ForumTitleContentMemberSexCountryDate/Time
US Citizenship General DiscussionRed light Tickets
I don't think simple traffic citations can be considered for 'moral turpitude' issues!
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-12-31 14:53:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionCivics Test
Whatever happened to the good ol' days of when in America............ blink.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-12-23 18:36:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionGood bye, everyone!
Congratulations good.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-11-18 18:55:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionApplying for N-400- but US husband is in Canada
I assume this trip to Canada is temporary and you do have prior history of residing together so you shouldn't have any problem as long as you can show proof.

Good luck! I need to get Claudeth busy with hers too. blink.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-11-03 14:19:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWe're done!
Congratulations good.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-10-23 16:46:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionI am new
Take a look at the immigration timelines link at the top of the page, maybe there are some stats that will help you get an idea. Good luck good.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-08-22 13:39:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 Question?
timeline.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-03-08 22:21:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionProblems with Civil Surgeon
I know there are a ton of posts on Civil Surgeons, maybe you should try searching the forums
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-03-06 21:54:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionDoes anyone know any ways to protect social security number?
That guy from Lifelock says he has a guaranteed way to protect your SSN
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-03-07 20:57:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionI just had my interview...
Sounds great! Claudeth and I wish you the best good.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-03-05 13:14:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionHad interview today
Congratulations good.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-02-14 20:00:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWhat did you use to study for the test?
There are also books and some communities have classes. You might look into both. Good luck good.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-02-01 08:38:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionTravel after Naturalization
Once you are naturalized you have full US citizenship privilages
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-01-26 07:55:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWhich Field Office???
Check here: https://egov.uscis.g....office_type=LO
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-01-26 07:59:00
US Citizenship General Discussionwhere to file--local service center or regional (CSC)
According the for USCIS forms site you send it to the service center in your jurisdiction

http://www.uscis.gov...00045f3d6a1RCRD
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-01-22 20:56:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionInterview in Kansas City
Congratulations good.gif

Do you remember the questions?
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-01-10 20:23:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWhat was your answer to these questions?
Ives, is it already the time you can file for citizenship? blink.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-01-18 13:52:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionInterview Letter received
He can go as moral support but you need to answer the questions
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2008-01-12 20:47:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionI voted as a Permanent Resident
Wow, I can't imagine doing any more than what you already have done blink.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-10-19 19:16:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionNaturalization paperwork jam hits Texas hard
When I first joined VJ there were pictures here of protesters marching on the Texas service center because of it's slowness. Guess things haven't changed much in 3 1/2 years blink.gif

Edited by jasman0717, 22 November 2007 - 09:44 AM.

Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-11-22 09:44:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionStoked Bigtime!
Congrats good.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-11-01 23:07:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionCashing Check in 4 Business Days Wow!!!- NSC
You are on your way. I was looking at the sample questions on the USCIS website earlier today. I guess I am going to have to find out what Claudeth wants to do. She will need some schooling on our US history
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-11-15 21:57:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionThinking of leaving US "permanently"
I would recommend citizenship too. If you move outside the US you could loose your status. As a citizen you don't.
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-11-12 11:14:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionMy wife filed N-400.
Good luck good.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-10-25 19:53:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWhich mail carrier do you use when sending a confidential packet to the Immigration Sevice Center?
I uses registered mail via the USPS.
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-10-15 12:21:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionUSCIS explains Receipt delays
Oh yes, just got to love civil service wacko.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-09-29 21:22:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWhat are the Pro's and Con's for remaining a US Permanent Resident against becoming a US Citizen?
QUOTE (YuAndDan @ Sep 27 2007, 11:09 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Here is a list I found:
QUOTE
  1. A Citizen Can Vote
    A citizen has the right to vote for elected officials at the federal, state and local levels who shape the policy of the government.
  2. Dual Citizenship (Currently N/A with China)
    Certain countries, including Ireland and the United Kingdom, recognize "dual citizenship" permitting naturalized U.S. citizens to maintain their citizenship of birth and original passport.
  3. Citizens Can Bring More Relatives From Abroad, More Quickly
    Citizens can petition for a wider variety of family members to come to the US as permanent residents. They also have much shorter waiting times for green cards, and no limits.
  4. Citizens Cannot be Deported
    Most of us never expect to commit a crime, but if we are the victims of circumstance, in the wrong place at the wrong time, as citizens, we cannot be deported. We also don't need to worry about a lost green card or too-long stay outside the US preventing us from re-entering.
  5. Citizens Can Retire Abroad With Full Social Security Benefits
    Citizens who retire abroad get all their Social Security benefits. Green card holders only get half of the benefits they earned.
  6. Citizens are Entitled to More Public Benefits
    Citizens are eligible for more public benefits, including Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Food Stamps, as well as certain academic scholarships and financial aid.
  7. A US Citizen Can Hold Office and Have More Job Opportunities
    Only a citizen has the right to hold an elected position in most city, state or federal offices. Many federal, state and city jobs also require citizenship.
  8. Adopted or Natural Children Under 18 May be Naturalized Automatically
    Depending on the circumstances, children born abroad, who are under 18 years of age and unmarried may be able to naturalize automatically when a parent does so.
  9. Citizens Have More Financial and Tax Benefits
    Citizens often receive approval on loans and mortgages more easily, and/or they get better rates, because the lender knows there is less chance they will defect. Citizens are often subject to fewer restrictions on estate taxes as well.
  10. Citizens Don't Have to Worry About Renewing a Green Card Every 10 Years
    We have enough to worry about with passports and other paperwork. As citizens, we don't have to worry about renewing a green cards every ten years.
http://immigration.a...0CitizenBen.htm


