It’s a simple and straightforward dream: that my government will make serving the interests of it’s citizens a priority.  It has become apparent of late that that is only a pipe dream.

What I had suspected to be true was sadly confirmed by the New York Times:

Many thousands of Americans seeking green cards for foreign spouses or other immediate relatives have been separated from them for a year or more because of swelling bureaucratic delays at a federal immigration agency in recent months.

The long waits came when the agency, Citizenship and Immigration Services, shifted attention and resources to a program President Obama started in 2012 to give deportation deferrals to young undocumented immigrants, according to administration officials and official data.  …

Until recently, an American could obtain a green card for a spouse, child or parent — probably the easiest document in the immigration system — in five months or less. But over the past year, waits for approvals of those resident visas stretched to 15 months, and more than 500,000 applications became stuck in the pipeline, playing havoc with international moves and children’s schools and keeping families apart.

I guess I should count my blessings, at least Jee Yeun is stuck here in the states with me.  But the fact the President made the DREAM Act amnesty program for illegal immigrants a priority over people like me and half a million other citizens is outrageous.  I am well beyond mere anger at this point, a fury which is only exacerbated by the fact that I am powerless to do a fucking thing about it.

Well, that’s not entirely true.  I did pick up the phone and call the USCIS customer “service” number.  After navigating the recorded phone tree options I was eventually connected with a pleasant enough human being.  Apparently her training only allowed her to read from prepared scripts.  I patiently explained that after receiving a letter dated August 2, 2013 stating our residency application would be delayed approximately six months due to “workload” issues there had been no further contact from USCIS.  This prompted the spokesbot to recite from the script that said my case had been accepted on April 30 for processing at the Lee’s Summit, MO facility.  That was all the information she had.

I told her the August 2 letter said that if I hadn’t heard anything in six months I was supposed to call the customer service number, which is what I was now attempting to do.  This comment apparently resulted in the spokesbot accessing a new script to read to me.  Progress!  This time I was told that my application had been received on April 30, had been processed at Lee’s Summit, MO, and sent to the Charleston, SC service center for adjudication.  So then I asked the only question I care about–how much longer do I have to wait?  She didn’t have an answer for that, so she put me on hold.  When she returned to the phone she advised me that my application was received on April 30, processed at Lee’s Summit, sent to Charleston, and that my case was “outside normal processing parameters”.  Alrighty then.  Now what?

The helpful spokesbot then carefully took down all the information I had previously provided and assured me that the Charleston office would be notified of the fact my case was outside normal processing parameters and that if I hadn’t heard from Charleston in fifteen days I should call the customer service number.  So, the circle jerk has now completed a full loop I suppose.

I asked if making an appointment to speak in person with someone in Charleston would be helpful.  Her somewhat ominous response was that it would not be “harmful” to do so, but that I’d have to schedule an appointment online in their “info pass” system.  I thanked her for her time and effort and the call ended.  I immediately went to the info pass system to schedule a potentially unhelpful but unharmful appointment in Charleston.  The joke was on me apparently.  Here are the options for getting an appointment:

The only one that potentially fits is the last one.  So if I don’t hear back in the 15 days I’ve been promised, I can wait another 30 days and schedule an appointment.  That’s not really helpful, but I guess it wouldn’t be harmful either.

Who knew the DREAM Act would be such a nightmare?

So, I came upon this link that asks the question: Are you smarter than an educator?  That seems to be a pretty low bar as far as intelligence indicators go, but I took the test anyway.  I was astounded when I saw just how easy the questions were.  I did miss two which I attribute more to not reading carefully than to ignorance.  Even so, I scored a 93%.  Now get this: The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the test was 49%; college educators scored 55%!  That’s pretty damn scary.

Here’s a direct link to the test.  Go ahead and take it.  It will probably make you feel good about yourself.  Or sad for your fellow citizens.  Or both.

I have a kimchi pot on my front porch.  Today the doorbell rang.  Jee Yeun answered the door and began conversing in Korean.  Apparently two well dressed Korean men were driving by and saw the aforementioned kimchi pot and surmised correctly that a Hanguk-saram was living here.  So, they wanted to stop by and share some good news.

And so they did and then they left.

The other strange event of the day is that my house is full of the wonderful smell of roasting turkey.  Well, it is not strange that the house smells of poultry because I’ve had some in the oven these past couple of hours.  It’s just strange that I’m making turkey this time of year I suppose.  But what the hell, I’m retired and no slave to a calendar.  And I like turkey.

Just another exciting day in the life here at LTG.