.....

[r a m s e y]

inertia, pretty much everyone would not mind working, but you want to be compensated for what you are worth -- so that with a touch of sardonic humor it can be proved that sometimes you can earn a lot of money by just working ..

??

[ActiveXControl]

Be careful, however! My neighbor is being deported back to his native Check Republic because during his AOS procedure they discovered he had entered the country on a fake B-2 visa. They were reviewing all the visa applications made in Prague between 1999 and 2002 at the time when Alexander Meerovich served as a consular officer (eventually he pled guilty to visa fraud). He acknowledges that he sold at least 85 fraudulent visas over a two year period while serving as deputy consul general at the US Embassy. This neighbor tells he paid a Check citizen working in the Embassy some $10,000 to get the visa. Looks like they were all in the game, the consular officer himself included.

Nothing surprising! The State Department actually CLOSED the US consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico some years back for similar reasons. It investigated allegations that the consulate illegally sold visas to a number of people. It was the 6th busiest US consulate in the world, issuing 117,000 visas. According to Mexican police, they heard rumors that Mexican citizens were being approached by consulate employees with offers to sell visas. They passed the information on to the US government. The most of the documents sold were either tourist visas or border crossing cards. The names of those who bought visas were entered into lookout lists and distributed to law enforcement agencies.

Miguel Partida, a visa officer and a US citizen, was charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud while working at the consulate. Three Mexicans were charged in the case as well. The defendants were Sergio Genaro Ochoa-Alarcon 31, Benjamin Antonio Ayala-Morales, 34 and Ramon Alberto Torres-Galvin, 34. The men worked as visa clerks at the US consulate. All in custody.

According to the indictment against Partida, agents of the Diplomatic Security Service initiated an investigation the previous year into allegations that Consulate employees were involved in a scheme to provide visas and border crossing cards in exchange for money. Visas were apparently bought for around $1,500 without the required interviews and without a determination that the person was qualified for a visa. The US consulate in Nuevo Laredo issued 100,000 visas, but federal authorities have refused to state how many visas were sold in the alleged scheme. Authorities did say, however, that they believed the scheme was directed by a woman in Mexico named Margarita Martinez Ramirez.

[aon]

It's not just consulates on foreign soil that do this kind of thing. Some time ago an official of the Miami USCIS (INS as was called back then) and a paralegal matchmaker are were charged in a scheme to help hundreds of illegal aliens gain green cards through sham marriages. Jose Luis Cintron and his partner in the scheme allegedly charged $5,000 to $10,000 to each immigrant. Cintron would conduct the green card interview and apply a loose standard to ensure the application was successful. Cintron and Rico's activities were discovered when investigators used a police informant who posed as a potential customer. Rico allegedly provided false bills and other evidence to show a couple was living together. The informant then met his "sham" wife and Cintron at the house of Rico. The informant paid the spouse $3,000, $3,000 to Cintron and $4,000 to Rico.

INS agents raided Cintron's home as well as the home office of paralegal Guillermo Rico and recovered more than $200,000 in cash and checks. He earned $50,000 a year in his job. Cintron was arrested and released on a $150,000 bond. According to prosecutors, he had been involved in at least 500 cases since 1999 and the INS reviewed every single case he worked on to see which were legitimate and which were not..

So how did they find out about this incredible scheme? Last summer, according to "The Herald," investigators used a confidential Miami-Dade police informant who approached Rico about setting up a sham marriage and obtaining the legal residency through Cintron. Rico took care of the fabrication of fake papers including utility bills, lease arrangements, etc. Cintron got $3K, the spouse got $3K, and $4K went to Mr. Rico. For $10K, permanent residency in the United States. According to the complaint, two other "cooperating" sources cut similar deals with Mr. Rico. Good immigration attorneys can pretty much always find ways to do things legally, and I bet almost all of these folks could have found a willing employer to do a skilled worker EB-3 labor certification for them. For $5K, Kim and Lorenzo could process that labor certification and continue their invisible existence in Miami as illegal aliens until 245(i) happened, as their cases slowly cooked on the back burner. And odds were excellent that some incarnation of a 245(i) extension would happen allowing a remedy for their overstay.

[so basically]

[...] My neighbor is being deported back to his native Check Republic because during his AOS procedure they discovered he had entered the country on a fake B-2 visa. They were reviewing all the visa applications made in Prague between 1999 and 2002 at the time when Alexander Meerovich served as a consular officer (eventually he pled guilty to visa fraud). He acknowledges that he sold at least 85 fraudulent visas over a two year period while serving as deputy consul general at the US Embassy. This neighbor tells he paid a Check citizen working in the Embassy some $10,000 to get the visa. Looks like they were all in the game, the consular officer himself included.

So you pursued the "easy way out" when spelling the Republic's name, huh?

[horus]

As I understand it, top programs certify their international students for their CitiAssist Loan Program. These schools have set this up with the Student Loan Corporation (a subsidiary of Citibank) for quite a long time with Citibank granting preferred lender status to students of top schools. All such students are guaranteed loans approval, without a co-signer and regardless of nationality.

Now it is also a well-known fact that only 50% of international students arrange for H-1B visas to work in the US. Half of them are compelled to go back to their home countries. What happens to the student loans they took out in the US? Just curious, you know ..

Chase is also very generous with int'l students.

