Sense of entitlement vs. legitimate concerns

[JL & ML 20]

Hi all,

 

I recently realized that although the immigration process for us has had its frustrations here and there, it's the reality of how the system works in a country that, in spite of everything, has offered freedom to millions of individuals over the centuries and is considered a very desirable place to live (proof is in the pudding - one million people enter the U.S. each day (barring the stupid pandemic), and millions try to move here permanently each year).

 

Having grown up in Canada, we were always attentive to everything south of the border. Our accent is almost the same as the U.S., we watch the same shows on TV, wear the same clothes; we felt American without realizing it, because on the outside we look and talk the same. And having always lived in big cities in Canada, I have a huge number of friends who are foreign-born immigrants from Europe, Africa, or Latin America. Every now and then, I would hear a foreign-born individual criticize the government, society, or lifestyles in Canada. Sometimes I felt slighted; "If you don't like it here, just go home," I would want to tell the person.

 

When I started visiting my wife-to-be in Michigan, long before we filed our I-129F application, I immediately noticed the underlying assumption behind the sometimes rough attitudes I witnessed when crossing the border: for some DHS agents, everyone is a potential terrorist or drug or people smuggler until there's a reason to believe otherwise. That's understandable: loads of drugs get smuggled into this country all the time, and there is no lack of people out there with very bad intentions, who would love to cause harm to people here (for too many reasons to count). Hence the guilty-until-proven-otherwise approach I'm sure we've all seen.

 

That same approach could also be the reason many frustrating things happen for immigrants and those in the process of immigration. We can't complain, because we're the beneficiaries, and we don't want to bite the hand that feeds us. From the U.S. government's perspective, immigration is a privilege, never a right. Truth is, they are right about that.

 

This forum has been an enormous (I can't stress that enough) help for my wife and I throughout this whole process. If it didn't exist, and if we tried getting all our info from USCIS directly, I don't know if we'd be here right now. We picked VisaJourney as our go-to because we had heard so many stories about people paying thousands of dollars for lawyers, basically to fill out forms for them and look up information they could easily find themselves (we ourselves looked into many lawyers over several months and eventually came to this same conclusion). So we owe VisaJourney a debt of gratitude.

 

I've shared some frustrations on these forums before about the opacity of Citizenship and Immigration Services in the U.S.A., about how difficult it is to reach someone, and again I realize that it's simply a reality of the system and its approach, and that we are immensely fortunate all the same. The other day, chatting with friends after Mass, I caught myself referring cynically to how complicated the immigration process is and how unhelpful USCIS has been, and I realized, "I'm speaking in exactly the same way [such-and-such] did back in Montreal, and he was an immigrant." USCIS has been enormously helpful - the proof is that I am here now, in the U.S., living with my wife, awaiting the next step (biometrics appointment, which will have to be re-scheduled since it was scheduled for December 24). Many people are not so fortunate.

 

Immigration really is a privilege, not a right. Some frustrations are also attributable to the circumstances occasioned by the unnecessary pandemic, not just the way USCIS operates. All this said, people do get frustrated, and they need to voice their concerns and ask for help. This forum is a great place for that.

 

I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts. We all want to live in the United States, for different reasons, and we are grateful for the chance to be here (whether we are already here or hope to be one day). No one deserves to be treated as a criminal (unless they really are) or as a faceless number, even if we do get the impression at times that we are treated as a potential criminal or as a number. It's very human not to react kindly to that sort of thing. If things go ill, do you just sit there and take it, and wait for the next opening (the next appointment, the next flight, the next interview), or do you voice your concern? How do you do so without coming off as a spoiled brat, demanding to be attended to, since it's your God-given right, as a human being born on this planet, to live and work in the United States of America? I would be grateful to hear your opinion and/or of your experience about this balance between these two poles.

[Boiler 45,428]

Entitled

 

Canadians have it really easy.

[JL & ML 20]

Extra note: the other thing about us Canadians is that we tend to be extremely and deplorably apologetic. The word "sorry" is used for "excuse me," to the point where if you bump into someone by mistake, they - the person you bumped into - says "sorry"! This always bothered me about my fellow citizens, and I usually stood out in a crowd as being more boisterous; if a line was not moving forward, because the person at the front of the line was too timid to inquire as to what was going on, I'd be the one either to raise my voice or go ahead and push a little more, and get things moving. Canadians don't complain, often to their own detriment, since often all that's needed to change a situation - a bad landlady, a pending maintenance item, a job poorly done, a service poorly executed - is to bring it up and to insist a little.

 

But now, things are different, as I am not in my home country anymore and don't wish to demand things as a right from a foreign government that has been gracious enough to receive me as an immigrant.

