This really pissed me off!!!

[athena_ny 1]

I suppose it sucks for your sense of entitlement and bitterness that this path is entirely legal. As long as the relationship is bona fide, it does not matter if the woman was looking for an American spouse or not.

I suggest you worry about yourself and not the legal path that others take, or you'll always be angry at the system. You are not any more entitled to have your spouse with you than they are - they are just lucky that they got into the country before meeting their's and are doing nothing illegal. Don't let your bitterness cloud your vision.

Edited June 7, 2008 by athena_ny

[darkhorse 0]

I didn't need prayers to complete my journey...

I just made sure I informed myself on everey possible aspect.

People on a J-1 are here legally, if they want to meet their possible future spouse at a party, so be it.

So what you want is a ban on parties for people that are not permanent residents but LEGALLY residing in the USA? You want them to stay at home and sit behind the window and be lonely? People need to socialize...

[ninjarocket 1]

I have to admit that when I first heard the story I immediately imagined marriage fraud scams, having read stories on visa scams. However, if they're holding a party to meet American men who they would plan to spend the rest of their lives with then I have to agree that it's perfectly legitimate. We all make the mistake of jumping to conclusions sometimes. What we don't want is USCIS to jump to conclusions with our own petitions.

[S_AL_ 1]

I have to admit that when I first heard the story I immediately imagined marriage fraud scams, having read stories on visa scams. However, if they're holding a party to meet American men who they would plan to spend the rest of their lives with then I have to agree that it's perfectly legitimate. We all make the mistake of jumping to conclusions sometimes. What we don't want is USCIS to jump to conclusions with our own petitions.

Very well said.

[Karaoke 0]

Call me an egoist, but I do not really give a toss. Whether they get caught or not, it is not my business. Of course it ticks me off big thing that there are so many marriage scams, especially from a few countries, that slow down the whole process for everyone... If I was the legislator, I'd single them out for extra checks, but not at the expense of everyone else. This dual-speed system is basically what is already in place with Visa-Waiver and visitors' visa regulations, isn't it?

Why some countries do not get offered Visa Waiver rights? Because they are perceived as "high risk"...

All I care is that us, normal international couples, do not get disadvantaged and get lower priority than K-1 applicants... That REALLY ticks me off!

Hello everyone. I have been a lurker on this site for a few months now. I'm not really much of a chatter but I overheard something really disturbing a few hours ago at work, so i have to vent a little. One of my co-workers (that i really dont know very well) was telling another co-worker that one of his friends invited him to this party where he said there will be a bunch of women with J visas looking for American citizens to marry so they can come here and live permanently ...If I'm not mistaken, he called it an "immigration party."... This just pissed me the heck off!!! Though I'm not really that surprised....

[pushbrk 12,245]

What constitutes a "normal international couple" and why do K1 couples not qualify as normal international couples?

Call me an egoist, but I do not really give a toss. Whether they get caught or not, it is not my business. Of course it ticks me off big thing that there are so many marriage scams, especially from a few countries, that slow down the whole process for everyone... If I was the legislator, I'd single them out for extra checks, but not at the expense of everyone else. This dual-speed system is basically what is already in place with Visa-Waiver and visitors' visa regulations, isn't it?

Why some countries do not get offered Visa Waiver rights? Because they are perceived as "high risk"...

All I care is that us, normal international couples, do not get disadvantaged and get lower priority than K-1 applicants... That REALLY ticks me off!

Hello everyone. I have been a lurker on this site for a few months now. I'm not really much of a chatter but I overheard something really disturbing a few hours ago at work, so i have to vent a little. One of my co-workers (that i really dont know very well) was telling another co-worker that one of his friends invited him to this party where he said there will be a bunch of women with J visas looking for American citizens to marry so they can come here and live permanently ...If I'm not mistaken, he called it an "immigration party."... This just pissed me the heck off!!! Though I'm not really that surprised....

[Karaoke 0]

I didn't say that K-1 cannot be normal couples. I just said that it annoys me that they are approved before already married couples, and that is a totally different issue from marriage fraud.

As to "normal international couple", I used the term with reference to marriage frauds/mail-order brides/wanna get married to get a green card kind of couples, basically people that get married just to get US residence/citizenship, people that get married without ever meeting, people that have known each other for 2 weeks online before getting married and filing a petition. In my opinion, that is NOT a normal international couple, and although it could happen and be totally fine, legit, absolutely loved-based and disinterested, statistically, that would probably be an exception.

Normally such relationships would raise doubts about the bona fide nature of marriage, and therefore should be treated differently from other, just because they require further checks. I think part of the focus of the job of the adjudicator is to establish that this bona fide relationship exists, and therefore separating in the adjudication process different modalities of relationships/marriages, countries with high rates of fraud, etc. (even if this could run various risks of endangering the equality of the process), could be a way of optimizing time and resources, putting more controls where more controls are needed from a statistical point of view. Eventually this would up the process for all legit applicants and would.

