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Miss M

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    I-751 December 2013 Filers

    in Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion

    Posted

    Come on guys: Hossdelgado and MNyarai - your applications has been approved and on time too, so I think you guys should at least be thankful and not being the way you are, whinning. I feel for Hossdelgado who may have to pay extra $$ for the card but all the same, its all good. MNyaai, please forget the online status as you received the letter already. Others like me are still expectant and have not seen anything yet...but still hopeful.

    Whining? Really? I think the whole point of this forum is to share experiences - good or bad, and it's useful to know what other people are going through as it helps others to know what to potentially look out for. I, for one, have not received my green card yet even though everyone else approved around the same time as me has. My online status still says 'Initial Review' so am I concerned? Yes. Only because I don't really know whether this is a glitch in the system, or fairly standard for USCIS. (I have never ROC'd before so how would I know?) The only people who would be able to answer that question for me based upon experience or general immigration knowledge are on this site, and that's why I signed up and why I brought up my 'issue.' I am sorry if this offends you.

    IMO, Hossdelgado sharing his experience is useful because now I know that if I haven't received my card in a few weeks, it wouldn't hurt to check with the post office. Hossdelagado was just venting his frustration here, and I was expressing my concern at my online status not being updated yet - a right I believe we all have. People come on here to whine, to b*tch, to share, to celebrate, to blow off steam etc. It's supposed to be community offering support rather than just a place where we update our status, right?

    Hossdelgado, I hope you resolved your issue.

    In the meantime, again - good luck to everyone still waiting.....

    I-751 December 2013 Filers

    in Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion

    Posted

    Thank you Teddy B.

    Updating my information:

    California Service Center (11 applicants [+4 transferred from VSC] , 4 approved - 36%)

    VJName..............Date of I-751...NOA1 Date....Biometrics.....Approved

    POCHO.................11/29/13......12/02/13......12/30/13......04/01/14 (4/7/2014 Received New Green Cards)
    LOVESEA3333...........12/03/13......12/05/13......12/18/13......03/27/14

    HOSSDELGADO...........12/04/13......12/05/13......12/30/13......--/--/-- (early bio 12/16)
    * KRISTIN *...........12/09/13......12/10/13......01/06/14......--/--/--
    THE HUMANISTS.........12/09/13......12/11/13......01/06/14......--/--/--

    EVORIA................12/12/13......12/31/13......01/29/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 01/27/14)(03/14 Transferred from VSC)

    ISSHA2LYNDEN..........12/17/13......12/23/13......01/21/14......--/--/--
    CALIFORNIAGUY.........12/17/13......12/23/13......01/21/14......--/--/--

    MARIA TH..............12/17/13......12/23/13......01/27/14......--/--/-- (03/14 Transferred from VSC)

    MNYARAI...............12/18/13......12/23/13......01/16/14......09/04/14

    7TEENERS..............12/19/13......12/23/13......01/21/14......04/03/14

    PAT2BOS...............12/20/13......12/24/13......01/28/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 01/15/14)(03/14 Transferred from VSC)

    BIGAPPLE2014..........12/21/13......12/30/13......01/29/14......--/--/-- (03/14 Transferred from VSC)

    MIKE411...............12/28/13......12/30/13......01/27/14......--/--/-- (missed biometrics apt, walk-in on 01/29/14)

    GYSELLE...............12/29/13......12/31/13......01/24/14......--/--/-- (Rescheduled Bio 1/31 and walk-in 1/28)


    Vermont Service Center (22 applicants [-4 transferred to CSC], 0 approval - 0%)

    VJName..............Date of I-751...NOA1 Date....Biometrics.....Approved
    JENANDDON.............11/26/13......12/02/13......01/06/14......--/--/--
    HANK55................11/30/13......12/03/13......12/31/13......--/--/--
    ROKI..................12/01/13......12/05/13......01/06/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 12/16/13)
    THEFANTASTICS09.......12/02/13......12/04/13......01/03/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 12/16/13)
    SEAN86................12/02/13......12/04/13......01/06/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 12/18/13)
    LA2306X...............12/02/13......12/05/13......01/08/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 12/17/13)(Divorce)
    MERLIN<3AIDAN.........12/03/13......12/06/13......01/06/14......--/--/--
    KRISTAL...............12/03/13......12/05/13......--/--/14......--/--/--
    MONIQUEM..............12/03/13......12/06/13......01/07/14......--/--/--
    ECWILLOUGHBYS.........12/04/13......12/09/13......01/13/14......--/--/--
    GURL..................12/05/13......12/06/13......01/03/14......--/--/--
    ICAROLINA.............12/06/13......12/10/13......01/10/14......--/--/--
    TEDDY B...............12/09/13......12/11/13......01/14/14......--/--/--
    MAYA84................12/09/13......12/11/13......01/08/14......--/--/--
    IGALIN................12/13/13......12/17/13......01/16/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 01/08/14)

