Fun | Immigration Road Blog

Google’s Super Bowl Ad Features an Immigrant

On February 8, 2010, In Fun, By IR_Blog

Google aired a cute commercial during today’s Super Bowl game and the story goes like this: a guy was looking for information about studying in Paris, later met a French girl, learned online how to impress her, thought about the long-distance relationship but decided to find a job in Paris, and before you know it, he was scrambling to …

Check it out! The ad is super simple, in typical Google style, but is quite clever and fun.

Now you’ve seen the video, “where did you get the idea about an immigrant?” you might ask. Well, it is all my interpretation, based on the fact that he searched for “study abroad,” had to fly to Paris, and looked for advice on “long-distance” relationship. I’m sure the Googler who created this video didn’t have immigration in his mind, but it is actually a beautiful cross-border love story that usually involves not-so-beautiful immigration processes. By the way, if the guy were French and the girl in California, he’d be spending more time searching for green card help than chocolate shops.

Happy New Year 2010

On January 1, 2010, In Fun, U.S. Immigration, By IR_Blog

From all of us at ImmigrationRoad.com, we wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year! May 2010 bring you success and the good news you have been waiting for. Happy new year, everybody!

happy-new-year-2010

Immigration Road Signs

On September 16, 2009, In Fun, Green Card, U.S. Immigration, By IR_Blog

A road sign is a board standing on the side of the road that provides information or instructions to travelers. Whether you are driving to the Grand Canyon, biking to work, or walking to a grocery store, you will see road signs everywhere. They are easy to understand. But if you are marching (or crawling) toward a green card, the signs you see along the Immigration Road may have different meanings:

I-485
	I-485 is a busy freeway: most people in the U.S. choose this route to get their green card. Unfortunately it has a speed limit of 10mph.
Speed Limit – miles per hour (mph)
	0mph speed limit doesn’t make much sense, but if you are travelling on the Immigration Highway, don’t be surprised if you see it more than once.
Road Condition
	Slippery
	Bumpy
	Flooded
No Honking!
	Nobody would listen anyway, why bother?
Directions
	USCIS sometimes gives out better, less confusing instructions, but not always.
Stop Sign
	Stop right there, and wait for further instructions. Department of Labor once put up a huge stop sign so that they could “centralize” all labor certification applications; it only took a couple years before traffic was moving again.
Road Closed
	If you pick the wrong route, or have a late start, you will see the road closed sign eventually. You need to find an alternative as soon as possible.
Traffic Lights
	The Department of State uses traffic lights (aka visa bulletin) to control who gets to proceed, and who has to stay. Unlike regular traffic signals, a red light here could last 10 years or more.
Car Pool
	If you married a U.S. citizen and the two of you are travelling together, you can take the carpool lane. There are multiple check points though, and people who get caught with only a dummy on the passenger seat will get into trouble.
Toll Booth Ahead
	Every road is a toll road. Journey to green card is expensive.
Welcome!
	You have reached your destination.

All images used in this post are in the public domain, or licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 (Wikimedia Commons)

What Exactly is Wrong with Imigration?

On July 25, 2009, In Fun, U.S. Immigration, By IR_Blog

Question: What exactly is wrong with imigration?

Answer: Letter ‘m’ is missing.

Ok, it doesn’t solve all the immigration problems this country is facing, but at least we are one step closer. For some reason I feel that writing this post makes the world a better place than a full day debate on Capitol Hill does, but it may just be me.

Now let me show you why this is a pressing issue before you click away.

Try a Google search on imigration:

And the smart 10-year-old offers you a friendly reminder: did you mean immigration, and also gives you the USCIS home page just in case you did:

imigration-didyoumean-immigration

Obviously you will see lots of “imigration discussions” in forum posts, like this one calling for respect of our imigration laws:

imigration-google-illegal-forum

But you also see Amazon.com selling a book “Why Does Imigration Divide America?” Well, hopefully it is not because half the people can spell immigration correctly.

amazon-why-does-imigration-divide-america

I’ll see your books and raise you videos! CBS news video: Committed to Imigration Reform.

committed-to-imigration-reform-cbs

But it is not just businesses, our higher-learning institutions often let the typo slip through too. The SFCC’s International Student Services has good information about imigration:

international-student-services-imigration

The State of Massachusetts joins the party too, presenting “An Act relative to illegal imigration.” You’d figure if one can spell Massachusetts, immigration should be piece of cake, no?

illegal-imigration-mass-bill31

The Department of Justice – a federal government – has a list of free legal services providers who represent individuals in all forms of imigration cases:

all-forms-of-imigration-cases-doj

The FDA, known for paying attention to small details, has this one in a data file:

imigration-fda

And finally, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), who doesn’t publish anything without the word immigration on it, missed one too:

citizenship-and-imigration-uscis

Before I forget, the word emigration has only one ‘m’ though, but you will see plenty of emmigration on the internet, especially when it is discussed together with immigration.

How to Handle Flood of Aliens

On July 10, 2009, In Fun, Politics, U.S. Immigration, By IR_Blog

Earth D.C. – The Department of Home Sweethome (DHS) announced today the creation of a new division, Usually Slow and Crappy Immigration Services (USCIS), to handle the influx of Aliens from Outer Space (AOS). The agency’s first task is to overhaul the Extremely Brutal (EB) and Frequently Broken (FB) immigration system. One proposal, supported by Department of Lame (DOL), will grant qualified aliens Less-Problematic-Resident (LPR) status if they are randomly selected by a Doomed or Vanished (DV) lottery program.

Another daunting task for USCIS is to establish a new visa classification, Hold One Back (H-1B), which will tie the visa holder to a single employer, for the rest of his or her life.

A third mission for USCIS is to manage the Evaluate and Debate (EAD) program and the Always Pending (AP) response team. The promising Almost Completed after 21 Years (AC21) project will be demolished.

In order to focus on these objectives, USCIS has designated the handling of other visas, including Failed-Once (F1) and Bye-Bye (B2), to its sister divisions: I See Everyone (ICE) and I See Bad People (CBP).

This announcement brings devastating news to existing applicants, who will begin to receive Return or Face Eviction (RFE) notices in the coming weeks. Aliens who choose to stay will be issued a Get-out Card (GC), and must report to the Ultra Speedy but a little Creepy Immigration Services (USCIS) for prompt Deportation to Outer Space (DOS).

July 10, 2099

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This report has nothing to do with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of State (DOS) or Department of Labor (DOL).

Immigration Road Blog

Along the Immigration Road: Green Card, Visa, U.S. Citizenship and More

Google’s Super Bowl Ad Features an Immigrant

Happy New Year 2010

Immigration Road Signs

What Exactly is Wrong with Imigration?

How to Handle Flood of Aliens

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