Lessons and Experiencare taken from Immigration .?

Sorry, Wagdy, I was born in the United States and continue to live here. My grandparents immigrated from Ireland in the early 1900's and I believe their experience was very different from what people experience today.

I highly recommend reading The Joy Luck Club and other books by Amy Tan. She is hilarious, but also poignantly describes the experience of 1st generation Chinese Americans and the clash of the two cultures in homes of families where parents' experiences are rooted in a society where parental respect, among other things, was much more important than it is today in the U.S.

Like Mary, I also was born in the USA, but my grandparents immigrated here from Germany and Russia in the early 1900s. When I was a little girl I loved hearing them tell of their younger days as new U.S. citizens back in the days of horse-drawn delivery wagons.

We currently have two foster girls living with us that emigrated from Puerto Rico about 3 years ago. It has been interesting to hear them share of life in their former country. They don't particularly enjoy recalling the actual day the flew in a plane to America - though they can't really say why that is. Maybe it was leaving grandparents behind? Or maybe the plane ride was scary?

I don't know anything about immigration, but I do know this: The number one consideration is how your spouse feels about it.

Hi Wagdy, I too am a US citizen but immigration, especially illegal immigration is a very big topic in Arizona. I have a high school friend who is an immigration lawyer and immigration legally to the US is quite the undertaking. I think it's easier to immigrate illegally! Immigrating legally is hard because the rules are changed by the US Congress occasionally and the people who wish to immigrate have often have to submit yet more papers and of course papers tend to get mislaid. Hope this view helps you get some insight onto your questions!

Hello everyone
Many thanks to whom start to share with thier respectfully comment.
To make ehe discution more general may I ass these points.
Why you seart thinking for immigration?
Are your immigratio was for only You or with your Family?
Was the life after immigration a rosy,worthy ,..life?
If you had kids was that cause you any problems?
You make much money nowbetter than before immigration?
Are the new comming will meets and gain the same as you did?

well Wagady, thats a good question you have up there.I am an Indian and my son has immigrated to US for higher studies and got a job there, and might stay back there eventually. He being our only son, (I have a daughter)in future, if in case I wish to be with him, perhaps we(me and my husband) may have to move over there.(but I wonder if it will happen).No doubt my son makes good money, but what use, if you equate it to the things he/we miss out in the present life is debatable.Life is definitely not rosy in an alien land.Lot of compromise has to be made and it all depend on ones owm individual look out, as to how much one can compromise.

Wagdy, I am sorry I misspelt your name..

Appy,
The trend now is for Indians who get educated here, to get hired by U.S. companies, and return to India where their jobs are. U.S. companies are not merely out-sourcing to India, now their setting up their research and development facilities, etc., there because the number of engineers and other technilogical specialists in India grossly outnumbers those in the U.S. With their "U.S." salaries, Indians can live much better at home, and ... be at home. So hopefully you won't have to make the difficult choice you describe.
Good luck.
Terry

That should have been "now THEY'RE setting up ...." Don't want to give the wrong impression about U.S. educations.

Wagdy,
If you go to this link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_American, there are links at the bottom of the page to groups through whom you can probably find Egyptian immigrants to the U.S. who can share their experiences, or general literature on the subject.

Hi Wagdy
I immigrated to the US from Oz in 1990 because I married an American. We met in 1988 when I travelled to the US on business. I took a week in LA at the beginning of the trip and he was invited along to brunch at the Queen Mary with friends of mine - and me of course. I saw him every day except one, and he took me to meet his parents before I left. Six months later he visited Oz and proposed. Six months after that I visited LA and six months after that he came to Oz for the wedding. It took all of that last six months to get all of the paperwork, police and medical checks done. There were forms that had to be filled in just to request more forms!

We chose to live in LA first as his parents were older. Because I insisted on having the wedding with my family here, I had to go over on an immediate family visa. That meant I didn't have the interview or get the visa until AFTER the wedding. Very stressful! If I had agreed to have the wedding in the US I could have gone over on a fiance visa and had everything approved BEFORE I quit my job, sold my worldly belongings and burnt all my bridges. A big mistake we made was to buy tickets that had short stop in Hawaii. That meant I had to go through first time immigration there, with another flight looming and very nearly missed, the door hit us on the butt as we got on. Direct flight is the way to go!!

Two years later I had to go to immigration and prove we were really married (joint bank accounts etc). I sat there for hours and in the end they just stamped my passport and I left. On the other hand, the woman from Mexico who was pregnant and 2 days past her due date was at immigration 2 hours before me, still there when I left, and had more than one interview. Hmmmm.

