eclectica
2005-04-20, 10:45
My wife is going to get sworn in as a United States citizen today. We have been married more than nine years and after a long process she is getting the citizenship. First what one has to do is get one's "green card", which makes the person a legal permanent resident. Then after having the green card for three years, one can apply for citizenship if one is married to an American citizen. The reason it took nine years is that the INS kept losing applications and our files, and there were major delays. INS cases would become backlogged, so the way they would clear their backlogs would be to discard hundreds of thousands of applications. We had to pay a lawyer to refile her case. We filed address changes with them and they kept sending appointment notices to our old address long after we moved out. One time her work permit expired due to their delays, and she worked at her job for about two months without being paid. They said they would give her back pay after she got her work permit but when she got it they then changed their minds and said they couldn't. She quit that job not long afterwards.
You would think that such a vital thing like the ability to work or to be a legal resident would get top priority and attention by a government. Imagine if when your driver's license expired, renewing it was a two-year process which required you to hire a lawyer after they lost your paperwork and had you totally start over so that you had to requalify as if you were a brand new driver, and take your road test again.
Immigrants are held to higher standards than Americans, and are exploited because of their inability to get working papers. So they have to get illegal jobs or use someone else's work papers. The idea that they are leeching off the country is just plain wrong, as most of them want to work. The leeches who are in this country are the ones who are born here and take their citizenship for granted. I would like to trade out the spoiled brats in America with some immigrants in order to revitalize the country and to give all parties what they deserve.
Here are the questions that immigrants must answer NO to on a piece of paper before being sworn in as United States citizens. This is from the INS website and is dated 2003. The form they gave my wife is dated 1992 and combines questions three and four into one question.
AFTER the date you were first interviewed on your Application for Naturalization,
Form N-400:
1. Have you married, or been widowed, separated or divorced? (If "Yes," please bring documented proof of marriage, death, separation or divorce.)
2. Have you traveled outside the United States?
3. Have you knowingly committed any crime or offense, for which you have not been arrested?
4. Have you been arrested, cited, charged, indicted, convicted, fined or imprisoned for breaking or violating any law or ordinance, including traffic violations?
5. Have you joined any organization, including the Communist Party, or become associated or connected therewith in any way?
6. Have you claimed exemption from military service?
7. Has there been any change in your willingness to bear arms on behalf of the United States; to perform non-combatant service in the armed forces of the United States; to perform work of national importance under civilian direction, if the law requires it?
8. Have you practiced polygamy, received income from illegal gambling, been a prostitute, procured anyone for prostitution or been involved in any other unlawful commercialized vice, encouraged or helped any alien to enter the United States illegally, illicitly trafficked in drugs or marijuana, given any false testimony to obtain immigration benefits, or been a habitual drunkard?
Form N-445 (Rev. 09/12/03)
You would think that such a vital thing like the ability to work or to be a legal resident would get top priority and attention by a government. Imagine if when your driver's license expired, renewing it was a two-year process which required you to hire a lawyer after they lost your paperwork and had you totally start over so that you had to requalify as if you were a brand new driver, and take your road test again.
Immigrants are held to higher standards than Americans, and are exploited because of their inability to get working papers. So they have to get illegal jobs or use someone else's work papers. The idea that they are leeching off the country is just plain wrong, as most of them want to work. The leeches who are in this country are the ones who are born here and take their citizenship for granted. I would like to trade out the spoiled brats in America with some immigrants in order to revitalize the country and to give all parties what they deserve.
Here are the questions that immigrants must answer NO to on a piece of paper before being sworn in as United States citizens. This is from the INS website and is dated 2003. The form they gave my wife is dated 1992 and combines questions three and four into one question.
AFTER the date you were first interviewed on your Application for Naturalization,
Form N-400:
1. Have you married, or been widowed, separated or divorced? (If "Yes," please bring documented proof of marriage, death, separation or divorce.)
2. Have you traveled outside the United States?
3. Have you knowingly committed any crime or offense, for which you have not been arrested?
4. Have you been arrested, cited, charged, indicted, convicted, fined or imprisoned for breaking or violating any law or ordinance, including traffic violations?
5. Have you joined any organization, including the Communist Party, or become associated or connected therewith in any way?
6. Have you claimed exemption from military service?
7. Has there been any change in your willingness to bear arms on behalf of the United States; to perform non-combatant service in the armed forces of the United States; to perform work of national importance under civilian direction, if the law requires it?
8. Have you practiced polygamy, received income from illegal gambling, been a prostitute, procured anyone for prostitution or been involved in any other unlawful commercialized vice, encouraged or helped any alien to enter the United States illegally, illicitly trafficked in drugs or marijuana, given any false testimony to obtain immigration benefits, or been a habitual drunkard?
Form N-445 (Rev. 09/12/03)