I can tell you a lot of horror stories of INS bungling, but I’ll desist for now and point out a post on Ginger Stampley’s blog. She is one of the few bloggers who knows something about immigration issues.
It’s difficult for an alien to follow the law when nobody knows what it is, and the interpretation of the laws and regulation are totally at the discretion (read: whim) of the INS flunky you’re currently dealing with. And even if you follow those instructions in good faith, the next INS flunky you deal with may still throw you in jail or out of the country for failing to meet a different interpretation of the applicable laws and/or regulations.
It’s considered bad form to ask “why do they hate us?”, but it would take a real idiot to miss that the INS’ inept handling of student visas and special registration (among its many other flaws) does not endear the US to anyone who’s had to deal with it, alien or citizen.
Don’t they also have the problem of no one keeping up to date with new and old (expired) VISA’s? I also heard that their database is 5-10 years behind. Is that true and why do we have such a huge problem with this section of the Government? I am recently new to finding out all the problems and hurdles the Government faces as well as writing my Congressperson regarding the problems not being fixed.
Iridiem: There are lots of problems with INS (or its alphabet soup of successors). Everything at INS takes a long time and their records are not properly kept either.
One of the reasons for problems with INS is that citizens don’t have to deal with it and hence there is no political grassroots support for making it better.
My problems with INS is 2 fold. First My green card expired when I actually sent in the renewal over 8 months before expiration. I had to get my congressman to help and they didnt even bother to answer my letters/phone calls so I called the local tv station news and they immidiately came and did an interview. Needless to say my congressman got the INS to get the visa renewed the NEXT day and the card came in the mail in 3 days. Now my problem is that I have a “watch” on My card and everytime I am at the airport I get stopped, placed in a room and searched. My other problem is that after 2 + years I applied for my son to come live here and was denied THE day he was suppos to get his visa because according to My son they say He is NOT My son. Calls do no good as they refuse to talk to me and give me any information. WHen I TRY to talk to a supervisor I am placed on hold for over 20 min to only get disconnected. I now have NO recorse, no help as I don’t have money to pay a lawyer as the INS has already sucked up over $500 for drs fees, paperwork and now a plane ticket that can’t be used. marjafo@hotmail.com for comments