After waiting 790 days, it still feels like a dream.
Yes, I'm still American, but I have been told that having a greencard for 1 year is the proof needed that I've indeed "settled down" in China. At that point, I'm supposed to be eligible to apply for citizenship.
The call came in at about 4:20 on Thursday afternoon. My wife told them we would pick it up tomorrow. As soon as she told me what the call was, I said "Let's go!", since the Bureau of Naughty Foreigner Control is open until 5:30.
Pickup was from the same desk where I applied for it (same place as where I've been applying for annual res permit renewals). There was one minor problem. They didn't have the card. After some discussion and a couple of phone calls, the guy who took my application on April 1, 2016 emerged with an envelope.
I'm sad to report that it's not actually green. The newest ones have the same color scheme as the current Chinese national ID cards. One side does have a greenish tinge to it if you hold the card at the correct angle, but my wife's ID card does the same thing. Think I'll find a green tinted slip cover to put it into.
Then came paying the final fee. It was 300 RMB. For res permits there's a bar code and you pay downstairs with a bank card. This puts the payment into the computer system. For some reason, the payment took a QR code for online payments via smartphone. Since my phone is so dumb it qualifies as mentally disabled, my wife paid. Just to make it more complicated, there was some sort of registration needed on her phone so she could display the receipt. This allowed for them to use a phone to take a photo of the receipt on her phone. I thinks the upgraded payment system still needs a little work.
So, here I am getting my green card from the same officer who took my application.