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I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

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Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#201

Post by mzs »

bane wrote: post #72

I sympathize with the author, the path to a green card is ridiculous. [1] But that's where my sympathies stop. It's not a hidden process either. If staying here matters to you better work tirelessly to put yourself on a path to permanent residency and you better be the one to push it daily or it won't happen. Here we have a highly educated, Ivy Leaguer with a LAW DEGREE , who didn't. But about 500,000 people a year d…

It is very likely that the first time he applied for the lottery he would lose his visa and have to leave the US for an indeterminate period of time. The way it works in practice, people that had another visa before are at a disadvantage in the lottery. It is also not free.

Military service was potentially another route though, but may have been intractable due to circumstances like student loans or military fitness requirements relating to a disability or some such.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#202

Post by Spoom »

bradleyjg wrote: post #178
garethsprice wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When going through the US immigration system, as part of the green card application you need to specify a sponsor who will be responsible for you financially if you hit hardship. As an immigrant, you do not get welfare in the US. Source: US immigrant, did the paperwork.

I've never, ever heard of any Federal, State, or local governmental agency suing a sponsor to enforce an affidavit of support. I'd be interested in knowing if anyone else has.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/obligations-affidavit-su... - This details at least one court case of USCIS enforcing an Affidavit of Support, and was literally the first Google result on which I clicked. They do mention that it's rare, but it happens.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#203

Post by thaumasiotes »

Happydayz wrote: post #102
murbard2 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctors and Lawyers are already protected by the licensing requirements, why would they fear immigrants?

No, you're right. Lawyers are protected by their licensing requirements. However the medical profession does protect itself and is opposed to bringing in many foreign born nurses, medical staff, etc. Lawyers have that nice shield that is the bar exam, but that is also de facto immigration since only ABA accredited schools qualify. So in one sense you're right, the legal profession does not need to lobby against high…

Legal prohibitions on providing law-related services without officially qualifying as a lawyer aren't exactly non-legislative means.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#204

Post by sliverstorm »

zzalpha wrote: post #165
sigzero wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A problem being, if you open the door, you don't control who comes through. I am totally against an open borders policy.

You didn't answer the question. The claim was "countries that are based on a unique language, ethnicity and culture, [immigration] is damaging." Again, I ask the question: damaging in what sense?

If you accept that the language, ethnicity, and culture are valuable parts of that country-

Such a country can assimilate some number of immigrants each year while remaining mostly unchanged. The immigrants learn the language, the culture, and marry into native families.

But as you increase the number of immigrants, the country can no longer assimilate them. They don't all learn the language, they don't know the culture, they form social cliques with other immigrants from the same country. They begin to change the face of the host country.

Personally I've never been thrilled by immigrants who say "Elbonia sucks, let's go to another country that is better and make Little Elbonia".

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#206

Post by fredophile »

pthreads wrote: post #160

I fail to see how your complaint is valid beyond just a personal disappointment and/or frustration. The two main bullet points in your post and my comments are :- 1. When the rest of the world sends America its best and brightest, America says, "Go away" : No country/entity sent you here. You came here of your own volition. You said that you have lived here legally. That means you followed the law. The US immigration…

You've got some flawed logic in your second point. While labor laws say that you must treat workers the same that has no impact on immigration law. If a skilled worker on a visa loses or leaves their job they need to leave the country unless they start a new job in a short time frame. This is a huge burden that citizens and permanent residents do not have.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#207

Post by zzalpha »

danielweber wrote: post #192
zzalpha wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, he actually answered the question elsewhere: cultural dilution. He's afraid these foreigners might somehow pollute or destroy his culture. 'course, when you get right down to it, it's just bald faced xenophobia, dressed up in nationalist rhetoric.

Question: why don't the immigrants just declare themselves Americans wherever in the world they are? Why do they need to cross the border? If the person you are talking about is such a horrible person, and there are so many horrible people like him in America, why do you want more people to be subjected to them?

I don't understand your point.

I never once claimed folks with these extreme xenophobic views represent any kind of majority in any given nation. They're a vocal, often violent minority. Their voices are getting louder these days, but so it goes with squeaky wheels.

I also never once claimed he was American. In fact, if I had to make a guess, I'd say he's a right wing European. But that's just a guess and isn't terribly relevant.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#208

Post by mzs »

aineko wrote: post #141

As a New Zealander going through the US immigration process, this whole post rings extremely true to me. People who have not gone through immigration before have no idea what its like for your entire life to be dictated by the whims of an opaque bureaucratic system. The most frustrating thing about it is that you have essentially no opportunities to better your situation via your own initiative. Don't like your job,…

We had a number of very annoying things happen as well for my parents, me, and my wife. I'm glad things worked-out for you by dumb luck too. People here are always surprised when I tell them our particulars.

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#209

Post by donohoe »

shas3 wrote: post #68

The US legal immigration system is perfectly described by the adjective, Kafkaesque. In terms of the arbitrariness of bureaucracy, it has more in common with what I saw in the socialist days of India and what one reads in books by Solzhenitsyn and Kafka. The iniquities have been discussed repeatedly in popular press, with almost no changes wrought in the process. Many years ago (yes, 2011 was 4 years ago) Newsweek ra…

I had to get finger-printed 3 times because they INS/BCIS/USCIS kept losing my prints - or perhaps the FBI did. I'll never know, and now no longer care

Re: I spent the last 15 years trying to become an American and failed

#210

Post by notNow »

Get married and get this over with very quickly and stop busting our balls with these phony grievances and Holier-Than-Thou attitude and seriously when your employer refuses to sponsor you that speaks volume of your competency and on-the-job performance.

Shower me people with your social engineering downvotes, I'm loving it.

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