>>>As long as you're not in Outer, Mongolia, we're good... <g>
>>
>>Speaking of which, how did you get the Mongolian visa? I've heard you have to wait for years. But that's OK.
>
>I'v been on the list for over a decade. I just followed the rules.

Then you got about ten years of head start :).

>>You are kidding me, right? There were about ten million of us who went through the whole story. I don't feel so unique at all.
>
>Still unique. When you compare 10,000 to 300,000,000 it is.

Funny way to spell ten million.

Still not unique. Unique comes from unum - one, and 1#10000000. Rare around here, yes. The only other guy who's around here and willing to talk is Srđan - and he's not contributing much to statistical diversity of the sample; we've graduated the same high school.

>>>they are criminals, and should be treated as such.
>>
>>The above paragraph, if you forgot, was about the speed at which the government should handle legal requests for visas, immigration etc. This line of conversation started with your "don't want to wait 10 years for a visa - too bad".
>
>It was, but it was also about the inequality of citizens vs non-citizens. Unless I'm mixing my paragraphs.

You are, or I am - see the above "they are criminals, and should be treated as such.", where we're actually talking about people waiting for a visa. The non-citizens applying for a visa are not criminals, unless they lose their patience and take a shortcut.

>>It also has some influence on the expectations of illegals. When they notice that INS takes years to solve a legal case, they can figure out that the same institution can't be much faster solving illegal cases. And, besides, some of the illegals may have tried to come legally, but couldn't put their lives on hold for so long.
>
>Then their lives should be in their home country.

And it's the best time of one's life. You get to plan your life, and lives of your family, in a sort of suspended animation, for the time being, and the time being is just a time being, without any certain knowledge of how long will it last and what will the outcome be. Our process took exactly one day shy of a year, and it was sheer fun. I spent hours visiting business friends (read: my hardware suppliers) who had scanners, so I could scan more and more documents to send. I met a few nice court-approved translators and paid them good money for the shoddy translations they made (I could have done better, but they hold the watermark stamp). For just one year we had to weigh every decision against the probability of staying versus leaving. Should I patch the tire on this bike or buy new one? Buy two?

I only wish it took ten years, we'd have had ten times more fun.

You should try that once, it's fun. I mean, not Mongolia, but for real.