For the time being, illegal immigration is under the radar, what with W flying to Baghdad and his popularity soaring to the high 30's after bombing and mounting Zarqawi. But the subject will be back with a vengeance soon enough - already the traditional media and the rightwing blogspace (sometimes on the same page, see below) are starting to talk about those wunderkind, the National Guard along the borders.
http://www.ksl.com/...
Lost in this anti-fer'ner frenzy, there are literally tens of thousands of people trying to get in legally, fiances, spouses and partners of Americans, who want nothing more than to join the people they love. And, I can tell you from first hand experience, it ain't easy!
More below. It's a bit wordy, but I encourage you to stick it out and follow the link at the bottom:
First, bragging. My wife is Oxford-educated, speaks 5 languages and has loved this country since her first visit here at the age of 14. Hardly a threat to our president's oft-mentioned freedom.
After meeting a little over 2 years ago, we decided to tie the knot and began the legal process of getting her to the status of a legitimate, wage-earning, taxpaying member in good standing. We have done everything by the book, without a lawyer and with the sole intention of getting married and living together without the fear of instant deportation.
The paperwork load is enormous, just to get the K-1 Fiance Visa, which only allows you to get married in the States and live with your new spouse. This process took 9 months and that is by doing everything according to government requirements. The process included handing over copies of e-mails, personal correspondence, pictures, boarding passes and financial information that proved that we were indeed a legitimate couple. She also had to have a medical exam (blood drawn, redundant vaccinations, chest xray), had to provide a police background check from everywhere she had lived since the age of 16 and had to have an interview at the US Embassy in London.
That was just to get the K-1 visa to get to the US to get married which we were required to do within 90 days of her arrival.
By the way, this was against the advice of a high-priced New York immigration attorney who told us: " Just get married when she's on a tourist visa; we'll take care of it from there."
Beware the shysters - getting married without the paperwork and hoping the Department of Homeland Security will send you good wishes is a very bad idea. You can be charged with visa fraud, DHS can deport you and ban you from re-entering the States for up to 10 years, or at the very least the onus is on you to prove you did not intend to get married when you entered the country. So you'd have to explain your spur-of-the-moment love story to a bureaucrat, who will be looking for evidence of nefarious intent.
At the moment, my wife is actually an 'out of status' legal alien. From the 91st day of entry into the country with the K-1 visa, there is no official designation for what she is. At this point, the "alien spouse" has to apply for a bunch of other stuff.
Since our April wedding we have filed additional applications for:
Adjustment of Status - applying for status a "conditional permanent resident." This is also known as a Green Card.
Employment Authorization
Advanced Parole - the ability to return to the US if she leaves the country before the Adjustment of Status is approved.
A few things here, lest you think: well, it's just paperwork.
First, we are into the thousands of dollars in application fees and we are only half-way through the process.
If her parents get sick or die, or if someone else she knows outside the US dies and she attends the funeral, she may not be allowed back in the States without the Advanced Parole, which we are awaiting.
She is not allowed to work for at least six months. See above - "Oxford educated, speaks 5 languages, loves the US." She's not allowed to work, until the Employment Authorization comes through. We are waiting.
Exactly whose job is she going to steal and why do we prevent her from immediately doing what she can do to join the economy? And wouldn't it be nice to have a job to pay for the application fees?
After getting married, she decided to take my name, adding it to hers with a hyphen, as is fairly common. However, the hyphen has been left out on the applications we sent the government. We included the hyphen but the DHS didn't recognize it. She would really like that hyphen but we don't dare do anything to hold up progress, which would be a very real possibility if we try to correct their mistake.
So she's leaving out the hyphen.
My wife has been fingerprinted-all ten fingers. She has had to sign statements declaring she has never been a member of the Communist party, and that she has not engaged in anti-government activities or been a 'habitual drunkard,' drug abuser, child kidnapper or ethnic cleanser. There are other ones that we are too tired to remember.
If you think these things are exceptional, go to http://visajourney.com/... and read the stories of literally thousands of couples who are faced every day with:
Old, outdated contact numbers, department addresses and forms since DHS took over INS. Much of this information has not been updated.
Federal employees who refuse to process paperwork because they do not have knowledge or training to process paperwork, even when said employees are handed instructions and rules on the process from their own departments website.
Bank employees who will not help legal immigrants open bank accounts because they don't know how to process that request.
Being lumped in with, and associated with, 11 million other people who have entered the country without doing any of the legwork mentioned above.
And we wonder why???
Finally, we're glad we started this process a year ago. People who are beginning it now are facing even more hurdles because of government incompetence:
http://www.cnn.com/...