General knowledge of immigration vent

[Strawberrymermaid 347]

One thing I’ve learned about this process is the average American has absolutely no idea how immigration works at all. I admit too, I didn’t have the best understanding either. 

A few of my faves: 

“Why can’t you just marry your fiancé and he come here right away?” 
“Why can’t he just fly to the US to come see you?”

“Isn’t he a citizen the second he gets married to you?”

”If you hire a lawyer, they could get him here faster” 

“You know that he had to live with you and you have to pay for him for 10 years if you get divorced right? 
 

🥴😒

[millefleur 5,050]

  On 8/14/2020 at 6:22 PM, Strawberrymermaid said:

“Isn’t he a citizen the second he gets married to you?”

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This was the most common one I met. Also, once my husband enrolled in a university here, then somehow everyone assumed he was on a student visa. This included my mom sending me messages some months ago saying "Did you hear people on student visas might have to go back to their countries because of the virus?!" and I thought, "Wuh, huh? How is this relevant to me?" and she said "Your husband, he was a student, so he will have to go back!!" The funny part is, he had already graduated by the time she was freaking out over this - and keep in my mind, my mom was the joint sponsor for my husband's spousal visa, lol, and she still has no clue how anything works.

 

  On 8/14/2020 at 6:22 PM, Strawberrymermaid said:

“You know that he had to live with you and you have to pay for him for 10 years if you get divorced right? 

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THAT is a new one....where on Earth did they get that from??

Edited August 14, 2020 by millefleur

[Lucky2Lucky 2,526]

  On 8/14/2020 at 6:22 PM, Strawberrymermaid said:

One thing I’ve learned about this process is the average American has absolutely no idea how immigration works at all. I admit too, I didn’t have the best understanding either. 

A few of my faves: 

“Why can’t you just marry your fiancé and he come here right away?” 
“Why can’t he just fly to the US to come see you?”

“Isn’t he a citizen the second he gets married to you?”

”If you hire a lawyer, they could get him here faster” 

“You know that he had to live with you and you have to pay for him for 10 years if you get divorced right? 
 

🥴😒

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I like “Will/can his family visit you?” No because it’s next to impossible for them to get a tourist visa and costs $160 a pop. Or “well if they’ve been living in the US for xx of years why aren’t they a citizen?”

 

Or What about everything the president spits out of his mouth? Like that the illegals here are bad hombres that hopped over from the Mexico border and a wall would fix that? While ignoring the fact that the majority of undocumented individuals had already been vetted by the US immigration system, were given tourist visas and then overstayed? How a wall prevents this I have no clue 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Her Highness 20]

  On 8/14/2020 at 6:22 PM, Strawberrymermaid said:

One thing I’ve learned about this process is the average American has absolutely no idea how immigration works at all. I admit too, I didn’t have the best understanding either. 

A few of my faves: 

“Why can’t you just marry your fiancé and he come here right away?” 
“Why can’t he just fly to the US to come see you?”

“Isn’t he a citizen the second he gets married to you?”

”If you hire a lawyer, they could get him here faster” 

“You know that he had to live with you and you have to pay for him for 10 years if you get divorced right? 
 

🥴😒

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Mainly because people are generally too lazy to read/research and rely on hearsay. 

[millefleur 5,050]

  On 8/14/2020 at 6:43 PM, Her Highnesd said:

Mainly because people are generally too lazy to read/research and rely on hearsay. 

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I mean, I'm willing to give people the benefit of the doubt here. Immigration law is complicated. It's not like you can just run through a Wikipedia page and become an expert in a few minutes. I think it's more so because despite the US being "a country of immigrants", in reality, a large portion of Americans have never had to deal with immigration in their lifetime and are thus just ignorant about it because of that.

[Her Highness 20]

  On 8/14/2020 at 6:45 PM, millefleur said:

I mean, I'm willing to give people the benefit of the doubt here. Immigration law is complicated. It's not like you can just run through a Wikipedia page and become an expert in a few minutes. I think it's more so because despite the US being "a country of immigrants", in reality, a large portion of Americans have never had to deal with immigration in their lifetime and are thus just ignorant about it because of that.

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How is immigration law complicated unless one has a complicated case to begin? It only gets complicated for people who go in blindly, again, without reading/researching on what they are getting into. One can successfully go through the process by following the guidelines and instructions on USCIS and travel state unless of course they can't, which is a different case all together. I mean, even VJ has DIY guides for straight forward cases. Ignorance is never an excuse, not especially in this day and age of vast resources

[millefleur 5,050]

  On 8/14/2020 at 7:30 PM, Her Highnesd said:

How is immigration law complicated unless one has a complicated case to begin? It only gets complicated for people who go in blindly, again, without reading/researching on what they are getting into. One can successfully go through the process by following the guidelines and instructions on USCIS and travel state unless of course they can't, which is a different case all together. I mean, even VJ has DIY guides for straight forward cases. Ignorance is never an excuse, not especially in this day and age of vast resources

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I think you misunderstood what I was referring to. Sure, if someone has to do immigration for themselves or a family member, being ignorant about the process makes no sense and indeed would be very odd if they just kept being ignorant about it despite it impacting their personal life. I was referring more to the OP's suggestion that the general masses, who have never done immigration personally, are very unaware of basic immigration law and that's understandable because it's not exactly straightforward. Straightforward would be what they think happens, i.e you marry someone and they get citizenship/a green card.

