Little green card opening closed doors

A little green card the size of an Oklahoma driver’s license is opening the door to a new life for Juvy Ferguson.

The card represents an opportunity to search for employment and get a driver’s license, something that her neighbors and friends in Broken Arrow friends take for granted.

Without the green card Juvy, wife of Broken Arrow Ledger Editor John Ferguson and trained as a teacher in her native Philippines, cannot even consider looking for a job. She majored in English and literature in college.

Juvy would like to return to a full-time position in the classroom, but knows she must earn additional college credits to be certified to teach in Oklahoma. That is in the future. She hopes she might qualify as a substitute teacher.

Juvy Ferguson received that precious card April 19 at the Philippine Embassy in Chicago.

The Ferguson’s happily flew to the windy city where it took 15 minutes for it to be given to her.

“Now I can learn to drive and look for work,” Juvy said. “I love to work with flowers, have worked as a sales person and a money sorter in a Philippine bank.”

“Juvy can make anything grow,” John said, regarding his wife’s gardening skills. “She had a very small plot of land at her home in Manilla, but she got some flower pots and had beautiful flower and herb gardens. Her neighbors would come by her home to get herbs.”

Juvy never learned to drive because the transportation system that included buses and jeepneys provided access to most destinations.

Manilla public transportation system looks like New York, she said.

Looking back over the past three years and before, Juvy and John said their long-distance courtship between Oklahoma and the Philippines was “worth it.”

It also was worth the stacks of paperwork and expense to get the green card that will lead to Juvy’s becoming a U.S. citizen between 2018 and 2020.

The Fergusons were married in Hawaii on May 18, 2012, three days after she arrived and just before her K1 VISA would have expired. Had the VISA expired, Juvy would have been required to return home and start the long process again.

A whirlwind honeymoon in Hawaii and then on to Los Angeles, getting luggage weight down to 50 pounds for each of two suitcases would be one of the lesser challenges ahead.

John never told Juvy about some of the paperwork he filed in 2013 or the number of times he had to resend forms that previously had been filled out.

It was during these periods of frustration that he just kept on going and filling out more forms.

John, even though he is an American citizen, found himself under the investigative spotlight as he filled out even more of the required forms and paid the necessary fees. Those forms eventually would be mailed to Juvy in the Philippines with instructions “not to open the package” as she carried it to Hawaii.

Juvy, meanwhile, had her own challenges as she stood in long lines at the National Statistics Office in Manilla.

A previous security clearance by the National Bureau of Investigation in Manilla eliminated the need for filling out a smilier amount of paperwork.

It turned out that John was more bothered by the extensive amount of forms than Juvy.

When Juvy arrived in Hawaii, the bulky unopened package in hand, she went to the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service office at the airport.

“The USIS officers were kind to me,” she said.

It took about 30 minutes to go through the screening process.

John said one of the funny questions that Juvy was asked was the names of her fiancé’s parents.

“Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson,” she replied.

The immigration officers, looking for first names, stamped her passport anyway.

The green card allows Juvy to travel anywhere in the U.S.

She currently is renewing her passport that allows her to travel abroad.

“Yes, the effort to get the green card was worth it,” Juvy said. “This is the right way to do it and work towards becoming a U.S. citizen.

“When I get that citizenship I won’t have to worry about my green card expiring,” she said.