Originally posted by Pigeon: Here's an honest question: How hard is it to legally emigrate from Mexico to the US? What's involved, how much does it cost, how long does it take, etc.?
Scott
Well, if you look at the few dozen posts in this thread, no one really cares about this. Of course it's much easier to say "but why don't they come legally" because for that you don't have to come back to this nasty thing called reality.
For permanent immigration, there's a cap of about 700,000 people per year (globally). - about 60-70% of those are reserved for "family (re)unification" - siblings, spouses and children of US citizens. - about 20-25% are for "speciality workers" (top athletes, professors, special skills ppl) This typically goes to ppl who are in the US for several years already (e.g. visiting professors) and they decide to emigrate permanently. - about 50-55,000 visas are for the "visa lottery" (you have no chance for this from Mexico)
The permanent immigration process takes 3-12 years and a lot of dough for the immigration lawyer.
If you do not fit into any of those categories, you can apply for "temporary worker" visas, of which there's an annual cap of 65,000 for "unskilled" and 65,000 for college degree ppl. You can hold a temporary worker visa typically for 1-6 years, and your employer has to prove for the gov't that there is no US citizen for the particular job. The application costs roughly $1000-3000 (I guess since it is done by the employer - the gov't charges about $1500 plus the immigration lawyer's fees).
This process doesn't take very long, a few months usually. Your chance is basically determined by how big/rich the company is wanting to hire you. Your employer has to do this process, you cannot do it yourself.
There are a few other ways to work temporarily in the USA, but those are typically shorter term and not many people are eligible. Definitely not your typical Latino tomato picker.
Just for the perspective, there are about 10-12 million people in the US illegally.