    FLORIDADAVE...........12/15/13......12/23/13......01/31/14......--/--/--

    EV11..................12/17/13......12/19/13......01/27/14......--/--/--
    KRISTEN_MAROC.........12/20/13......12/26/13......01/29/14......--/--/--

    Need Help--Feel Like My Marriage is Already Crumbling

    in Effects of Major Family Changes on Immigration Benefits

    Posted

    Dude, there isn't a whole lot more I can add to tis conversation that hasn't already been mentioned.

    I really just wanted you to know that you're not alone - that's why VJ exists. My husband travels for his job - 4-6wks abroad at a time, and 3-4wks at home. It's hard, and we have kids. I have no support structure here so sometimes I feel despondent and angry and resentful and depressed and sad and lonely and yes, even suicidal...... (you get the picture???)

    But like someone before me said, I have learned to define this as our 'normal' - as terrible as I sometimes feel. I don't allow myself to dwell on the sadness and emptiness I feel when my husband is gone, and instead I keep myself going by focusing on the positives aspects of our marriage, and I remind myself constantly why I chose him (or he chose me, whatever! smile.png )

    It's very, very easy to drown in the unhappiness - don't let that happen.

    I know our circumstances are completely different but I just wanted to offer a word of encouragement as someone who sometimes feels completely defeated by my marital circumstances. If you really love your wife, and you want to spend the rest of your life with her at any cost, then please find a way to cope and to make this work. Definitely invest in professional help - whatever it takes.

    Do some soul searching too so that you can hopefully work on figuring out what exactly you need to do - hold on, or walk away.

    'I married my gay best friend so he could get a green card.' NY Post

    in Current Events and Hot Social Topics

    Posted

    I saved my gay best friend’s life — by marrying him.




    Terrified that her gay best friend would be sent back to the Middle East and victimized after his student visa expired, Liza Monroy went to extreme lengths to keep him in America. Here the 34-year-old writer, whose memoir, “The Marriage Act: The Risk I Took To Keep My Best Friend in America, and What It Taught Us About Love,” will be published Tuesday, tells her extraordinary story of love and law-breaking to The Post’s Jane Ridley.

    Emir* and I had been married for more than a year, but it wasn’t until the morning of his green card interview that we finally got around to exchanging rings.

    We’d bought them in the Diamond District a week earlier, but Emir had taken them to be engraved, as a special surprise for that day.

    My inscription said: “L&Em-Vegas-Frvr.” His, even cheesier, read: “99toEternity-im-Yrs.”

    “Cute,” I said, sliding the gold band onto my wedding finger. “Are you nervous?”

    According to Section 274 of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act, the maximum punishment for alien smuggling is a fine of $25,000 and 10 years in jail. For the alien, the penalty is immediate deportation. And we were about to take the risk.

    We first met in film class at Emerson College in Boston, in 1999. I’m the only child of a single mother and, from the very start of our friendship, Emir became the brother I never had. We had this connection because we both considered ourselves “international students” — outsiders, if you will. He is from the Middle East and, though I’m American, most of my childhood and teenage years were spent abroad because of my mom’s job in the Foreign Service.

    Emir was out of the closet to our friends in the US, but not to his family back home. In his country, homosexuals are seen as an abomination, less than human. He told me how, when he was in high school, he’d heard about gays being beaten up and left to die by the highway, with nobody batting an eyelid.

    Before he moved to America, his mother had confronted him about, what, in her words was, “a phase.” She begged him to never reveal that side of himself to his father. He was the typical Muslim patriarch and, according to his mom, would have disowned Emir on the spot and even divorce her, too.

    “I knew that if I stayed, I would always be one of those married men with children who still go looking for boys online and on street corners, fooling myself and not living my life,” explained Emir.

