From: smittie@beach.csulb.edu (Smittie)
Subject: Re: Immigration procedures
Organization: Cal State Long Beach
	<6182@bigbird.hri.com.hri.com> <6238@bigbird.hri.com.hri.com>
	<6262@bigbird.hri.com.hri.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 17:42:30 GMT

I can attest to Mr. Fester's statements. When my wife and I decided to get married
I called the Embassy and asked what I needed to do to obtain a visa for my
wife. They were very helpful and sent out a packet of info which was very
complete. We followed the prescribe procedure and, although there were a couple
of trips to the Embassy and it was a bit time consuming, the whole thing was
completely painless. Everyone we dealt with was professional and curteous. My
wife came thru US customs alone. She said that the official she dealt with was
very kind and presented no problems whatever. Two years later when we went to
get a permanent visa, it was much the same. The process was time consuming but
the people we dealt with were reasonable and curteous.

There is, at least in INS eyes, a significant problem with paper marriages. This
entails two people getting married, on paper only, so that one can obtain a
green card. Most of the headaches that one must go thru to get a marriage visa
are related to INS attempts to stop paper marriages. INS has identified what it
believes to be the common traits and practices of people who are trying to
obtain a visa illegally. The traits include coming to the US on a tourist visa
and then getting married, having made no mention of such an intention. Dealing
with INS is tidious in the best of circumstances. But then so are most
governmental agencies, as has already been pointed out.

Mr. Lambert's experience is one that everyone would like to avoid. Mr. Lambert
indicates that his experience is a common one and can happen to anyone. I have
never had any such problems with INS and neither have any of the other people
that I know who are in similar circumstances. It appears that establishing
communication with the relevant authorities early to find out what is required
goes along way toward making potentially unpleasant experiences more bearable.

Everything that has been presented to this newsgroup on this issue has been
ancedotal and should be taken as such. I don't buy Mr. Lambert's accusation
that the official he dealt with was participating in "gratuitous pee-pee
pulling and bureaucratic terrorism" or being mean and rude to Mr. Lambert and
his wife simply to prove how powerful he was. Having spent a fair amount of
time watching INS officials do their job (while waiting for my turn) I am
convinced that the job requires a lot of patience. Many if not most of the
people they have to deal with are not as kind, friendly, and helpful as Mr.
Lambert claims to have been. Moreover, these officials have the unsavory job of
trying to determine if anything illegal is going. I can see where INS personnel
might quickly tire of being nice and friendly.

There is no love lost between me and the INS. INS policies have some problems
to be sure. But I doubt that the INS has any special requirements about being
specially mean, evil, or stupid to work for them. I suspect that most of the
people who work for INS are exactly that, just people. I figure that most of
the time if you're nice to them, they'll be nice to you. Sometimes it doesn't
work that way. But then, sometimes I'm not very nice to people who are nice to
me. So I guess it all comes out something close to even in the end.




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GEnie, MCI, AOL:Smittie | If all of us were as smart as we think we are the
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