Not meaning to hijack the thread, but I'll tell you EXACTLY what the F is wrong with this country.
The immigration process is completely, entirely, 100% BROKEN. My wife is from Vancouver, Canada. Was born in Canada, and has lived in only two cities her entire life (one of which was for the last 25 years). When she first wanted to come down here, she found an employer that would sponsor her for a work visa. We filed the appropriate paperwork, paid our thousands of dollars, and waited...and waited...and waited....and are still waiting to this day. That was 3.5 years ago. When we decided to get married, we filed for a fiancee visa and sent in MORE money to the federal government and waited... and waited.... By not having their act together along the way, different offices not transferring documents around, etc, we've had to spend hundreds of extra dollars on top of all the processing fees, had to take DAYS out of our lives waiting in lines at consulate offices and the local immigration office. Finally, a year and a half AFTER she was granted her fiancee visa and we got married, she receives her greencard.
That, I'm afraid, is why you have so many 'illegal' immigrants in this country. The immigration process itself is "F"ed up... If it was less complicated, took less time and a LOT less money, I'm sure more people would go through the proper processes to become TAX PAYING CITIZENS of this country. GOD FORBID the government might make it easier for themselves to collect more tax dollars; they just don't do it for some reason. They have all the red tape and make it take so long to do such a simple thing in an attempt to justify the thousands of unnecessary employees they have.
Sorry, just had to rant about the whole immigration process. It's been a thorn in our side for over 3.5 years now.
Ricky