FWIS3

It's probably easier if she offers him a job and they do a work visa.

SciFiFisher wrote:It's probably easier if she offers him a job and they do a work visa.

Actually, having looked into work visas, I'm thinking marriage would be easier and faster.

Come on, Fisher, I'm sure you've run into any number of troops who came back from some picturesque country with a wife interested primarily in the "land of the big PX."

Yosh wrote:

SciFiFisher wrote:It's probably easier if she offers him a job and they do a work visa.

Actually, having looked into work visas, I'm thinking marriage would be easier and faster.

Come on, Fisher, I'm sure you've run into any number of troops who came back from some picturesque country with a wife interested primarily in the "land of the big PX."

Oh so true. But, I think the military gets "special handling" for those visa applications. The civilians get something along the lines of the Spanish Inquistion and have to pay about $20,000 just to import thier foreign spouses to be.

SciFiFisher wrote:...The civilians get something along the lines of the Spanish Inquistion and have to pay about $20,000 just to import thier foreign spouses to be.

and for a work visa?

For starters you'd have to show to a reasonable extent you could not get a US national would able do to the job. the number of visas issued is capped at 65000 a year. I'd have to have a college degree in whatever field you claim you need me for. The visa fee is not much though

code monkey wrote:

SciFiFisher wrote:...The civilians get something along the lines of the Spanish Inquistion and have to pay about $20,000 just to import thier foreign spouses to be.

and for a work visa?

Depending on the type of work visa it can cost as little $2,000-$3,000. The application fees are usually under $500 but by the time you finish the other stuff it usually winds up costing about $3,000. Most corporations are willing to pay that much because a) it's tax deductible and b) the workers wind up costing less than comparable US workers and c) they are usually more productive because they are too afraid to call in the sick and etc. If you are unethical you can usually get away with quite a lot because if the worker doesn't toe the company line you just refuse to help renew their visa when it's due. And you make them pay for their own way home too.

The process is moderately easier than the marriage Visa. The US sort of assumes that all marriage visas are fraudulent so they work really hard to make you prove that you really are marrying the person without any secondary incentives.

Yosh wrote:Come on, Fisher, I'm sure you've run into any number of troops who came back from some picturesque country with a wife interested primarily in the "land of the big PX."

What's the name of that land? BestBuy?

SciFiFisher wrote:The process is moderately easier than the marriage Visa. The US sort of assumes that all marriage visas are fraudulent so they work really hard to make you prove that you really are marrying the person without any secondary incentives.

It's not that bad, Australia had more of the "prove" mentality than the USA.
Though you'd have to ask SFC as she did almost all the work on both.
I just got to hear about it.
The USA had more rules though.
Based on when you apply you are given X time to move etc.
If you have a house to sell, they don't give a shit. I suspect that is because if they get your ass in the USA before you sell the house, you get to pay tax on it here. Nice. Only found that out recently.

Sigma_Orionis wrote:

Yosh wrote:Come on, Fisher, I'm sure you've run into any number of troops who came back from some picturesque country with a wife interested primarily in the "land of the big PX."

What's the name of that land? BestBuy?

It's called the Post Exchange (Army) or the Base Exchange (Air Force). The Navy has a really original name... Navy Exchange. The Army and the Air Force have run a joint operation for years and just recently renamed all of theirs to "The Exchange".

I have yet to find anyone who call them just "The Exchange".

One of the very common things we see with troops from overseas is they get married to a foreign national and in about half or more of the marriages as soon as they get to the U.S. they file for divorce. Because the main goal was to get here and they use poor Johnny as a way to get the free visa. The more clever ones wait a couple of years until the husband has helped bring the whole fam damily over and then they divorce the mook.

While I knew what a PX was (after years of being hammered by US TV Shows, Movies, literature, whatever ) I didn't know where the term came from. Thank you, you evil capitalist imperialist product manager

Yeah I figured as much, there's at least a couple of movies about "Green Card" marriages and all the trials and tribulations the USIS makes candidates go through to avoid that kind of immigration fraud. I guess that Uncle Sam thinks that their military personnel do not willingly participate in those schemes

Sigma_Orionis wrote:Yeah I figured as much, there's at least a couple of movies about "Green Card" marriages and all the trials and tribulations the USIS makes candidates go through to avoid that kind of immigration fraud. I guess that Uncle Sam thinks that their military personnel do not willingly participate in those schemes

Except for the occasional rare opportunist they really are "in love". The majority are young. For most it's the first time away from home and thier first serious romance. In many cases it may also be thier first real sexual partner. That combination makes for some interesting horomonal and emotional responses.

In some cases I think both parties are sincere but once the cultural and individual differences collide the relationships are pretty much doomed. A lot of those wind up with the foreign person returning home to his/her own country.

There are, interestingly enough, a significant number of the relationships that last. I don't have hard numbers but I care for a lot of veterans who have wives who are asian or of other nationalities.

And then, of course, there are the opportunistic grifters who marry some poor sap knowing full well they plan to milk it for a green card, cash, and everything else they can load into a U-haul truck.

Sigma_Orionis wrote:For starters you'd have to show to a reasonable extent you could not get a US national would able do to the job. the number of visas issued is capped at 65000 a year. I'd have to have a college degree in whatever field you claim you need me for. The visa fee is not much though

thanks for explaining.

SciFiFisher wrote:Except for the occasional rare opportunist they really are "in love". The majority are young. For most it's the first time away from home and thier first serious romance. In many cases it may also be thier first real sexual partner. That combination makes for some interesting horomonal and emotional responses.

In some cases I think both parties are sincere but once the cultural and individual differences collide the relationships are pretty much doomed. A lot of those wind up with the foreign person returning home to his/her own country.

There are, interestingly enough, a significant number of the relationships that last. I don't have hard numbers but I care for a lot of veterans who have wives who are asian or of other nationalities.

And then, of course, there are the opportunistic grifters who marry some poor sap knowing full well they plan to milk it for a green card, cash, and everything else they can load into a U-haul truck.

and I bet that there were few episodes of "JAG" based on some of that

SciFiFisher wrote:

Sigma_Orionis wrote:Yeah I figured as much, there's at least a couple of movies about "Green Card" marriages and all the trials and tribulations the USIS makes candidates go through to avoid that kind of immigration fraud. I guess that Uncle Sam thinks that their military personnel do not willingly participate in those schemes

Except for the occasional rare opportunist they really are "in love". The majority are young. For most it's the first time away from home and thier first serious romance. In many cases it may also be thier first real sexual partner. That combination makes for some interesting horomonal and emotional responses.

In some cases I think both parties are sincere but once the cultural and individual differences collide the relationships are pretty much doomed. A lot of those wind up with the foreign person returning home to his/her own country.

There are, interestingly enough, a significant number of the relationships that last. I don't have hard numbers but I care for a lot of veterans who have wives who are asian or of other nationalities.

And then, of course, there are the opportunistic grifters who marry some poor sap knowing full well they plan to milk it for a green card, cash, and everything else they can load into a U-haul truck.

Yeah, I dealt with both of those dynamics (the solid marriage and the convenience marriage) when I was a commander. When it went south, it was usually ugly. Though, there was one that crashed and burned while the service member was assigned in Germany. I think his soon-to-be-former spouse went home to Korea rather than back to the U.S.