I am sure that adjudicators already have risk analysis models and algorithms, but if we have to go by the time they adjudicate and listening to some of the stories of people on these forums, there still seems to be lots of ground to cover to make them more reliable, functional and especially speedy and just for all.

This is similar to policing and legislating: we are all equal in front of the law, but it does not mean that you would want to use limited resources in the same way, irrespective of the goals we want to achieve and the statistical observations or realities underlying them.

I hope I made my point clearer. Thanks for a chance to clarify a comment that might have been wrenched out of its meaning otherwise.

What constitutes a "normal international couple" and why do K1 couples not qualify as normal international couples?

Call me an egoist, but I do not really give a toss. Whether they get caught or not, it is not my business. Of course it ticks me off big thing that there are so many marriage scams, especially from a few countries, that slow down the whole process for everyone... If I was the legislator, I'd single them out for extra checks, but not at the expense of everyone else. This dual-speed system is basically what is already in place with Visa-Waiver and visitors' visa regulations, isn't it?

Why some countries do not get offered Visa Waiver rights? Because they are perceived as "high risk"...

All I care is that us, normal international couples, do not get disadvantaged and get lower priority than K-1 applicants... That REALLY ticks me off!

Hello everyone. I have been a lurker on this site for a few months now. I'm not really much of a chatter but I overheard something really disturbing a few hours ago at work, so i have to vent a little. One of my co-workers (that i really dont know very well) was telling another co-worker that one of his friends invited him to this party where he said there will be a bunch of women with J visas looking for American citizens to marry so they can come here and live permanently ...If I'm not mistaken, he called it an "immigration party."... This just pissed me the heck off!!! Though I'm not really that surprised....

[Cassie 8]

I didn't say that K-1 cannot be normal couples. I just said that it annoys me that they are approved before already married couples, and that is a totally different issue from marriage fraud.

I'm assuming that you know why K-1 petitions are processed faster than spousal visas and that they are two completely different processes?

[pushbrk 12,245]

I didn't say that K-1 cannot be normal couples. I just said that it annoys me that they are approved before already married couples, and that is a totally different issue from marriage fraud.

As to "normal international couple", I used the term with reference to marriage frauds/mail-order brides/wanna get married to get a green card kind of couples, basically people that get married just to get US residence/citizenship, people that get married without ever meeting, people that have known each other for 2 weeks online before getting married and filing a petition. In my opinion, that is NOT a normal international couple, and although it could happen and be totally fine, legit, absolutely loved-based and disinterested, statistically, that would probably be an exception.

Normally such relationships would raise doubts about the bona fide nature of marriage, and therefore should be treated differently from other, just because they require further checks. I think part of the focus of the job of the adjudicator is to establish that this bona fide relationship exists, and therefore separating in the adjudication process different modalities of relationships/marriages, countries with high rates of fraud, etc. (even if this could run various risks of endangering the equality of the process), could be a way of optimizing time and resources, putting more controls where more controls are needed from a statistical point of view. Eventually this would up the process for all legit applicants and would.

I am sure that adjudicators already have risk analysis models and algorithms, but if we have to go by the time they adjudicate and listening to some of the stories of people on these forums, there still seems to be lots of ground to cover to make them more reliable, functional and especially speedy and just for all.

This is similar to policing and legislating: we are all equal in front of the law, but it does not mean that you would want to use limited resources in the same way, irrespective of the goals we want to achieve and the statistical observations or realities underlying them.

I hope I made my point clearer. Thanks for a chance to clarify a comment that might have been wrenched out of its meaning otherwise.

What constitutes a "normal international couple" and why do K1 couples not qualify as normal international couples?

Call me an egoist, but I do not really give a toss. Whether they get caught or not, it is not my business. Of course it ticks me off big thing that there are so many marriage scams, especially from a few countries, that slow down the whole process for everyone... If I was the legislator, I'd single them out for extra checks, but not at the expense of everyone else. This dual-speed system is basically what is already in place with Visa-Waiver and visitors' visa regulations, isn't it?

Why some countries do not get offered Visa Waiver rights? Because they are perceived as "high risk"...

All I care is that us, normal international couples, do not get disadvantaged and get lower priority than K-1 applicants... That REALLY ticks me off!

Hello everyone. I have been a lurker on this site for a few months now. I'm not really much of a chatter but I overheard something really disturbing a few hours ago at work, so i have to vent a little. One of my co-workers (that i really dont know very well) was telling another co-worker that one of his friends invited him to this party where he said there will be a bunch of women with J visas looking for American citizens to marry so they can come here and live permanently ...If I'm not mistaken, he called it an "immigration party."... This just pissed me the heck off!!! Though I'm not really that surprised....

