5 Matching Annotations
  1. Jun 2015
    1. A bona fide marriage is fine, but that depends on you finding the right person and having your relationship progress according to Homeland Security's timeline.

      Not to mention you may already be married to a non-US citizen.

    2. Needless to say, the episode did not help my career or the firm's business.

      My sympathies here, again, but an overwhelming number of people trapped in this broken immigration system are not young and healthy professionals. Most people aren't missing out on business trips, but on the illness and deaths of their relatives and seeing their children grow up.

    3. My friends say I am precisely the kind of immigrant whom the United States should wish to retain. My friends are kind people, and I am no Albert Einstein or Steve Jobs. But at the risk of being immodest, I should say that my American friends are right on this particular point. I am well-educated. I have contributed economically and otherwise to this country, which I love with the zeal of a convert.

      I disagree with this. I don't think being highly educated is intrinsically more valuable to the US than unskilled farm labor or service work. It's tempting to think you're more valuable to the economy as a professional, but maybe what the US needs is a lot of cheap hands to harvest food.

    4. And any work visa holder who quits or is terminated from a job without immediately finding a new employer who is willing to take on all the trouble of hiring an immigrant quickly loses the visa and is required to leave America.

      This is terrible because it makes us feel we can't make long term investments. The people I know in this situation will not buy a house or make long term plans of any kind.

    5. All of these years I have spent in America, I have spent legally. I have been determined to do everything on the up and up. From college to law school to professional life, from student visa to work visa, I have scrupulously followed every immigration regulation, paid all my taxes, filed all the papers I had to file, and have not so much as received a parking ticket

      This happens to more people than we think, but it's easy to fall in the trap of saying "I've followed the rules, and others who haven't get to stay here", but that's not the case. The system is broken for everyone, whether we follow the rules or not.