US Immigration Policy 101?

[Mark L]

I'm interested in hearing viewpoints on the Immigration Policy of the US, from the left to the right and all the way in between. However, I must confess to having little knowledge in the area and wish to gain more, so I Googled the topic resulting in 4+ million sites. Where do I start? Can you folks point me to sources of (concise) information that will get me smart enough to engage in reasoned discourse on the subject?

 

[Carol]

That is a very complex subject.

Perhaps a place to start woud be to say that there are two types of visas - immigrant and non-immigrant.

Non-Immigrant Visas are for a fixed amount of time. This includes the H1B for skilled workers, the H4 for dependents of H1 workers, R1 for clerical workers, etc.

Immigrant visas offer a person immigrant status in the US. This includes the I-485 (green card) which establishes legal permanent residency, visas for refugees, asaylees, etc.

Best place to start is with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

If you have a specific question, please post. A friend of mine is a manager at the USCIS...I may be able to get an answer.

http://uscis.gov

A bit of trivia - any athlete that medals in the Olympics qualifies to apply for a U.S. Green Card. Same with any Nobel prize winner.

 

[mrhnau]

Its a pain. My wife had applied for a green card before we got married and wound up waiting forever (3 years no word). we are now applying through marriage. So, if you have specific questions, I might be able to help a little bit. Worked with them a good bit...

 

[mrhnau]

Rereading your question, you are asking for an opinion. So here it is

From my wifes perspective, its been a huge pain. Its exceedingly expensive and time consuming. If you hire a lawyer its even more so. Things can move at an absolute crawl. INS lost her paperwork once and she had to do everything over again, at her own expense. Her lawyer submitted her paperwork one day late and she had to do everything over again at her own expense. She waited three years (it normally takes one) and never heard back from them. We tried contacting INS but its almost impossible to get someone on the phone. We contacted all of our senators and congressmen and they did not do anything or reply to our inquiries. It just seems like they are a low priority...

She got really upset at the way Bush treated Mexicans w/ their status. There are alot of very honest immigrants who got here -legally- often at great expense.

The favoring of certain individuals seems quite annoying... you are a doctor, nurse or an athlete and you get fast-tracked. My wife teached special ed, but I guess thats not as important as someone who can throw a baseball or skate really well. go figure...

that being said, its difficult to filter out people, since so many people want to come in... it would be very nice to have a responsive organization and system that does not favor the lawbreakers (read Mexicans here). There has been lotteries, which to me seems a bit fairer, but being unlucky can be just as miserable...