I'm afraid you haven't advanced your case. You made a long list of what isn't normal without saying what is. Your relationship bigotry is showing. Nobody wants fraudulent relationships to clog up the system but you seem to want to treat cases differently based on how the couple met and courted. This is relationship bigotry and has no place here.

If you think people who court on the internet a few weeks and marry on the first visit should be treated differently than those who meet and court more traditionally, I'm afraid I'm going to have my five foot nothin Chinese wife take you out to the woodshed for a session of whoopash.

Oh, you met on the internet, back of the line with you, indeed.

[Dr. Nick 0]

I am sure that adjudicators already have risk analysis models and algorithms, but if we have to go by the time they adjudicate and listening to some of the stories of people on these forums, there still seems to be lots of ground to cover to make them more reliable, functional and especially speedy and just for all.

All these algorithms, analysis, models.... It's more like this: your I-130 petition spends three months or so between Chicago and the service center, back an forth, then you have 2 totally different received dates that nobody explains, then it collects dust for 6 months or so at the vermont service center (VSC), and then someone, eventually, maybe, double checks your paperwork and runs names in a computer query. But only if you can get it expedited or your senator/congressman cares. For the rest of us it's rather like praying to those mean, butt-ugly gods from back in the day. We are long way from even getting to medieval. And yes, their excuse for the delays, for the rest of the 21st century is and will be exactly the change that was supposed to improve the service: the now (in)famous fee increase . I'm surprised that people still try to do this the 'right' way when it's actually horribly wrong keeping families apart for so long. Those parties and folks getting hooked up is just a scape goat here....let's blame another fellow slave to please our USCIS overlords. Whatever happened to freedom and basic things like living with your spouse?

[pushbrk 12,245]

Whatever happened to freedom and basic things like living with your spouse?

Your points are well taken but the freedom you mention never existed, so nothing happened to it. We've always had immigration laws.

[Dr. Nick 0]

Whatever happened to freedom and basic things like living with your spouse?

Your points are well taken but the freedom you mention never existed, so nothing happened to it. We've always had immigration laws.

I meant freedom for those folks to go to the parties and meet whoever they want. Freedom to choose someone from another country without waiting an entire year to be united as well. I think we could all live with 3 months wait and go thru the processing etc., but what's happening at VSC is just not right or humane....I guess it's true that in the end we get used to anything..It's not like anybody outside of our small community cares either.

[pushbrk 12,245]

Whatever happened to freedom and basic things like living with your spouse?

Your points are well taken but the freedom you mention never existed, so nothing happened to it. We've always had immigration laws.

I meant freedom for those folks to go to the parties and meet whoever they want. Freedom to choose someone from another country without waiting an entire year to be united as well. I think we could all live with 3 months wait and go thru the processing etc., but what's happening at VSC is just not right or humane....I guess it's true that in the end we get used to anything..It's not like anybody outside of our small community cares either.

I'm pretty upset with VSC at the moment either but let's not conjure up freedoms that don't exist. Call it what it is. A "want'.

[Ranger7 0]

Hello everyone. I have been a lurker on this site for a few months now. I'm not really much of a chatter but I overheard something really disturbing a few hours ago at work, so i have to vent a little. One of my co-workers (that i really dont know very well) was telling another co-worker that one of his friends invited him to this party where he said there will be a bunch of women with J visas looking for American citizens to marry so they can come here and live permanently ...If I'm not mistaken, he called it an "immigration party."... This just pissed me the heck off!!! Though I'm not really that surprised....

Immigration Party? Avon Party? Boston Tea Party? WHO CARES? you cannot judge ANYONE or their MOTIVES unless U know for sure why they do the things they do and that you have walked a few miles in their shoes!. I am an american citizen and I met my beautiful wife online by chance, and I also got married on my first visit to her country... So, if ur pissed off its probably because u where not invited to that party!.

Bottomline? Being a judgemental bas+ard towards any one person is the most inappropriate thing. Everyone has different plans and perspectives in life!. Why not be happy for people who are looking for a better life just live everyone else here!. Your Rule: MIND UR OWN BUSINESS!!!!!

By the way, IM THINKING ON HOSTING AN IMMIGRATION PARTY OVER AT MY PLACE!

[Cassie 8]

Whatever happened to freedom and basic things like living with your spouse?

Your points are well taken but the freedom you mention never existed, so nothing happened to it. We've always had immigration laws.

I meant freedom for those folks to go to the parties and meet whoever they want. Freedom to choose someone from another country without waiting an entire year to be united as well. I think we could all live with 3 months wait and go thru the processing etc., but what's happening at VSC is just not right or humane....I guess it's true that in the end we get used to anything..It's not like anybody outside of our small community cares either.

I'm pretty upset with VSC at the moment either but let's not conjure up freedoms that don't exist. Call it what it is. A "want'.

Exactly.