by Chris Bodenner
A reader writes:
In addition to the upfront visa and legal fees, as a worker here in the US (technically on a "non-immigrant visa") I pay thousands of dollars each year into Social Security and Medicare, for which I won't be eligible until I have spent ten years here. I won't get that money back when I leave; and short-term workers (under 18 months), or those from countries without a totalization agreement with the United States don't receive Social Security "credit" for that money when they return to their home country (a list of those countries that do have the agreements here). Being a pinko leftist type, I don't object to paying into these programs, but the blithe assumption that an immigrant visa doesn't have any adverse financial consequences isn't right either.
Another writes:
This is was clearly written by someone that has never actually had to deal with the US Immigration System, because there already are tariffs on US Immigration. In my own case, I married a European woman. The fees alone for the temp fiancee visa, change of status, work permit, green card, and numerous bio-metric checks were over $5,000.
And those fees have increased since we went through the process. This amount does not include the costs of lawyers to make sure we did everything "legally", the costs of medical checks which can only be performed by special exorbitantly priced doctors, or the lost income that resulted from a pile of lost paperwork that delayed my wife's work permit for five months.
I don't know the details of other forms of immigration, because I haven't the same experience with them, but I do know students pay every year to renew their visa on top of the initial filing fees. I also know that in some case with an H1B workers permit, the company pays many of fees for filing and lawyers by withholding a percentage of the employees check.
So immigration is ALREADY a hugely expensive endeavor, something that people spend large portions of their savings to accomplish. Raising the price even more might allow for more highly-educated people to immigrate, and I would welcome that, but you would also shut out the poor, who will increasingly not bother to apply for immigrant status to fill a sub-minimum wage job.
Another sends the above photo (blurred to ensure anonymity) and writes:
As a recent green card recipient, I believe that mostly the bureaucracy behind immigration is broken. Attached is my green card application. Shockingly, there are less than 10 pages of only three government forms; the rest is evidence/attachments. It cost me about a year to assemble. It literally cost me my job. THIS IS INSANE. Andrew had his own share of bureaucratic insanity. There has to be a better, smarter way to check whether people meet the very reasonable criteria that the US request of immigrants (are they smart, are they not terrorists, are their skills high and necessary, etc.)
A main reason why the process is so insanely complicated is that lawyers lobby well to keep things are complex as possible. They do the same in the patent and financial industry. Oh, and by the way, there is already a price on immigration. In my case, about 5 grand. For most people, about $10-12K.
Another:
You ask if we should charge for visas … the answer is "no." (It was originally a two-word answer and the first word was quite impolite.)
Charging for visas effectively means it is impossible for poor immigrants to come to the US and have a chance at a better life. Rather than "give me your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free", it is "give me your wealthy, well-educated elite, yearning to make a few extra bucks." It flies in the very face of who we believe we are as a people. So many Americans can tell you a story about a parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent coming here with little more than a suitcase full of clothes and going to work at some menial job and eventually opening up their own shop, buying a home, raising a family, seeing their kids go to college, their grandkids go to medical school…
Maybe it's because I'm the son and grandson of immigrants (and on the other side only a couple generations removed from sharecroppers), but I could not begin to fathom why people are so intent on changing something that so many of us believe is a fundamental part of who we are as a people.
Another:
Despite living here for the past six years (switching between three types of visas), despite graduating with honors here in New York, despite getting straight As in several American history classes, despite watching every single episode of Colbert and Stewart since 2005, and despite assimilating pretty well (as my American friends can attest to), I am still not eligible for immigration status.
So yes, I would welcome a price tag for becoming an immigrant. You've put a price on everything else anyway, so why not this? At least let me get a sense of how hard I need to work in order to get in. Give me hope I'll be able to work my way to become a citizen. Name your price, America.
The Dish 