I have been reading Greg Siskind’s blog, and he has many articles on the growing hue and cry over the USCIS Visa debacle. [here and here, as examples]

Based on everything I have read, I might benefit from this scam. However, it makes me ill to think that a group of bureaucrats broke their own rules in order to boost their Visa acceptance rate, which is what it sounds like.

Tags: Greg Siskind, USCIS, Green Card, immigration

Tags: app, blog, EAD, Green Card, HTML, HTTP, IM, Immigration, it, Om, Technorati

As many readers know, I am going through the process — if you call filing a bunch of paperwork and not hearing anything for 2 years a process — of obtaining Permanent Residency in the United States, often referred to as the Green Card.

This morning, on NPR, there was a story about a foul-up in the processing of Green Cards that is suspicious, to say the least.

I have started referring to this process as the Dream Card because it leaves one thinking that the application they completed was done in a dream, a long time ago. An like most dreams, it is a fable of the subconscious mind and as likely to come true as those blue, flying penguins in my dream last night.

The degree of complexity that accompanies the application process has made bureaucrats from the Byzantine Empire write letters of complaint to their members of Congress, saying that the USCIS is giving them a bad name. Kafka has been seen rising from the dead at night, and penning a new tale based on this experience.

Other people covering this story.

NY Times
The Guardian
Times Of India
Miami Herald
San Jose Mercury News
Sacramento Bee Editorial

A few media outlets have grabbed this story as an example of just how broken the US system is when it comes to immigration, especially given the irony of the recent debate over the immigration bill that was tossed out of Congress. How could the immigration system have hoped to deal with the new regulations, if thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of valid visas go unused every year, due to government inefficiency.

Why would an illegal immigrant bother to go through a legal process that punishes the very people who are taking the time to follow the rules?

I would raise my voice in protest; but it would do no good. Drawing a pool of highly skilled, well compensated indentured servants from around the world to these shores to keep the wheels of innovation and development rolling appears to have become the American way.

And like indentured servants everywhere, we are a disposable commodity, to be teased by the promise that some day, we could, we might, just maybe be able to live here (and still not be able to vote) as Permanent Residents.

Tags: Green Card, fiasco, scandal, State Department, USCIS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, indentured, servants, work visa, visa

Tags: app, application, ARIN, dreams, EAD, government, Green Card, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, Immigration, India, IP, ISP, it, leave, live, media, NY Times, Om, One, opinion, permanent resident, PHP, pr, Technorati, United States

I just remembered something this morning. Starting October 7, 2006, I will be officially a man without a Visa. My final H1-B renewal expires on October 6, 2006, and although they have applied for an extension, and I am at some indeterminate point supposed to get a Green Card, I will be of no status as of that date.

If you have any conferences or camps or seminars you want me to attend, better get me before October 6!

Technorati Tags: DHS, Immigration, H1B, H1-B, Canada, Visa, Green+Card, Permanent+resident

Tags: app, Canada, DHS, extension, Green Card, H1, H1-B, HTTP, IE, IM, Immigration, it, Om, Technorati

It appears that I will likely have to be fingerprinted every time I come into the US from now on. [here and here]

I love being an “enemy alien”.

Technorati Tags: Immigration, US-VISIT, USA, Canada

Tags: app, Canada, cbc, content, DHS, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, Immigration, ISP, it, Om, pr, Technorati

I am writing this from Toronto. I am in shock that I am here, as the events over the last 24 hours seem like a bad dream. It appears that the US media has not picked it up on this crisis. In fact, I am
having difficulty getting to US news sites and blog servers from Canada.

Yesterday, representatives from DHS arrived at my office and took me into a conference room along with the CEO and COO. The COO (a Canadian with a permanent resident status) and I were told that we and are families were being taken to Logan airport and placed on a flight to Canada. They then handcuffed us and took us out through the back door to an unmarked bus, with about 20 others onboard. There were guards in paramilitary uniforms I could not identify.

After three or four more stops (it was a blur, I can’t remember it all), we arrived at logan. I was re-united with Samantha and the boys in a abandoned hangar, where there were 200-300 of these unidentified paramilitary guards. There had to be 2-3,000 people in the hangar.

We were herded onto a series of C-5 cargo planes and flown for about 90 minutes. Off the plane, and left at what turns out to be an abandoned airfield just outside Toronto. AFter about 20 minutes, OPP and RCMP officers appeared, looking as stunned as we were.

Does anyone know what’s going on?

---

Sound scary? Well, I would say April Fool’s Day, if it weren’t for the fact that the current xenophobic ranting going on in the United States makes me feel that this scenario is not so far-fetched. I am here legally on an H-1B, but could be deported at the whim of the US Government. And these whims appear to engulfing the American psyche.

Right now, the targets are the “illegal immigrants”. This is white, middle-class code for “latin immigrants, regardless of status”. But will it stop there?

As the US fortunes are matched by other growing economies, will this xenophobic and racist tendency lead to all immigrants being targeted, regardless of status and origin? Is the tradition of US isolationism rearing its head in a world of crumbling borders and economic barriers?

Is the US really ready for the world?

Technorati Tags: immigration, racism, xenophobia, isolationism, USA, Canada, globalization

Tags: app, ARIN, blog, Canada, current, DHS, EAD, government, HTTP, IE, IM, immigrants, Immigration, it, LAN, media, Om, One, permanent resident, pr, racism, server, Technorati, United States, xenophobia

Rick Segal has a great post this morning about the unique nature of the Canada-US border. [here]

Rick hits it on the head: US Customs and Immigration Agents are some of the most unpleasant people I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with.

When Samantha goes home with the boys next month, what does she fear the most?

Re-entering the US on a valid visa.

Why should people who have valid visas fear coming back into the US?

Oh yeah, the US hates immigrants. Or at least that’s how the rest of the world interprets their attitude, policies, and actions toward those who are not privileged enough to hold US citizenship.

UPDATE: Looks like Matt Mullenweg enjoyed the pleasure of what happens going INTO Canada without a passport! [here]

UPDATE: GOOD LORD! Is it weird immigration story day or what? David Weinberger recounts his encounter with a US Immigration Agent in Montreal last night. Gives me some inkling of hope.

Technorati Tags: DHS, US Customs, Canada Customs, Canada, US, immigration, work visa, h-1b

Tags: app, blog, Canada, DHS, EAD, hits, HTML, HTTP, IE, IM, immigrants, Immigration, IP, it, Om, pr, Technorati, update

We have been in the Boston area for 2.5 years. In that time, Samantha and the boys have not been home.

Frankly, the whole process of leaving the US and then getting back in scares the hell out of us. US immigration always goes out of their way to make us feel unwelcome.

But Samantha told me last night that she has to go see her parents and let them see their grandbabies. So they are going to Victoria April 13-25.

It comes to a point where you have to say it’s a really nice cell, comfortable and all; but we are still in jail.

Samantha and the boys are going to make a break for it.

Technorati Tags: Canada, Homeland Security, US immigration, visas, Victoria BC

Tags: Boston, Canada, HTTP, IE, IM, Immigration, it, LAN, Om, pr, Technorati