I sat this week, pondering over how I got my German wife her 'green-card'. I was stationed in Panama at the time...on my 2nd year of marriage and the base guy laid out the various pieces and parts to this.
Paperwork-wise, it wasn't a big deal (maybe 10 pages of crap to fill out).
Cost factor? They wouldn't let the base clinic do the physical. This meant you had to pay some civilian doctor to do it and they kept wanting to lead me to some clinic which would charge in the $1,500 range for 'requirements'.
Some guy who'd done this the year prior for his Panamanian wife....gave me a name of a cheap-ass Panama clinic...costing in the $500 range. With everything figured out...I probably spent in the $800 range out of my pocket.
So I look at the modern way of people just crossing the border. They 'catch' you (it's not really catching as far as I can figure). They will assemble you at some border station...giving you a $10 sandwich, with a soda.
Texas will put you a free-bus, and 36 hours later...you end up in NY City. There? Those kind NY City dopey folks will put you up in some 3-star hotel, giving you a VISA-gift card....probably loaded in the $3k range to buy stuff. Monthly, they'd hand you $2,000 for 'stuff'. Any paperwork for the visa? They'd fill it out for you, and that stupid clinic stuff would be totally free.
Yeah, today....I'd just tell the German wife to skip all those regular steps, and just hike up to the Texas border, and 'get-caught'.
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