Early in 1997 I got a call from a German company, that had a sister company in the US. They asked me, if I would be interested in working in the United States. Ever since I had made my long trip clear across the States, I wished to live in this country of my dreams. I did not have to think twice. My answer was yes. To get a quick start, a contract with the German company was made, that stated, that I would work in the US at their sister company, as a kind of service man. I spoke to two managers form the US, when they were in Germany. I was promised a long term employment and that they would take care of the US paperwork to get a work permit and the green card.

I had to give three month notice to my current German employer, before I could switch jobs. This was considered in my new contract.

With my contract and another paper, stating that I needed to go to America for a long service job, I went to an American consulate to get a visa. A few days later, I got my passport back in the mail with a visa valid for ten years. I found out later, that this was basically a tourist visa, also issued to service technicians, which frequently travel to the US for a longer period.

In summer 1997, I moved to Virginia, to start my new employment. At the airport I got a little paper stapled into my passport. I learned quickly, that this was called an I94, issued to any alien coming to the US. It has a date stamp on it, noting when the person enters the States and how long the person is allowed to stay in the country. I was allowed to stay for half a year. That was the usual time. By Christmas I was in Germany again, in order to comply with the I94. My employer utilized this time to send me to some classes, so I could learn more about the companies many German made control systems for their production line.

Back in Virginia, I learned about the quarrels among the management and I realized that this job would not last as I was promised. They never even started working on my papers. From a friend I heard, that custom harvesters are always short handed and happy to hire almost anybody, who is willing to work hard. Through an advertisement in the local newspaper, I got in touch with a custom harvester in Kansas. We met soon. He agreed to help me getting my papers and I went on harvest with him. During the next days we traveled to the closest INS office to ask for a work permit. We had to wait in line among a bunch of Asians and Mexicans. When it was our turn, we found the clerk to be a Hispanic lady, who understood less English than I did. She told us, that I was not getting anything and pointed me out the door.

My custom harvester contacted his attorney. But all he got done during the whole summer was an extension for my I94, so I could legally stay in the country.  The extension was good for another half year. By the time I finally got it in the mail, it was almost expired.  I immediately applied for another extension, getting the application form from the closest INS office. The first application was about $75, the second was already $120 and the fees kept going up.

This attorney never got any further. We went on harvest extremely short handed. This harvester usually hired six guys to operate all of his equipment. We headed south being only four guys. One of them, who was not worth too much anyway, quit after two weeks. By the end of wheat harvest another guy had to go back to college.

To try to stay legal, I had suggested to get paid after I would get my work permit. In February 1999 however this custom harvester gave up on immigration and told me, that he would not be able to get me a work permit at all. He had given me a little cash here and there and promised to pay me in full, whenever I would get my papers.

Immediately I contacted two different attorneys who both specialized in immigration. One of them I had to pay upfront by credit card, just for a meeting over the phone. I didn’t mind the money as long as it would help me to satisfy the law of the land. But both attorneys told me, that there was nothing they could do. I didn’t believe them, because I knew there are thousands of people immigrating to the US everyday. So why should I not be one of them.

I bought me a book with all the current immigration laws and studied it. I found that a skilled worker with a good education, experience and an employer who wanted to hire was eligible for a green card. For those who don’t know what a green card is, it allows a foreigner or alien, as INS calls us, to permanently reside in the United States and be employed, too.

I surely thought with a masters degree in engineering and a business degree I had sufficient education to satisfy the law. I also had five years of experience in engineering jobs.

So I called the one attorney back, I had more hope in, and explained the law to him. He agreed with me and told me to call back, when I had found an employer willing to go through the paperwork with me.

I went looking for jobs in my field and even hired a career counselor for several thousand dollars. With his help I found quite a few very promising job openings. But they all shied away over having to deal with INS.

I did not want to go back to Germany either, under no circumstances. I did not have a residence there anymore and did not see any hope to ever find a job there again. Before I left Germany, I had written over one hundred applications following newspaper ads in my field. But I had had only one interview and was never offered a job. The first engineering job I had in Germany, after finishing University was with a labor leasing company. Through it I worked for the company which had paid for most of my education and apprenticeship. After we had graduated they hired only a few out of over thirty in our class. Since job market rules are very different in Germany from the US, I could not have gone into a different field either. Being an engineer and working for a custom harvester or farmer in Germany was pretty much unthinkable.

I did not know what to do and got very devastated.

I had believed in God for a long time, but was not ready for this trial. Finally I laid my life in his hands and led Him take care of the stuff, which was beyond my reach. Through a local church I found accommodation. Always being drawn to agriculture from my childhood on, I spent the summer on a local farm, just to stay busy and being useful. At least I didn’t have to worry about money. The jobs I had in Germany had paid quite well and I was never a big spender. With my currently very low expenses, my savings account could last me several years. I quit worrying about papers and life got a whole lot better.

Another custom harvester finally decided to take a chance. He wanted to increase his business and was thinking about a full time employee and foreman. Together with my attorney we hammered out a job description that should satisfy the authorities. In October 1999 we applied for a work permit with the Kansas department of labor. We, my employer and I, were told that it was going to take a long time to get the green card. The attorney was asking for $3500 for himself for the whole process. Then there would be fees for the different applications, always in the triple digit range each. The I94 had to be extended, too.

My employer had to run ads in certain papers prescribed by the labor department. It was good for us, that the labor department wanted the ads in papers, which were rather unlikely to result in any applicants. Government offices do never apply much common sense or maybe not even allowed to.

In spring 2000 I bought a semi tractor. I leased it to my employer, so we could have a legal financial relationship.

I went on harvest with him. I learned a lot more about repair work, since he was a brilliant mechanic and could fix just about anything. I also learned how to really operate a combine and how he runs his business.

