Immigration research

[Charles]

He's just gotten away with it for years because some people on here know him personally. Everyone had an issue with Charles for some reason but this asshole is a lot worse.

Actually, two other FGs and I knew Charles in real life---He was much worse than his online persona.

Taro, you know that's bullshit. You have never met me, and neither have any other FG members. This is why I check FG once in a while, to see what kind of ludicrous claims are being made about me.

But GG stalking me through the server logs, that's really creepy.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Chuckles is back??!!

Oh my days, get the Australians to come gather round, our old friend is going to tell us why you're all a bunch of cunts.

[Coligny]

this thread is reaching epic levels of derailment... even by my standurdz...

[omae mona]

But GG stalking me through the server logs, that's really creepy.

Charles, I am pretty sure that lurking here and vanity searching for references to yourself is a few notches higher on the creepy scale than a moderator running across your name as part of regular administrative duties.

But anyway, welcome back.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Taro, you know that's bullshit. You have never met me, and neither have any other FG members.

Dunno mate...gathered by your opinion of Aussies, you've probably met me.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

My thought is that the AMERICAN system is broken.
I believe the majority of those that define immigration policy in the U.S. have never had to deal with the system as an average individual.

I'd add Oz to this list. A skilled foreigner with no previous ties to the cuntry faces a fucking nightmare in trying to get a long-term visa. An unskilled (or, more specifically, one whose skills are not regarded as being in demand) foreigner has almost no hope. The refugee policy is fucking outrageous and now most processing occurs offshore with the apparent aim of preventing as many people as possible as gaining asylum. The only lenient area of immigration policy are family reunion visas, which extend long-term visa status to any family member already afforded such a status. All processing for long-term visas requires months of waiting and applications requiring numerous forms of documentation, validation and interviews. Altogether an onerous process.

Most policy in the U.S. xenophobic in nature, but I believe if we look at the experiences of those in the system, we can better create a more humane and just immigration policy.

With all due respect, I have severe doubts about the ability of the U.S. to devise anything humane or just, unless of course, humane is prefixed by "in" and just by "un."

ALL countries that allow asylum/family reunion status visas are in a world of archaic brokenness. Somehow these cuntries have not grown past the end of the second world war, when they needed labourers from third world countries for rebuilding. I'm currently in the middle of the biggest clusterfuck here in Legoland, trying to renew my permit as a higher educated, multilingual expat who manages the growth of millions of Euro of Danish made product for export. Because the system here is so broken and up their own arses, they're threatening me with 'if you go out of the country and do your job while your renewal is processing (and of course they can't tell me when/if it'll be approved), we'll throw your ass out of our country'. Meanwhile, the Afganistani family who's applied for asylum in the queue behind me got an immediate stamp of approval to bring granny and 14 of their cousins.

ALL the immigration systems are flawed, I don't know any of the first world countries these days that don't favour asylum seekers over educated professionals who will contribute to a country's economic growth.

Oddly enough, despite all my past headaches with Japanese immigration, they've now rolled out the red carpet for my investor's visa to become MD of our Japan branch...

[GomiGirl]

Oddly enough, despite all my past headaches with Japanese immigration, they've now rolled out the red carpet for my investor's visa to become MD of our Japan branch...

w00t!!

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Oddly enough, despite all my past headaches with Japanese immigration, they've now rolled out the red carpet for my investor's visa to become MD of our Japan branch...

w00t!!

[FG Lurker]

He's just gotten away with it for years because some people on here know him personally. Everyone had an issue with Charles for some reason but this asshole is a lot worse.

Actually, two other FGs and I knew Charles in real life---He was much worse than his online persona.

Taro, you know that's bullshit. You have never met me, and neither have any other FG members. This is why I check FG once in a while, to see what kind of ludicrous claims are being made about me.

That's the problem when people know who you are but you don't have a clue who they are.

Hilarious to see you back here though Chuck, should be good entertainment until you throw another hissy fit and leave. (Contrary to your own beliefs, no one missed you after your departure.)

[gaijinpunch]

The biggest "difficulty" is that if you break a trip by giving back your card and returning, your "length in Japan" gets reset. I lived in Japan for 7 years, then left, then came back -- I had to wait 3 years on trip 2 (with a wife and child) to bother applying for PR. This basically trickles down to everything: rent, banks, phone you name it. They generally play Janet Jackson's "What Have you Done For Me Lately" in the back as you give them your sob story.

[Taro Toporific]

[...other FGs and I knew Charles in real life...

Taro, you know that's bullshit. You have never met me, and neither have any other FG members.

