Recession Deepens as Immigrants Flood in US

The test is no problem at all.

The problem is the restricted ways to get in legal.

Unless you U.S. citizen as relatives you have almost zero chance to get here legally. The second easier way is to get a H1B visa, the only "dual intent" work visa (meaning - you're allowed to ask for a greencard while staying here with a H1B visa).

This VISA is really hard to get due to a very low annual quota - in practice the VISA it's a lottery now.

ALso during the six years of H1B stay you'll be a virtual slave for the company - because it's the company that asks for the VISA (the immigrant can't apply for the VIsa, only the ocmpany can) and the VISA is attached to it. If you leave or if you're fired, you lose the Visa and have to get out of the country.

Also, even if you are happy in your work sometimes it'll take 10 years for the green card process and in the end you could still be denied.

An example of how the system is screwed and fuck with the lives of so many people that are trying to do everything right and legally:

Imagine that someone comes here as a undergrad, studies for 4 years, work for 1 (you can work one your after your study), try to get a H1B visa but can't get one because of quotas. So you apply for a Masters degree and study 2 more years, and then work an extra year. Then you finally get the H1B because you're lucky. Then you apply for green card, but it takes time. Your 6 years of H1B VIsa end but the let you stay in the country while waiting the green card process (this is rare, but it happens). After 10 years, they decide that NO, you won't be issued a green card. You have to go back to your country.

Can you really blame a person like this if he/she decides to stay here illegally? We are talking about someone that spent 18 in the USA, legally, no has to get out of the country, leaving behind his life here (probably a family, kids, house, etc...).

This example is hypothetical but it's based many real cases that I have studied before coming here (I knew the system was broken before coming here, I researched a lot. A decided to come anyway because I love this country).

 

Hmm, perhaps my anecdotal test argument was flimsy, but that said, anybody who comes legally to work, and doesn't get in serious trouble should AUTOMATICALLY be granted citizenship if they want it. That would be a fantastic solution! Think of the work period as probation. Consider how little over head and trouble it would be, it's such an elegant solution to the part of the problem Hikaru is talking about. Does that make sense to anybody else? I agree 100%, what right have we to break up lives and families of faithful workers who have done nothing wrong and tried to play by the rules? Sometimes the only solution is to take matter into your own hands, I firmly believe that sometimes you have to fight the powers that be, and I have nothing but respect for people in a situation like Hikaru described.You try to play by the rules, but there is a point where the rules must be broken. In the end, law is usually only the ramblings of self-motivated or self-righteous bureaucrats and morals trump the law every time.

 

OK, so I took some of the naturalization quiz, and it was really easy--didn't miss one. I'm wondering if we were all retarded in high school or if it was a different test. I retract my concern about the test for now until I learn a bit more about it. The hardest question was the number of amendments in the constitution, while not necessarily something an immigrant needs to know, it's not too bad for a hardest question.