn't have my card yet."

3
" I started having a lot of trouble getting actual information about my case from USCIS, but I ended up having to meet with a lawyer. Then I started pulling out things like "my lawyer says" and "you are legally obligated to", which finally got some action from USCIS. At this point, I found out that basically it was an annoying fix for USCIS to make, and they had just left my file on a stack somewhere for the previous year and a half. They said they would mail me a form for more fingerprints, and by summer the form hadn't arrived. I was about to go back in and ask what was up when suddenly the card (in the picture) showed up in the mail. This whole deal could have been much worse--I had nice enough professors and bosses who understood when I needed to leave class or work to go to Chicago, and I was never in danger of any serious action (though I was still scared of being taken aside or detained whenever I needed to travel). But it was a frustrating pain in the ass, all because the US government really does have trouble telling the difference between Austria and Australia."