What Part of Legal Immigration Don't You Understand?

• Author: Mitchell, Bob
• Position: Letter to the editor

The hilarious yet accurate immigration flowchart in the October issue ("What Part of Legal Immigration Don't You Understand?") left out one common detour in the path to U.S. citizenship: the fiancee visa.

I wanted to marry a Russian woman in 2000, and our government's website implied that a fiancee visa was the only correct way to do this. Fortunately, a friendly immigration attorney advised me to get married in Russia and file her immigration paperwork at the U.S. consulate in Moscow. (This is, alas, no longer possible after 9/11.)

The fiancee visa process, which many of our friends have followed, soaks up huge amounts of money and time. It is often a year before the spouse can work in this country, and he or she often does not receive travel documents during that time. The day we got married in Russia, my wife became the "spouse of a U.S. citizen" right away, instead of the "fiancee of a U.S. citizen" with no legal status.

Our results: We got married in Russia on January 10th, 2001, and she arrived...