Re: INS marriages
 

exactly, it's easy to get a visa for canada/western europe/australia, but almost impossible to get legal residency. it's harder to get a visa for the usa, but much easier to get legal residency (a green card).

Re: INS marriages
 

If you're seriously doubting that the US has one of the largest migration programmes in the world, both in per capita and absolute levels, use google or visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration

Re: INS marriages
 

[ QUOTE ]
exactly, it's easy to get a visa for canada/western europe/australia, but almost impossible to get legal residency. it's harder to get a visa for the usa, but much easier to get legal residency (a green card).

[/ QUOTE ]


this is simply not true.


144,000 people are expected to have migrated to Australia in 2006/07 financial year. This represents just under 0.7% of the entire population (21million pop)

1,266,264 migrants obtained permanent residency in the US during the 2006 calendar year. This represents just under 0.4% of the entire population (300million pop)

(those stats were courtesy of wikipedia)


according to the CIA world factbook, here are the net migration rates:

Australia 3.78 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Canadia 5.79 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
UK 2.17 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
USA 3.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)


By contrast:
Bolivia -1.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Japan 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Malaysia 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
Saudi Arabia -5.95 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Re: INS marriages
 

Teddy, my parents are friends with a couple who did this maybe 20 years ago. They're still married and have a biracial son. I've met them so I can attest they exist [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: INS marriages
 

I think these stats are incomplete without knowing the number of people who would like to apply for a visa or residency. To determine how difficult it is to gain permanent residency somewhere, you can't measure it against how many people live there (per capita). That's just silly. You have to measure it against how many people would like to have residency. The number who actually apply PLUS the number who don't apply because they know they won't be approved.

Re: INS marriages
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
exactly, it's easy to get a visa for canada/western europe/australia, but almost impossible to get legal residency. it's harder to get a visa for the usa, but much easier to get legal residency (a green card).

[/ QUOTE ]


this is simply not true.


144,000 people are expected to have migrated to Australia in 2006/07 financial year. This represents just under 0.7% of the entire population (21million pop)

1,266,264 migrants obtained permanent residency in the US during the 2006 calendar year. This represents just under 0.4% of the entire population (300million pop)

(those stats were courtesy of wikipedia)


according to the CIA world factbook, here are the net migration rates:

Australia 3.78 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Canadia 5.79 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
UK 2.17 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
USA 3.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)


By contrast:
Bolivia -1.18 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Japan 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Malaysia 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population
Saudi Arabia -5.95 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)

[/ QUOTE ]


I don't see how the number of immigrants vs. emigrants of a specific country has anything to do with the difficulty of immigrating.

Re: INS marriages
 

since this is supposed to be a thread about marriage to migrate, I'm not going to respond further and further hijack the thread, but if someone were to start a thread on it, i'd participate.

Re: INS marriages
 

This from the friend I originally referenced in this post who married for INS reasons, after I refered him to this thread in an email:

"...Ironically, [deleted] and I are currently separated and a divorce is imminent."

He also had a bit to say about marriage, be it foreign or domestic. Cliff Notes: Don't do it.

Re: INS marriages
 

[ QUOTE ]
I want to know just how 'streamlined' a process it is for someone from a 1st-world country who's been in the US for 10 years attending top schools; or does all of that not matter, and i'll be just as scrutinized as the cattle-herder from Uruguay who marries a poor American girl he's been "dating" for 2 weeks?

[/ QUOTE ]

I know 4 eastern european girls who all did this in Tahoe. The going rate seemed to be 5-10k. They weren't really scrutinized at all and the whole thing was pretty automatic. It was very transparent too as the marriages were obviously all happening as their visas were expiring. The only potential problem is if your spouse ends up wanting to get out of it / pissed at you or whatever before the time is up.

Re: INS marriages
 

I know 2 girls who married for green cards. One married a friend/ex-boyfriend, the other married her then-boyfriend. Both got their green cards but experienced serious hardship along the way. Girl #1's husband "borrowed" a lot of money from her without her permission (they were advised to join their bank accounts to make the marriage more believable). He eventually paid her back but it destroyed their friendship. Girl #2's relationship disintegrated when she realized that being married, even only technically, brought out all these intense feelings of commitment that her boyfriend/husband was totally unprepared for. Then when the relationship fell apart (they stayed technically married for the sake of her green card), her marital status left her in limbo with respect to meeting and dating other guys at an age (30+) when she can't afford to wait around.

Good times.