[HRQX 4,145]

43 minutes ago, JL & ML said:

All this said, people do get frustrated, and they need to voice their concerns and ask for help. This forum is a great place for that.

There's also official channels to express concerns; I.e Ombudsman, etc. https://www.dhs.gov/topic/cis-ombudsman/forms/7001 I recently had to use the bolded option below because of a decision that USCIS made on an Advance Parole renewal:

• I am facing or am about to face an immediate adverse action or impact, an emergency or any other type of significant hardship, caused by an action/inaction/delay in processing by USCIS.

• I am facing a problem that was not resolved through the normal processes provided by USCIS.

• I am experiencing a delay with a case that is beyond the anticipated processing time.

• I am incurring or am about to incur significant and unusual costs (including fees for professional representation that are not normally incurred).

• I have received an action or decision that involves clear errors of fact or gross and obvious misapplication of the relevant law by USCIS.

• Other

[JeanneAdil 6,483]

sincerely,  if an American is not pure blood American Indian they are part of the immigration family

use to be easy to cross the border  like my great grandfather who came into Michigan from Canada / not easy money wise as he slaved to have money to come

and then worked the mines in Michigan for years to save for his wife's ticket.

 

I miss the days of hoping across the border (without  a passport) to visit the falls or go to Toronto or for midnight  breakfast after a buffalo football game/ yes things are more difficult now and yes this country looks good to many but we still have our poor,  we still have our homeless,  we still have some misguided people that make it harder to get a visa to even visit here.   And many coming in think the US is so great that life will be easy and find they have to work at menial jobs and live pay check to pay check as they are poorly educated.   We have serious problems with illegal drugs and all the money that we are pouring into the problem seems wasted.

 

and we pay so much more for medical care than some countries that its a shame.

 

What is really a shame is most Americans don't know how well off they are just to have been born here and don't take advantage of the education provided (even a high school degree) 

[Boiler 45,428]

Not that simple re Native Americans.

[betzzymathew 20]

Of course things are never that simple but here is my take on some things. 

 

 

From a USC perspective , 

In this day and age, we have a wait time indicating how much we will wait at the DMV or Starbucks, and we attempt to shave off minutes from that, but come immigration somehow USCIS has left us in a limbo where we wait months or even years without knowing when we will be reunited with spouses. A lot of them do say, if they knew this process would take this long, they would not have gotten married in the first place - which basically boils down to the fact that frustartaion lies with USCIS not providing reasonable estimates. 

My wife doesnt believe Immigration is a privilege , she believes it is a right. Her routine comparison is always the anti inter-racial marriage laws which existed just 50 years back in much of the United States (Loving vs Virginia). The law could have said that inter racial marriage is prohibited, but people / my wife's family fundamentally believed that it was ethically and morally wrong. In the same way, regarding immigration you might believe or the loud noises might say Immigration is a privilege, but not everyone see's that way and with that comes the frustration and complaints which is in a way justified and valid. 

Its the US Citizen whose complaining that immigration in the US is badand since we tout ourselves as the best democracy in the world, voters view matter. I do not see how you can say, Registered Voters should not complain about the very thing which have a right about ?

 

From a Beneficiary perspective, 

 If this is true ->  immigration is a privilege, never a right, then this statement follows -> some have more privileges than the other. 

Most of the complaints or frustrations do stem from other people getting faster treatment compared to the less forunate. Ofcourse, you might always this in the this day and age, where you live is the culprit, but escaping those situations are not as easy as you think. 

Take for example : 

I (India / Canada consulate) had the same I-130 date as X (Swedish consulate). Both were approved on same day, but I am still waiting after 1 year 4 months for an interview, where X got an interview within 2 months, moved to US, started missing home , went back for 4 months, came to US and repeat. 

Is there a sense of entitlement ? Probably not. You are definitely confusing people being frustrated with varied treatments to "sense of entitlement" , which probably I would call out as plain incorrect.

 

 

Personally I think people should do what they feel like. Personally as an immigrant, I do think the problems faced should be voiced out more (either rashly, brutely, softly,... doesnt really matter). If people think we are being a spoiled brat, so be it. If people listening to this and come realize and join the efforts, then good for more people. 

You can always put it as "Its not God-given right, to live and work in the United States, but it is my God-Given right to be with my spouse and that happens to be the United States"

[snowdog 153]

From my perspective as a USC, the system is extremely flawed. I appreciate how hard the agents work on our cases; you're right, lots of folks want in on what this country has to offer! However, I wish the focus could be more on family reunification and less of this "guilty until proven innocent" mentality the U.S. is famous for. In most European countries I would be given the right to reside immediately upon marriage to my husband, and they would conduct the formal immigration process without leaving me separated from my better half. If something didn't check out, they could still always chuck you out of the country. I feel this would be a more humane way to conduct business, especially when children are involved (which luckily they weren't in my particular case).

