Abolish fiancee visas

[Y&E 12]

What is your home country? It must not be the UK?

Nope, I'm a mongrel, 1/2 Kiwi (born and bred) and 1/2 English. You think this visa process is hard - it's a million times easier to what my English parent went though to move to NZ 30 odd years ago and that was after 5 years of marriage.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

O/T Glad you are back posting on here, RJ!!! but if you don't mind me asking, why you using the old JohnnyQuest ID?

Why not?

[TracyTN 237]

I had a vision and it's worked, lol.

[SMR 368]

I think the fees are cheap. Jeezum, a brake job can cost near to $1000! A good TV costs that much (some are cheaper now), a decent skeet gun is that much plus 50%. How does that compare to a green card which gives you access to the largest economy on the world and a path to citizenship? Millions would scrape together 3 or 4 times that amount for the same opportunity and you can hardly buy a wedding dress for that amount.

You're missing my point. The Green Card is not what gives you access. It simply stops the government from impeding your access. It's a subtle distinction but an important one. I'm not sure what kind of vehicle you are paying $1000 for brakes but that isn't really the point. All of those prices are controlled by competition and justified by the parts, labor, and marketing costs of the products or services being offered (if not, someone else would come and do it for less). The cost of the green card is set by fiat. You can't go somewhere else and the card doesn't actually allow you to do anything that you couldn't do before other than those things that the government actively prevented you from doing without it.

If I put a gun to your head and demand $1000, I suppose you could say that it's pretty cheap. Unless you have some weird principles, I assume you would pay many times that to save your life (or if you like, make it the life of your family members). $1000 is cheap. But it's still outrageous.

[Fandango 1,439]

You're missing my point. The Green Card is not what gives you access. It simply stops the government from impeding your access. It's a subtle distinction but an important one. I'm not sure what kind of vehicle you are paying $1000 for brakes but that isn't really the point. All of those prices are controlled by competition and justified by the parts, labor, and marketing costs of the products or services being offered (if not, someone else would come and do it for less). The cost of the green card is set by fiat. You can't go somewhere else and the card doesn't actually allow you to do anything that you couldn't do before other than those things that the government actively prevented you from doing without it.

If I put a gun to your head and demand $1000, I suppose you could say that it's pretty cheap. Unless you have some weird principles, I assume you would pay many times that to save your life (or if you like, make it the life of your family members). $1000 is cheap. But it's still outrageous.

I completely disagree with you, and find the analogy of putting a gun to his head kinda laughable. This is a process...it takes money. The gov't is not going to to pay people to process it for free. Having an immigrant spouse is not a right, it's a privilege. There's costs involved, so why should the common taxpayers pay for your privileges?

People on here moan all the time about how dreadful the wait is, but I bet you a tenner if they doubled their employees, and the process was super fast - but as a result had to double the fees as well, the same people who moaned about how evil the gov't is for standing in the way of 'true love', the same gov't compared to the mafia wrt 'protection money'....those same peeps would then just moan about the fees.

You can't have it both ways. It's a basic economic priniciple.

[SMR 368]

I completely disagree with you, and find the analogy of putting a gun to his head kinda laughable. This is a process...it takes money. The gov't is not going to to pay people to process it for free. Having an immigrant spouse is not a right, it's a privilege. There's costs involved, so why should the common taxpayers pay for your privileges?

People on here moan all the time about how dreadful the wait is, but I bet you a tenner if they doubled their employees, and the process was super fast - but as a result had to double the fees as well, the same people who moaned about how evil the gov't is for standing in the way of 'true love', the same gov't compared to the mafia wrt 'protection money'....those same peeps would then just moan about the fees.

You can't have it both ways. It's a basic economic priniciple.