    In Boston, Emir could be himself. And when we spent our last semester in Los Angeles, he was in his element, interning from sun-up to midnight for a studio producer. The trouble was that his student visa was about to expire in December 2001. He’d religiously entered the green card lottery every year since he was a freshman, but he had about a 1 percent chance of being among the 55,000 people randomly chosen as winners.

    Then 9/11 happened. Suddenly, it was even harder for Emir to find work because of his Arabic name and the way he looked. “Who will hire me after this?” he said. “If I go back, I’m required to enlist in the mandatory military service. Can you imagine what they’ll do to me in there?”

    Over the previous year, I’d told Emir many times that I would marry him if he ever had any visa issues, so he could get a green card. I loved him, not in any sexual sense, but like a member of my family.

    But he never took my offers seriously. I don’t think I’d meant them seriously. But now, with the increasing likelihood of him being sent home, I was convinced it was the only solution. So, at a West Hollywood party on Halloween night 2001 — me dressed as a cat and Emir as Harry Potter — I took a gulp of my cocktail, hopped off the bar stool and got down on one knee. “Will you please agree to be my blushing bride already?” I asked.

    There was absolutely no way we could tell my mom what we were planning. At the time, she was based out of a consulate in Europe. I didn’t want to put her in the position where she became part of the conspiracy or felt duty-bound to report us.

    The wedding, on Nov. 17, 2001, was presided over in Las Vegas by an Elvis impersonator. “Do you promise to walk each other’s hound dogs?” he asked. It was fitting for who we were and what our marriage was about. We shared our first — and only — kiss on the lips as The King jiggled his hips.

    After that, Emir and I had to live together for the minimum two years it took for the green card to become permanent.

    The challenges we faced as a “couple” were strangely typical, even though the marriage was so different. There were the usual issues about whose turn it was to cook and who did the housekeeping. He’d get irritated because I’d leave a mess. I’d get mad that he often seemed to be out partying with his friends without me.

    Five months later, we moved to Manhattan. We settled into a two-bedroom apartment in the East Village and, newly armed with his employment permit, Emir edited movies and I got a position at a talent and literary agency. It was a fun, carefree time because, in New York — the city of immigrants — we felt anonymous.

    That said, there were screw-ups, mostly by me. I tried not to tell other people about our “arrangement,” but I got cavalier about it. I was 22 and obviously wanted to date guys. The odd time I really liked someone, after a few dates, I’d drop in the fact that Emir and I were married. It was a litmus test. If they freaked out about it, I didn’t want to be with them.

    Emir, meanwhile, was much more cautious about telling anyone. He had a lot more to lose.

    The green card interview was in August 2003. Although I was nervous, I didn’t think it would be too much of a big deal. We had bought the wedding bands, our photo album, our documents and all our ducks were in a row. I thought they’d look at our bank accounts and, like in the movie “Green Card,” ask us about the color of our toothbrushes.

    In fact, the experience was terrifying. I began to sweat the moment we passed through the metal detectors in the building in Federal Plaza. After an interminably long wait, our names were called.

    The agent sat behind his desk, piled high with files and folders. He asked how we met and the date of our wedding. “So soon after 9/11,” he responded.

    Then he delivered the bombshell. “Why is there a note in your file regarding a call to our tip line about you two having married solely for the gentleman’s green card?”

    My heart started racing. It could have been any number of people who knew Emir and I were married but he was gay. I tried to hide my panic. “Probably an ex-boyfriend with a personal grudge,” I said, thinking on my feet.

    “Are you aware that taking shortcuts to get a green card is illegal?” said the agent.

    Next, he asked us how often we had sex. “We love sex,” Emir replied. Well-phrased, Emir, I thought to myself. We did love sex, we just didn’t have it with each other. It was all a matter of semantics.

    But the agent took Emir into a separate room and, five minutes later, returned alone. He looked me directly in the eye. “Tell me,” he said. “Is your husband circumcised?”

    I totally blanked. In our years of friendship and marriage, Emir and I had never seen each other naked. We were very conservative, always changing in our own rooms and dressing at least in shorts and T-shirts in the communal area of the apartment. I’d never walked in on him when he was in the bathroom.

    Tears welled in my eyes. “Is that a legitimate question?” I stammered.

    When I refused to answer, the agent got up and left the room. That’s it, I thought. Emir is getting deported, I’m about to be arrested and my mother is going to find out.

    Then the agent came back in. Emir was with him. To my relief, he wasn’t handcuffed. “We’re going to do an investigation,” the agent announced. “You’ll have to come back for another interview.”

