Letters to the Editor

From the January 2009 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

Damon Root replies: Professor Weiser is certainly correct that Robert Moses used eminent domain to rip New York apart. But Moses also sat on the City Planning Commission, which set the zoning regulations that helped with the job.

As I argued in my review, Moses was the worst sort of government thug. His Cross-Bronx Expressway, to take perhaps the most famous example, obliterated the perfectly successful neighborhood of East Tremont, despite the fact that there was a viable and far less destructive alternate route just two blocks away. Moses, however, refused to follow any plan but his own. Far from being a “bright light,” he was the dark heart of that “statist era.”

What Part of Legal Immigration Don’t You Understand?

The hilarious yet accurate immigration flowchart in the October issue (“What Part of Legal Immigration Don’t You Understand?”) left out one common detour in the path to U.S. citizenship: the fiancée visa.

I wanted to marry a Russian woman in 2000, and our government’s website implied that a fiancée visa was the only correct way to do this. Fortunately, a friendly immigration attorney advised me to get married in Russia and file her immigration paperwork at the U.S. consulate in Moscow. (This is, alas, no longer possible after 9/11.)

The fiancée visa process, which many of our friends have followed, soaks up huge amounts of money and time. It is often a year before the spouse can work in this country, and he or she often does not receive travel documents during that time. The day we got married in Russia, my wife became the “spouse of a U.S. citizen” right away, instead of the “fiancée of a U.S. citizen” with no legal status.

Our results: We got married in Russia on January 10th, 2001, and she arrived at JFK exactly one month later with her passport stamped “Employment Authorized.” She had a Social Security card in two weeks, received a (two-year provisional) green card in two months, and was naturalized in November 2004.

We offer one more piece of advice for visa applicants: Do the paperwork yourself. Many law firms do a sloppy job, resulting in costly delays. A neat application package, punched out for a top-ring clipboard, with a U.S. Postal Service money order attached (no heavy-duty staples; ACCO fasteners or heavy clips only!) will be processed immediately upon receipt, while a loose bundle of photocopies stuffed in an envelope with a personal check invariably finds the bottom of the pile.

Bob Mitchell
Bear, DE