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FlyerInHi.
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July 18, 2014 at 10:15 AM #776841July 18, 2014 at 11:25 AM #776845
all
Participant[quote=Blogstar]
Import her illegally marry her and go to mexico and spend a couple of weeks immigrating her, live happily ever after.[/quote]USCIS redirected resources from processing family based applications to mini-DREAMers over a year ago. That caused a backlog in family based queue. It is taking about a year to process parents/spouses of citizens applications. Bring her on K-1, if you intend to marry her.
Visa waiver has its own risks – the officer at the port of entry is supposed to evaluate the risk of overstaying. A German couple I know was denied entry at LAX back in 2011.
July 18, 2014 at 1:33 PM #776846FlyerInHi
Guest[quote=all] It is taking about a year to process parents/spouses of citizens applications. Bring her on K-1, if you intend to marry her.
[/quote]1 year is not long.
K-1 is fiancée visa. It is the faster way (and will always be) simply because the green card wait time is in country, not because of bureaucracy.
[quote=all]
Visa waiver has its own risks – the officer at the port of entry is supposed to evaluate the risk of overstaying. A German couple I know was denied entry at LAX back in 2011.[/quote]Not a risk,. Visa waiver is for tourism. when you get to point of entry, the officer will ask you questions. If you say you’re coming for work or research or other non-touristic thing, you may be denied. That’s the law. It’s not explained well so people don’t know. Best to say “i’m here to see your beautiful county.”
A couple I know had this situation: wife was going through green card application. They took a vacation to Germany. On the way back, the pregnant wife was denied entry because her answer was “I’m going home with my husband.”
The law is that an immigrant is no longer eligible for visa waiver while an adjustment of status is pending. Furthermore, adjustment application is canceled if the applicant leaves the country while it’s pending. That’s stated on the application form.
The immigration officer took pity on the poor wife and after 1/2 day in detention, allowed her to enter with 7-day parole.
So the guy calls me all panicked. I just read up a little bit and told her to reapply for adjustment. While status adjustment is pending she’s allowed to remain in the country.
They were worried and consulted with a lawyer who wanted $5,000 retainer.
Anyway, I told he guy to read and understand the law. She reapplied, paid another $1,000 fee and now she’s got her green card.
The proper way for the wife to travel while her application was pending was to apply for something called advance parole.
The law makes sense when you know it.
Man, I should go to school and become an immigration lawyer. Something to consider as a retirement job….
July 18, 2014 at 2:47 PM #776854ParticipantBrian,
I am not sure how you can qualify 1 year wait to join your spouse or your child as ‘not long’. The fees are designed to cover the cost of the process and they are frequently increased. So you pay $1K+ in fees, send your paperwork and wait 6-12 months for someone to touch your file because the president decided to appease an interest group and divert resources. It is not long if it is a year of someone else’s life.
July 18, 2014 at 3:32 PM #776857GuestI don’t know how long it used to take before. But it was never short especially in the big coastal cities.
I think background check takes about 3 months. Add to that the application and interview process.
My friend who applied for his wife lives in the Midwest. Except for that one incident he’s happy as a lark since son was born. Never heard him bitch about how long it took. He’s the kind of guy who would say “this is fucked up. They arrest my wife but let the illegals in.” I will ask.
People need to calm down a little and look at it objectively. The law and the process are fair I think. Legal immigration and undocumented immigration are 2 separate tracks which do not meet, except a little within the bureaucracy.
July 19, 2014 at 7:30 AM #776886UCGal
ParticipantThe two illegal immigrants I’ve known personally are both visa overstays.
One is Canadian. He’s been here for about 20 years. He can’t go home to see his family because he wouldn’t be able to return easily. He came as a tourist, met a pretty girl, and stayed. He works under the table jobs.
The other is a british girl. She was girlfriend of a friend of mine. She came on a visit, and stayed… she got nanny jobs (under the table) till she cobbled together enough fake documentation. She’d been in the country 5 years when I met her.
I’ve read that most of the “illegals” are not migrant workers from the southern border, but are actually visa overstays – many white, english speaking, etc. But there isn’t the racist reaction to Canadians and Brits.
July 19, 2014 at 8:15 AM #776887NotCranky
Participant[quote=UCGal]The two illegal immigrants I’ve known personally are both visa overstays.
One is Canadian. He’s been here for about 20 years. He can’t go home to see his family because he wouldn’t be able to return easily. He came as a tourist, met a pretty girl, and stayed. He works under the table jobs.
The other is a british girl. She was girlfriend of a friend of mine. She came on a visit, and stayed… she got nanny jobs (under the table) till she cobbled together enough fake documentation. She’d been in the country 5 years when I met her.
I’ve read that most of the “illegals” are not migrant workers from the southern border, but are actually visa overstays – many white, english speaking, etc. But there isn’t the racist reaction to Canadians and Brits.[/quote]
I have known hundreds of illegal immigrants. Mostly Mexicans but Brazilians have the visa overstay thing figured out, also Argentines, at least going back a few years and into the early 90’s they did , lots and lots of them in San Diego .
July 19, 2014 at 2:46 PM #776893Anonymous
GuestWhat do you mean by “have the visa overstay thing figured out”? Is/was there some specific technique or scam?
July 19, 2014 at 2:48 PM #776894GuestThe visa overstays are a big deal, just as big a the “sneaking” across the border.