[theblackemma]

Be careful, however! My neighbor is being deported back to his native Check Republic because during his AOS procedure they discovered he had entered the country on a fake B-2 visa. They were reviewing all the visa applications made in Prague between 1999 and 2002 at the time when Alexander Meerovich served as a consular officer (eventually he pled guilty to visa fraud). He acknowledges that he sold at least 85 fraudulent visas over a two year period while serving as deputy consul general at the US Embassy. This neighbor tells he paid a Check citizen working in the Embassy some $10,000 to get the visa. Looks like they were all in the game, the consular officer himself included.

Arnold Schwarzenegger faced heat over his immigration records and work history during his campaign to become the next Governor of California. Schwarzenegger entered the US in 1968 on a B-1 visa, which allows a select group of visitors, such as training athletes, to come into the United States for brief periods of business. Under this rule, "a non-immigrant in B-1 status may not receive a salary from a U.S. source for services rendered in connection with his or her activities in the United States." However, the rules do allow immigrants to receive "actual reasonable expenses," such as money for food and hotel rooms. In his 1977 autobiography, Schwarzenegger stated that he worked out an agreement with Joe Weider to come to America. Under this agreement, Schwarzenegger provided Weider information about how he trained, while Weider provided Schwarzenegger with an apartment, a car, and payment of a weekly salary.

Weider stated that the weekly salary was $200. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said that he was only paid $65 per week. At the end of last week, Weider stated that he could not remember the details of the business deal. After questioning about half-dozen immigration attorneys on whether this payment would have been allowable, the Mercury News reported that his visa would likely have been barred under these circumstances. However, some attorneys noted the more rigorous application procedures that are now present for the immigration process. In the 1960s, the procedures were much more lax than they are now.

Schwarzenegger attorney Tom Hiltachk said Schwarzenegger received an H-2 visa, which allowed him to work in this country, in November 1969 -- after more than a year in the United States. He became a permanent resident in 1974 and a citizen in 1983. In addition, Schwarzenegger's new ad campaign on a Spanish-language radio station announced his humble beginnings in America as a bricklayer. Several immigration attorneys also believe that he violated the terms of his H-2 work visa by launching this bricklaying business in 1971. According to further reports by the Mercury News, immigration attorneys across the country said Schwarzenegger would have been barred by visa restrictions from starting his own business. Moreover, there is no record that Schwarzenegger and the Italian bodybuilder that he paired up with ever received a required state contractor's license. In addition, following this latest immigration issue, Hiltachk said it is unclear what type of visa Schwarzenegger had when he started the bricklaying business. But whether Schwarzenegger had an H-2 or another temporary visa, immigration attorneys said, the bodybuilder would have been barred from doing any work as a bricklayer or handyman.

"If they come into the United States to pick tomatoes, they can't go out and work at McDonald's," said Nancy Alby, an assistant center director at the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Naturalization Services, who spoke in general about H-2 visas and did not comment specifically on Schwarzenegger's case. "They have to do exactly what they were let into the United States to do." The immigration issue fires up a debate over Schwarzenegger's support for Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot measure that sought to keep illegal immigrants from receiving some state educational and social services. He also vows to fight a new law that allows illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses. Schwarzenegger has said that immigrants must follow the rules like he did.

The federal government and the Bureau of Immigration and Citizenship Services declined to discuss Schwarzenegger's immigration file or release his full file. Only a one-page article was released to the Mercury News when they requested the information.

[NewHere]

If you got a PhD (along with a JD perhaps) it would actually be much easier for you to stay here, PhD's don't count against the H-1B (skilled worker visa) quota and they are much easier to hire for companies, then you could get a green card after a few years.

I'm curious. What does this mean? I'm a foreign student too, starting a JD program this fall, but I have a PhD. Will this somehow magically make it easier to obtain a work visa a few years down the road?

[K a r i]

"If they come into the United States to pick tomatoes, they can't go out and work at McDonald's," said Nancy Alby, an assistant center director at the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Naturalization Services, who spoke in general about H-2 visas and did not comment specifically on Schwarzenegger's case. "They have to do exactly what they were let into the United States to do." The immigration issue fires up a debate over Schwarzenegger's support for Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot measure that sought to keep illegal immigrants from receiving some state educational and social services. He also vows to fight a new law that allows illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses. Schwarzenegger has said that immigrants must follow the rules like he did.

Schwarzenegger is a complete a s s h o l e that could became governor only in America! ONLY IN AMERICA!

[sladkaya]

If you got a PhD (along with a JD perhaps) it would actually be much easier for you to stay here, PhD's don't count against the H-1B (skilled worker visa) quota and they are much easier to hire for companies, then you could get a green card after a few years.

I'm curious. What does this mean? I'm a foreign student too, starting a JD program this fall, but I have a PhD. Will this somehow magically make it easier to obtain a work visa a few years down the road?

I believe that a J.D. is considered to be the same level as a Ph.D. for immigration visa purposes.  But it is not exempt from H-1 quota.  Master's and Ph.D. degree holders (who received their degree from a US institution) have an additional 20,000 per year H-1B quota.  While that makes your chances to get an H-1B better, I believe the quota was exhausted in two weeks this time, but at least it's not a lottery like regular H-1B quota.

The previous poster is probably thinking of the H-1B quota exemption for non-profit employees.  That is, if you go to work for the government or a non-profit research institution after you graduate with your J.D., you can apply for an H-1B immediately and have nearly 100% of getting it (assuming your paperwork is in order).

Either way, once you graduate, you'll have a year of practical training, which is plenty of time for your firm to get all documents in order and have them ready to file on the first day H-1 applications are accepted (currently it's April 1 of each year).


If I confused you more than I helped, go to immigrationportal.com and search for H-1 visa info - it's a pretty good resource.

[NewHere]

Thank you, sladkaya. That was perfectly clear.