A Day in the Life of a Newly Arrived Legal Immigant

[68/70Vette]

After a brief wait of 12 1/2 years, many thousands of dollars of attorneys fees and immigration fees, my wife's son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter arrived in the US on April 2 from Thailand. After all the perverse idiosyncrasies of the US immigration services, I thought that as I saw them appear at LA International, we were home free. Nope. First thing, I wanted to enroll the 17 year old girl into High School. They wanted proof of residency in the local community: drivers licenses, utility bills at their residence address, social security numbers, checking accounts with the proper addresses.....no provision for someone who just walks off the airplane. So..three weeks later we accumulated enough documentation. Three weeks they have been cooling their heels in a local hotel.$$$$$$ Next, get them an apartment to live in...thanks to California's very liberal renter protection laws, landlords are very squeamish who they rent too. They want credit reports and proof of income....which my new immigrants from Thailand have nothing of record! So I offer to co: sign..most property managers will not take a co:signer. So after looking for apartments for about three weeks, it looks like they'll be moving into some extra living space of one of my wife's Thai girlfriends. The mother and daughter will stay here for the daughter to go to school here. The father, my wife's 42 year old son, will return to Thailand. He has a good enough job there (residential construction) and there's no chance he can get a job here since he doesn't speak much English and houses in Thailand are concrete and masonry, not wood and stucco like here.

Umm. Some financial considerations here may slow down the pace of my 70 project car!!

 

[mrvette]

My welder buddy had a g/f from Europe, German/Italian ....she been here some years, working as a nurse....she finally got her papers and is going to stand for swearing in tomorrow, May 1st and Sunday we going to a party for her....

:friends:

 

[68/70Vette]

My welder buddy had a g/f from Europe, German/Italian ....she been here some years, working as a nurse....she finally got her papers and is going to stand for swearing in tomorrow, May 1st and Sunday we going to a party for her....

:friends:

Great, should be a happy time for all.
.........................

On the final legs of her citizen journey, my wife was sent a list of documents to bring to her citizenship interview before the swearing in ceremony. Wifey fronted up with documents. She had previously lived many years in Belgium, Singapore, Taiwan speaking English in all these places. Not too many folks speak Thai there. She was rejected on her citizenship application because the examiner said she didn't speak good enough English!!!. The reality of her denial was really that she couldn't produce Income Tax Statements...since she hadn't been asked to bring them She was applying for citizenship using her Thai name and the unspoken concern was that the immigration officer suspected immigration fraud (phony marriage). I was able to talk to the immigration officer (a woman) and she smiled and said...oh..don't worry, we'll just schedule another appointment and she can bring in the tax statements. Fine...the next appointment was schedule for ONE YEAR LATER. This delay caused my wife's daughter to have an 18 th birthday, which meant that her visa got another year or so delay.

....................OK, OK you're not interested in immigration details why should you spend you time reading this....just one little more anecdote and I'll tell you why.

My wife finally got a notice to appear at the Los Angeles Federal Court for her Swearing in ceremony. Every encounter with the immigration service resulted in discovery of some perverse action on their part. I said to my wife, looking at the instructions to find the Court, ....what final perverse thing will they perpetrate on us.? I found out...probably 2000 people had been given instructions to show up to the Federal Court.......it was a mistaken address...the swearing was at the Coliseum about 20 blocks away. People showed up in taxi cabs at the Court house location, some rode busses..The immigration people finally had chartered buses arrive to take people to the coliseum. Many hours late.

..........Why should you be interested in this??? Because the same federal civilian servants that run immigration, will most certainly be the same federal civilian servants dealing with your healthcare under ObamaCare. If you or I have a health care emergency or health situation, you're going to fall into a bureaucratic black hole.

 

[mrvette]

Buddy, I was born in the Wash DC region, Maryland, and so spent some 53 years there, except for some months in Texas in '70......

Got NEWS, I am totally familiar with the stupid and arrogant attitude of most .gov 'workers' try 1/2 hour late, 1/2 hour early in PM, and 2 hour lunch breaks....try standing around water coolers at 230pm doing nothing, back before the computers, now a daze they all have private offices, and so face the screens away from the door so to hide the fact they playing video games most of the day.....

How about this one, my ex was a GS15, she used to brag that she could not believe they were paying her SO much money to do so little.....she told me of some guy in her organization that wrote a report, and in the middle of page 30 or so, he puts words to this effect....'anyone actually reading this report, please call me'.......it was 6 months later the ex actually glanced through the report and called......so much for the report on an actual hot topic that affected the agency.....

in my years in DC, I grew up with the sons/daughters of anyone from governors on down to senators/reps/top level administrators.....my first ex was the private secretary to the head of BNDD, the old Bureaw of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs....DEA today....I would love to get a cops raid jacket with big yellow letters BNDD on back........her mother was best friends with Senator Herman Talmadge, Georgia, and she was the last person seen when visiting Eliiot Richardson or William Ruckelshouse.....Nixon era names....

the stories did not vary.....As most of my friends worked in various positions, most of them LEO oriented, Postal inspector, Fed Protective Svc, CIA, even an occational .mil from Pentagon....



:gurney::banghead::ill:

 

[clutchdust]

Well, that will teach them to play by the rules. Should have come here illegally and petitioned the local democrat congressman and they would have gotten amnesty, welfare, foodstamps, free healthcare and tuition to college.

 

[68/70Vette]

Well, that will teach them to play by the rules. Should have come here illegally and petitioned the local democrat congressman and they would have gotten amnesty, welfare, foodstamps, free healthcare and tuition to college.

You got it right here.

Before I relate the kicker, hang in here for a paragraph....

Trying to register the 17 year old girl, I said, why do I have to have all this proof of residency...all I have to do lie and tell you she's an illegal resident and you've got to admit her. The school person just said..let's do this the legal way. Then she told me...get ready for this...if someone comes in to enroll their child in school and the person has a student visa or a temporary work permit..they cannot enroll the child. HOWEVER, if the person allows their student visa or temporary work permit visa to EXPIRE, they have to ADMIT the child..because the child is now the child of an illegal immigrant li!!!!!! I can't believe how the illegal immigrant processes are so screwed up! Just damn it. Just arrest them and send them back. When these illegal immigrants come up with all their sob stories about why they shouldn't be deported, I'd say just deport them. How do you say this in French...Quelle domage?

 

[denpo]

...How do you say this in French...Quelle domage?

Quel dommage.

Grammar wise, you are correct sir.