    Crushed, we left the INS in silence. It was the middle of the day, but we went to a dark bar and ordered two Cosmopolitans. “I am f - - ked,” said Emir.

    But he wasn’t. Just three weeks after our disastrous interview, Emir checked his e-mail. “What? No way! This can’t be real!” he shouted. He had won the green card lottery. That 1-in-1,000 gamble had paid off. We no longer had to prove our marriage was real. He had gotten into America legitimately, so the investigation was scrapped.

    It was an incredible relief after going through all the emotions, ranging from desperation to fear. We actually stayed married and lived together in the East Village for another year. It was a safe, comfortable place for us to be.

    Inevitably, though, it was time to move on. Towards the end of 2003, my mother agreed to help me buy an apartment in Chelsea. We had to submit paperwork to the co-op board and, to my horror, I remembered that Emir’s name was all over my tax returns. The board needed to know he didn’t have rights to the property. We had to get divorced.

    Telling Mom about the sham marriage was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I called her up and, trying to keep my voice calm, came clean about everything. “How could you do this to me?” her voice boomed through the receiver. “It’s not something I did to you,’ I said. “I did it for Emir, and for me.”

    Eleven years on, it seems Mom has forgiven me. She retired from the Foreign Service in 2008. I’m happily married and working at a university in California. Emir is now a US citizen, a successful screenwriter and settled in New York City with his longtime partner.

    Looking back, I don’t regret what we did for one second. It was an act of true love.

    * To protect the identity of the ex-husband, Emir is an assumed name.

    I-751 December 2013 Filers

    in Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion

    Posted

    Someone incorrectly edited my biometrics date. It's on the 16th as below, not the 6th as in some posts.

    VJName..............Date of I-751...NOA1 Date....Biometrics.....Approved

    HOSSDELGADO...........12/04/13......12/05/13......12/30/13......--/--/-- (early bio 12/16)
    * KRISTIN *...........12/09/13......12/10/13......01/06/14......--/--/--
    ISSHA2LYNDEN..........12/17/13......12/23/13......01/21/14......--/--/--
    MNYARAI...............12/18/13......12/23/13......01/16/14......--/--/--

    Vermont Service Center (14 applicants)

    VJName..............Date of I-751...NOA1 Date....Biometrics.....Approved
    HANK55................11/30/13......12/03/13......12/31/13......--/--/--
    THEFANTASTICS09.......12/02/13......12/04/13......01/03/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 12/16/13)
    SEAN86................12/02/13......12/04/13......01/06/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 12/18/13)
    LA2306X...............12/02/13......12/05/13......01/08/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 12/17/13)(Divorce)
    MERLIN<3AIDAN.........12/03/13......12/06/13......01/06/14......--/--/--
    KRISTAL...............12/03/13......12/05/13......--/--/--......--/--/--
    MONIQUEM..............12/03/13......12/06/13......01/07/14......--/--/--
    GURL..................12/05/13......12/06/13......01/03/14......--/--/--
    ICAROLINA.............12/06/13......12/10/13......01/10/14......--/--/--
    TEDDY B...............12/09/13......12/11/13......01/14/14......--/--/--
    MAYA84................12/09/13......12/11/13......01/08/14......--/--/--
    MARIA TH..............12/17/13......12/--/13......--/--/--......--/--/--
    EV11..................12/17/13......12/--/13......--/--/--......--/--/--

    KRISTEN_MAROC.........12/20/13......12/--/13......--/--/--......--/--/--

    I-751 December 2013 Filers

    in Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion

    Posted

    California Service Center (4 applicants)

    VJName..............Date of I-751...NOA1 Date....Biometrics.....Approved
    HOSSDELGADO...........12/04/13......12/05/13......12/30/13......--/--/-- (early bio 12/16)
    * KRISTIN *...........12/09/13......12/10/13......01/06/14......--/--/--
    ISSHA2LYNDEN..........12/17/13......12/23/13......--/--/--......--/--/--
    MNYARAI...............12/18/13......12/23/13......01/16/14......--/--/--

    Vermont Service Center (14 applicants)

