Christopher Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 I currently work on my third character that is a not born as american citizen and I wondered about two things (all from the point of view of a Secret ID/normal. public ID superheroes might have other options): 1) How could a non-american legally enter the states? 2) How could a non-american that illegaly entered, become a legal citizen? For 2 the most classical approach from film/television is relating to a american citicen: (fake) marriage to an american or giving birth to a child on american soil (wich makes the child citicen and thus yourself). But how good to these work and are there other ways? What if they divorce? What about application for citizenship? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbywolfe Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal Giving birth in the USA does not automatically make you a citizen. It may make staying in the US easier though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywind Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal No, the child is a citizen and the parents get a free pass. Hence "anchor baby". Work or student visas are a common way foreign nationals gain access to the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balabanto Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal You have to consider the way your character emigrated. If your character emigrated from Japan, consider the current immigration laws of the United States. If he came from another dimension, you and your GM need to sit down and hash out whether the rules are the same or different for extradimensionals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal I currently work on my third character that is a not born as american citizen and I wondered about two things (all from the point of view of a Secret ID/normal. public ID superheroes might have other options): 1) How could a non-american legally enter the states? Visa. Most common are tourist, student, or work. 2) How could a non-american that illegaly entered, become a legal citizen? For 2 the most classical approach from film/television is relating to a american citicen: (fake) marriage to an american or giving birth to a child on american soil (wich makes the child citicen and thus yourself). But how good to these work and are there other ways? What if they divorce? What about application for citizenship? "It depends." Biggest thing, once a citizen, you're one of us. Marry a citizen, get divorced before you're naturalized, you might never be a citizen. Divorce after you're naturalized, you're here for life. Likewise, get convicted of a felony before you're naturalized, you get deported, no exceptions. Get convicted after you're naturalized, you stay here after you get out of prison. A hitch in the military is a fast track to citizenship, use to be undocumented included, I expect that to come back. There are no anchor babies. There use to be, that loophole was closed in the Reagan administration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal No' date=' the child is a citizen and the parents get a free pass.[/quote'] If it's still 1979. Child is a citizen, and can sponsor parents for immigration once they are 21. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted January 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal You have to consider the way your character emigrated. If your character emigrated from Japan, consider the current immigration laws of the United States. If he came from another dimension, you and your GM need to sit down and hash out whether the rules are the same or different for extradimensionals. I two of two illegal characters are timetravelers (one backward, one forward) and they have to keep their origin a secret when applying for such a thing for their Secret ID. So I would have to think what "land of origin" they write down... Biggest thing, once a citizen, you're one of us. Marry a citizen, get divorced before you're naturalized, you might never be a citizen. Divorce after you're naturalized, you're here for life. Likewise, get convicted of a felony before you're naturalized, you get deported, no exceptions. Get convicted after you're naturalized, you stay here after you get out of prison. A hitch in the military is a fast track to citizenship, use to be undocumented included, I expect that to come back. There are no anchor babies. There use to be, that loophole was closed in the Reagan administration. Thanks, I found something under "naturalisation": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalization#United_States And of course Anchor Baby: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_baby If it's still 1979. Child is a citizen, and can sponsor parents for immigration once they are 21. Grey Angel lives 1960, so it would be an option. But having children tends to cut into superheroing and she has to find the right guy first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opale Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal Interesting... I'll keep all that in mind, for our next games sessions... The question is : IS a Foreigner Superhero an invader for US Authority ? Or just a kind of foreigner criminal ? I remember how the Alpha Flight attacked the X-men, tough Canada and USA were allies... Has anyone else dug the question so far ? French Opale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal Interesting... I'll keep all that in mind, for our next games sessions... The question is : IS a Foreigner Superhero an invader for US Authority ? Or just a kind of foreigner criminal ? I remember how the Alpha Flight attacked the X-men, tough Canada and USA were allies... Has anyone else dug the question so far ? French Opale IRL it is much easier to enter the USA illegally than legally, and very easy to stay under the radar. Get convicted of a felony, you get deported after you serve your time, no exceptions. Don't get anyone PO'ed and you can live and work here for years unless some politician wants to make headlines. So if the authorities find the hero more useful than annoying, it would probably be "Did I forget to check his immigration status? My bad." Plot seed, what if a bad cop used an allegation of being undocumented to try to uncovr a secret ID? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin2 Posted January 6, 2012 Report Share Posted January 6, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal I currently work on my third character that is a not born as american citizen and I wondered about two things (all from the point of view of a Secret ID/normal. public ID superheroes might have other options): 1) How could a non-american legally enter the states? 2) How could a non-american that illegaly entered, become a legal citizen? For 2 the most classical approach from film/television is relating to a american citicen: (fake) marriage to an american or giving birth to a child on american soil (wich makes the child citicen and thus yourself). But how good to these work and are there other ways? What if they divorce? What about application for citizenship? You don't have to be a citizen. You just have to be able to work there. As mentioned by others you can be employed to work by a multinational company if they can prove that your job can not be done by an American (or somethink like that). A friend of mine was employed like that. He then lost his job but could not stay. If you stay long enough you can get a work visa to work for other companies (or move to another company who will also give you a work permit). How about working at an embassy for your native country? Something low key and not a high diplomat. Or you could sneak in using fly, teleport etc and just survive. Good for a complication or two . