tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19727420.post4699334871409336027..comments2024-03-23T12:05:13.464-07:00Comments on Ideas: What Defines a Sham Marriage?David Friedmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06543763515095867595noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19727420.post-18962568165432412772010-10-29T16:26:47.875-07:002010-10-29T16:26:47.875-07:00Hi,
I was reading your story ideas and was stuck...Hi,<br /><br />I was reading your <b> story ideas</b> and was stuck by the one about strange reproductive patterns, Ursula K. Leguin has quite a few short-stories with similar themes.<br /><br />"Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways" are both set in a world where marriages are four people partnerships (2 of each sex), where there is a divide between Morning and Evening people (all the children of a Morning mother are Morning people and so you can't never mate with any of your siblings, although your sisters, if you are female, can enter the same marriage as you and sleep with both your male and female Evening partners).<br /><br />Well, the stories are quite short so I won't spoil you further, I like "Mountain Ways" better, in case you want to try one of them.<br /><br />In the same collection there's "The Matter of Seggri", which is just brilliant, and also explores female-female partnerships and a extreme gender division of labour (kind of a mirror image of our society with an added number imbalance)evalanguihttp://readingz.livejournal.com/271685.htmlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19727420.post-74670632833021869022010-10-26T16:44:51.616-07:002010-10-26T16:44:51.616-07:00It seems I made this very point a couple of years ...It seems I made this very point a couple of years ago on this blog. To repeat: love, sex, cohabitation, marriage, wedding, breeding, friendship and financial sharing are all independent things, any one or combination of which can occur without any of the others.<br /><br />There is no such thing as a sham marriage, unless it be one entered into solely for immigration purposes, without love, sex, cohabitation, wedding, breeding, friendship and financial sharing.<br /><br />Our gummint is an old ass.jimbinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03416364723697446318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19727420.post-38445213125189957892010-10-26T03:41:28.622-07:002010-10-26T03:41:28.622-07:00An interesting set of responses to that very quest...An interesting set of responses to that very question:<br /><br />http://chrisblattman.com/2010/05/05/green-card-interview-bleg/Tim Worstallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13161727860817121071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19727420.post-63778247103123307462010-10-25T23:26:48.657-07:002010-10-25T23:26:48.657-07:00This kind of stuff is asked every time you need to...This kind of stuff is asked every time you need to get a dependent visa, including non-immigration ones (e.g. TN-2, F-2).<br /><br />In our case, we brought a thick album "gallery" of photos from different years/seasons, old email transcripts and things like that.<br /><br />This is very similar matter to the broad KIND of evidence asked for to prove lack of intent to immigrate for guest visas (typically income, assets, relatives in need of caring, letters from officials explaining one's pressing commitments to return). Especially on the first visit.<br /><br />Sometimes the truth is harder to believe than a white lie.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19727420.post-76402407221547342722010-10-25T21:37:02.375-07:002010-10-25T21:37:02.375-07:00Technically, the INS doesn't exist anymore; it...Technically, the INS doesn't exist anymore; it was replaced by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) under the Department of Homeland Security.<br /><br />I think <a href="http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-751instr.pdf" rel="nofollow">this document</a> is the closest the USCIS comes to saying what they consider proof that a marriage is legitimate (see page 2, under the heading "Evidence of the Relationship").<br /><br />As you can see, they provide some examples of what sort of evidence they might be interested in, but they don't say how they evaluate the evidence or what they would consider ironclad proof. One of the items they ask for is "Other documents you consider relevant to establish that your marriage was not entered into in order to evade the U.S. immigration laws," leaving it up to the petitioner to decide what kind of evidence is relevant. I think this suggests the USCIS doesn't have a set of well-defined rules for determining whether a marriage is legitimate.Russell Hannekenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09272592291829934897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19727420.post-40155425570995868302010-10-25T20:33:57.684-07:002010-10-25T20:33:57.684-07:00Yes, it is based on the capricious judgment of a l...Yes, it is based on the capricious judgment of a low level, poorly trained, little motivated government functionary guided by shaky rules, subject to wide interpretations, based on flaky, culturally parochial evidence.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19727420.post-28565357771404084782010-10-25T18:09:11.095-07:002010-10-25T18:09:11.095-07:00http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/nyregion/13fraud...http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/nyregion/13fraud.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com