>>>Hi Alex,
>>>
>>>I totally agree!
>>>
>>>Bob
>>
>>
>>I know you do. I was just clarifying the issue. There are a lot of misconceptions out there. And a lot of uninformed people.
>>I am an immigrant. I came here legally (in 1981). Paid my dues, paid my taxes, became a resident, then a citizen in due time. I have no tolerance for illegals. In fact I am fairly conservative in that respect. We do have to do something about this issue.
>
>I have a close friend who is in progress of becoming a resident. He has paid thousands and thousands of dollars to a lawyer for this to happen, and it turns out the lawyer screwed up and he has to start over again with more thousands.
>
>Now picture him learning that these illegal immigrants might get a free ride to residency. Welcome to the USA, I told him.

I used to work in the US for a few years. I got a very nice contract after 9-11. I went to the airport with my shiny new contract and all the paper work that let me in before. An Indian / Pakistani (I can't tell) man ahead of me was refused and because he got loud and obnoxious was led away in cuffs.

I guess I was always in the US on a technicality. According to NAFTA an TN Visa is given to an analyst has to be from a qualifying country, with a 2 year diploma from an acredited institution with 5 years of experience. They meant 5 years of experience subsequent to the diploma. I got the diploma after more than 20 years of experience. A lawyer represented me at the time and we argued that "subsequent" was not in the law as written.

Just my luck I get the very same immigration officer as the Indian man. He was polite and I was impressed how cool he was despite the previous "customer". However he refused me because 1 - the college I went to is a business college, not a "real" college and 2 - I still didn't have 5 years of experience subsequent to the diploma.

Despite spending pretty big dollars on a lawyer I'm stuck. To me it's all really stupid.