Well yesterday was the big day. We went to OVIR, the office here that deals with passports and visas and turned in our application for a ten year residency passport. It is not actual citizenship, but the next best thing. You go in with 7 passport photos, 5 xeroxes of the page of your passport with the picture, and $300 cash. An basic form is quickly filled out, after which you then go downstairs for some women to write a timum. Literally it means application, but it is actually a one page handwritten letter something like a college entry essay. It has become so routine that it now consists of about one paragraph, and your input is neither asked for nor probably welcomed. You then pay these women a couple of bucks and head back upstairs where you turn in all your forms and are told to return in exactly two months. Of course you get no reciept for your $300, no proof whatsoever that you were ever there... but remarkably, it is no concern because they will have your passport for you in a couple of months. Whether it is completely ready in 2 months or not remains to be seen. It was a remarkably easy process. Easier even than getting a 3 week tourist visa has been in the past.