    VJName..............Date of I-751...NOA1 Date....Biometrics.....Approved
    HANK55................11/30/13......12/03/13......12/31/13......--/--/--
    THEFANTASTICS09.......12/02/13......12/04/13......01/03/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 12/16/13)
    SEAN86................12/02/13......12/04/13......01/06/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 12/18/13)
    LA2306X...............12/02/13......12/05/13......01/08/14......--/--/-- (Early Bio 12/17/13)(Divorce)
    MERLIN<3AIDAN.........12/03/13......12/06/13......01/06/14......--/--/--
    KRISTAL...............12/03/13......12/05/13......--/--/--......--/--/--
    MONIQUEM..............12/03/13......12/06/13......01/07/14......--/--/--
    GURL..................12/05/13......12/06/13......01/03/14......--/--/--
    ICAROLINA.............12/06/13......12/10/13......01/10/14......--/--/--
    TEDDY B...............12/09/13......12/11/13......01/14/14......--/--/--
    MAYA84................12/09/13......12/11/13......01/08/14......--/--/--
    MARIA TH..............12/17/13......12/--/13......--/--/--......--/--/--
    EV11..................12/17/13......12/--/13......--/--/--......--/--/--

    KRISTEN_MAROC.........12/20/13......12/--/13......--/--/--......--/--/--

    Is money brought into the US taxed?

    in Moving to the US and Your New Life In America

    Posted

    My husband and I were living in South Africa and before we moved here, we sold all our belongings, including vehicles. We consulted with both our bank in SA and our bank here in the US, and they both walked us through the paper work we needed to fill out to transfer the funds. It was a fairly simple procedure, and both banks just needed assurance and evidence as to the source of the funds since it was such a large amount of money. We were not taxed on it and on the whole, it was a quick, painless procedure.

    I had American friends who had been living in South Africa who had done it just before we did, and they didn't face any problems either.

    I think dxreed is spot on in terms of the legality of it all.

    Some Countries Lobby for More in Race for Visas

    in US Immigration News and Discussion

    Posted

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/us/politics/tucked-in-immigration-bill-special-deals-for-some.html?hp&_r=0

