Yes, but that’s largely because of US’ broken immigration system; if I’m not mainland Chinese I would have gotten my green card several years ago.
Damn… it’s interesting to read about the struggles of others… I was just so lucky¹ to be born into a family that was already on the way in being approved for a Green Card Visa to the US.
My aunt petitioned her brother, aka: my father, before I was even born… idk the exact details… and the immidiate family (spouce, minor children) is allowed to come along… then my parents had me and they had to add me to the petition.
I was actually illegally born in violation of One Child Policy… parents have to pay something like ¥10,000 to ¥30,000 RMB in fines… for my legal documents… because if they hadn’t, they wouldn’t be able to prove that I even legaly exist, and I wouldn’r have been able to get a passport to leave. So I really thank my parents for not abandoning me in China lol.
It constantly causes me existential crisis to think that, in another timeline, I might not have been born because of um… you know… the policy enforcers going around and they could’ve found my mom and then I wouldn’t exist… 😖 … anyways my mom couldn’t have anymore children due to mandated 结扎 (tubal ligiation?) procedure… and she still jokes about wanting a 3rd child after we came to the US, because she said me and my older brother “不乖” (“not behaving”?)… yay mom you’re sooo lovely 🙃 (wtf lol)
So… anyways… we came to the US in 2010… immediately got permanent residency… I was age 8.
Like I never knew how rare my situation is until later on when I found out there’s a lot of people from 福州 that supposedly came here without permission… Damn I feel so bad for them right now under this administration’s ICE bullshit…
So 5 years after we got here, mom applied for citizenship, and since I was under 18 and had a green card, I automatically derived citizenship under the Child Citizenship Act.
So… yea… that’s my story
In my Highschool World Language class, I chose Chinese cuz I already had 2nd grade education in China, I remember had to like give a sort of “presentation” in Chinese for like a classword thing, and talk about my personal life… like where am I from, that sort of thing…
So I just said I immigrated on a greencard visa and then the 华裔 (ethnic Chinese) classmates were like: “So you just get to come legally here, that’s easily” (in Mandarin)…
They were from 福州 and I think their parents came without permission…
So yeah…
That’s when I realize how much harder others had it…
I feel so sorry many others have to struggle so much, I’m sorry about your situation, but know that I voted for Harris, many other voted for Harris… it’s just such an unfortunate election result. I tried, my family member’s few votes wasn’t enough sway against the millions of racists and xenophobes…
(¹I mean if you count now having to live under trump’s ICE bullshit as “lucky”… lets hope my US citizenship actually protect me, but I honest fear a 排华, constitution feels kinda fragil tbh)
I really should appreciate my life more, I feel so guilty for ever even considering suicide… I can’t give up now after learning that others have it so much worse… it would be such a waste if I end it now, so I can’t, I have to go on, I have to try, at least.
I have aunts in China (Mom’s Sisters) still have an application waiting to be processed. Mom petitioned for them when she got citizenship… Like 10 years ago… still being processed… and now with recent politics, that might never get approved… I mean they just added 75 countries to the ban list, they could add China next.
My Maternal Grandmother got approved much faster, just 1 year after mom got citizenship, so she’s here with us now, recently just got citizenship.
Dad is still a PRC national tho… English is hard. Kinda feae my dad would get snatched by ICE one day… Grandmother had like dementia or something so they allowed her to skip the English test. Honestly I’m kinda afraid grandmother will accidentally leave the stove on one day and forger about it and gets us all killed in a fire… 😖 (electric stove, but still)
I never had a friend to share all this story with so… I feel like I had to share it here…
(yay, forever alone in this world cuz nobody wanna be my friend… not “American” enough to fit in, also not “Chinese” enough to feel confident to talk to those Mandarin speakers… 🙃)
Damn… it’s interesting to read about the struggles of others… I was just so lucky¹ to be born into a family that was already on the way in being approved for a Green Card Visa to the US.
My aunt petitioned her brother, aka: my father, before I was even born… idk the exact details… and the immidiate family (spouce, minor children) is allowed to come along… then my parents had me and they had to add me to the petition.
I was actually illegally born in violation of One Child Policy… parents have to pay something like ¥10,000 to ¥30,000 RMB in fines… for my legal documents… because if they hadn’t, they wouldn’t be able to prove that I even legaly exist, and I wouldn’r have been able to get a passport to leave. So I really thank my parents for not abandoning me in China lol.
It constantly causes me existential crisis to think that, in another timeline, I might not have been born because of um… you know… the policy enforcers going around and they could’ve found my mom and then I wouldn’t exist… 😖 … anyways my mom couldn’t have anymore children due to mandated 结扎 (tubal ligiation?) procedure… and she still jokes about wanting a 3rd child after we came to the US, because she said me and my older brother “不乖” (“not behaving”?)… yay mom you’re sooo lovely 🙃 (wtf lol)
So… anyways… we came to the US in 2010… immediately got permanent residency… I was age 8.
Like I never knew how rare my situation is until later on when I found out there’s a lot of people from 福州 that supposedly came here without permission… Damn I feel so bad for them right now under this administration’s ICE bullshit…
So 5 years after we got here, mom applied for citizenship, and since I was under 18 and had a green card, I automatically derived citizenship under the Child Citizenship Act.
So… yea… that’s my story
In my Highschool World Language class, I chose Chinese cuz I already had 2nd grade education in China, I remember had to like give a sort of “presentation” in Chinese for like a classword thing, and talk about my personal life… like where am I from, that sort of thing…
So I just said I immigrated on a greencard visa and then the 华裔 (ethnic Chinese) classmates were like: “So you just get to come legally here, that’s easily” (in Mandarin)…
They were from 福州 and I think their parents came without permission…
So yeah…
That’s when I realize how much harder others had it…
I feel so sorry many others have to struggle so much, I’m sorry about your situation, but know that I voted for Harris, many other voted for Harris… it’s just such an unfortunate election result. I tried, my family member’s few votes wasn’t enough sway against the millions of racists and xenophobes…
(¹I mean if you count now having to live under trump’s ICE bullshit as “lucky”… lets hope my US citizenship actually protect me, but I honest fear a 排华, constitution feels kinda fragil tbh)
I really should appreciate my life more, I feel so guilty for ever even considering suicide… I can’t give up now after learning that others have it so much worse… it would be such a waste if I end it now, so I can’t, I have to go on, I have to try, at least.
@zlatiah@lemmy.world
P.S.
I have aunts in China (Mom’s Sisters) still have an application waiting to be processed. Mom petitioned for them when she got citizenship… Like 10 years ago… still being processed… and now with recent politics, that might never get approved… I mean they just added 75 countries to the ban list, they could add China next.
My Maternal Grandmother got approved much faster, just 1 year after mom got citizenship, so she’s here with us now, recently just got citizenship.
Dad is still a PRC national tho… English is hard. Kinda feae my dad would get snatched by ICE one day… Grandmother had like dementia or something so they allowed her to skip the English test. Honestly I’m kinda afraid grandmother will accidentally leave the stove on one day and forger about it and gets us all killed in a fire… 😖 (electric stove, but still)
I never had a friend to share all this story with so… I feel like I had to share it here…
(yay, forever alone in this world cuz nobody wanna be my friend… not “American” enough to fit in, also not “Chinese” enough to feel confident to talk to those Mandarin speakers… 🙃)