First of, we need to remember that like any government agency, immigration is bureaucratic. And a bureaucracy is well...here's a little comic from Mafalda, a comic strip from Argentina.
Miguelito (little boy): Hey, Susanita told me that you got a turtle and I came to see her. What's her name?
Mafalda (little girl): Bureaucracy.
Miguelito: Bureaucracy? Dude, you named her Bureaucracy? Why Bureaucracy? Huh? Why?
Miguelito: Well, and?
Mafalda: Well, she's already closed, maybe if you had arrived earlier...
Miguelito: What! I cant see her today? That's crazy, I specifically came to see her today!
Mafalda: I'm sorry, it'll have to be tomorrow, today's no good.
Miguelito: Around what time tomorrow?
Mafalda: Well, I don't know enough to inform you.
Miguelito: Well...well then, I'll come again tomorrow.
Miguelito: And she never did tell me why she gave her that name.
So it exaggerates a little, but in summary, a bureaucracy is not really an efficient means to get things done. While my parents didn't experience many of the horror stories that come with the immigration/naturalization process, they did have to wade through a lot of bureaucracy.
Both my parents came on student visas with sponsors. My dad was sponsored through his sister who was already naturalized, and my mom was sponsored though the parents of a former missionary companion. It wasn't too hard, but you had to make sure you kept the paperwork updated to keep your visa. After a few years, they decided to apply for residency. They filled out a mountain of paperwork, got physicals, had to produce birth certificates, immunization records, etc etc. One thing they had to do was to get interviewed in the US Consulate. In Argentina. So they flew down with three 3-year-olds in tow for an interview. It did give them an excuse to go visit family down there (except that the consulate was in Buenos Aires, and the family lived in Mendoza, clear across the country).
When they flew back, the immigration officer in Florida wanted my dad to produce his parent's marriage certificate to prove that he and his sister were siblings. He didn't have that, but he did have both his and his sister's birth certificates, which he thought would be enough proof to show that they were indeed related. It was the first time that was brought up, so he didn't have a copy at hand. When everything was finally cleared up, they had missed their flight home to California.
Everything was approved, and they were given permanent resident status. Since neither of them were married to a US citizen, they had to wait longer to become citizens. The paperwork to file for naturalization wasn't as bad as what they had to fill out for citizenship. One of the things I remembered was that they had to take a test. They gave them a set of 100 questions, 20 of which would be picked out for the final exam. To be honest, they should give that exam to actual US citizens. Some of them were historical (when did the US declare independence, who was the first president, etc etc), others were governmental (name the 3 branches of the US government, who are your senators, who is your representative, etc etc), and trivia, for lack of a better word (how many stripes are there in the US flag). After filling out the paperwork and completing the exam, they were able to take the oath of citizenship and become official US citizens on St. Patrick's Day, in time for the '96 presidential election. For my mom, that was the first time she had ever voted in her life.
The method to become a US citizen today is mostly the same as then, but a few big changes have occurred One is that you cannot get your sibling to sponsor you anymore. Another is the price. Back then, it was a few hundred dollars (not including travel if you were from a far away nation) to become naturalized. Today it is a few thousand dollars. Not many people have a couple grand to spend away handy. And if some problem came up, it's your responsibility to clear it up, never mind who caused it. People want to come here legally, but the process can be extremely convoluted and time consuming.
As stated before, one of the issues with naturalization today is the price. Many immigrants would like to come here legally, but they simply cannot afford to, since shelling out a couple grand per person is way over their heads. And since many of them are not comfortable with English and/or working though a bunch of legal forms they have to hire lawyers, adding yet another expense.
Today, my family lives in Texas and my dad is the branch president (an LDS-esque pastor for small congregations) of a Spanish-speaking congregation there. It's safe to assume that many of the members there are not legal immigrants, and many of them are not well off in the American sense. The Church helps them find employment when needed, and something interesting that I did not know until recently is that when they help you find employment, they do not ask if you are legal to work here (I don't know if this policy applies to other countries where the Church helps people find employment). They let the potential employers get the references deal with that if they want to. It's like an immigration version of don't ask, don't tell.
For more stories, here's a link. It's rather cynical and sarcastic, but it provides another viewpoint on how to become American:
Apparently people have trouble becoming naturalized citizens in other countries:
I enjoyed your post and found it very informative. I spent a brief amount of time in an immigration office and found many do wish to come through the proper channels, but lack the means, generally in the form of funds. Whatever the case may be, the issue is certainly messy at best and there are no hard and fast answers.
ReplyDeleteI loved your post! I had never really known what the process is, and I think a lot of people don't understand how complicated and expensive it really can be. LIke you said, not many people have thousands of dollars they can give away on the spot. This is definitely the case for those who cannot find job opportunities where they are from, and are coming to America to get better opportunities.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that, it's cool to read about a true immigration story and learn how the process works.
ReplyDeleteFortunate for them, they only missed a flight. As you mentioned, they didn't experience any of the horror stories that some people do. I met a man in Brazil who had children here, a great job, he was a contributing member of the community and as soon as someone found out he wasn't a legal citizen they shipped him off right back to Brazil which he hadn't seen for more than nine years.
ReplyDeleteIt has been really interesting to read this post. I learned many things that I did not know before. I also appreciate the links to learn more. It was great to learn how the process works.
ReplyDelete