Immigration ~ A Joke

As of late, there has been a lot of political speech making and hoop-la swirling around immigration in this country. And, too many people want you to think that they are experts on this subject. I guarantee you that I am NOT an expert, but I have gone through the process two times, to bring my wife and teenage step-daughter here from China, and I'm going through it again helping my brother-in-law's wife come here from China. The process is both brutal and very expensive. But, I'll get to the process a little later in this piece. First, I want to talk about immigration itself.

Many Americans are opposed to any and all immigration. They just want to close the borders and keep everyone out. Those of you who are among this group are ignorant, paranoid and just plain stupid! This country was built on immigration. We are what we are today because of our ethnic and religious diversity. New people bring with them new ideas, they bring strong family values, they bring determined work ethics and they bring the will to succeed. They bring with them a belief that they need to be in America, and Americans need people like this. They have great respect for education, and make it one of their highest priorities to insure that their children have very good educations. They start businesses that employ other Americans, and that breeds prosperity. And think about this you boneheads, had not one or more of your relatives immigrated to this country in the past, where would YOU be today, if you were even to exist at all?

About the immigration process, believe me when I say that it is nothing like you think! Many people think that it is a relatively quick and painless process. WRONG! First, you have to apply for the immigration of a specific person, for a specific reason. There are different types of immigration, it is not a one size fits all process. There are work visas, education visas, asylum visas and visas for relatives. Believe me, there are more types. The spousal visa is the one that I have some familiarity with because I brought my wife and daughter here on this type of visa. And the first thing you have to do is get online and get the government forms for your petition to bring someone into this country.

Getting the forms is but half of the battle, you have to get the instructions required to complete the forms and file the petition. CHA -CHING$$$. This will cost you money, sorry. It was at this point that I made my first major decision. I looked at the forms, began to fill them out, and immediately got bogged down in the instructions, which were to say the least, inconsistent and needlessly complicated, filled with conflicting statements and impossible for an Old Hippie to understand. My decision was to hire an immigration attorney to do this for me. And, that was the right decision! Within a couple of weeks, he had gathered all of the required information from me, and via email, from my wife and daughter, and the petition was ready to be filed. CHA-CHING$$$, another government fee, an expensive fee. So, I went to the post office, bought the required postal money orders, and sent everything to the government. And, by everything, I mean everything! I sent not only the petition, but three years of tax returns, copies of my birth certificate, my wife's and my daughter's birth certificates, my previous wife's death certificate, the divorce papers from my first marriage, the divorce papers from my new wife's first marriage, copies of all of our passports, and certified copies of the Chinese police reports of my wife and daughter. This package was getting pretty big by this point, but I was on my way!

First, the package was sent to Homeland Security. They had to do an investigation on me to make sure that I was who I claimed to be, and that I was not an instrument of evil lurking in the shadows trying to get undesirables into America. I was run through the FBI, CIA, NSA, State and local police databases to look into any criminal record I might have. I was run through the IRS to make sure that I wasn't a tax dodger. My employment history was investigated, my address verified and my military record scrutinized. This part of the process took about five months. But, it was completed, and authorization was given to proceed, so off to the next stop.

Next, the package went to the National Visa Center (NVC). And maybe you guessed it, CHA-CHING$$$, another fee was required. So off to the post office again for more postal money orders. This is where everything began to get screwed up. After NVC had had the package for about four months, the requested that I send them certain documents. Actually, they wanted copies of everything I had already sent to the government. I was nothing less than perplexed. I had sent everything already, where could it have gone? Thankfully, my attorney was prepared for this, and he sent copies of everything to them again. Lesson to any of you that do this, keep lots of copies of EVERYTHING! But after the new copies were received and added to the package, everything waited. Another four months passed until it was once again my turn for processing. Everything simply sat there in cue, waiting my turn. But, after eight months at NVC, the process began to once again move forward. I waited another four months, and then came a letter telling me that it was completed and that it would be forwarded to the State Department, specifically, the American Consulate in Guangzhou, China, and once again, CHA-CHING$$$, more fees and more postal money orders.

Now we were at the last hurdle. I got notification from the American Consulate that they had reviewed the package and would process it in order of receipt. Simply stated, they said we will call you, don't call us! Well, again we waited, another five months! Then we received a letter from the Consulate giving my wife and daughter an appointment for their medical exam and interview at the Consulate offices in Guangzhou. The final leg of the process was in sight. And, along with this letter, was included a list of things she would have to have with her when she appeared. She had to provide proof that we were really a married couple, not married for the purpose of getting her into the US. So, I gathered everything I could to prove we had a husband and wife relationship. I had copies of my flights to China, hotel receipts, ticket stubs to various tourist attractions we visited while I was there, phone records for the past two years, pictures and emails. And, they requested copies of many of the same documents that I had not only sent to them, but sent to them TWICE! But again, thanks to my attorney, all of the required copies were instantly available for me. He knew what to expect, and he was ready in advance. It was a lot of stuff! To keep the package I had to sent to China a reasonable size, I only included 100 emails and 100 pictures. Surely this would show that we were a real couple. How foolish I was!

Everything was going great, however, the interviewer was not satisfied that we had a real marriage, and demanded more proof of a relationship. So I gathered ALL of the emails sent between us, about 1500, and ALL of the pictures of us together, about 700, copies of greeting cards we had sent and pictures of gifts we had exchanged. I sent this to my wife in China, and it was a real whopper of a package! After another one month wait, she was approved and told to come back to Guangzhou and get her visa and entry papers. In all, the process took 28 months, and cost me in excess of $8,000.00. But, it was worth it to me.

As I said in the beginning, I am involved in this process again, helping my brother-in-law bring his wife here from China, and I can tell you that the system has not improved. We need to improve the system and streamline it, not do away with it. We need to make immigration easier, not forbid it. You that complain about immigrants, about them taking the GOOD jobs need to find yourselves a good mirror. If you want the job they have, get better educated, get better qualified, and make yourself more attractive to prospective employers. But, I'm just an Old Hippie. Have A Great Day,

The Old Hippie