OR

A Person that is a naturalized citizen cannot be deported over a petty crime, which could be an honest mistake.

QUOTE
One Strike, You're Out

Anna Werner
Reporting

Many people here legally with green cards are being deported because the government claims they've committed "aggravated felonies,” which you would think would be serious crimes like murder and drug trafficking.

But as we found out, that's not always the case.

And now that expanding definition of an aggravated felony raises a troubling question: is the government's immigration policy of "one strike, you're out" tipping the scales of justice, and ruining people's lives?

If ever there was someone symbolic of the American dream, it's Gurdev Gill.

Gill arrived here from India in 1986 and built a small ranch into a 300-acre farm near Fresno, where he and his family turn grapes into Thompson seedless raisins. The 82-year-old farmer says his time here has been happy. Just this June, Gill became a local celebrity when he appeared on the cover of American Vineyard magazine, after being named Farmer of the Year by the local chamber of commerce for his outstanding contributions to the community.

So when Gill—a legal resident with a green card—went as the last member of his family to apply to become a U-S citizen, the government's response came as a shock to his son Harry. â€Å"I was in the office,” says Harry. â€Å"My wife called me and she said you know what? Dad got a deportation letter. And I said what?"

The reason? Something that happened here 15 years ago, at a gas station the family owns that was plagued by drug dealers. â€Å"They used to go and break up my store,” says Harry.

So one day, Gurdev Gill took action.

â€Å"He tried to get these people away from here,” says Harry. â€Å"So he took his gun out of his pickup and fired in the air.”

â€Å"His intention was not to harm them,” says his son Avtar says,

Gurdev Gill was fined and given probation for possessing a loaded firearm, never serving a day in jail. That was in 1991. And at the time, the incident would not have affected Gill's status in this country. But now, 15 years later, the government claims that old misdemeanor makes him a dangerous man who should be deported.

â€Å"He’s hardly a danger to the community,” says his attorney, Bob Jobe, who sees the same thing happening to long term residents with a green card all over the country. â€Å"It’s exponential, the difference between today and ten years ago.”

If it happened to my father, it can happen to anybody,” says Gill’s son Harry.

And Lucas Guttentag, who teaches immigrants' rights at UC Berkeley and Stanford law school, believes, "This is the most punitive immigration laws we've seen, I think, for a hundred years".

That's because this law as written in 1988 was meant to deport only felons who'd committed serious crimes like murder or drug trafficking. But in 1996 Congress broadened the law. And worse, they made it retroactive. Which means now immigration authorities can look back twenty, thirty, even forty years and virtually any minor offense, like drunk driving, even shoplifting, is enough to get a longtime resident deported.

But it's a law immigration opponents applaud, like Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR.

"If you have come here and violated the law, there is no reason why we should keep you around," says Mehlman.

"How do you know that the people they're deporting are the right people" asks reporter Anna Werner.

Mehlman's answer: "Well, if they have a criminal conviction, then they're the right people."

But are they? Joren Lyons of San Francisco's non-profit Asian Law Caucus complains that the law doesn't take any personal factors into account. "Once the case has been filed," says Lyons, "the immigration judges themselves have no discretion at all."

Take for example Lyons' client, 21-year-old Sam Nhek, who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after his Cambodian mother barely escaped the infamous "killing fields" that claimed his father's life. Sam was a year old when they legally settled in the U.S., where his mom remarried and he grew up as a typical Southern California kid.

But one day he went joyriding in a stolen car with a friend and wound up serving time in jail for possession of stolen property. Because Sam wasn't eligible for citizenship until he turned ”and was therefore still a green card holder and not a U.S. citizen" that joyriding offense is about to get him deported.

â€Å"I regret what I did, "he says, close to tears, and adds that he's willing to accept more jail time if it would help him stay in America. He now works six days a week helping to support the rest of his family. "I don't want to be away from them. That's all I want most, just my family, just be with my family."