From my understanding, that’s why the consular office use statistics and from interviewing applicants try to weed out the potential overstays.
But people from Canada and Britain will come on visa waivers, so they are not screened.
The problem with overstays is getting worse now because, depending on the length of overstay, adjustment of status is no longer possible unless the petitioner returns to his home country to serve out up to a 10-year ban. There is no way to regularize status without a ban.
July 19, 2014 at 3:06 PM #776896Guest[quote=UCGal]But there isn’t the racist reaction to Canadians and Brits.[/quote]
People within that State Department have told me that some of the worse offenders of visa overstays are Eastern Europeans, Irish (before Ireland became a Tiger economy and after the crisis). With the EU, it’s from the poorer countries within the EU.
some decades ago it was Italians, Asians such Taiwanese, Hong Kongers. Now it’s Indonesians, Thais, more Vietnamese. Of course, China is such a big country that undocumented immigrants from China occurred in different social economic waves.
As economies grow, the visa overstay problem becomes less. That’s why the visa waiver program was recently extended to Taiwan and Singapore.
The racial element comes into play more when people don’t look White or their educational and behavioral patters are different and more easily recognizable.
July 19, 2014 at 3:58 PM #776899Participant[quote=deadzone]What do you mean by “have the visa overstay thing figured out”? Is/was there some specific technique or scam?[/quote]
No I don’t know the specifics of the paper work, Some times I knew it was faked, Sometimes I heard of people going home to renew visas but not sure of the details. They got here and stayed here in large numbers , not all through marriage, but a lot that way. Most of them, I know some who struggled economically. I met a good sample of single people got gainful employment in stable positions/ companies others cleaned houses or were nannies and did other under the table work,and went to adult ed/college. Those successes = having it figured out . Even if it were all “legal “, or through marriage, which I know it wasn’t , it would still mean they had it figured out to me.
July 19, 2014 at 4:16 PM #776902Guest[quote=Blogstar][quote=deadzone]What do you mean by “have the visa overstay thing figured out”? Is/was there some specific technique or scam?[/quote]
No I don’t know the specifics of the paper work, Some times I knew it was faked, Sometimes I heard of people going home to renew visas but not sure of the details. They got here and stayed here in large numbers , not all through marriage, but a lot that way. Most of them, I know some who struggled economically. I met a good sample of single people got gainful employment in stable positions/ companies others cleaned houses or were nannies and did other under the table work,and went to adult ed/college. Those successes = having it figured out . Even if it were all “legal “, or through marriage, which I know it wasn’t , it would still mean they had it figured out to me.[/quote]
Realistically, the only way to stay here and get legitimate jobs would be through marriage. But if you are here illegally and get married, I don’t know how your green card would be approved. Are people getting around that somehow?
July 19, 2014 at 7:43 PM #776906Guest[quote=deadzone]Realistically, the only way to stay here and get legitimate jobs would be through marriage. But if you are here illegally and get married, I don’t know how your green card would be approved. Are people getting around that somehow?[/quote]
I did research for someone at one time.
You can no longer regularize status through marriage or other way after a 180 day overstay without serving a ban up to 10 years That means returning to home country to wait out the ban.
There is some flexibility for the consular office to issue a return visa before expiration of the ban but no guarantee. That’s reserved for humanitarian reasons such as children in USA.
I think there is exemption if your overstay began before a certain date (I want to say 2001 but I forgot). In 1996 and there was some reform and a phase in period, if I recall.
I have lots of foreign acquaintances and once they know that you’re not judgmental, they really open up about their problems. Few people are deliberate and thoughtful. They just take it a day at a time.
To answer your question, it used to be possible, but it’s getting harder, so there are plenty of people who stay undocumented for decades, perhaps lifetime.
In the past, say an undocumented immigrant had a child born in USA. That American child after reaching age 18 could sponsor his parents who have potentially overstayed for 2 decades.
Now, the parents have to go back and serve a 10- year ban. The ban has made things worse. The underground population is growing.July 19, 2014 at 7:53 PM #776907ParticipantO.k so this has changed a lot, that’s why I stated the dates of my experience with it in my first post. I still don’t really have a lot of inside scoop for that 90’s time frame though I still have some friends from those circles. I just really didn’t want to know.
At the time Brazil and the U.S. were squabbling a lot over visa requirements. I think Brazil said ,” if we need Visas so do you to visit our country”. I believe since then you needed a Visa to go to Brazil. Maybe there was some political situation that gave some visa overstaying immigrants some official of unofficial latitude. At the time, undocumented Mexicans certainly were not having much trouble living and working in the USA either. Though I know of one guy from Acupulco who was deported. He was in a criminal jail for something first though. Came back and is fine, married with kids now.
July 20, 2014 at 5:44 PM #776925
svelteParticipant[quote=paramount][quote=svelte]
[quote=paramount]
As far as being a nation of immigrants, to an extent that’s true but I would guess that most in the US are not immigrants.
[/quote]Well unless you’re American Indian and if you went back enough generations even then…[/quote]
wrong, wrong, wrong…
Definition of immigrant:
a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.
Sorry, I along with most American’s were born in America.
I’m not an immigrant, period.[/quote]
Oh geez. Let me be more clear for you.
Your ANCESTORS were very likely immigrants who were allowed in. But now that you’re here, let’s keep everyone else out, shall we?
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