shlopman

I'm not him but this would be non issue if we reformed our immigration system. Currently it can take between 7 to 20+ years to become a citizen. I am an American citizen and I married a Russian. it has taken 2 years, and over $2000 of fees just to get her into the country and get her work authorization. She wasn't allowed to leave the US for the past year or she would never be let back in. It will be another year of waiting before we get her green card and then 3-5 more years to get citizenship. And this is for marrying a US citizen by birth which should be automatic.

The legal process to become a citizen is fucked, and gives honest people an extremely hard time. We need to fix the system before before anyone will be motivated to use legal pathways to come here.

[Edit] so I don't have to reply to everyone:

The process doesn't need to go away and should stay in place. It could be improved massively, very easily to make it more efficient, and cost less to run. The current application costs 1000 dollars. Make the application 1001 dollars for a year. This would generate around 6 million dollars over one year. Use this money to develop an online application system. Right now you have to go online, print out tons of forms, fill out by hand, send by mail, have it entered all back into a computer system by a uscis employee, and only then can the process start. This re-entering of information takes hours per application. If this work was simply shifted to the applicant by forcing them to enter all of their information online, it would massively reduce operating costs of the USCIS, reduce processing times for the applications, and would have no downsides over paper forms. All of the documents they request are photocopies anyways, which could be scanned in. The one item that would need to be physically sent would be the passport.

I'll answer you as an American who brought my wife in through the legal system.

The legal system is fucking terrible. Have you ever been frustrated by going to the dmv or doing your taxes? Imagine that level of beaurocratic bullshit times 100,000. From submitting the visa paperwork to getting my wife into the country and getting a temporary green card took about 3 years and 3000 dollars. 400+ pages of documents and paperwork for a single part of the application. And you have to do almost the same paperwork 3 times because they save nothing. Also they force you to live separately for that time because you have to remain a US resident, and they can't visit because you can't get a tourist visa when applying for a fiance visa.

The system is set up to be oppressive and difficult and fucking sucks. I wouldn't wish going through it on my worst enemy. And I am an American born citizen so this should be the easiest way in to the country.

Fixing our terrible legal immigration system would go a long way to reducing illegal immigration. Imagine how many drivers would drive cars illegally if it cost 3000 dollars and years of not being able to go in a car just to get your license.

That being said illegal immigration is definitely a problem that unfortunately both sides of the political spectrum are too fucking stupid or stubborn to solve.

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