Instead, Sam is about to be deported to Cambodia" even though he's never been there and doesn't speak the language. â€Å"I wouldn't know where I would walk if I was dropped off somewhere," he worries. "I wouldn't know who to talk to."

â€Å"He didn't kill someone, he didn't shoot somebody,” says attorney Lyons. â€Å"He's not a drug kingpin. He was in possession of a stolen car as a 19-year-old. That's not the kind of thing that you should take somebody away from their family without a hearing on whether they've learned from the experience and whether they're likely to repeat it.”

Sam's mom says it’s like a piece of her heart falling out. â€Å"He didn't hurt anybody, but why they have to take him away?”

Immigration reformer Ira Mehlman has an answer. â€Å"They are a guest here. And until they become citizens of the United States, they have to abide by the rules. And if you don't abide by the rules, then you ought to be removed from this country.”

â€Å"None of these are easy decisions,” says Chuck DeMore, head of investigations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Francisco. â€Å"If you expect every time that there is a sympathetic factor to not enforce the law, it's not going to happen that way. I mean, there have to be compelling, compelling reasons.”

So what about a case like farmer Gurdev Gill's?

â€Å"Shouldn't there be some discretion,” asks Anna Werner, â€Å"in the case of a man who is over 80 years old, runs a successful business, contributes economically to the community, and had a very, very minor charge where he was trying to protect himself years and years ago and paid the penalty for it?”

Answers DeMore: â€Å"Your age, your financial situation, if you're wealthy, shouldn't protect you from the same laws that govern the rest of the people.”

â€Å"What about being, in essence, a good citizen?” asks Werner.

â€Å"If you want me to say he shouldn't have been removed or he shouldn't be in removal proceedings, I'm not going to say that. I mean, that is the law,” says DeMore.

â€Å"But if he loses in the end, that's the way it is?”

â€Å"That's the way it is.”

Which doesn’t sit well with immigration rights professor Lucas Guttentag. â€Å"What we're seeing now is very harsh and aggressive enforcement of very punitive laws. And a failure to consider the human consequences.”

And his recommendation?

â€Å"I would say to people who have green cards, if you want to become a U.S. citizen, and you're eligible, do it immediately. The law can change tomorrow and suddenly subject them to deportation based on grounds that didn't exist today.”
http://cbs5.com/30mi..._266005518.html


Very informative, thanks good.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-09-27 18:54:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWelcome to the Club
Congratulations good.gif I'm not sure what Claudeth will do
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-09-12 22:37:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWelcome to the Club
I discussed citizenship with Claudeth and she now thinks she wants to go for it.
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-09-21 10:34:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionI voted but I'm not a US citizen
This poses an interesting question, how would the Registrar of Voters verify of a person was a citizen or not, especially in a highly populated area like Orange County California?
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-07-12 13:39:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionI voted but I'm not a US citizen
Wow, a lot of older threads have been popping up lately blink.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-09-10 09:41:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionProper Attire
Dont go in shorts and Tee-shirt. Dress business casual at least good.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-09-12 08:03:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionDoes Conditional Residency count towards the three years?
QUOTE (pinaymama @ Sep 14 2007, 01:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
2 years and 10 years greencard were still named Permanent Resident cards so I guess it counted too!


good.gif yes.gif I have never talked to Claudeth in any detail about whether she wants to acquire citizenship. I think I will go do that now biggrin.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-09-14 17:17:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 EXPEDITE INFO . . .
Why are you asking for an expedite on the naturalization?
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-09-05 22:49:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 EXPEDITE INFO . . .
QUOTE (sophisgent @ Sep 5 2007, 10:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE (jasman0717 @ Sep 5 2007, 10:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Why are you asking for an expedite on the naturalization?



Thank you for your response.
Its a personal matter.



Good luck good.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-09-06 10:18:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionN-400 EXPEDITE INFO . . .
QUOTE (mikeH @ Sep 6 2007, 05:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
yes expedite is possible. you have to have a very good reason and USCIS has to buy your reason.


I can't imagine what would cause a citizenship petition to be expedited. Military deployment maybe?
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-09-07 04:28:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionAmericanworker.org
I don't see this trend stopping anything in the near future mad.gif
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-09-09 08:27:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionWHEN CAN I APPLY FOR CITIZENSHIP?
http://www.immigrati...itizenship.html
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-07-02 14:01:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionNaturalization Interview Today
Congratulations :thumbs:
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-06-20 09:50:00
US Citizenship General DiscussionMy today's Naturalization Interview experience...!
Congratulations :thumbs:
Jasman0717MalePhilippines2007-05-04 09:35:00