Deported Khmerican felon whines about being denied tourist visa at US Embassy
- Khmerhamster
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I'm sure it's innocent.
Loads of people have different spelling of their name.
Normally it comes from when they do their ID card they complete the forms in Khmer but when the card gets produced the officials have transcribed the name in roman script differently.
Loads of people have different spelling of their name.
Normally it comes from when they do their ID card they complete the forms in Khmer but when the card gets produced the officials have transcribed the name in roman script differently.
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- Making Khmer girls cry since 2003
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His wife and children can visit him in Cambodia or many third countries any time they want. The U.S. Embassy does not give the benefit of the doubt to Cambodians seeking tourist visas who have a strong reason to overstay in the United States, like he would.Alexandra wrote: I hear where you're coming from about the overstay but I would prefer giving him the benefit of the doubt. I think he as a father should be allowed to visit his children, yes.
Also, they don;'t give tourist visas to people at high risk of overstaying under the assumption that "Oh, if he overstays we'll just catch him." We don't (yet) have a force a deportation goons who hunt down mere overstayers. Even if we did, the process is time consuming, expensive, the knuckleheads can much things up by hiring lawyers and requesting asylum, deporting this guy (again) who be a tedious and difficult process.
He or his wife should just apply for a spousal visa, if she wants him there.
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I'm not sure it's innocent, and I'm not sure it's not innocent. People who live in the USA for 15-20 years normally pick one English spelling of their name and stick with it through schooling, getting a driver's license, etc.Khmerhamster wrote:I'm sure it's innocent.
Loads of people have different spelling of their name.
Normally it comes from when they do their ID card they complete the forms in Khmer but when the card gets produced the officials have transcribed the name in roman script differently.
It does sound like his legal American name is Hang though, as he was convicted under that name and corresponds with the U.S. Ambassador under that name.
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You can't just take kids out of school to travel with multiple people to the other side of the world. Education is an obvious reason why they can't come visit any time they want. Finances may be another: it's cheaper to fly one person to the states than a whole family to Cambodia.gavinmac wrote:His wife and children can visit him in Cambodia or many third countries any time they want. The U.S. Embassy does not give the benefit of the doubt to Cambodians seeking tourist visas who have a strong reason to overstay in the United States, like he would.
The Embassy official didn't say he was being rejected because of strong reasons to overstay, so let that clearly remain a speculation for now.
The Embassy official did however tell the author to come back with an immigration attorney as if that would somehow make a difference in the decision making. That's not a very respectful way of dealing with the author. As the author wrote, he was banned from re-entry for 10 years but the immigration staff "didn't bother" checking that. Would he have bothered if the author had an immigration attorney by his side? That's not justice.
Bless
And newspapers normally have editors and journalists writing and rewriting all sorts of things. It's easy to assume that your name is spelled right and not everybody is quick to catch a difference of "e" or "a" in something that they're so used to reading correctly. Nor does everybody read articles they feature in.gavinmac wrote:People who live in the USA for 15-20 years normally pick one English spelling of their name and stick with it through schooling, getting a driver's license, etc.
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It wasn't a typo. He, Mr. Heng/ Hang sometimes spells his name one way and sometimes the other way. His LinkedIn profile says Heng, his email address at the Post says Heng, yet the criminal records and deportation records and correspondence about his conviction/deportation say Hang.
Harriet Fitch-Little and the editors at the Post didn't erroneously spell his name, that's the spelling he gave them.
Harriet Fitch-Little and the editors at the Post didn't erroneously spell his name, that's the spelling he gave them.
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- Khmerhamster
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I know several people with several versions of their name and a different DOB's.gavinmac wrote:I'm not sure it's innocent, and I'm not sure it's not innocent. People who live in the USA for 15-20 years normally pick one English spelling of their name and stick with it through schooling, getting a driver's license, etc.Khmerhamster wrote:I'm sure it's innocent.
Loads of people have different spelling of their name.
Normally it comes from when they do their ID card they complete the forms in Khmer but when the card gets produced the officials have transcribed the name in roman script differently.
It does sound like his legal American name is Hang though, as he was convicted under that name and corresponds with the U.S. Ambassador under that name.
The Khmer spelling of the name will be the same but the romanised version will vary.
The level of care in the Sangkat offices who issue ID cards, family books etc is next to nil.
I expect someone asked his name and wrote it down on a form wrongly and suddenly most of his docs has this spelling.
If you were intentionally changing your name - which isn't that hard here - surely you'd change more than one letter.
- Miguelito
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For clarification, based on his letter, he has only been separated from his children "since last summer." The U.S. did not tear him away from his family in the states, leaving him from seeing his children there for decades. He met an American woman here, in Cambodia, and married her here and had children here. When they made these decisions, they very clearly knew that he may never be able to return. Also, he hopes to pick his children up from summer camp in Cambridge Massachusetts - clearly that means that they have both the time to come here, and the money (flights to Cambodia will cost less than summer camp in Cambridge).Alexandra wrote:You can't just take kids out of school to travel with multiple people to the other side of the world. Education is an obvious reason why they can't come visit any time they want. Finances may be another: it's cheaper to fly one person to the states than a whole family to Cambodia.gavinmac wrote:His wife and children can visit him in Cambodia or many third countries any time they want. The U.S. Embassy does not give the benefit of the doubt to Cambodians seeking tourist visas who have a strong reason to overstay in the United States, like he would.
The Embassy official didn't say he was being rejected because of strong reasons to overstay, so let that clearly remain a speculation for now.
The Embassy official did however tell the author to come back with an immigration attorney as if that would somehow make a difference in the decision making. That's not a very respectful way of dealing with the author. As the author wrote, he was banned from re-entry for 10 years but the immigration staff "didn't bother" checking that. Would he have bothered if the author had an immigration attorney by his side? That's not justice.