Catoneinutica and I (he and I not were friends at the time) were Apple customers of yours in the 1980s---For the record, you solved our printer driver problems quite knowledgeably after others screwed up. We must have also met at Apple, BMUG, Amiga and/or prepress events.

[wagyl]

[...other FGs and I knew Charles in real life...

Taro, you know that's bullshit. You have never met me, and neither have any other FG members.

Catoneinutica and I (he and I not were friends at the time) were Apple customers of yours in the 1980s---For the record, you solved our printer driver problems quite knowledgeably after others screwed up. We must have also met at Apple, BMUG, Amiga and/or prepress events.

Another reminder that however much it might appear that we live in megacities (well, some of you lot do anyway...), the expatriate community is like a small village that just happens to be distributed across that deceptive-looking environment. I really does pay off to be excellent to each other, because you will cross paths pretty regularly.


I suppose I should contribute to the survey, but it has been all incredibly smooth in my deallings with Immigration. Not ideal by any means, but few things worthy of complaint. Let me know if you still want to hear from me.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Another reminder that however much it might appear that we live in megacities (well, some of you lot do anyway...), the expatriate community is like a small village that just happens to be distributed across that deceptive-looking environment. I really does pay off to be excellent to each other, because you will cross paths pretty regularly.

I think in life we tend to run in the same circles as people we encounter much more that we realize. I've seen some pretty weird coincidences. For example, a couple of years ago a guy I knew as a kid in the US connected with me on Facebook. I probably hadn't seen him or had any contact with him since I was 12 and hadn't lived in the same State as him since I was 14. I noticed that we happened to have a mutual friend that's a Japanese girl I taught when I was on JET. It turns out she's married to his cousin.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Another reminder that however much it might appear that we live in megacities (well, some of you lot do anyway...), the expatriate community is like a small village that just happens to be distributed across that deceptive-looking environment. I really does pay off to be excellent to each other, because you will cross paths pretty regularly.

I think in life we tend to run in the same circles as people we encounter much more that we realize. I've seen some pretty weird coincidences. For example, a couple of years ago a guy I knew as a kid in the US connected with me on Facebook. I probably hadn't seen him or had any contact with him since I was 12 and hadn't lived in the same State as him since I was 14. I noticed that we happened to have a mutual friend that's a Japanese girl I taught when I was on JET. It turns out she's married to his cousin.

I think that the 'six degrees of separation' thing is more like 4 these days.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Another reminder that however much it might appear that we live in megacities (well, some of you lot do anyway...), the expatriate community is like a small village that just happens to be distributed across that deceptive-looking environment. I really does pay off to be excellent to each other, because you will cross paths pretty regularly.

I think in life we tend to run in the same circles as people we encounter much more that we realize. I've seen some pretty weird coincidences. For example, a couple of years ago a guy I knew as a kid in the US connected with me on Facebook. I probably hadn't seen him or had any contact with him since I was 12 and hadn't lived in the same State as him since I was 14. I noticed that we happened to have a mutual friend that's a Japanese girl I taught when I was on JET. It turns out she's married to his cousin.

I think that the 'six degrees of separation' thing is more like 4 these days.

I'll give you another one. A buddy of mine who was born in Sweden but immigrated to the US and now lives in Japan heard a couple of girls speaking Swedish on the streets of Tokyo one day. He struck a conversation with them and not only were they from the same city and neighborhood as him in Sweden but they lived in the house he grew up in.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

Another reminder that however much it might appear that we live in megacities (well, some of you lot do anyway...), the expatriate community is like a small village that just happens to be distributed across that deceptive-looking environment. I really does pay off to be excellent to each other, because you will cross paths pretty regularly.

I think in life we tend to run in the same circles as people we encounter much more that we realize. I've seen some pretty weird coincidences. For example, a couple of years ago a guy I knew as a kid in the US connected with me on Facebook. I probably hadn't seen him or had any contact with him since I was 12 and hadn't lived in the same State as him since I was 14. I noticed that we happened to have a mutual friend that's a Japanese girl I taught when I was on JET. It turns out she's married to his cousin.

I think that the 'six degrees of separation' thing is more like 4 these days.

I'll give you another one. A buddy of mine who was born in Sweden but immigrated to the US and now lives in Japan heard a couple of girls speaking Swedish on the streets of Tokyo one day. He struck a conversation with them and not only were they from the same city and neighborhood as him in Sweden but they lived in the house he grew up in.

