An International Family Contemplating International Problems on the International Day of Families
Did you realize that if you get married to a woman you love from another country and decide you want to live abroad, that you will not necessarily be able to bring her back with you for a visit, to say meet your own parents??
I am a U.S. citizen and have been my whole life. Neither my wife or I have or are working in any sensitive position, we've never been convicted of a crime, and yet I can't take my own wife home for a visit?
The irony of ironies is that if she wanted to emigrate to the U.S., there would be no problem. But they told my wife that due to her relative youth (in her mid-twenties), etc. she was considered a flight risk! If we immigrate, it is ok, but if we go for a short visit to visit my parents, she's a flight risk??
Please, someone, help me understand this!!!
I can't appeal for her (she has to apply herself for a mere visit, and her English is just fine, even though that would be pretty irrelevant if we wanted to visit our parents, I'd say). Do all U.S. citizens in such a position have to resort to appeals to their representatives to TAKE THEIR OWN SPOUSE BACK HOME FOR A VISIT??? She tried this twice no less. By the second time, our home here was in her name, she had a job with an American company, and she is still seen as a flight risk?
Thankfully, the "Legal Immigration Family Equity Act" allowed people to come into the U.S. as "nonimmigrants" while they applied for immigrant status, but this doesn't help us I have read that one is discouraged from applying for immigration if one does not plan to stay.
This is not to mention the discouraging instances of rudeness I and my wife respectively encountered at an embassy and consulate respectively, making it hard for my wife or extended family here to get any kind of good impression from the government for which I am otherwise proud to be a citizen.
What is more basic than a right to marry whom you choose? And what meaning is that right, if you can't share that unity with your own family??
I was watching a program here in China about a fish farmer who developed his business by going to the U.S., learning something or other, etc. While I'm happy for him, how is it possible that a U.S. citizen cannot come back for a visit with his own wife, but one (and DEFINITELY NOT JUST ONE) with no prior connections to the country, can come freely?? Business--even a small business--from a foreign country trumps a native (U.S.) citizen and his family's rights???? Now, we can apply for our newborn son with no problem, but is that "family friendly" to allow one's son to visit, but not one's spouse?
Sorry, I am only this exasperated because I believe in the higher ideals espoused by the U.S., and find this situation just inexplicable... Something really needs to change here...
I am a U.S. citizen and have been my whole life. Neither my wife or I have or are working in any sensitive position, we've never been convicted of a crime, and yet I can't take my own wife home for a visit?
The irony of ironies is that if she wanted to emigrate to the U.S., there would be no problem. But they told my wife that due to her relative youth (in her mid-twenties), etc. she was considered a flight risk! If we immigrate, it is ok, but if we go for a short visit to visit my parents, she's a flight risk??
Please, someone, help me understand this!!!
I can't appeal for her (she has to apply herself for a mere visit, and her English is just fine, even though that would be pretty irrelevant if we wanted to visit our parents, I'd say). Do all U.S. citizens in such a position have to resort to appeals to their representatives to TAKE THEIR OWN SPOUSE BACK HOME FOR A VISIT??? She tried this twice no less. By the second time, our home here was in her name, she had a job with an American company, and she is still seen as a flight risk?
Thankfully, the "Legal Immigration Family Equity Act" allowed people to come into the U.S. as "nonimmigrants" while they applied for immigrant status, but this doesn't help us I have read that one is discouraged from applying for immigration if one does not plan to stay.
This is not to mention the discouraging instances of rudeness I and my wife respectively encountered at an embassy and consulate respectively, making it hard for my wife or extended family here to get any kind of good impression from the government for which I am otherwise proud to be a citizen.
What is more basic than a right to marry whom you choose? And what meaning is that right, if you can't share that unity with your own family??
I was watching a program here in China about a fish farmer who developed his business by going to the U.S., learning something or other, etc. While I'm happy for him, how is it possible that a U.S. citizen cannot come back for a visit with his own wife, but one (and DEFINITELY NOT JUST ONE) with no prior connections to the country, can come freely?? Business--even a small business--from a foreign country trumps a native (U.S.) citizen and his family's rights???? Now, we can apply for our newborn son with no problem, but is that "family friendly" to allow one's son to visit, but not one's spouse?
Sorry, I am only this exasperated because I believe in the higher ideals espoused by the U.S., and find this situation just inexplicable... Something really needs to change here...
posted by Brett at
6:37 AM
3 Comments:
Oddly enough when my uncle got married in Sweden in the 70's he had the exact same problem. Made worse by the fact that his new father in law was big in the Communist Party in Sweden. They eventually persevered but we as a country have had 30 years to add to the layers of beauracracy since then.
By
Caleb Bullen, at Thursday, 15 May, 2008
Hi Caleb,
Nice to hear from you...
I hear of others in my position now too.
I prefer some bureaucracy to leaving it to the whim of officers (as in some countries), as long as that bureaucracy is governed by reasonable laws. In this case, I feel there is a big gap in the law. Without it being spelled out for them, bureaucrats who might be overworked, who encounter angry people all day, some of whom may, as with most in the world today, still sadly worship the fetish of nationalism as opposed to developing an international outlook and patriotism, who are under heavy pressure from their superiors and populace to curb immigration/punish crime/root out terror at any cost (despite the counter-productiveness of indiscriminate heavy-handedness in these areas), some gatekeepers may be only too willing to stick their foot out at the next emblem that comes their way, even I guess, if that emblem happens to be a sweet, young woman who just wants to meet her husband's family.
By
Brett, at Thursday, 15 May, 2008
Hey Honey,thank you for what you've done for me... No matter I could I go to the States or not,I will be very guaiguai... Love you.
Coco:)
By
Anonymous, at Friday, 15 August, 2008
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