On Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:18:33 -0500, Robert L Bass wrote:

"Jules" wrote:

Only because there were few, if any laws against immigration back then.

Yep. I came over in 2007 - process took about a 8 months, lots of
paperwork, lots of fees (it'll end up being about $4000 when I'm all done
I think, and I didn't have lawyer fees on top of that like most do).

$4,000? I hope that's for more than the green card (which was never green,
BTW). We did our own paperwork for my wife and IIRC, ut came to less than $2K.
That was in 2004-5.

I think fees all went up since then - that's also including long trips
back and forth for medicals, embassy appointments, biometrics etc. which
of course do depend on your location as to how expensive they are
(although I think the medical alone was $400).

I'm getting toward the end of my 2 year conditional residency, and I think
it's about $1000 for the paperwork to change that into a full green card.
Then citizenship comes later (I realise that's optional!) and is
doubtless similarly costly...

The process costs a lot more than a lot of illegals can afford - even
assuming a legal route is open to them, which it won't be in most
cases.

From what some folks in Congress had been speaking about, the recent
idea is to require illegal aliens to pay a fine, go home and then go
through a pre-approved process for legal re-entry. The problem for many
illegals is all of that will be beyond their financial means.

Yep. It's expensive and slow - but at the same time I can totally
understand a country wanting to lock down its borders. I've just got
issues with use of deadly force to patrol those borders, though...

We were fortunate in that my wife was here legally on a 5-year,
renewable visa when we met.

Aha, OK... my wife's a USC - met her in 2005 on a trip over here and then
went back and forth on the VWP for the next couple of years before kicking
off all the paperwork.

I'd love to see a more open
door policy but that's probably a few years off. We'll see.

Certainly would be nice just for visitors and maybe an increase of stay
from the 90 days of the VWP.

cheers

Jules