    WASHINGTON — The government of South Korea hired a former C.I.A. analyst, two White House veterans and a team of ex-Congressional staff members to help secure a few paragraphs in the giant immigration bill.
    The government of Ireland, during St. Patrick’s Day festivities, appealed directly to President Obama and Congressional leaders for special treatment. And the government of Poland squeezed Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and top lawmakers on Capitol Hill for its own favor, a pitch repeated at an embassy party last week featuring pirogi and three types of Polish ham.
    Those countries, and others, succeeded in winning provisions in the fine print of the 867-page immigration bill now before Congress that give their citizens benefits not extended to most other foreigners.
    Ireland and South Korea extracted measures that set aside for their citizens a fixed number of the highly sought special visas for guest workers seeking to come to the United States. Poland got language that would allow it to join the list of nations whose citizens can travel to the United States as tourists without visas. And Canadians successfully pushed for a change that would permit its citizens who are 55 and older and not working to stay in the United States without visas for as much as 240 days each year, up from the current 182.
    South Korea alone has four lobbying firms in the campaign, paying them collectively at a rate that would total $1.7 million this year, according to required disclosure reports. Other nations generally relied on their own ambassadors and embassy staff to make the push, meaning there is no way to track how much has been spent on the effort.
    The deals are already drawing some criticism, particularly from those who worry that some of the provisions — in addition to already increased annual visa allotments available generally — could create an influx of foreigners large enough to undermine American workers.
    “This could turn into a stealth immigration policy,” said Ronil Hira, a professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology who studies the immigration system. “Every country is going to try to negotiate its own carve-out.”
    Indeed, lawmakers are already pushing to grant special benefits to other places, including Tibet, Hong Kong and parts of Africa.
    Advocates of the measures say they serve American interests. Loosening the tourist visa requirements, for example, would result in hundreds of thousands of additional visitors spending billions of dollars each year, supporters say.
    Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat who was responsible in part for inserting the measures affecting Poland, Canada and Ireland into the legislation, defends them. “Each of these provisions makes individual sense on the merits,” a spokesman for the senator said. “They each solve inequities in the existing immigration law.”
    The proposed foreign deals have drawn little scrutiny, but Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and his staff are starting to raise questions about some of them, saying Americans deserve to fully understand what is in the huge immigration package. “I plan to ask many questions throughout this process,” Mr. Grassley warned during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday.
    Some diplomats who worked for the carefully devised benefits had hoped to avoid such attention. “If we could stay below the radar, we would much prefer it,” one senior official at an embassy in Washington said on the condition of anonymity.
    Most of the language in the immigration package, created by a bipartisan group of eight senators, applies equally to citizens of any foreign nation. It calls for tougher border security and a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants in the United States. It also increases the number of visas for high-skilled workers to at least 110,000 annually from the current 65,000 and eases the way for those already here to seek a permanent resident visa, known as green card. With uncertain support in the Senate and tough opposition in the House, the fate of the bill is far from clear.
    But with access to the United States a prize coveted across much of the world, the push for special favors has been intense, according to Congressional and Justice Department records.
    An Irish-American group, working with the Irish Embassy, hired former Representative Bruce Morrison, Democrat of Connecticut, to help push its cause, arguing that changes in immigration law decades ago created an unfair barrier to citizens of Ireland in gaining access to the United States.
    In 1990, he inserted a provision, since named the Morrison Visa, into immigration legislation that temporarily gave special preference to citizens of Ireland and a small number of other nations. The current proposal would allow work visas for 10,500 Irish citizens annually who are high school graduates, an unusual opportunity, since such visas are generally reserved for foreigners considered “high skilled.”
    Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland joined the effort, making the case with President Obama at St. Patrick’s Day events in Washington.
    Lobbyists working for South Korea — including Brian D. Smith, a White House aide during the Clinton administration; Scott D. Parven, a former Senate aide; Kirsten A. Chadwick, a Bush White House aide; and Jonathan R. Wakely, a former C.I.A. political analyst — made dozens of calls and visits to Capitol Hill in recent months to push for a special “professional visa” for its citizens, focusing on central players on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, the Justice Department records show.
    The lobbyists or the political action committees run by their firms have also made campaign donations to lawmakers who support their cause, in some cases just weeks before the helpful language was introduced, campaign finance records show. Foreign officials are prohibited by law from contributing to American political campaigns.
    President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, on her first official visit to Washington last week, pressed Mr. Obama and lawmakers to preserve the language in the immigration legislation that would designate at least 5,000 special work visas for South Koreans, or pass an even more generous stand-alone bill introduced last month, which would create 15,000 such visas annually.
    The South Korean government has said the provision is a necessary companion to the free trade agreement both nations ratified in 2011, so that highly skilled workers can move back and forth between the two countries freely. Australia received a similar deal in 2005 after it negotiated its own free trade pact.
    “If the bill on visa quotas for Korean professionals is passed in this Congress, both our economies will benefit, for it would help create many more jobs,” Ms. Park said in an address to Congress on Wednesday. She followed up by soliciting help from American corporations at a luncheon hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
    Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, has been the leading proponent of South Korea’s request on the Senate side, while Representative Peter Roskam, Republican of Illinois, is leading the effort in the House. “It allows the free trade agreement to flourish and meet its potential,” said Mr. Roskam, who sat next to Ms. Park at a dinner hosted by the South Korean embassy last week.
    The Poles made their pitch at Ambassador Ryszard Schnepf’s residence on Tuesday, where hundreds of Polish diplomats, military personnel and prominent Polish-Americans joined at least half a dozen members of Congress and the guest of honor, Mr. Biden. (He joked that some in his home state, Delaware, called him “Joe Bidenski.”)
    Poland wants the United States to revamp the rules that allow foreign nations to become eligible for the so-called visa waiver program, letting tourists visit the United States without having a formal interview at embassies overseas.
    Poland has been unable to qualify because too many of its citizens are rejected when they apply for visas — an indicator that they might try to fraudulently use a tourist visa to immigrate to the United States.
    The effort to revise the rules has support from the White House and groups that promote tourism in the United States. The provision could also benefit 10 or so other countries, including Argentina, Brazil and Israel.
    But Jess T. Ford, who examined border security issues for the Government Accountability Office until 2011, said the change could create a loophole leaving the United States vulnerable to increased illegal immigration, at least until the United States sets up a long-delayed system to monitor visitors when they exit, not just when they arrive.
    “Once somebody comes in here as a tourist, you can’t keep track of them,” Mr. Ford said in an interview.
    So far, Obama administration officials and backers of the measure in Congress say they are confident that simplifying the tourist entry process will not create such a problem, as an exit-tracking system is promised as part of the package. It is a position that the lobbying team pushing for the change considers good news.
    “I am confident, Mr. Vice President, that with your help, we will get this issue across the finish line,” Ambassador Schnepf told Mr. Biden last week, drawing applause and cheers.
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