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Immigration Articles
How to Survive in America Without a Social Security Number
By Dave T Corby
Aug 24th
If you are planning to move to America to work then you would be well advised to attempt to apply for a Social Security Number so that you have it before you travel. This number is a unique identifier for everyone who has permission to work and is requested by many agencies as evidence of this permission and generally as proof of identity.
Most people move to America, when planning to work long term, on an H1B or L1 visa. The first is obtained by a company sponsoring you to a new role whereas the second is a transfer within a company that has branches in your country as well as the United States. Both of these visas provide permission to work for you and an almost automatic right for your spouse. There are many other means of entry although generally these are for seasonal or other short term work.
When I obtained my L1 visa it allowed my wife and two children to have an L2. The L2 allows for entry into the country and the right to go to school and college (the equivalent of an F1 visa). For the spouse it is said to provide permission to work – although we had to apply separately for a work permit using form I-765 and a fee of $340. This took a couple of months from application to obtain. It is useful to note that there is no right for your children to work. This is frustrating if they are over eighteen and they are treated like any other foreign national wanting to work in America. There is no fast track for them.
With permission to work comes the right to obtain a Social Security Number which is asked for constantly as you try to set up a new life in America starting with setting up a bank account for your pay check. Please note that you cannot get paid until you have this number and we had to wait over four weeks to obtain one after arriving in the country.
You may believe that you can live on money you bring into the country for those four weeks but there are many restrictions that make even this very difficult.
Firstly you probably want to rent a house or apartment but you will find that you cannot enter into a rental contract without a social security number. We were fortunate to have my company step in and arrange a joint lease at the last minute.
You will also want a car but you will not be able to start a lease and so may have to do what we did and pay the exorbitant fees for a hire car for all that time. It is good to add that even when we received the ‘SSN’ we still had a delay due to the lease company insisting on a local driving license even to the point of them getting into an argument with the Department of Motor Vehicles over what was required.
Having moved into your house you will want to arrange a landline telephone; mobile (cellphone) service; TV; Internet; and arrange medical insurance so that you do not have to pay full fees to the dentist and doctor. You cannot do any of these without the social security number.
The rule is that anything that requires a token of trust in the form of credit requires an SSN. Almost all services that you have set up at your house are provided in this way and so impossible until you have that identification number.
The dollars that you bring into the country will be very useful but do not think that you can change from your local currency if you run out. Amazingly to most of us in the rest of the world, there are no places to exchange money. There are no travel agents or exchange bureaus, and even the banks will take weeks, (yes weeks), to change from your pounds or euros or yen to dollars.
You may think that you can fall back on your credit cards. The banks are extremely vigilant when it comes to potential fraudulent use of their cards. It does not matter that you tell them again and again that you are living in America and so it really is you using them – they will constantly stop the card at the most embarrassing of moments. Of course you cannot have an American credit card until you have built up a long term credit history.
So the advice is to obtain your visas early and apply for an SSN a long time before you intend to move to America. But if you have to survive without an social security number then be sure to have a lot of cash and appeal to your company; landlord; friends and neighbors to be able to setup services in their name until you can become a fully recognised person in the United States of America.
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Survive-in-America-Without-a-Social-Security-Number&id=4520262
Arizona Immigration Bill SB 1070 Explained
By Robert Sneed
Aug 24th
For everyone that hasn’t actually read the new Immigration law that was recently passed here in Arizona yet chose to still blindly boycott it, I want to explain. In reality it isn’t a new law at all it is in fact an old way of life. The problem is that the boy-cotters are taking one word: “Papers” totally and completely out of context. They’re taking this word in reference to this bill far too literally. What I mean is that everyone here in America has “Papers”. Maybe not in the actual sense but in the literal sense we do. I stated earlier that this new law was simply an old way of life. I meant that literally as I myself a born resident of the United States also has to produce papers! My birth certificate is one form of my paperwork must have here in the Unites States in order to even function normally in society. Paperwork comes in many different forms State Identification, Drivers License, Credit Cards, Bank Cards, Mortgage Deeds, Lease Agreements, Automobile Loans, Employment Applications, Income Tax Returns, Social Security Numbers, Employee Identification numbers as well as countless others. Yet without these forms of paperwork life in the United States can and will be very limiting for anyone.
I do not feel discriminated against when asked to produce paperwork stating I have the legal right to drive here in the United States. I simply produce a Driver’s license to prove this fact. I do not fell discriminated against because he did not ask everyone on the same road as me for their license or everyone that drove the same kind of vehicle as I did. I know I’m over emphasizing but I really want to drive this point home with clarity and understanding. I want the naysayers to understand that this new law has very little to do with discrimination if anything at all.
The real issue at hand here being mildly overlooked is the economy of Arizona. As Arizonans we are also effected by the nationwide recession. The new immigration law is simply a small step towards re-stimulating the economy of Arizona, plain and simple. The true fact of the matter is that we are being inundated with “illegal immigrants from Mexico. They come here with nothing to lose and everything to gain. The number one rule of free enterprise is in fact supply and demand. As Arizona is overwhelmed by illegal immigrants on such a massive scale. It is hard to keep the scales of Thor balanced. It is simply too much for the state to handle. It also offsets the small but significant market here of supply and demand here in Arizona. The economy itself is disrupted as cheap, unskilled uneducated labor produces inferior products in mass. Quality is what people pay for not quantity. This also takes much-needed jobs right out of the hands of “American Citizens”.
To switch gears for just a minute; I personally would like to ask if anyone has read the National “Legal” Immigration laws we have? Please do because as a nation we have some of the most lenient in the world! Another question; why is the general census that Arizona is a racist state when in reality we are simply exercising our only feasible option at this point and time. The rationale is that if we take the hundreds of thousands of jobs now being held by illegal immigrants and place them back into the hands of deserving, voting Arizonans. This we hope may turn our current situation around and send us in a new direction. One with better options that we all deserve. We here in Arizona really do believe that this act along with a few other maneuvers can and will slowly stabilize our state again.
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Arizona-Immigration-Bill-SB-1070-Explained&id=4514739