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haerandir Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal This post on Law and the Multiverse may prove helpful: http://lawandthemultiverse.com/2010/12/22/superheros-and-immigration-status/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted January 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal You don't have to be a citizen. You just have to be able to work there. As mentioned by others you can be employed to work by a multinational company if they can prove that your job can not be done by an American (or somethink like that). A friend of mine was employed like that. He then lost his job but could not stay. If you stay long enough you can get a work visa to work for other companies (or move to another company who will also give you a work permit). How about working at an embassy for your native country? Something low key and not a high diplomat. As Haerandir's linke below shows, not even Diplomats are allowed to work (but of course, no Diplomat has tried so far). This post on Law and the Multiverse may prove helpful: http://lawandthemultiverse.com/2010/12/22/superheros-and-immigration-status/ Thanks for that, read through it. The article mostly dealed with their Heroic ID, except for Superman and Thor. Overall, such stuff only seems to work 1937 or in Comicbook world... I guess that only leaves forgery for most of my characters and their Secret ID's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal I will forge a set of armor that makes me powerful enough to stand against super criminals! I will forge weapons that make robbers and killers tremble and I will wield them with courage and skill! I will forge a destiny as one of Earth's superheroes! I will forge a legend that will endure and inspire others to stand up for Truth, Justice, and the American Way! I will forge identity documents that will allow me to do all that other forging.... Lucius Alexander I will forge palindromedary taglines Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin2 Posted January 7, 2012 Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal As Haerandir's linke below shows, not even Diplomats are allowed to work (but of course, no Diplomat has tried so far). I was more thinking along the lines of a non American working in its related Embassy in America (German, British, Canadian etc) and sneaking out to do hero stuff as the majority of heroes in full time employment seem to do. You could have some diplomatic powers (administration clerk allowed to work in the Embassy and travel in the locals but some clout for speeding fines etc). Or more diplomatic powers (senior clerk with more freedom to move around the country). Or a full diplomat with full diplomatic powers who travels accross America regularly etc. Your country may not know about your powers. If you get identified it could lead to an international incident. But then so could a German citizen who has just been given American citizen / Green card to work in the USA. They could also be deported / lose American citizen ship etc. Lots of background potential for complications and GM story line write ups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted January 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal I was more thinking along the lines of a non American working in its related Embassy in America (German, British, Canadian etc) and sneaking out to do hero stuff as the majority of heroes in full time employment seem to do. You could have some diplomatic powers (administration clerk allowed to work in the Embassy and travel in the locals but some clout for speeding fines etc). Or more diplomatic powers (senior clerk with more freedom to move around the country). Or a full diplomat with full diplomatic powers who travels accross America regularly etc. Your country may not know about your powers. If you get identified it could lead to an international incident. But then so could a German citizen who has just been given American citizen / Green card to work in the USA. They could also be deported / lose American citizen ship etc. Lots of background potential for complications and GM story line write ups. Intersting variant on the Secret ID. Would not work for my current characters (they have hardly enough papertrail to fool normal inspection, much less the inspection needed for diplomathy work). I diffinetely think about it for a future hero... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin2 Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal In the island nation of the UK with our "secure" borders we have hundred of thousands of illegal imigrants from non EU countries who have no right to be in the country. They needed documentation to get in and documentation to stay. Some of these people have been here for years and have had "illegal" children born in the country. They stay in the country and work illegaly. It is required by law in the UK that an employer needs to confirm the ability to work in the UK but "good companies" still do not do it all the time and you hear on the news that naother company has been employing illegal immigrants. I assume something like that exists for the USA. Once you are in the country a while people assume you have a right to stay so stop asking. Stay in areas with a mix of the nationality of your character and it is less obvious (Irish American etc). Brush up on a local accent so you do not sound totally foreign etc. Any character can do the same. Once you are in the USA (turist visa, work permit, super movement) you can stay illegally. if you do not want to get caught you can give it a good try. You just pay by cash. Dont go anywhere you need identification. Or get forged identification that will stand up to some scruteny. If you are a hero in a non goverment backed group do you get asked for ID all the time? Or the legal options could be skilled job that gives you a work permit to stay in USA etc. Or marry a local and keep them happy so they do not divorce you . Lots of potential background for a GM and I like those from players Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranxerox Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal If you have super powers in a world where they are fairly uncommon and are willing to work for the US government, an exception will be made for you. Indeed, I can easily imagine a new class of visas being made for supers and possibly even a new path to citizenship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epiphanis Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal The real world United States offers "O" Class nonimmigrant visas for individuals with extraordinary abilities. I imagine that an individual with superpowers should be able to gain such without too many problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckg Posted January 12, 2012 Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 Re: Immigration into the USA - legal, or making illegal legal If she is willing to take a government job I'm sure getting a green card or even fast-track naturalization wouldn't be any problem; any government has a vested interest in making sure as many friendly metas are available to them as possible. And governments gladly do things if they think they're getting ahead on the deal. And this doesn't necessarily mean 'Welcome to the Weapon X project' either; depending on the DM, something as simple as 'Is a DOSPA-sanctioned hero' could qualify. After all, the government knows their secret ID and can potentially call on them in time of grave crisis; what more do you need? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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