Thanks to American TV shows language was not a problem for me, unless I slipped up and used the aussie word in which case people couldn't work out what I was talking about or freaked out. Try using the word 'torch' instead of 'flashlight' when about to climb into a tower contaminated by solvents. Turns a few heads that does!

About fitting in... Although Australians and Americans basically speak the same language, they have different ways of saying things, different behaviours and very different body language. That means it sometimes feels 'artificial'. It's hard to explain, but it was like people weren't saying what they really meant. It was hard to develop friendships at first because I didn't have that instinct you have when you meet people anymore. I think we subconsciously develop expectations about the ways people will move and their expressions when they are being friendly or otherwise. In a different culture, these expectations are meaningless and it becomes difficult to trust your judgement.

Oh, and you are very hungry because nothing tastes right - perfectly okay when on holiday, but hard to cope with when dealing with the stress of leaving friends and family. I had cravings for the str

oohh - now I have proof that I'm full of it! My message was cut off. If that doesn't tell me when to shut up, nothing will!

Oh suzy, IU was interested in what you were saying, it did not seem lengthy at all. What did you have cravings for? How long did it take you to become adjusted?

How about your children now, are they going through the same kinds of adjust ment problems you had in the USA?

Hi MizT, I had cravings for foods that would be considered 'fast' food - things like pies and sausage rolls, not available in LA in the same form as in Oz. They aren't delicacies by any stretch of the imagination, just something you eat when in a mall or just in a hurry. I guess it was a year before I got so used to the different flavours that I could eat without feeling bad. When hubby moved over here I went out of my way to try to find things that would be familiar to him. D#2 has developed a liking for some typical aussie foods like pies, sausage rolls and sausages, but D#1 has maintained her dislike of these. D#2 was 4 when we moved to Oz, D#1 was 7. Maybe that's why one adapted more to the foods than the other.

When we first got here, D#1 has just finished first grade. The school year here is jan to dec, and we didn't want to put her in second grade in august, especially since she couldn't understand anyone's accent! The extra few months in first grade made a huge difference, though the decision also made her a full year older than many of her classmates. She went from having trouble in school in the States to ending up Dux of her school in year 6.

D#2 was born on June 29 and qualified to start school at 4 and a half - by one day, the cut off is June 30. Although academically ready, she was not coping with the move very well and was very emotional. We kept her out of school for another year and she started at 5 and a half. In the meantime she went to preschool a couple of days a week. I would recommend it to anyone! D#2 still has trouble with change and I sometimes wonder if it was the move that caused that.

New York Immigration Lawyer Marina Shepelsky, located in Brooklyn, assists clients from the New York metro area and across the United States in all immigration and naturalization matters http://www.e-us-visa.com

I don't have personal experience but a long-view perspective. My comment is long, so I may have to split the post.
I have very mixed feelings about current immigration policies within the US. Unfortunately, Immigration can't read people's hearts and minds to tell why people want to enter the US and what they intend to do once here.
Some of the best people in the US right now are fine people who have had such a love of freedom and opportunity that they have risked immigrating illegally. They have hearts and souls towards the US like my grandparents. Would my grandparents been able to immigrate if the laws then were the same as now?
Some legals and illegals only use the system for selfish gain. Some actively plot violence and destruction against the US.
It's a difficult time for Middle Eastern and Islamic people to immigrate, but I'm sure you know that. Is it fair? No. Is it necessary? Yes.
When my ancestors came there were no phones and no visits back to the old country. When they came they came to stay and make a new life. Their hardships laid a foundation for their descendants. They were "super citizens" and embraced the life and ideals of the US. They drank deeply of the freedoms and responsibilities.
There was lots of pressure on the first generation to be well educated and successful. By the second generation (my generation), we were completely Americanized - the only hint of the old country on us is fondness for a few ethnic foods (like Plum pierogi). Would this make my grandparents sad, to see how little we retain of the old country? Yes.
The statue of liberty has a poem by Emma Lazarus: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
That door is political and multigenerational. It's a huge choice, choosing to immigrate. One must think about the present, the future, those left behind, those yet to be born. One's loyalty to the new country (in this case, the US) must be absolute, "warts and all." That's hard.

Hi Wagdy
I am Canadian who migrated to Australia. I do not know where you want to immigrate to, but for any place you want to go to, make sure you have your official documents translated in the official language of the country, by a recognised translator. Have many official copies... official meaning stamped by a minister of justice or similar...one they can verify his registration to the official organisation or a government organisation.