Whether or not the ability to live together with the people you love is a right or a privilege is an involved debate. But beyond that, I feel your perspective as to who should pay is off. Who is this process designed to help? On a superficial level you might simply say the process is in place to help people bring their loved ones to the US so they can live together. But in reality the process has nothing to do with people bringing their loved ones to the US. The process of bringing your loved ones to the US involves airlines, shipping companies, and maybe some movers (or from some countries, a ride in a car). The immigration process is designed to keep certain people out of the US in order to protect the jobs, benefits, and security of the American taxpayers at large. The immigration process is in place to protect the interests of all US citizens.

Framing the immigration process as a service rendered to those trying to immigrate only makes sense if you accept that the inability to freely cross national borders and move from one country to another is an innate part of the natural world. It is not. It is a restriction placed on people by governments. Thus, when a series of hoops is created that you can jump through to overcome this restriction, I fail to see that as a service. The threat or restriction was created by the government. When the government offers a way to overcome that threat or restriction, I see that as very analogous to a mafia thug who threatens you or your property and then offers you a "service" to protect you from that threat. If the thug just went away, you wouldn't need his "service." Similarly, if USCIS and the associated laws, checks, and restrictions just went away, I wouldn't miss them or their "services."

As far as the gun to the head, my point wasn't that immigration is like a gun to the head. I was just illustrating the fact that just because something is "a good deal" or cheap or worth the price that is charged for it, doesn't mean it can't be outrageous at the same time.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Whether or not the ability to live together with the people you love is a right or a privilege is an involved debate. But beyond that, I feel your perspective as to who should pay is off. Who is this process designed to help? On a superficial level you might simply say the process is in place to help people bring their loved ones to the US so they can live together. But in reality the process has nothing to do with people bringing their loved ones to the US. The process of bringing your loved ones to the US involves airlines, shipping companies, and maybe some movers (or from some countries, a ride in a car). The immigration process is designed to keep certain people out of the US in order to protect the jobs, benefits, and security of the American taxpayers at large. The immigration process is in place to protect the interests of all US citizens.

Framing the immigration process as a service rendered to those trying to immigrate only makes sense if you accept that the inability to freely cross national borders and move from one country to another is an innate part of the natural world. It is not. It is a restriction placed on people by governments. Thus, when a series of hoops is created that you can jump through to overcome this restriction, I fail to see that as a service. The threat or restriction was created by the government. When the government offers a way to overcome that threat or restriction, I see that as very analogous to a mafia thug who threatens you or your property and then offers you a "service" to protect you from that threat. If the thug just went away, you wouldn't need his "service." Similarly, if USCIS and the associated laws, checks, and restrictions just went away, I wouldn't miss them or their "services."

As far as the gun to the head, my point wasn't that immigration is like a gun to the head. I was just illustrating the fact that just because something is "a good deal" or cheap or worth the price that is charged for it, doesn't mean it can't be outrageous at the same time.

I understand your point and yes it is a government monopoly and a created "market" to be sure.

I would not expect the price to come down if a private compay were hired to do it. I WOULD expect the level of service to improve. There are costs associated with the process and the people requesting it should pay those costs, or at least part of the cost. And yes, if the process went away, we wouldn;t need that. OK, so now lets talk "real world". That isn't going to happen.

I think the fees, when compared to the other expenses in life, and the rewards reaped, are a bargain. $1000 is just not that much money anymore. Any number of items around a household cost that much or more. Sofas, mattresses, TVs, appliances, lawn tractors, computers...all would be answers to the question "Things that cost $1000 or more"

In addition, people KNOW about this expense long in advance. Lets face it, you want to marry someone and file a K-1? That $1000 fee is many months, maybe even a year down the road. Two adult people cannot come up with $1000 given a year's notice?

I think by any measure, the fees are reasonable.

[Dan and Judy 614]

I completely disagree with you, and find the analogy of putting a gun to his head kinda laughable. This is a process...it takes money. The gov't is not going to to pay people to process it for free. Having an immigrant spouse is not a right, it's a privilege. There's costs involved, so why should the common taxpayers pay for your privileges?

