The timetable changed dramatically after 9/11... One of the unfortunate aspects of the Bush's Gestapo attitudes (now you will get a CIA background check that can take up to 1/2 a year and if your case worker asks for it too late well then you wait an additional 1/2 year...)

There are standards in place... Yes. Does that mean they are followed? No. Are there ways this is supposed to happen and work out? Yes. Does that mean the procedures are follwed? Again. NO.
The whole thing is that there is really no reason behind some of this stuff they INS wants or the way they do things. Example: I applied for a renewal of my work permit. The BCIS has a policy that you should receicve your work permit within 90 days. 3 months for a rubber stamp.... WOW. Yet, they are too incompetent to fall within their own guideline times. I received a request for evidence from these yahoo's to get my work permit after I got my green card....? You explain the logic behind it... I think I have flash backs from 9/11 when they sent Visa's to the terrorists after the guys had blown themself up!

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. [/QUOTE]

You probably never went to any swiss government employee and tried to speak the language of the land (german, italian or french depending on where you are) and the government employee did not understand you as he only spoke one other language (Chances are that they spoke 2-4 languages fluently). I had an INS inspector that either couldn't or refused to speak english! You have always a way to get a hold of a supervisor in european burocracies, at the ins you are at the mercy of some guy that didn't get his coffee fix for the day. It appears that there are no rules that stipulate "if then" paths.
You have to pay to renew work permits, every time you file a paper you pay here, you have to pay to renew your residency etc. etc.

I could have spent more if my petition would have been based on employment rather than my wifes US citizenship, it would have cost me somewhere around 15K, if my wife would have been naturalized, it would have been around 10K and the wait would have been about 6 years.....

How many petitions got lost in your process? How many petitions did you have to submit (and pay for) more than once because they lost it, misplaced it or didn't care to work in the legal limitations set upon by the laws and then their fuck up became your problem?

I wasn't trying to whine about it, I was trying to get a thread started about the ridiculusness of the american bureaucracy...

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You know what? Immigrating to almost any country is a pain in the ass.

I will have to agree that the INS sucks though. They screw up a lot of entry/exit paper processing so sometimes it seems like either you were in the US for too long (for visitors) or you were gone for too long (only matters to resident aliens). When they do fuck up, they'll never admit it. They also had problems with mistreatment of detaineees along the Mexican border, which was brought to light a few years back. There was even a march to complain against the INS in NYC a while back, it was nice to see...

Amnesties are funny too when you take a look at them. It's like, "You MUST prove to us that you lived here illegally between xx/xx/xx and xx/xx/xx and we will give you a shiny new green card!" Do something illegal and be rewarded.

However, the "ridiculousness of the american bureaucracy" in general is nothing compared to the shit I had to do/pay while I lived in France. I lived in other countries also, but I'd have to say that the US is where you have to deal with the least administrative BS.

p.s. Oh, and what's the big deal about the SSN? It's just a an attributed number for employment (taxes) and social security (hee hee), as opposed to other countries where you have to have a personal ID card ith you at all times.

You know what? Immigrating to almost any country is a pain in the ass.

I wouldn't know as I only filed papers in the US. After this ordeal I will gladly not do that again....

Amnesties are funny too when you take a look at them. It's like, "You MUST prove to us that you lived here illegally between xx/xx/xx and xx/xx/xx and we will give you a shiny new green card!" Do something illegal and be rewarded.

My point exactly... It is a slap in the face to anybody that worked his way through the freaking system and did everything by the book (and paid dearly for it).

However, the "ridiculousness of the american bureaucracy" in general is nothing compared to the shit I had to do/pay while I lived in France. I lived in other countries also, but I'd have to say that the US is where you have to deal with the least administrative BS.

I am glad to be German. I didn't have to worry about it in France, the UK and here... ;) The EU is good for something... It costs enough freaking tax money to be part of it.

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This is untrue. There are means that makes it easier than everywhere else...
First condition is to have Swiss friends who help you. It also depends on the canton, on the country you are originating from and somehow on how deep are your pockets (later not always true).
To become Swiss you must have lived there for 10 years and may have to pass some exams depending on the canton.
The most funny thing about becoming Swiss is that your birth is moved to the city where you got your Swiss citizenship on all your Swiss papers. I have 2 French friends which parents moved to Switzerland (to pay less taxes and to give more to their children as France is even worst when it comes to inheritance) and they are Swiss now born in Switzerland.

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From SR

I heard it is is difficult for Canadians to move to the US as for Europeans from the EU. Living in France for many years, I can have a job whenever I ask for in LA (CA).
Problem is I may not pay fewer taxes and living in LA is not cheap. I don't pay the taxes the French do and I got rid of the French social system which nearly doubles my income compared to a French, but my status may change if I keep living in France (more than 10 cumulative years may be enough). This is especially true about taxes since there are EU laws to protect me against the French laws regarding their Social Security. However I don't want to move from France only because of taxes but because things have gotten worse every year I have spent in this country and the effects are noticeable now in very basic areas of life and people having become rude and soured like nowhere else.

I am just concerned about what is easier. To go there and make all my papers or make anything possible in France. As I may not work with the same company, I won't get any support in France. I just don't want to cool my heels in crowds of common people from the third world while fixing problems with job and home.
Everybody I asked was unable to give me decent information (like they never thought this could be a problem).

My experience in France : if you work in France and don't want to pay taxes (because you do it in your country) you have to make your papers again every year. This means waiting for hours and days in crowded areas and even outside and with people from Africa and muslims from Asia. They are thousands getting their papers in every prefecture (there are hundreds of such administrations) and official french figures are completely false about immigration and naturalization I can swear. Those are getting 10 year valid papers or French citizenship (automatic after staying legally or not for 2 to 5 years in France) but they have to pay taxes in France. This is not a problem as they will live out of the French Social security payment for unemployed, social rents and for their numerous children. They will also be on a priority list for getting socially assisted flats and even then may still make violent demonstrations organized by associations for immigration (paid by government) to get free of charge flats in the center of Paris (they ask with the mayor of Paris administration support for seizing unoccupied apartments). One of my friends living in Switzerland have found his apartment offically squatted by those (even his things are used by the occupants) and he hasn't even been able to get many of his own papers from his own flat. After having tried by force to get rid of the occupants (originally illegals from Africa), he has been sentenced to stay out of a whole area of Paris around his flat. He escaped being condemned to prison and pay a compensation as he didn't altered any of his own taken things. By the way, for some years now, stealing in France has been renamed BY LAW "dishonest appropriation of property" (for those thinking that the US is the land of PC). This has lead to reconsider the stealing into being a dishonest appropriation but thoughtfully valid as long as one gets his hand on it (it is his property then). One can only ask compensation (restoring being one of the many possibilities) after years of legal proceedings.

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From SR