Since I have gone through the whole immigration process and finally completed it, I want to vent and groan about the way immigration is handled in the US.

First off, a little history... I came to the US in 98 as a student, finished college, got married, had a child and applied for my residency in 2001.

It took until 2004 for these blokes to finally check out that I am a) legal, b) not a terrorist c) married and d) live in this marriage... WOOW almost 3 years to finish this crap.

But then again, my mistake was that I filed in Texas, which traditionally has the most illegal immigrants (right up there with CA) which bogs down the immigration process. I had a friend that from Germany, she applied and got her green card within 3 months... but then again she filed in Minessota (and who wants to live there).
All the while I have been following the news and realized that since 98 there have been 4 amnesties for illegal immigrants! Let me put that into perspective:
I paid over 4000$ for lawyers and fees to the INS and if I would have broken the law from the get go, I would have not had any problems getting a green card???! WTF? The assenine logic is the following: Break the law and you will be rewarded rather than prosecuted?????? You tell me if that makes sense!?

:bird: :gun:

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Were you warned ahead of time how long the process might take?

Texas, California, Florida and New York are probably some of the worst states for trying to gain your citizenship. Montana, Minnesota, and Wyoming are probably some of the fastest. You applied in a state that has a massive population to start with. It also happens to have a big problem with illegal aliens, as you pointed out.

You also weren't forced to do it.

Did it take a long time? Sounds like it did. Did it cost alot? Sounds like it did. Is it worth the trouble you went through??? If your answer to that is "yes", then you really shouldn't complain.

a naturalized citizen (nc) is only 2nd class compared to born us citizens.
1. a nc cannot be elected potus
2. a nc must surrender his fingerprints to the government.
3. a nc must have a SSN.
4. a nc can have his citizenship taken away again.

you may say that things like that are not important and it rarely concerns any nc. still i dont like this inequality as a matter of principle.

Actually... No... but then 9/11 happened and the department of Homeland security took over and they had to rename themselves about 3 times in one year. That took a lot of energy and the customer service level went to shits (not that it was decent to begin with but it did get worse)

I only obtained my permanent residency. I will not become a citizen until the fees and service are adequate and some other criteria are met. Meaning I will not pay an arm, leg and nuttsack to become a citizen when it offers me no benefits compared to my residency (other than that I can vote whoopie).


If I want to live my life with my family, yes I was forced to do all this crap. If you refer to filing in Texas, you may want to go and read the immigration laws. You have to file where you reside!


Is it worth it? Maybe. I am not sure that I will reside in the US forever... for now it was a necessety as I wanted to live my life with my family.
Your conclusion that I am not permitted to complain abuot the pathetic customer service, the ridiculus waiting times, the outlandish fees only because I wanted to be with my family is rather ridiculus.
Maybe you should take a trip to your local INS office and just try and ask a question... then you may understand what I am talking about! You may stand in line for 4 and more hours to pose one question and not get an answer or worse yet, end up with a US government employee that doesn't speak english!
There is a 1-800 number on the website... Try calling it once and work your way through half an hour of prompts until you end up in a que that hangs up on you as the waiting time would be beyond 30 minutes.

Yeah... you have no clue what you are talking about!

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It is probably the same everywhere...a bureaucrat is a bureaucrat is a m*cking bureaucrat...

As a practical matter, even native born citizens need SSNs.

I think you are wrong. Once natuaralized, I don't think the government can strip a person of their citizenship without the person's consent.

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The best daily political cartoons can be found here:

http://www.csmonitor.com/commentary/index.html

What makes you say that?

The only limitation is that you can not become president. Everything is possible.

Any tourist surrenders his/her fingerprints to the government. Every person applying for a work permit in the US surrenders his fingerprints. The German gvt. is also doing this...

Every person in the US must have a SSN for any employment... be that a NC or Native.

Not true. Please show me where you found that myth. Once a citizen, always a citizen.

Welcome to the US. Everything is inequal here. But wait... it is in Germany as well... I suppose every country is having its shortfalls...

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maybe it is practical for you, but native born citizens dont have to have a SSN. there had been some posts regarding this in libertarian fora, also Neil McIver has a nice little website about how life without an ssn is :-)i think i am right, but it has been some years since i had been actively researching immigrationprocedures. from http://omicron.felk.cvut.cz/FAQ/articles/a1833.html

of course, if you serve in a foreign army or commit acts of treason against the usa your citizenship may be revoked in any case, whether born or naturalized american.

I think you missed my point. For starters, someone (your lawyer, for instance) really should have explained the process fully, including the timetable.

Not knowing your family, and not wanting to get too far into personal details, I get a vague impression that your wife is an American. If this is the case, are there not standards in place for marriage and the imigration laws? Forgive me for not knowing. I am an American, and could really care less to spend time reading about imigration laws.

Once again, I think you missed my point. I was not suggesting that you are not permitted to complain. But rather if becoming a permanent resident of the US was important enough to you, then you take the good with the bad. There's really nothing gained by bitching about it.

On the contrary, I think I DO know what I'm talking about. I'm an American citizen. Born and raised there. BUT, I currently live in Switzerland. SO, I've had to go through similar residency issues. Register with the country, then the canton. Had to re-register when we moved out of teporary housing, even though we were in the same canton. We moved from one city to another, and we had to re-register, AND pay a 2nd time.

I'm also only a temporary resident. If my family ends up staying in Switzerland for more than 5 years, your $4,000 price tag will seem like a day at the park!

Have I earned the right to bitch about it? Maybe. Do I choose to? No! Why they hell would I need to? It wouldn't solve anything.

Don't go assuming that just because people don't sympathize with your plight it means that we don't understand what you're going through.

Swiss immigration laws are among the most restrictive...Probably are the most restrictive.