I don't think Andy's situation is one that should cause us to be ashamed of our government. We are not in a position to let every good person take up permanent residence here, so there have to be rules about who gets in. Andy is definitely a great person whom all of us would love to have as an American citizen, but being a great guy and having a love for traditional archery does not meet the legal requirements. The first thing anyone here needs to do is to understand what those requirements are. Since that usually takes years of study and practical experience, such a task is best left to a good immigration lawyer. Even then there can be many difficulties. The fact that illegals are living here is immaterial. If Andy wants to risk sneaking across the border and working as a migrant farm laborer or domestic servant, then he can. But I doubt he wants to live that kind of life. Doing things the right way is tough, and it is supposed to be.
Both my kids have studied overseas, one of them for years. We had to jump through hoops just to get them student visas. America is not the only nation that severely limits immigration. My brother lives in Switzerland with his Swiss-born wife and children, and it took him 25 years to get Swiss citizenship so he could get health and retirement benefits there. He and his kids have dual Swiss/American citizenship, but if he brought his wife back over here it would take many years for her to become an American citizen. My son is about to get married to a Swedish girl, so she is going to have a similar problem when they move here next summer. As you can see, I understand Andy's situation. I'm a lawyer myself, but that doesn't carry any weight in getting things done with the immigration service. I am hiring an immigration lawyer to help us through the process because I don't know what to do either. I do know that if Andy were to marry an American girl it would be easier for him, but that is not something he should do just to stay in the country. In fact, it would be illegal to marry only for that purpose, although such an intent might be difficult to prove.
Andy, I'm all for you buddy, and if there is something I can do for you and your family, I will. You are definitely a person we all love having here in America. I hope your family has a good immigration lawyer working for you on this. If not, I can find one for you to contact. I expect you already have one or you probably would not have gotten this far. I know that under your visa it is not enough for you to simply have any old job; you have to be transferred here from another country to a management position with the same company you were already working for. A company I own part of had foreign employees transfer to the US on the same kind of visa and we had our lawyers put the whole thing together. I could give you the contact information on our lawyers if you want or need it. I do know it cost us a considerable amount of money.
If someone here wants to start a fund to help defray the expenses of helping Andy to stay here, I am willing to put some money where my mouth is. It is easy to talk about how rotten our government is by not letting Andy stay and quite another to do something constructive to accomplish Andy's goal. I will contribute the first $100 to kick things off. If enough of us here really want Andy to stay that much, we should be able to raise the money it takes to hire people to help make that happen. Once we know from the lawyers what else Andy needs, then we can help get that done. With 20,000 registered TradGang members, it would not take very many people donating money to make things happen. All the badmouthing of the incredible country that Andy wants to stay in won't do him a bit of good. Ask Andy whether he prefers the governments of England or Zimbabwe (where he is from) to the American government, and I bet you will hear from a relative outsider just how good we all have in our native country!
Allan
Topic: Sad News- One of ours needs cheered up (Read 2872 times)
