by Amer Numan

Created on: December 10, 2008

As an immigrant who followed available, legal steps to becoming a permanent U.S. resident after being a totally foreign national, please allow me to dismiss a few very common misconceptions about illegal immigration.

(1) "Getting papers" to come to the U.S. is very hard.

The process to come to the U.S. is extremely simple. Have a reason to come, clear dates for your stay, proof that your intentions to come here match the type of visa you are applying for, and pay the fee that matches the visa processing you are asking for.

I went through this process twice. Once in 2000 to visit the country on a tourist visa, where I proved that I have a house in my home country, family to come back to, a friend with a valid U.S. address to temporarily visit, and a quote for the potential roundtrip plane ticket I am buying if I get the tourist visa. The second time was in 2002, to go to college in the U.S. This time, I submitted evidence of my residency in my home country, that my family still resides there, and that I am admitted in a U.S. university with a program start date in a couple of months. An interview that discusses my intentions after my student visa expires went pretty smoothly. An officer makes sure you do not have an agenda besides the visa you are asking for (student), and that's it.

People who do not want to pay that processing fee to obtain a visa, have bad intentions to start with, want to somehow belong to a different nation without the proper, EXISTENT process to do so, are people who end up with the sad stories that everyone sympathizes with.

(2) Parents with children who were born here should be allowed to stay for their U.S. citizen kids.

I cannot disagree more. This is a prettier way of saying that it is okay for a woman to jump over a fence pregnant and give birth in a U.S. hospital to be able to get social security and other benefits that hard-working Americans have been working for their entire lives.

(3) There is no legal way to become an American anyway, they have to stay illegal!

I consider myself a true American story. An immigrant who came in here, got educated, got a job to benefit my society, made a ton of friends, and paid a lot of fees and filed a lot of paperwork to properly, legally, account for every single day I have been in this country. As a visitor, student, temporary worker, then permanent worker, then permanent resident, then American citizen.

Yes, each process is a separate, long application. Each process probably requires legal advice and several filing fees. Stress can be involved. BUT, it's possible, it exists, it works, it happens every single day.

(4) Immigrants are pests, they use our tax money and take away from our economy.

Absolutely false. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are. Actual immigrants who follow the process outlined above are, if anything, an astounding flow of money, expertise, and culture for this great country. We bring different languages, views, ideas, and skills to this country. We drop close to $10,000 in fees to support the government's homeland security system for each legal process extending from tourist to citizen. We pay higher taxes in some periods along the immigration process, and the same taxes after we become citizens. At no point are we costing an American money. At no point are we taking away from the job market. If anything, we are opening businesses, creating products and services, innovating new technologies, and investing in this economy.

This is a land of immigrants, a crossroads of cultures, and to say that there is no possible way for foreign talent to belong here is false. I am living, breathing proof that you can be born somewhere, discover this great nation, and gradually belong to it and give back as a citizen.

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