Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

I've read many threads here from potential immigrants that end up with "Well, I guess I'll try OZ...". Is it just too difficult to get in (legally anyway:unsure: )? I'm sure we're loosing some good people to other nations. Or are such stringent controls necessary to keep out people out for a lark, or worse?

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

My GC application has been in for 4 years and I have not even got my Labor cert yet.

The new PERM system is alot better so I hear, can get a GC within a year. Knowing what I know now, I would of probably gone to Australia or somewhere else.

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

Such stringent controls are in place because we can barely handle the queues we have now from previous emigrants who have become citizens and are petitioning for their family.

I do hate the fact that we have effectively cut off emigration from Europe. I'd be all for a diversity visa system wherein the citizens of every country save a handful would be eligible (the top three countries would do).

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

I'm asking more about the actual visa requirements, although I understand that the actual bureaucratic process itself is FUBAR.

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

Yes they are. Many thousands of hard-working, intelligent, qualified people move to Aus or NZ/Canada because they can't get into the US or it is such a hassle to deal with the INS.

I have known people request their paperwork back from the INS, tear it up and vow never to set foot here because of the amount of time and hassles they had to put up with from the immi authorities.

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

I think if it were not difficult then the climate would not be so conducive that we'd WANT To come over.

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

You mean there'd be loads of the immigrants that the folk in the UK complain about? :lol:

We already have more.... but I forget, yes, this is a big country with loads of space for everyone so there's no comparison. :rolleyes:

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

Am I alone in thinking the process was not unreasonable? At the time, it seemed like a lot. Now--two weeks off my citizenship interview--it doesn't seem like it was so bad.

Maybe it's like childbirth. I remember that through rose-tinted glasses as a pleasurable experience! But somewhere at the back of my brain, I do know it hurt like bl00dy hell!

;)

Regards
-=-
Scarlett

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

You came in as a spouse.... not everyone is single, and not everyone wants to have to marry just to live and work in a country.

Had you not had a USC spouse you would still be waiting.

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

I think it's hard.
We are here on H1B and H4, going through GC process. The stress caused, is in part, responsible for my feelings of not settling here.
I don't know how it could be made easier or if it should be.

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

I did not come in as a spouse, nor did I marry in order to live and work here, which is what you imply. I came in as a K-1, but I take your point that connection to a USC makes the process simpler. However, like many who are married to USCs, I wasn't longing to live in America. Far from it. I wouldn't have dreamt of even visiting had it not been for my fiance. Living and working here is a result of my being married to someone who just happens to be a USC, but if he'd lived in Spain I would have gone there. Or maybe we'd be in the UK. The original plan was for him to move to England. It was my (English) mum who convinced us to give it a go over here. Having said all that, after four years, I'm happy here, and since my children became USCs by step-parent adoption, it's only natural for me to take the plunge too. This is where I live; this is where I pay taxes, so this is where I should vote.

Barack Obama for President!!!

:)

Regards
-=-
Scarlett

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

Taking a different take on your question, I would say yes it is far more difficult to emigrate to the US than say Canada or Australia. The US does not have general immigration visas for anyone who has a desire to come to the US. You need either a work visa, a relative visa, refugee or asylum qualifications or be one of the lucky citizens from a country eligible to use the lottery system. In Canada, for instance, if you just desire to emigrate there you can apply and if you meet the point system, have the funds for landing, past the medical, you are usually approved. The same I believe is for the Australia.

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

But you were able because of your love interest to a USC to come to the US and subsequently apply for residency and then citizenship. This made your immigration and that of your children very easy in comparison to a say a Brit who has neither the education or work experience or money available for either a work visa or an investment visa. Nor are they able to use the Lottery system. This is what SB was talking about.

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

Scarlett,

I could have phrased things more carefully, but Rete was correct about what I meant: marriage to a USC has meant you and your children have had a far, far easier immigration experience than others -- it isn't even *possible* for most others.

I am in no way implying that you were after a green card to live in the Promised Land ;) , merely commenting about the relative ease of the process. I am glad you feel settled here, I only wish that more people were eligible to immigrate based upon skills assessment as is done in Canada and Australia, or by increasing the number of DV visas and only excluding those born in three countries because they contribute the lion's share of current immigrants though illegal and legal immigration and work-based immigration.

Re: Should it be easier to immigrate to the U.S.?
 

I do feel that the DV lottery system is rather unfair towards the majority of people born in western Europe as they are not allowed to apply.

I also think that a political deal must have been made by one of the Kennedy clan to allow people born in Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) to enter the diversity lottery particularly as those of us born in England, Scotland and Wales are excluded.

It's such a pity that the diversity lottery isn't open to *all* nationalities .....after all, it is supposed to be a lottery! I do know some people who 'won' green cards; an Australian, an Irishman and a Kenyan (who was rather upset that he was only allowed to bring one wife into the USA so he's left one of them behind!).

I can understand why the criteria for eligibility for awarding a visa for residence here (whether temporarily or permanently) is in place......but it's crazy that so many illegals manage to cross into the USA from Mexico in vast numbers every single day.:frown: Of course it's not just Mexicans - they come from places like Ecuador, Honduras, Chile, Peru etc. They blatantly wait on street corners in some towns here in NJ (and I daresay throughout many States) to get picked up to work for contractors as day labourers. The police and immigration authorities are very aware of it (it's regularly reported in the newspapers) but do nothing about it.