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Thanks for the chat. I learned a lot. I think we both agree system needs reforming, and subtracting the political rhetoric from both sides, there is middle gro

Thanks for the chat. I learned a lot. I think we both agree system needs reforming, and subtracting the political rhetoric from both sides, there is middle ground reform that should hopefully prevail.

int_19h 10y ago
I would encourage you - and, really, anyone who is interested in any kind of immigration reform - to explore the existing laws and processes and find out how they work. I'm often amazed at how little most Americans (on both sides of the political spectrum) know about their immigration system - mostly the bits that come from the news, and which are, of course, cherry-picked to support some political narrative. The bulk of it is not really all that interesting, and so goes completely unobserved, but it's what most of us who have to go through this are actually dealing with. The easiest way to do so is to put your immigrant hat on. Pretend that you're a foreigner who knows English, and see how you'd go about immigrating to US. Literally starting from a google search along the lines of "US immigration", and then go from there. When you see various different options presented to you (like student, family, investor etc), conjure virtual personas corresponding to either one of those, and see how far you can get down either track, what are the things that are required of you, what quotas apply if any, how much it costs in fees, what the processing times are etc. Consider how you'd plan around all that. Also see how it works if you're married - how you bring your spouse to the country, whether they can work at all before they can get a green card, what about children etc. Once you get to the end of it, try doing the same thing, but for "legally bring my parents/siblings/... to the country". Again note the various options, requirements, fees, processing times etc. It can also be instructive to do it for a few other English-speaking countries (or those that have their immigration materials available in any language that you can understand), just to see how they all compare. It's a lot like gun control. Based on your politics, I think it's a safe bet that you get annoyed when left-wing politicians talk about "weapons or war" or some such, without any actual knowledge of how guns work or how to operate one, beyond "it's a shoulder thing that goes up". To write meaningful gun legislation, one has to understand guns well, right? Well, same thing applies here.

int_19h 10y ago

I would encourage you - and, really, anyone who is interested in any kind of immigration reform - to explore the existing laws and processes and find out how they work. I'm often amazed at how little most Americans (on both sides of the political spectrum) know about their immigration system - mostly the bits that come from the news, and which are, of course, cherry-picked to support some political narrative. The bulk of it is not really all that interesting, and so goes completely unobserved, but it's what most of us who have to go through this are actually dealing with. The easiest way to do so is to put your immigrant hat on. Pretend that you're a foreigner who knows English, and see how you'd go about immigrating to US. Literally starting from a google search along the lines of "US immigration", and then go from there. When you see various different options presented to you (like student, family, investor etc), conjure virtual personas corresponding to either one of those, and see how far you can get down either track, what are the things that are required of you, what quotas apply if any, how much it costs in fees, what the processing times are etc. Consider how you'd plan around all that. Also see how it works if you're married - how you bring your spouse to the country, whether they can work at all before they can get a green card, what about children etc. Once you get to the end of it, try doing the same thing, but for "legally bring my parents/siblings/... to the country". Again note the various options, requirements, fees, processing times etc. It can also be instructive to do it for a few other English-speaking countries (or those that have their immigration materials available in any language that you can understand), just to see how they all compare. It's a lot like gun control. Based on your politics, I think it's a safe bet that you get annoyed when left-wing politicians talk about "weapons or war" or some such, without any actual knowledge of how guns work or how to operate one, beyond "it's a shoulder thing that goes up". To write meaningful gun legislation, one has to understand guns well, right? Well, same thing applies here.