How is the Immigration Service in your country?

[ATLcenter]

WEll, Let me assure you, its a pain in the ass here in the US of A:

My mom and I reach the INS (immigration and Naturalization Service) Building at around 8 AM. It opens at 7.30 Am.

The line to get a number from the reception person took..... 2 hours.
Actually, It could have taken only 30 minutes. But no.

Ther is one person, who wants to know everything about why you're here...and talks to you for 15 minutes. TO GET A NUMBER TO SEE THE IMMIGRATION OFFICIAL!!!!! I swear...I thought the immigration person, and not some hired receptionist should bother....

I get to the front of the line (After 2 hours, I was about to walk away..) and the woman asked why I was here.

I told her I was here because my Permanent Recidency card for the US has not come back after one year, and my temporary card was expiring. I had to renew it, because I am travelling to CDG this summer. She gave me a card- it said C 335 on it. Under neath that, it said EST wait time: 1 h 39 min.

WEll, now it's 10 AM.
I go to the room, and find out they're calling C 319. Hell, maybe it'll take less than 1 and a half hours....

C 320 was called 45 minutes later. HOLY CRAP! There were two desks open out of 10. The waiting hall was packed. People were sitting on the floor, and out into the hallway. Overpriced food could be bought, but not eaten in the room (huh?)

2 hours pass. It's now on C 330. First thought was to try all airlines that fly the a/c type on the board...(319, 320, 330...)

I played that for 15 minutes...and got bored. I slept for an hour. It was on C 333. I started reading my passport! And counting how many of what colour stamps there were....

Then they called C 335. In three minutes, I was out of the door.


So how are immigration systems in your country? If it is better than here, remind me to move.

[JoeJoe440]

If you watch the news you would know how bad Britains immigration service is, we let anyone in :P

Joe,

[DeltaCappy]

Have you ever wondered why California has such a high poplulation? Our boarders are crap, anybody can get through.

[Aussie767]

Australia also lets anyone in.............

We just put them in detention Centers. :P

Cheers

[JCC]

As Joe says we let anybody in the UK even the Taliban. As for the few we say no to, well they stay as well

John

[JoeJoe440]

Britain is to laid back with there immagration laws, i bet if saddam came and applied to be let in they would let him in like the others:P

Joe,

[indian airlines]

Hong Kong has an excellent immigration system, one of the best, in my opinion. Not China, Hong Kong.

When you reach the impressive looking immigration building, you read the map and see which floor you have to go to for what. There itself there is a chart telling you how much time it will take to get whatever you want to do done. For example, if you want to renew your eyecard, it will say - "20 minutes". This time is deadly accurate in most cases.

I never remember spending more than an hour at the immigration tower. Everything proceeded smoothly and we were outta there in no time.

I had a pretty good experience there. If anyone had a bad experience, please tell us about it.

[Radomir]

Hehehe.. back home, we don't even have those immigration centers... who'd wanna move there?

but I am intimately familiar with US Immigration (arghhh..... dont' get me started)

[iceman]

I have both US and Canadian citizenship, so I will comment on both countries’ systems.

INS (Now part of the Department of Homeland Security)

I have very mixed feelings about the INS. I used to work with that agency in my last job and I found them to be very inconsistent to deal with on a work-basis. Some of the people were quite professional and courteous, others just plain arrogant and rude.

The same goes in my dealings with them when entering the US. Sometimes they are professional, other times just hostile. But I think that depends more on your point of entry than anything else. I like the US customs officials at YYZ and ANC, but I despise those at JFK.

As for the immigration system itself, I do believe in immigration. How can I not? Both my parents were immigrants to this country and it would be hypocritical for me to claim otherwise. That being said, I think we should have a complete overhaul of the immigration system. Not that we should let less people in, but we should be more efficient and pay more attention to those coming in this country from specific countries compared to others. For example, I don’t think someone coming from Brazil, Canada or South Korea poses as much of a threat to those coming into this country from the Middle-East. Not that I have a problem with people from that region of the world, but the reality is that this country doesn’t have as good a relationship with the Arab world and I think we should adjust our immigration policies accordingly.

Indeed, it seems to be happening, albeit at an ad-hoc basis. A friend of mine is an immigration lawyer in Flushing (a neighborhood in Queens) and he tells me that the INS doesn’t really pay attention to Koreans who overstay their visas here (and believe me, there are a lot of them!) as much as they do to someone from, say, Pakistan. If this was implemented officially, I think it would be vastly more efficient than what we see now.

Immigration Canada (I think it’s the CCRA now)

I’ve had mixed dealings with the CCRA in the past. I’ve had problems presenting my Canadian passport to some agents and telling them I live in the US. Sometimes that’s met with anger and disgust. I even had one guy spit on my passport. OK!

Generally, I’ve found that male Canadian immigration agents are more lax compared to their female counterparts and I usually try to get into a line with a guy stamping the passport rather than a female

As for the Canadian immigration system, I think the “points” system is a good idea and it attracts a lot of skilled immigrants to the country. But it should be modified because it brings far too many people than Canada can handle, especially considering recent immigrants tend to centralize in Toronto and Vancouver. Forcing recent arrivals to other parts of the country isn’t a good idea too and is against all the ideals of a free society.

Furthermore, I think Canada should be tougher when granting citizenship to recent arrivals as it’s far too easy right now! I think they should try to stress loyalty to the new country because far too many new Canadian citizens come to get the passport, then go back to their home country once that process is completed. It’s just a slap in the face to Canada and Canadians and shouldn’t be abused like that.

Finally, a lot of people complain that Canadian immigration is lax, and in many ways it is! But perhaps the biggest problem is the asylum system. I was reading somewhere that Canada grants asylum to something like 85% of those who apply for it. That number is much too high in light of the fact that the US, UK and Australia admit refugees in far lower percentages. It also doesn’t help that Canadian officials do a lackluster job in going after and deporting asylum rejectees. This is simply dangerous.

Canada will probably have to change their immigration system if they want to keep an open border with the US. This is something that is being negotiated right now between the two countries. I would assume that consultations will go much smoother once Jean Chretien leaves office.

One more thing: I don’t blame Canadian immigration officials for some of their dilemmas. I think some of the problems Canada sees stem from the government officials in charge right now as they are the ones setting the policies. It is just a reflection of Chretien’s beliefs.