Daz_Genetic
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Karma: 18
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Re:The.Penn.Jillette.Radio.Show.2006.05.01 - 2006/05/01 23:54
Nice to hear Penn and Michael talk about immigration today. Just finished typing an email to them, but thought you guys might be interested in my views, since I am actually an immigrant myself.
Hi Michael & Penn,
Was just listening to today's show (May 1st) and heard you talk to a lady about getting married in order to obtain citizenship. Despite what the movies suggest, this is not the case at all. I thought I should let you know what it's like to enter the US and get married legally.
I come from England, and I met my fianc?e over the internet. We spoke every single day for more than 2 years, and we met many times before finally deciding to get engadged. At this point we naively thought it would be a simple case of booking a one way plane ticket, a date at the local town hall, and a honeymoon. After doing some research into it, I found out that marrying a US citizen does not automatically give you citizenship (or even residency). If I had done that, I would have had to go back home, and then my wife would have had to sponsor me to enter the US as her spouse. A process that takes years, lots of cash, and is in no way guaranteed. The method we chose was to apply to enter the country as a fianc? of a US citizen; which still took a lot of money and over a year of waiting, but is more of a certainty (at least in the sense that I wouldn't end up married to someone that I couldn't legally live with).
Upon entering the US, we had to get married within 90 days, and immediately start filing more paperwork. I am legally unable to claim financial aid for 10 years, and can be deported for doing so. It took over a year before I received a social security number and a work permit. Soon after that we filed more paperwork that gave me conditional permanent residency. 2 years after that, the ''conditional" clause will be removed from my status by filing yet more paperwork. At each stage in this process, we must fill in reams of paperwork and each submission is accompanied by a check for hundreds of dollars.
I have a similar point of view to you guys on the subject of immigration. Nobody should have any right to close the doors behind them and claim a country as their own. People should have a choice of living anywhere they please on the earth; it's a big place, and there's room for everyone.
The retarded thing about all of this is that if they suddenly decide to make all these illegal immigrants legal residents, those of us in the process of applying for legal residency, are still going to have to fork out hundreds and hundreds of dollars, while those who bypassed the bureaucracy get a free pass. But nothing surprises me, in the least Free country I've ever lived in.
Cheers,
Darren Tilley
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