Through my attorney we applied for some more extensions of the I94. To make those applications more appealing to INS I had to present flight tickets dated for the end of the applied period and prove of sufficient funds for my stay in the US. This was a certificate of the balance in my savings account sent from my bank in Germany.

After a number of half year extensions of the I94, which I usually received in the mail by the time they expired, I got one only good for three months. There my attorney recommended not to apply anymore and just to remain silent.

Everyone I had spoken to before and that included my attorney, had told me, that one could get only one I94 extension. INS granted me six. That is like playing the lottery and actually winning a fair amount.

A year after we had filed the first application with the Labor department without getting any results, we were notified that the process we were going through was abolished. No problem, said my attorney, we just file again under the new process. I did not even understand the difference of the two processes. But it sure caused another big delay and more expenses. My employer had to run more newspaper ads.

It finally took over two years to get the application processed through the state level.

Now we had to apply with the US Labor Department. After three months the feds agreed that there was a shortage of US workers for the position and certified our application for alien employment.

Filing with INS was the next step. For this my employer had to lay open his complete business to the INS. That included all of his inventory, his income and the taxes for the last two years. I had to provide papers from all my previous fulltime and part time employees from Germany, stating my skills.
About four months later we received an approval from INS for a visa petition. With this approval we had to file again with INS. In two separate applications we applied for a work permit and permanent residency. This time the filing fees went over $1500.
I had to get my birth certificate translated and certified and I had to get a medical examination done by a doctor licensed by the INS. This doctor turned out to be from Asia. His English was not the best and I had trouble understanding him. I was not sure what he all did to me and what he injected into me in the name of immunization. But I felt like I didn’t have much of a choice, if I wanted his signature for my applications. This medical examination cost me about three hundred Dollars. The doctor from Asia took cash only.
It took two months to gather the paper work. To my surprise it took INS only another month to approve and send the work permit. This happened nearly six years after I first entered the US. to immigrate and work here and five years after I first set my foot into an INS office. The work permit was a big step forward, because it allowed me to apply for a social security number and with that help paying the social security for all the retired people in the US. Imagine the taxes the United States could have received from me, if this process would not take so long.

It also stated on the work permit, that it can not be used to reenter the US. So I decided to further refrain from any traveling to other countries, as I had in the past. I was able to obtain a bank account and health insurance long before that. But it took quite some searching and discussion without having a social security number. The driver’s license was not a problem at all, but a CDL seemed to be impossible without social security number.

To become a permanent residence would take much longer. I was asked to be finger printed at the Sheriff’s office. The finger prints were supposed to go to the FBI for screening.
My work permit was good for one year. Since I didn’t get my permanent residency approved within that year, we had to file for a renewal of the work permit. That is almost like renewing a passport. One has to send in photos done to INS specs.
16 months after my finger prints were first taken, I was asked to get finger printed again. Did the FBI lose my first set of finger prints? Or did they get hung up somewhere in the Department of Homeland Security? We will most likely never know.

About half a year later I was notified in the mail, that my application for permanent residency had been approved and that I needed to go to an INS office to get finger printed again. When I happen to have a day off, I mad the 250 mile trip to the INS or now homeland security office. When I got there, it was rather crowded and I was told, that I needed an appointment to get in. So I drove the 250 miles back without accomplishing anything. The appointment could only be made over the internet. Since we were still on our harvest run, it was impossible to schedule a day off and I had to wait until we got home and were finished with the harvest. Again I made the 500 mile round trip. This time the INS office was not busy and I got to talk to an officer right away. But the passport photos I had with me were wrong this time, because the department of homeland security had changed the rules in between. The lady told me to go to the nearest Wal-Mart and get new photos made. A while later I was back with photos of myself, according to the new regulations. I didn’t have to leave any finger prints as stated in the letter. I just got a stamp in my passport stating, that I was now a permanent citizen, allowed to travel and allowed to work in the United States of America. My dream had become true. The actual green card I was supposed to get in the mail sometime later.

At this time I made my final payment to my attorney, completing my immigration process for him. I promised to contact him again in about five years, when I hopefully will be allowed to apply for the US citizenship.

About two months after I had received this stamp in my passport I traveled to Germany to see my parents and friends again, after seven years.

On the way back I was pulled out of the arriving passenger line at the airport and escorted to an office. There I was asked for my green card, but it had not arrived in the mail yet. The officer was not satisfied with the stamp in my passport and cross-examined me with the help of his computer. After I had answered all of his questions satisfactory, I was allowed to reenter the US and go back to my home in America.

About three months later I finally received the actual green card in the mail.

This whole immigration process cost me approximately $10,000 and took seven years and I am still not a citizen.

The good thing was, that during those years I never worried about my papers. I knew, that God was going to take care of it, because he brought me to America in the first place after I had prayed to go for five years. I knew, that if God would let me come here, he would let me stay, too. I wish I had had this much faith for all the things in my life.

In September 2009 the 5 year waiting period was over. I contacted my attorney again to apply for citizenship. Another $2500 in fees were paid. In February 2010 I had to get my finger prints taken again. It went very smooth without waiting. I wondered if changes had been made within the immigration service.
In April 2010 I was appointed to take my citizenship test and my attorney had to present for that. I have been told from many of my friends, that born Americans would most likely not pass this test.
On May 28 2010 was the big day. Over 160 immigrants were summoned for a court date in Wichita to be sworn in as new citizens of the United States of America in front of a federal judge. I was one of them.
While giving the oath one passage made me think deeply "... and to defend the constitution against enemies from without and within ...".  Most laws passed in Washington D.C. are in violation of the U.S. constitution. Most federal departments are in direct violation of the U.S. constitution, especially the 10th amendment. Am I supposed to fight Congress and by what means am I supposed to fight?