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US Immigration on the Easiest Setting

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Re: US Immigration on the Easiest Setting

#41

Post by cs_throwaway »

It is counter-intuitive that the more accomplished you are, the more evidence you need to provide. The part about the child not getting a naturalization certificate even though they are naturalized is very weird -- that should be fixed administratively.

Anyway, I don't think the O-1 / EB-1A is the easiest setting. An even easier setting is to become a tenure-track professor at a reasonable university in a technical field, e.g., computer science. That gives you an H1-B without any drama. An EB-1B green card requires a lot of evidence, but maybe a few pages less than an EB-1A green card.

Finally, getting citizenship is trivial. It's the green card that is hard to get.

Re: US Immigration on the Easiest Setting

#42

Post by rayiner »

PretzelPirate wrote: post #10
rayiner wrote: post #4

[flagged]

> Judging by the numbers, it’s too easy I don't see how the numbers support that claim. What percentage of the population would you like to see made up of immigrants? Would you make immigration harder if the immigrant populating was above 1%? If it got too high, would you start deporting people or forcing native people to have more children?

You want the number to be small enough where the cultural and social impact of immigrants is controlled. We don't want America to become more like India or Bangladesh or places like that, so we need to keep immigration low enough where the native culture overwhelms that of the immigrants.

According to a 2021 Cato survey--which is a pro-immigration outfit--the median response to "how many immigrants should be allowed each year" was 500,000: https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/styles/aside_3x/pu.... If we enforced that number long term, we'd probably end up with a foreign-born population under 5%, as we had in 1970. That seems like an appropriate number to foster cultural homogeneity and a high level of social cohesion.

Re: US Immigration on the Easiest Setting

#43

Post by LasEspuelas »

MrSkelter wrote: post #6

This is not the easiest setting. I became American as a previously British citizen. I had been employed in the UK, by a company in California who wanted to relocate me to the US and did (I was an early H1-B). I then moved to another company after 18 months. Both my first and second companies were applying for my green card and renewing my paperwork as needed for me. Later I stopped working for a US company but still…

What year was this? I also did everything on my own after marrying an American citizen (2010-15) and I didn't have to do anything so extreme!

Re: US Immigration on the Easiest Setting

#45

Post by sillyfluke »

TrackerFF wrote: post #22

It must be said that immigration laws pretty much anywhere are rigid, and enforced equally seriously, so it's not just a US-exclusive thing. Very liberal European countries which the media portrays as "overrun" with immigrants will also throw (and ban) you out if you've done seemingly insignificant errors in your paperwork. WITH THAT SAID, one side-effect of having such extensive laws is that it really depends on how…

>It must be said that immigration laws pretty much anywhere are rigid, and enforced equally seriously, so it's not just a US-exclusive thing

I'm puzzled how you came to this conclusion since its left completely unsubstantiated in your comment. It's not "enforced equally seriously" in the US itself let alone another country. European citizens for one had no fear of being sent to a detention camp or deported speedily prior to the latest Trump adminstration.

Re: US Immigration on the Easiest Setting

#46

Post by cs_throwaway »

astura wrote: post #38

I don't understand the premise of this. The author goes on and on (and on) about how "Americans have no idea how weird and tortuous their immigration system is" but doesn't really give any evidence. I wonder if they ever have spoken to an American? They must have some extremely out of touch social circles. Here in the real world, every American I know knows that the only way for "normal" (non-rich, non-connected, non…

I have always thought of it like this: U.S. citizens have the right to marry and bring home anyone they want. It is not about the immigrant. For example, if you're stationed on a military base on Japan or Germany, you can meet a local girl, fall in love, and bring her back home.

"Chain migration" however is more questionable.

Re: US Immigration on the Easiest Setting

#47

Post by rayiner »

hvb2 wrote: post #32
rayiner wrote: post #4

[flagged]

> Clearly immigration to America isn’t hard. Judging by the numbers, it’s too easy. Just tell me, have you ever gone through it? My guess? You haven't as you would think a little different of how easy it is. And yes, I have.

I didn't have a U.S. passport until I was in high school, despite living in the U.S. since I was five. Lots of my family has gone through the process; I have a cousin going through it right now.

Re: US Immigration on the Easiest Setting

#48

Post by jmyeet »

Like the author, I have a lot of personal experience with this. Going through it basically forces you to become an expert in things don't really want to know anything about.

What stuck out to me is that despite obviously being a smart and educated person and having the help of immigration lawyers, the author has made a mistake. Sepcifically this:

> I checked in with our lawyers and was told that the kid couldn't get her certificate of citizenship until she turned 18

When you apply to be naturalized (N400) then your children become US citizens by operation of law as long as they are in your physical custody and are under 18. The "certificate of citizenship" the author is talking about is called Form N600 and it specifically doesn't require the child to be over 18. Go and read the instructions for it [1].

If you know nothing about this, you might be confused because the author says his daughter has a US passport. Isn't that the same thing? No.

This comes up a lot when US citizens adopt children from outside the US. This essentially causes them to become US citizens (there's a whole process) but some parents fail to go through the application and formally recognize their child as a US citizen.

But how does the child travel internationally before any of this happens? There's an allowance for them to get a US passport even though they may not be US citizens. Weird, huh? Some people mistakenly think just having a US passport is proof of US citizenship but it isn't.

So here's my advice to anyone who has a child when they naturalize or adopts a child from overseas: IMMEDIATELY file an N600 for that child so they have proof they are a US citizen. This can be incredibly difficult and costly to reconstruct later when paperwork may have gone missing.

[1]: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/n-6...

Re: US Immigration on the Easiest Setting

#49

Post by bubblethink »

astura wrote: post #38

I don't understand the premise of this. The author goes on and on (and on) about how "Americans have no idea how weird and tortuous their immigration system is" but doesn't really give any evidence. I wonder if they ever have spoken to an American? They must have some extremely out of touch social circles. Here in the real world, every American I know knows that the only way for "normal" (non-rich, non-connected, non…

The author is mostly correct. A lot of discourse in America revolves around, "Why don't they get come in legally?"

Re: US Immigration on the Easiest Setting

#50

Post by tclancy »

csmpltn wrote: post #34
Apreche wrote: post #27

My family came to the US via Ellis Island. Compared to what people have to do today, their legal path to US citizenship was relatively easy. I see no reason that becoming a citizen today should be any more difficult today than it was in the early 20th century. Open a 21st century equivalent of Ellis Island, and let people become citizens.

Your family had to leave everything behind, risking a weeks-long journey at sea costing them everything they ever had, going into the unknown - at a time where nobody could travel. The US was not as rich, or built, or anything. People today get a 50$ plane ticket and move straight to the Bay Area. You don't see why things need to change?

Buddy, what are you on about? This sounds just like all those welfare queens in Cadillacs GHW Bush was telling us about.
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