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Have you ever tried to navigate the immigration process? I have, twice now. It's a Kafka-esque nightmare of Orwellian bureaucracy, and I wish I could think of a

Have you ever tried to navigate the immigration process? I have, twice now. It's a Kafka-esque nightmare of Orwellian bureaucracy, and I wish I could think of a third famous writer to reference to finish this sentence. The first time, years ago, they "lost" a packet of information we had to reconstruct at great pains, and then had to get a second physical because they lost the report from the first one. We only found that out after getting our state's federal senator's office involved. The second time, we ran into both rapidly-changing immigration requirements[0] and a pandemic, which made it super-unclear which issue was more relevant to the seemingly-interminable wait of years. The instructions are vague in the best of times, and even immigration lawyers have no idea what a given USCIS staffer will care about on any given day. A rejection can mean anything from another year or two in the queue to a demand to leave the country and the life you've built within 30 days, so the stakes are high. In my most recent application packet, I did include a photo I wouldn't publish online. While it featured no nudity, it was taken in bed. The same photo rotates through a digital frame on my desk in a house with a child in it, so it's by no means risque, but that is why people send in photos you might consider unwise. 0. I can't think about this without offering my best wishes and condolences to Mrs. Miller, who married the architect of that immigration nonsense the same year I married my partner.

robertwt7 4y ago
I did, and submitted a lot of photos (some are in the bedroom but don't feature any nudity), evidence of living together, travel plans, bank statements of joint accounts for the past few years, marriage cert, witnesses who has statutory declaration. it is time consuming, but i would never think of submitting nudes. Maybe it helps for some people, but if that's the case then the system is rigged
- pwinnski 4y ago
  We hired an immigration lawyer for this most recent process, and he told me a story. There had been a large group of people from a particular country who all attended a church together here in the US. They had affidavits and bank statements and so on, but most or all of the photos were actually group photos in which the happy couple were circled. Somehow it all came unraveled, and it turns out that the couples weren't couples at all. They were all as a group close enough to share bank accounts and addresses and so on, but not romantically. Very, very strange, the details I was able to get, but that's another wrinkle. I think yes, the system is rigged, but also, a lot of people want to immigrate pretty desperately. In some cases, that leads to lying about romantic relationships, and in others, apparently, going way out their way to prove they are not lying about that part!

robertwt7 4y ago

I did, and submitted a lot of photos (some are in the bedroom but don't feature any nudity), evidence of living together, travel plans, bank statements of joint accounts for the past few years, marriage cert, witnesses who has statutory declaration. it is time consuming, but i would never think of submitting nudes. Maybe it helps for some people, but if that's the case then the system is rigged

pwinnski 4y ago
We hired an immigration lawyer for this most recent process, and he told me a story. There had been a large group of people from a particular country who all attended a church together here in the US. They had affidavits and bank statements and so on, but most or all of the photos were actually group photos in which the happy couple were circled. Somehow it all came unraveled, and it turns out that the couples weren't couples at all. They were all as a group close enough to share bank accounts and addresses and so on, but not romantically. Very, very strange, the details I was able to get, but that's another wrinkle. I think yes, the system is rigged, but also, a lot of people want to immigrate pretty desperately. In some cases, that leads to lying about romantic relationships, and in others, apparently, going way out their way to prove they are not lying about that part!