Immigration

Unless you have any skin in the game, you probably haven’t heard of the July 13 memo from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Here’s a portion:

“This Policy Memorandum (PM) provides guidance to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adjudicators regarding the discretion to deny an application, petition, or request without first issuing a Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) if initial evidence is not submitted or if the evidence in the record does not establish eligibility.”

In other words, you submit your application, which is complicated believe you me, but happen to forget to include something. They will no longer request additional information but rather will deny your application and you won’t know why. What are you supposed to do then when you haven’t a clue what you might have gotten wrong? Include another check for $535?

It sadly brings to mind what I was reading about the poll tax in Simon Schama’s The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words 1000 BC – 1492 AD:

“Collectors were supposed to keep their payers waiting, then shout at them, seize them by the scruff of the neck and even slap their faces. On no account was the payer’s hand to be raised above the hand of the receiver, a requirement demanding a physically contorted form of dextrous subservience. Payment was of course also a punishing hardship for the countless numbers of the less well-off.”