Internet Girlfriend

[omegaseamaster75]

7 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Well, every single one of my family who left the Philppines did not seek an immigration attorney.  And my family has been migrating since before Al Gore invented the internet.

Just saying.

Well them, OP throw caution to the wind, your in love with a Filipino girl, beautiful and a legal expert.

[anatess2]

2 hours ago, omegaseamaster75 said:

Well them, OP throw caution to the wind, your in love with a Filipino girl, beautiful and a legal expert.

Wow, such mockery.

Just because somebody doesn't pay $$$ for an immigration lawyer doesn't imply throwing caution to the wind.  You want to get one, go ahead.  I'm just letting you know lots of cautious Filipinos have been successfully migrating all over the planet without them.  So no, they're not absolutely necessary as you're saying.  Of course, you can mock them all if you can't accept you're wrong on the matter.

Edited August 1, 2017 by anatess2

[Just_A_Guy]

There was an LDS couple not too long ago that married in the US while the bride, a Russian national, was here in (IIRC) a tourist visa; and the result was that she had to return to Russia for nearly a year while her immigration issues were sorted out.

Lots of bad/inexperienced lawyers out there, to be sure.  But if you can find a good one, $200-$500 is a small price to pay for a consult that saves you that kind of a problem.  One cannot count on continued magnanimity from ICE, especially given the current political climate.

[Guest MormonGator]

2 hours ago, omegaseamaster75 said:

Well them, OP throw caution to the wind, your in love with a Filipino girl, beautiful and a legal expert.

I'm with you @omegaseamaster75

No one is forcing you to hire a lawyer, use a realtor when you buy a home, or get a medical doctor to preform surgery on your grandmother. Sure, it might work for you and I seriously hope it does, but when it doesn't you have no one to blame but yourself. 

[omegaseamaster75]

28 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

Wow, such mockery.

Just because somebody doesn't pay $$$ for an immigration lawyer doesn't imply throwing caution to the wind.  You want to get one, go ahead.  I'm just letting you know lots of cautious Filipinos have been successfully migrating all over the planet without them.  So no, they're not absolutely necessary as you're saying.  Of course, you can mock them all if you can't accept you're wrong on the matter.

While I realize that you are the resident expert on all things Filipino, I cannot agree that legal counsel should not be solicited.  Look at that dumb kid who married the Venezuelan lady.  I bet you a million dollars he didn't talk to an immigration attorney before he ran off and got married in Venezuela.  Bet he wishes he could take it all back now.

[anatess2]

51 minutes ago, omegaseamaster75 said:

While I realize that you are the resident expert on all things Filipino, I cannot agree that legal counsel should not be solicited.  Look at that dumb kid who married the Venezuelan lady.  I bet you a million dollars he didn't talk to an immigration attorney before he ran off and got married in Venezuela.  Bet he wishes he could take it all back now.

Words.

"Should Not".  I did not say that.  I am simply countering your statement that it is an absolute MUST to get one.  It is not.  That is entirely not the same as "Should not".  The dumb kid who married a Venezuelan lady was dumb.  Of course, any immigration attorney is better than a dumb kid.  If you're a dumb kid, hire a lawyer.  I'm not a dumb kid.  I didn't hire one.  But yes, I hired a travel agent to buy my tickets.  I didn't have to, of course, and I wouldn't tell anybody - You have to get a travel agent or suffer the consequences, or some such.

Edited August 1, 2017 by anatess2

[Just_A_Guy]

Sometimes people just don't know that they're (the functional, cognitive, emotional, and/or linguistic equivalent of) dumb kids.

And the repercussions for booking the wrong flight are very, very different than the repercussions of being deported.

If you can negotiate the process on your own--good for you.  But I have several friends who are making obscene livings charging exhorbitant prices to special little snowflakes who were sure that they didn't need a lawyer--until they were neck-deep in an ICE quagmire they couldn't begin to fix themselves.

Edited August 2, 2017 by Just_A_Guy

[Vort]

On 7/22/2017 at 10:44 AM, anatess2 said:

You're gonna be dating her entire family.

Which means dinner will be expensive and a goodnight kiss will be long, complicated, and probably messy.

[eddified]

On 8/1/2017 at 2:40 PM, MormonGator said:

I'm with you @omegaseamaster75

No one is forcing you to hire a lawyer, use a realtor when you buy a home, or get a medical doctor to preform surgery on your grandmother. Sure, it might work for you and I seriously hope it does, but when it doesn't you have no one to blame but yourself. 

People do things on their own all the time. It's actually normal. Don't want to hire a professional to teach you to swim? Great! Want to renovate your bathroom on your own? Do it! Yes there are risks. Life is risky! Get over it. 

Want to hire a professional for X? I'm all for that too. It sure is easier. 

Edit: more thoughts:

People can do things on their own while still mitigating risks. It's called doing your homework. Some go all in without researching it, and get into big trouble. Others do their homework and get into big trouble, too. Yet others hire the professional and still get into trouble.  It's life. If you want to do it yourself, then do it! It's even possible to be your own lawyer in court. I wouldn't recommend it but the law is all laid out for anyone to read : if you've time on your hands and tons of patience you can defend yourself in court too. I wouldn't recommend it but I've heard of it being done successfully. 

In many activities if you do your homework then you can make your risk exposure very very small. 

Edited August 3, 2017 by eddified

[eddified]

 If you had  Direct help from  @anatess2's  Family then  maybe you could do that -- it sounds like they know what they're doing. But seeing as how you can't actually get direct help from her family easily ( she's just a random stranger on the Internet to you as far as I know )  that may not be the way to go. 

