Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Family unfriendly (letter to the editor at the Chronicle)
I absolutely share their story, and I have personally heard many cases
from my Chinese friends, some were successful, some were not, but it's
rediculous, that it's not consistent what they heard from US INS.
My sister was rejected visitor's visa twice in 1998 (the day after US
bombed Chinese Embassy in Yogoslavia), and 1999, first time there was
basically no explanation, and my sister contributed it to the bad
timing between US and China. The second time, the INS officer
questioned her salary, then her intention to come to the US, even with
her intentionally left her husband in Beijing, instead of coming with
her, the request was rejected, she got the message of 'you make too
little money, so you will stay in the US if you come'.
As people are trying to have family members over to visit them, there
are all sorts of 'tips', 'tricks', 'stories' circuling around. One of
my favorite was:
A guy was rejected visa by US consulate, out of angry, he shouted "Who
wants to go to your US, do you think you have anything valueable for
me to see?!", then turned around to leave. Then the consulate stopped
him, said "I will let you see what's valueable!", then he was approved
his visa. After that, people are obviously using it, I guess when the
story spreaded to me, it's already obsolete, I actually suggested it
to my sister, of course, out of the same angry, but she laughed and
said to me "it's been used 100s of times, no longer useful".
I think one of the mistakes that INS is making, which I hope they
don't continue to make is they are still treating China as what it was
10 years ago, when lots of people wanted to flee over to the US, and
other western countries to live, to work, to study. Wrong! China is
not even the China two years ago! My mandarin students going to
Beijing to attend venture capital meetings, sent me a 3-page letter
appraising the Beijing she saw, "Tom, if you have not been back for a
while, you won't recognize the place.... It's unbelievable. ", the
other student wrote me: "(Tom, Susan is right, you
won't recognize Beijing with it's ongoing changes).". I just can't
imagine that the US INS (now homeland security dept.) are not
adjusting. Talking about Cold-War mentality.
Another thing sort of echoing this was, during my recent trip to
Florida, I visited Key West, a lady owning a small store selling Cuban
stuff, told me that before 9/11, US citizens who wanted to visit Cuba,
usually took a detour through either Mexico or Canada, since they
don't stamp your passport, the INS wouldn't know. But now, even if
you don't have stamp on your passport, 'THEY' will know, and they'd
love to knock on your door, one month after you coming back, and hand
you the $10K fine for violating this law.
Tom
from my Chinese friends, some were successful, some were not, but it's
rediculous, that it's not consistent what they heard from US INS.
My sister was rejected visitor's visa twice in 1998 (the day after US
bombed Chinese Embassy in Yogoslavia), and 1999, first time there was
basically no explanation, and my sister contributed it to the bad
timing between US and China. The second time, the INS officer
questioned her salary, then her intention to come to the US, even with
her intentionally left her husband in Beijing, instead of coming with
her, the request was rejected, she got the message of 'you make too
little money, so you will stay in the US if you come'.
As people are trying to have family members over to visit them, there
are all sorts of 'tips', 'tricks', 'stories' circuling around. One of
my favorite was:
A guy was rejected visa by US consulate, out of angry, he shouted "Who
wants to go to your US, do you think you have anything valueable for
me to see?!", then turned around to leave. Then the consulate stopped
him, said "I will let you see what's valueable!", then he was approved
his visa. After that, people are obviously using it, I guess when the
story spreaded to me, it's already obsolete, I actually suggested it
to my sister, of course, out of the same angry, but she laughed and
said to me "it's been used 100s of times, no longer useful".
I think one of the mistakes that INS is making, which I hope they
don't continue to make is they are still treating China as what it was
10 years ago, when lots of people wanted to flee over to the US, and
other western countries to live, to work, to study. Wrong! China is
not even the China two years ago! My mandarin students going to
Beijing to attend venture capital meetings, sent me a 3-page letter
appraising the Beijing she saw, "Tom, if you have not been back for a
while, you won't recognize the place.... It's unbelievable. ", the
other student wrote me: "(Tom, Susan is right, you
won't recognize Beijing with it's ongoing changes).". I just can't
imagine that the US INS (now homeland security dept.) are not
adjusting. Talking about Cold-War mentality.
Another thing sort of echoing this was, during my recent trip to
Florida, I visited Key West, a lady owning a small store selling Cuban
stuff, told me that before 9/11, US citizens who wanted to visit Cuba,
usually took a detour through either Mexico or Canada, since they
don't stamp your passport, the INS wouldn't know. But now, even if
you don't have stamp on your passport, 'THEY' will know, and they'd
love to knock on your door, one month after you coming back, and hand
you the $10K fine for violating this law.
Tom