 

Obviously a word like "complicated" is relative, but for me, I would say the spousal visa process is complicated. It involved way more paperwork than I expected, that's for sure. I also didn't expect it to be a 2 part process (more like a 3 part process if you add NVC, that's a part I was lucky enough to skip thanks to DCF), thus I can see why an average Joe American who has never had to go through immigration would be surprized by it and think it's very complicated and different from what they imagined.

[Cheburashka34 228]

What I don't understand is Trump's wife is a legal immigrant....

[Her Highness 20]

  On 8/14/2020 at 7:39 PM, millefleur said:

I think you misunderstood what I was referring to. Sure, if someone has to do immigration for themselves or a family member, being ignorant about the process makes no sense and indeed would be very odd if they just kept being ignorant about it despite it impacting their personal life. I was referring more to the OP's suggestion that the general masses, who have never done immigration personally, are very unaware of basic immigration law and that's understandable because it's not exactly straightforward. Straightforward would be what they think happens, i.e you marry someone and they get citizenship/a green card.

 

Obviously a word like "complicated" is relative, but for me, I would say the spousal visa process is complicated. It involved way more paperwork than I expected, that's for sure. I also didn't expect it to be a 2 part process (more like a 3 part process if you add NVC, that's a part I was lucky enough to skip thanks to DCF), thus I can see why an average Joe American who has never had to go through immigration would be surprized by it and think it's very complicated and different from what they imagined.

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Gotcha! It takes one going through the process to know the intricacies. Being on the outside looking in makes it look simple and straightforward.

Government and paperwork seem to be synonymous but hopefully more paperwork will go online with time.

[retheem 568]

  On 8/14/2020 at 6:22 PM, Strawberrymermaid said:

One thing I’ve learned about this process is the average American has absolutely no idea how immigration works at all. I admit too, I didn’t have the best understanding either. 

A few of my faves: 

“Why can’t you just marry your fiancé and he come here right away?” 
“Why can’t he just fly to the US to come see you?”

“Isn’t he a citizen the second he gets married to you?”

”If you hire a lawyer, they could get him here faster” 

“You know that he had to live with you and you have to pay for him for 10 years if you get divorced right? 
 

🥴😒

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Weuh, that's true. Or "why didn't you come with him?"

  On 8/14/2020 at 7:52 PM, Her Highnesd said:

Gotcha! It takes one going through the process to know the intricacies. Being on the outside looking in makes it look simple and straightforward.

Government and paperwork seem to be synonymous but hopefully more paperwork will go online with time.

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Some of us you know the problems we have grown up with, it forces you to learn the intricacies too fast and too hard

[Mollie09 1,543]

My favorites:

"You've lived in the US for 8 years? Two more and you're a citizen!" (huh?) <- this was a (now former) manager

"Your work visa was canceled the moment you got married, you're a citizen now" <- THIS WAS AN HR PERSON trying to help me fill out my I-9

Edited August 14, 2020 by Mollie09

[8bithearts 104]

I have had it loads both in the UK and the USA. 

Most people think you get married and you are both instantly citizens in both countries and can just go and live there.

[mushroomspore 3,044]

  On 8/14/2020 at 7:47 PM, Cheburashka34 said:

What I don't understand is Trump's wife is a legal immigrant....

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His first AND current wives both. Current wife also did the whole "chain migration" thing that he was trying to talk up a nonsensical storm about. I think he even said, "People can bring their aunts and uncles and cousins". Uhh no they can't.

 

Another one I've heard very commonly: "Oh since you're Canadian, it should be easier/faster for you." No.

 

Variation on that: "So if you're from <Middle East/Africa/South America/Mexico/poorer parts of Asia>, it's harder to get approved for the green card." No and thanks for revealing your racist/cultural biases.

 

  On 8/14/2020 at 6:42 PM, Luckycuds said:

Or What about everything the president spits out of his mouth? Like that the illegals here are bad hombres that hopped over from the Mexico border and a wall would fix that? While ignoring the fact that the majority of undocumented individuals had already been vetted by the US immigration system, were given tourist visas and then overstayed? How a wall prevents this I have no clue 🤷🏻‍♀️

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So being Canadian, I've never had to deal with Americans accusing me or my fellow Canucks of being here illegally. Americans don't think of Canadians that way. While the orange man is trying to portray "illegal immigrants" as being a blanket group of Mexican and South American criminals twirling their mustaches and plotting to dismantle the US from the inside, Canadians actually make up a large portion of illegal aliens in the US. Many Canadians overstay, especially tourists who are unaware or purposely ignore their visit limitations, thereby becoming illegal immigrants! Oh the irony.

[Sinead91 251]

I mean, I am in the middle of it and I get those questions a lot but I just laugh. Similarly, I haven’t a clue of how immigration works in my own country, Ireland.

 

cant expect people to magically know the process when their knowledge goes nowhere further than 90 day fiancé.

 

the average American/human also doesn’t understand quantum physics either. It’s not part of their daily life so how should they?

[TBoneTX 46,823]

Let's keep this thread from becoming political, folks... the Current Events forum is for that.

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[Mod hat off]

When people hear "immigration," they default to thinking "illegal immigration," and they not only lack a clue as to the legal process, but they have no idea how dysfunctional the legal system is.