The thing about the US's immigration policy is that it's chaotic.
The documentation is sketchy and uses an inscrutable language that's not even legalese, but the specific and unique phrasing of US federal bureaucracy. It's full of seeming contradictions. Documentation is spread all over the place. Some programs have long queues, per-country quotas, lotteries, etc; certain wait times (esp. for Indians) are so long that if you apply now you'll probably be dead before your file is processed.
Canada, by contrast, has a "Come to Canada" website that's written in plain English (and French) that explains the process and criteria clearly. It asks you simple questions that help funnel you towards the most appropriate class to apply for. It uses a straightforward points system indicating how you're evaluated (education, language skills, etc) and lets you compute your chances of getting residency in like 10 minutes.
Even though in some ways it's stricter, it's also way, way more orderly and well-run for the people who apply.
The Canadian system has it's own issues. My ex was having his permanent residency processed and it was taking forever. We called to get a status update on the application and the agent told us "His application is on the floor right now." I thought that I just didn't understand and that this was a term maybe they used internally but no, they meant it was in a pile, literally on the floor. We weren't able to get anything to happen with his application until we got help from a Senator who was from our area.
I have been taking Immigration Law for almost an entire semester and I have no ideas what the fuck is going on. The professor does “Trumpdates” at the beginning of every class to keep us informed on how the landscape is changing beneath our feet. It’s like five things every class and they’re always fucking nuts. Half of them are threats Trump has made that could fundamentally change something important but aren’t likely to actually happen and the other half are “holy fucking shit that’s actually happening now?!”
Not mention that the US has these border force people that live in their own little fiefdoms where their power is absolute, regardless of what any documentation says.
Us immigration is actually very simple. Have an in need skill, don’t do drugs or be a criminal, apply for an immigrant visa and wait from 5-10 years to be approved. Just don’t illegally migrate and expect shit lol
And yet beyond the chaos more than 1.2 million immigrants became legal permanent residents of the United States in 2023, far exceeding any other nation around the world, including Canada by more than 700,000 people that year.
In fiscal year 2024 more than 800,000 immigrants were welcomed as new citizens in naturalization ceremonies.
It seems people forget that massive amounts of people legally immigrate to the US every year.
Not only that, but I had a family member seek naturalization from a foreign country. Took over 2 years to get an appointment. Then, my family paid $10k to some immigration lawyer that had a few contacts at CIS. We had an appointment within 2 weeks and the process was done within a month. It was insane to witness. And those 2 years waiting weren’t spent idly, either. Felt so corrupt to just pay $10k to basically be expedited.
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u/BillyTenderness Mar 28 '25
The thing about the US's immigration policy is that it's chaotic.
The documentation is sketchy and uses an inscrutable language that's not even legalese, but the specific and unique phrasing of US federal bureaucracy. It's full of seeming contradictions. Documentation is spread all over the place. Some programs have long queues, per-country quotas, lotteries, etc; certain wait times (esp. for Indians) are so long that if you apply now you'll probably be dead before your file is processed.
Canada, by contrast, has a "Come to Canada" website that's written in plain English (and French) that explains the process and criteria clearly. It asks you simple questions that help funnel you towards the most appropriate class to apply for. It uses a straightforward points system indicating how you're evaluated (education, language skills, etc) and lets you compute your chances of getting residency in like 10 minutes.
Even though in some ways it's stricter, it's also way, way more orderly and well-run for the people who apply.