 

On the flip side, however, I am somewhat grateful for the time we spent apart. It forced us to slow down, appreciate each other more, plan the future, revel in the past, and enjoy the few "present" moments we spent together. When presented with a roadblock in paperwork or processing or USCIS error, we couldn't get angry. The best approach is to just "work the system" to the best of your ability, including using resources like VJ, and remain patient. We will only ever get real immigration reform from electing officials who share our values, not from running down average employees who are just trying to do their jobs.

 

Cheers to love, something I do believe we have a right to, no matter which corner of the world it is found in! But, rights aren't always easily obtained... sometimes you have to walk a long path through a minefield first and take what is yours. ❤️

[Ikhan 49]

OP had their case approved with a visa in hand within 6 months. And they frequently visited their wife-to-be across the border in michigan during the visa journey. Now talking about how it's a privilege not a right. Ha. Ha. Give me and the people who have been waiting 1 year, sometimes 2+ years a break. Some of us have a clean slate, good jobs, no criminal background but still have to wait over a year to be reunited with their children/spouses. The process needs to change! 

 

Immigration might not be a right for couples living together outside of US or people like OP (because they can visit them as often as they like). Immigration should definitely be a right for individuals who live in the US that have a spouse/children in another country. 

[Orangesapples 1,954]

12 minutes ago, Ikhan said:

OP had their case approved with a visa in hand within 6 months. And they frequently visited their wife-to-be across the border in michigan during the visa journey. Now talking about how it's a privilege not a right. Ha. Ha. Give me and the people who have been waiting 1 year, sometimes 2+ years a break. Some of us have a clean slate, good jobs, no criminal background but still have to wait over a year to be reunited with their children/spouses. The process needs to change! 

 

Immigration might not be a right for couples living together outside of US or people like OP (because they can visit them as often as they like). Immigration should definitely be a right for individuals who live in the US that have a spouse/children in another country. 

I agree. Reuniting parents and minor children seems crucial to me. 

[Ontarkie 14,205]

~~Moved to Off topic, form General Immigration Discussion- the topic is asking for opinions and experience~~

[JeanneAdil 6,483]

10 hours ago, snowdog said:

From my perspective as a USC, the system is extremely flawed. I appreciate how hard the agents work on our cases; you're right, lots of folks want in on what this country has to offer! However, I wish the focus could be more on family reunification and less of this "guilty until proven innocent" mentality the U.S. is famous for. In most European countries I would be given the right to reside immediately upon marriage to my husband, and they would conduct the formal immigration process without leaving me separated from my better half. If something didn't check out, they could still always chuck you out of the country. I feel this would be a more humane way to conduct business, especially when children are involved (which luckily they weren't in my particular case).

 

On the flip side, however, I am somewhat grateful for the time we spent apart. It forced us to slow down, appreciate each other more, plan the future, revel in the past, and enjoy the few "present" moments we spent together. When presented with a roadblock in paperwork or processing or USCIS error, we couldn't get angry. The best approach is to just "work the system" to the best of your ability, including using resources like VJ, and remain patient. We will only ever get real immigration reform from electing officials who share our values, not from running down average employees who are just trying to do their jobs.

 

Cheers to love, something I do believe we have a right to, no matter which corner of the world it is found in! But, rights aren't always easily obtained... sometimes you have to walk a long path through a minefield first and take what is yours. ❤️

more than 10 years ago immigration here was handled that way

the foreigner came and was interviewed here and approved or denied /  it didn't work and this system was adopted

and so far,  elected officals only see illegals as an issue /  for 30 years now it has been discussed that immigration has issues but do you see the Senate appointing any committee to study the problems??? No they have a group on Senators on the committee which at this point is useless for legal immigration

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/subcommittees/subcommittee-on-border-security-and-immigration

 

USCIS needs addtional funding and it was refused by Senate /  the change of fees is on hold 

 

USCIS expects to be able to maintain operations through the end of FY2020. USCIS states, however, that “Aggressive spending reduction measures will impact all agency operations, including naturalizations, and will drastically impact agency contracts.”

 

 

AILA continues to support the bi-partisan Case Backlog and Transparency Act of 2020, H.R 5971, and urges Congress to pass this much needed legislation along with other measures to get the agency back on track. Email your members of Congress to support H.R. 5971