Coming over by boat

[bogota vet]

I've it is quite possible (because it is done all the time) to come over to the US by boat.  Of course illegally, you leave from the Barranquilla/Cartagena coast, come up to the Grand Bahamas or simliar, then get into the US by speed boat to Florida.  It costs about $5000.   I suppose if you were wealthy and your Colombia wife's parents really wanted to live with her in the US, just pay the money and bring them here.

[JeffA]

... in response to Coming over by boat, posted by bogota vet on Sep 17, 2002

Bogota vet, the parents want to visit, but aren't interested in living here. This time, only the mother is applying for the visa, to preclude the assumption by the INS of visa fraud. When I said she wanted to come for 90 days, that's the extent of it. My mother-in-law wouldn't be willing to take a speed boat trip to enter illegaly, or to enter illegaly period. Thanks for the tip, but not a possibility in our case.

[bogota vet]

... in response to Coming over by boat, posted by bogota vet on Sep 17, 2002

You need some contacts to do this.
Most Colombians don't have the 5k to make the trip.
I think it is probably a "legit" business in Colombia

I suppose , if the gringo were rich, just pay off the right people and get the tourist visa, probably cost you 5k to 20k in payoff per visa.  Maybe a safer way.

There a s***load of ways if the Colombian has got the money.
except he can't get the soc sec card#.

west by boat into Calif
in thru Canada border crossing
Fla boat runner is most common

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: Coming over by boat, posted by bogota vet on Sep 17, 2002

You are right if you sneak in or come on a tourist visa you have no SS card witch would seem to eliminate good jobs.We have something like 10 million illegals in this country,mostly Mexican.Many work for cash in constuction,landscaping or food sevice.The employer can be fined big time for this but they still do it,I guess they don't get caught enough to discourage it.
Another way people have been working here,fake SS cards or using someone elses number.There was an article about this here in The San Jose Mercury yesterday.The government is cracking down on this.There was the story of a woman who worked this way for 10 years before she got caught and fired over it.She was saying I just want to work and support my family,I've been a good employee for 10 years.Its easy to sypathize,they just want what we were born in to.We have been in a sort of funny situation for years,not really enforcing the rules.
Two things happened to encourage illegals in the last couple of years.Last year there was an amnesty for illegal who could make themselves legal by marrying someone.Alot of this happened,many just shams.Also when Bush first took office he was intertaining an amnesty for illegals proposed by his friend president Fox of Mexico.I don't know if they were seriously considering it but 9/11 seemed to end the idea.Actually I think the crackdown on visa's happened before 9/11 in reaction to the possible amnesty.Seems the idea was if we are going to grant an amnesty lets don't let in any more we will have to give it too.
I personally think we could let in more people than we do.These people that have the drive to get here seems to make good employees and potential citizens.
A leader in the high tech industry here,I forget which one,said that the success we enjoy as the high tech leader of the world would not have been possible without foriegn engineers who came here and contributed to it.Of course these peoplle were legal.
Now there is a reverse thing going on.With high tech lay offs engineers here on work visa's have to go home if layed off.There has been critisism that employers lay off Us workers first because there is alot of presure to keep the foriegn workers from being sent home.A guy who repairs my computer is a laid off worker from Sun Micro and he filed a formal complaint about this and has gotten alot of attention.Of course these layed off tech workers could slip in to the undergroung like the other 10 million illegals,but they can't get the work they are trained for doing this.Rajev's landscaping?I don't think so.Jose will kick your butt every time in that business.

Pete

[DavidMN]

... in response to No SS card, posted by Pete E on Sep 20, 2002

Hey Pete, This is kind of off-topic but I'm curious: You mentioned ~10 mil illegals currently in the US.  I know the Census Bureau tries to count the homeless every 10 years...Any idea if the current estimate of the US population (285 mil) includes some kind of estimate for illegal aliens?

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: No SS card, posted by DavidMN on Sep 20, 2002

Yeah I think they try to estimate it and that is where the number comes from ,it may be like 9 million.But I think their counts are always low,illegals don't want to be counted.A census person shows up on a door step where 3 legals and 10 illegals live,they will probably only hear about the legals,even though they don't turn in people.

Pete

[Pete E]

... in response to Coming over by boat, posted by bogota vet on Sep 17, 2002

Is a person any more illegal doing this than being here on an expired tourist visa?I also hear you can buy a tourist visa for $5000 or so.If that is true would that be a better way to go?
My brother in law went in to the American Embasssy in Bogota today with an appointment to try and get a tourist visa.We haven't heard yet.I figure he has the old snowballs chance in hell.I think he is the poster boy for who they don't want to give a visa to.Young unemployed Colombiano.
I told my wife to get her father and mother stasrted in the process because they might have a chance.Her father is late 60's,has a good pension in Colombia.
My wife has been here 2 1/2 years.I think she can get citizenship in 2 1/2 more years and then sponsor her brother on a relative visa.Siblings are last on the relative visa priority but it may be possible?

Pete

[JeffA]

... in response to Re: Coming over by boat, posted by Pete E on Sep 17, 2002

let me know how it goes, please, with the brother in law. We're (wife and I) looking for the famous 90-day tourist visa, not migration, and any info about recent embassy trips would be helpful. Her family doesn't live in Bogota, and her father's staying in Colombia. They aren't looking to immigrate, legally or not.

[Cali vet]

... in response to Coming over by boat, posted by bogota vet on Sep 17, 2002

A good book of true accounts of those trips is "El Hueco" (The Hole) by German Castro Caycedo ISBN:958-614-292-2.