That's pretty amazin. I've once ran into a man at a bar in Rockefeller Plaza about 6 years ago who turned out to be a 3rd cousin of mine.
I often run into Russians in London who are from my year and primary school in Moscow, but that's not very amazing...lots of my generation have ended up in London.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Some amazing coincidences...I had one 25 years ago now. And it was a little tragic.
When I was in the early years of primary school one of the most popular kids in the tiny outer suburban Australian school (total enrollment of about 80) was a kid whose family had emigrated from the United States because they feared the increasing violence becoming apparent in that cuntry. He was a nice kid and always friendly to me, but we ended up going to different high schools. I never forgot him, though, because while we were in class he used to wear all-white converse gym boots, which you couldn't get in Oz at the time, and -- more traumatically -- as toward the end of primary school, his older sister was brutally murdered. The family responded to her death by leaving Straya and returning to the Untied States.
I'd forgotten all this by March 1989 when I walked into an almost deserted room in the old Hiroshima Peace Museum. I planned to watch a video they showed of the bombing. There was one other person in there, a blond guy about my age. I realized there was something familiar about him. He glanced at me and obviously thought the same.
I mustered the courage and said, "Excuse me, but are you any chance Mr. XXXX"
"Nah, mate, never heard of him."

Just kidding. It was him! And, by him, of course I mean the kid whose sister was murdered.
We didn't talk for long and didn't exchange contact numbers or anything. But it was a strange and bewildering experience for me.


Oh, and I know what Cyka was talking about...I went to Britain expecting to visit Londonistan and instead went to Londongrad.

[Coligny]

that's where the Polonium guy was killed...

When Russian intel/ops start to be that confident in what they can do in an oversea country, raising their flag too is not far away...

[Samurai_Jerk]

that's where the Polonium guy was killed...

Speaking of that incident my friend worked in the same building upstairs from the sushi restaurant where the guy was supposedly poisoned and used to eat there almost everyday. He was shitting his pants for a few days waiting for the test results that ultimately confirmed he hadn't been exposed. Not sure about his mercury levels though.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

He was shitting his pants for a few days waiting for the test results that ultimately confirmed he hadn't been exposed....

That he was shitting his pants does not bode well...

[yanpa]

He was shitting his pants for a few days waiting for the test results that ultimately confirmed he hadn't been exposed....

That he was shitting his pants does not bode well...

The fish was probably off.

[yanpa]

Oh, and I know what Cyka was talking about...I went to Britain expecting to visit Londonistan and instead went to Londongrad.

I was there for the first time in 5 years recently (actually the first time I'd spent more than a couple of hours since 2000 or so) and the vast majority of shop and hotel staff etc. in Zone1/2 were clearly not native English speakers; many of them were European. Most disconcerting.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Most disconcerting.

Disconcerting? It's easily the best service I've ever received in the Old Dart...I could not believe the improvements (not that improving would have been altogether difficult)

[yanpa]

Most disconcerting.

Disconcerting? It's easily the best service I've ever received in the Old Dart...I could not believe the improvements (not that improving would have been altogether difficult)

I'm not complaining, just saying I had a bit of a "that's weird" moment after realising the service industry had become a Brit-free zone.

What's the Old Dart? A pub?

[wagyl]

What's the Old Dart? A pub?

I think that appears on a list of poetic terms distributed to feature writers. So that they can appear down with their Limey cousins, while referring to an English monarchy which hasn't existed since the Acts of Union in 1707.

[yanpa]

What's the Old Dart? A pub?

I think that appears on a list of terms distributed to feature writers. So that they can appear down with their Limey cousins, while referring to an English monarchy which hasn't existed since the Acts of Union in 1707.

Hmm, seems to be an Aussie thing.

Does that list of terms contain references to the famous London fog?

[wagyl]

Ignorance fought! I thought it was universal, and I always imagined it said with a distinct "r" sound like it was being said in Somerset or the US (hence the "Limey," and "Queen Elizabeth II of England" comments).

Style Guide item 36.7
By all means refer to peasoupers within your gushing article, but please try to include a comment that the environment has improved in recent years within that same sentence.

[yanpa]

Most disconcerting.

Disconcerting? It's easily the best service I've ever received in the Old Dart...I could not believe the improvements (not that improving would have been altogether difficult)

I'm not complaining, just saying I had a bit of a "that's weird" moment after realising the service industry had become a Brit-free zone.

A timely link: Why have the white British left London?

Note (because this is the internet and it's easy to jump to conclusions) - I'm not being racist or anything here...

[American Oyaji]

Even though this thread went off the rails a bit, there are some great nuggets of info here!

Thank you to everyone that contributed!

I may follow up with some of you via PM.

[Mike Oxlong]