Edited August 3, 2017 by eddified

[anatess2]

10 hours ago, eddified said:

 If you had  Direct help from  @anatess2's  Family then  maybe you could do that -- it sounds like they know what they're doing. But seeing as how you can't actually get direct help from her family easily ( she's just a random stranger on the Internet to you as far as I know )  that may not be the way to go. 

I wasn't exaggerating when I said one of the Philippines' contribution to the planet is offshore workers.  My family is not at all unique in this situation.

[Guest MormonGator]

13 hours ago, eddified said:

 

People can do things on their own while still mitigating risks. It's called doing your homework. Some go all in without researching it, and get into big trouble. Others do their homework and get into big trouble, too. Yet others hire the professional and still get into trouble.  It's life. If you want to do it yourself, then do it! It's even possible to be your own lawyer in court. I wouldn't recommend it but the law is all laid out for anyone to read : if you've time on your hands and tons of patience you can defend yourself in court too. I wouldn't recommend it but I've heard of it being done successfully. 

"A person who represents themselves in court has a fool for a lawyer."-Old proverb. 

Seriously, if you want Bob the plumber to defend you for capital murder, you can talk about all that money you saved on the way to the gas chamber. 

[eddified]

8 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

"A person who represents themselves in court has a fool for a lawyer."-Old proverb. 

Seriously, if you want Bob the plumber to defend you for capital murder, you can talk about all that money you saved on the way to the gas chamber. 

Sure. There are risks. I just hate to see there being only one right answer to a question. Is it correct to suggest using an attorney for immigration issues? Yes. Is it correct to suggest you can do it on your own? Yes. Many people do it on their own, and the risks maybe aren't as high as defending yourself in court. Whether to use an attorney for immigration issues is a value judgement. If you value your time, and the help of the attorney, more than the $200-$500, that's your value judgement to make. If you value your $200-$500 more than being shielded from the risks, and more than the time you would spend researching it yourself, that's your value judgement to make, and I wouldn't be telling you that you are wrong to make it.

If I'm a young, healthy 25-year old taken to court on a murder case, you bet your britches a lawyer is worth it. If I'm 70 years old and my poor health leads to a poor quality of life so I'm suffering big time, my outlook on life will be much different. In this case, my value judgement might be that 20 years in prison, or death by electric chair, isn't much worse than the 5 years I've already spent, lonely, in the nursing home. So maybe I'd try my hand at doing it myself. (But as I understand it U.S. law doesn't allow passing debts to your heirs, so getting into debt big time on a lawyer so late in life might not be a big deal.... but in countries where you can inherit debt, I may value the money savings of representing myself in court much more than having the lawyer -- don't want to hand all this debt down to my heirs.)

[zil]

47 minutes ago, eddified said:

If I'm a young, healthy 25-year old taken to court on a murder case, you bet your britches a lawyer is worth it. If I'm 70 years old and my poor health leads to a poor quality of life so I'm suffering big time, my outlook on life will be much different. In this case, my value judgement might be that 20 years in prison, or death by electric chair, isn't much worse than the 5 years I've already spent, lonely, in the nursing home. So maybe I'd try my hand at doing it myself. (But as I understand it U.S. law doesn't allow passing debts to your heirs, so getting into debt big time on a lawyer so late in life might not be a big deal.... but in countries where you can inherit debt, I may value the money savings of representing myself in court much more than having the lawyer -- don't want to hand all this debt down to my heirs.)

So what your saying here is that we should restrain our murderous impulses until the last 5 years or so of our lives?  Got it.

[Sunday21]

9 minutes ago, zil said:

So what your saying here is that we should restrain our murderous impulses until the last 5 years or so of our lives?  Got it.

Getting seriously worrried about Zil! Does anyone have her bishop's phone number?

[zil]

6 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

Getting seriously worrried about Zil! Does anyone have her bishop's phone number?

@mirkwood can get it for you.

[mirkwood]

1 hour ago, zil said:

@mirkwood can get it for you.

And the Stake President.  In fact I will be seeing them at some stake training tonight!

[zil]

Just now, mirkwood said:

And the Stake President.  In fact I will be seeing them at some stake training tonight!

Huh, me too.  Do you know if it's Sunday dress?  (It always is with the stake, but hope springs eternal...)

[mirkwood]

Just now, zil said:

Huh, me too.  Do you know if it's Sunday dress?  (It always is with the stake, but hope springs eternal...)

I didn't ask, I was planning on casual.  Good question.

[mirkwood]

Bah...bishop just said Sunday dress.  I asked back: like I'm home from church Sunday dress, or meetings Sunday dress. 

[Guest MormonGator]

3 minutes ago, mirkwood said:

I didn't ask, I was planning on casual.  Good question.

That someone with @mirkwoods declining cognitive abilities can still dress himself is HUGE accomplishment. 

[zil]

Just now, mirkwood said:

Bah...bishop just said Sunday dress.  I asked back: like I'm home from church Sunday dress, or meetings Sunday dress. 

Drat!  I knew it.  <sigh>

[mirkwood]

@zil I asked, "Sunday dress, like I'm home or Sunday dress like I'm attending meetings." 

 

Bishop said if I dress like he does on Sunday when he is home I would probably be safer coming with my Sunday meetings clothing.  lol

 

[Sunday21]

1 hour ago, zil said:

Drat!  I knew it.  <sigh>

No sword!

[zil]

14 minutes ago, Sunday21 said:

No sword!

Just a pen, or 4.