People on here moan all the time about how dreadful the wait is, but I bet you a tenner if they doubled their employees, and the process was super fast - but as a result had to double the fees as well, the same people who moaned about how evil the gov't is for standing in the way of 'true love', the same gov't compared to the mafia wrt 'protection money'....those same peeps would then just moan about the fees.

You can't have it both ways. It's a basic economic priniciple.

I'll raise you a sorprano, If they doubled their employees the process would not be super fast. The mafia has expenses too, cement, guns, bullets, matches. Getting blood stains out of your trunk is expensive.

the basic economic principle here is, when you have a monopoly, service sucks.

It doesnt cost any more to maintain a 1 month backlog than a 5 month backlog

somebody decided that 5 months was cool, so 5 months it is

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Ban legal immigration and give amnesty to all illegals.

[SMR 368]

I understand your point and yes it is a government monopoly and a created "market" to be sure.

I would not expect the price to come down if a private compay were hired to do it. I WOULD expect the level of service to improve. There are costs associated with the process and the people requesting it should pay those costs, or at least part of the cost. And yes, if the process went away, we wouldn;t need that. OK, so now lets talk "real world". That isn't going to happen.

I think the fees, when compared to the other expenses in life, and the rewards reaped, are a bargain. $1000 is just not that much money anymore. Any number of items around a household cost that much or more. Sofas, mattresses, TVs, appliances, lawn tractors, computers...all would be answers to the question "Things that cost $1000 or more"

In addition, people KNOW about this expense long in advance. Lets face it, you want to marry someone and file a K-1? That $1000 fee is many months, maybe even a year down the road. Two adult people cannot come up with $1000 given a year's notice?

I think by any measure, the fees are reasonable.

So do you agree that holding a gun to your wife's head and demanding $1000 is a reasonable fee?

As far as what the price would be in a private sector, it's really impossible to tell since the burden of work that would be required is undefined and the liability for mistakes (and the definition of mistakes) are also undefined. What's the penalty for a company that let's a fraudster through? What about groundless denials? What checks does the company have to do? You see, on the most basic level all a company has to do is read the application for AOS and print a greencard. I can do that for a lot less than $1080 and provide good service to boot (provided I can get a reasonable number of applications).

I'll raise you a sorprano, If they doubled their employees the process would not be super fast. The mafia has expenses too, cement, guns, bullets, matches. Getting blood stains out of your trunk is expensive.

the basic economic principle here is, when you have a monopoly, service sucks.

It doesnt cost any more to maintain a 1 month backlog than a 5 month backlog

somebody decided that 5 months was cool, so 5 months it is

I exactly agree with your point about the backlog. The wait isn't getting any longer, on average. So it isn't that there aren't enough employees processing applications. It's as if they waited 4 months before starting and now they're 5 months behind. Either that or they actively work on 1 application for 5 months. But who believe's that?

[Fandango 1,439]

I'll raise you a sorprano, If they doubled their employees the process would not be super fast. The mafia has expenses too, cement, guns, bullets, matches. Getting blood stains out of your trunk is expensive.

the basic economic principle here is, when you have a monopoly, service sucks.

It doesnt cost any more to maintain a 1 month backlog than a 5 month backlog

somebody decided that 5 months was cool, so 5 months it is

I don't know why peeps here get the idea that USCIS employees are just sitting around, watching the petitions pile up while they all lol with their pinkies to the corners of their mouths. Find the thread here where one came on and explained how much pressure they are under, and how little time they have with each petition.

[Danno 1,228]

Excellent points.

I love how you capitalize the first 2 letters of a word so often. I have seen it about 1000 times and it cracks me up each time. How do you do it? Do you hit the caps lock button and turn it off a letter late. Are you holding down the shift key a second too long? What is the deal?

I meant to reply to this the other day but my internet connection was froze for a few minutes.

Half the time I am typing with a phone to my ear and the keyboard kinda sideways as my desk is "L" shaped.

I often (for unknown reasons) capitalize at random and at times I am slow to get my finger off the SHIFT key.... which causes 2 letters to be capitalized.

Even if I notice it, I don't take the time to correct it.