Bless
He stated that his wife returned to get her MBA at Colombia, but he wants to pick his children up in Cambridge. He also states that he "cannot go back and join them." He mentions 212(d)(3) waivers, but never in his letter states that he wants to visit as a tourist. Despite the fact that he mentions a non-immigrant visa, it appears to me that he is applying to return permanently, not just as a tourist.
This is one individual case. Each year, the USCIS receives and processes about 6 million immigration applications from individuals and employers (in 2016 they issued 617,752 of these) -- that's not even including non-immigrant tourism visas. In 2016, they did issue 10,891,745 non-immigrant visas, which is over 30,000 a day. I am unsure of how many applications that is, but I think it would be safe to say at least double that. Combined that could be up to around 76,000 visa applications a day, or 107,000 per working day (not including holidays). So the U.S. State department, whose entire Foreign Service has less people than the U.S. Army's marching band, needs to process over 107,000 visa per day.
Given the above numbers, I understand that consular officers cannot spend hours on each individual. I feel for the author, as it seems that he has turned his life around and contributed greatly here, but by committing the crime that he did, he placed himself on the bottom of the totem pole. He has a good life here, presumably a loving a family, and still has opportunities to apply in the future.
- Miguelito
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I may have exaggerated slightly, but thousands of expats here (and most of the foreign service officers) would agree that it is a desirable place to live, and that's why they're here. True, most people in the world would not choose to move here, but it is still a stable and safe country, they place of his birth, and a place where he has been able to find a successful career. People here are making it sound like her got torn form his wife and kids and thrown in some dangerous shithole; but that isn't the case, and his family is not impoverished (his wife is going to Colombia for Christ's sake).gavinmac wrote:99.99% of people in the world have no interest in moving to Cambodia. It's a corrupt, impoverished shithole. People are choosing to languish in f'ing Nauru rather than move to Cambodia. It is not a "pretty desirable" country to live in unless you are comparing it to South Sudan or Mauritania.Miguelito wrote:The fact is, this is a pretty desirable country to live in
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Miguelito - do you agree that it sounds like he was applying for a tourist visa? He says "non-immigrant" visa and says he wants to "visit" his family and I don't see anything suggesting that it was a work visa or student visa he was applying for.
If he's legitimately married to an American woman who wants him there a spousal visa seems like his best bet.
I don't know what the consular officer told him, but it should have been something like "Given that your immediate family is the USA, you previously lived there and only left involuntarily, and considering your history of violating US laws, we have concerns you will overstay and thus you haven't overcome the presumption of being an intended immigrant. We're denying your application for a tourist visa."
The consular officer shouldn't have said "A tourist visa for a fucking deportee? Are you fucking kidding me? Stop wasting my fucking time and get the fuck out of here." That's not very diplomatic, if he said it like that.
If he's legitimately married to an American woman who wants him there a spousal visa seems like his best bet.
I don't know what the consular officer told him, but it should have been something like "Given that your immediate family is the USA, you previously lived there and only left involuntarily, and considering your history of violating US laws, we have concerns you will overstay and thus you haven't overcome the presumption of being an intended immigrant. We're denying your application for a tourist visa."
The consular officer shouldn't have said "A tourist visa for a fucking deportee? Are you fucking kidding me? Stop wasting my fucking time and get the fuck out of here." That's not very diplomatic, if he said it like that.
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- Miguelito
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Facts are inconclusive. He said two things:gavinmac wrote:Miguelito - do you agree that it sounds like he was applying for a tourist visa? He says "non-immigrant" visa and says he wants to "visit" his family and I don't see anything suggesting that it was a work visa or student visa he was applying for.
If he's legitimately married to an American woman who wants him there a spousal visa seems like his best bet.
I don't know what the consular officer told him, but it should have been something like "Given that your immediate family is the USA, you previously lived there and only left involuntarily, and considering your history of violating US laws, we have concerns you will overstay and thus you haven't overcome the presumption of being an intended immigrant. We're denying your application for a tourist visa."
The consular officer shouldn't have said "A tourist visa for a fucking deportee? Are you fucking kidding me? Stop wasting my fucking time and get the fuck out of here." That's not very diplomatic, if he said it like that.
1) "I am now 36 years old, yet still being punished for something I did 18 years ago, even though I paid my debt to society back in the US. Believe me when I tell you that not being able to visit my family – my mother, my wife and my two beautiful children – is worse than any punishment you could inflict upon me"; and
2) "It was only recently that my wife returned to the US to finish her MBA at Columbia Business School, and my daughters joined her last summer. However, I cannot go back and join them, a fact I’m reminded of every single day."
So, is he sad that he cannot "visit" his family, or is he sad that he cannot "join" his wife and kids? He stated that his kids "joined" his wife, and they don't appear to be leaving anytime soon. He also mentions that the officer advised him to get an immigration attorney -- do people hire "immigration attorneys" for non-immigrant visas?
Before someone states that we are being pedantic, this person is pretty much a native English speaker, working at a English language newspaper, and this letter was most likely reviewed by the editor.
I would also take his word of what the consular officer said with a grain of salt. It may have seemed to him that the message was "we will not issue a non-immigrant visa to anyone that had been deported for a criminal offense," but as gavinmac implies, that is probably unlikely, especially if his next sentence was "hire an immigration attorney." Who would say "it's absolutely impossible, but you should go ahead and try again by doing xyz"?
Seeing this was all just a political/publicity stunt and he knew he was going to be laughed out of the embassy, I'm guessing he applied for the tourist visa rather than a spousal visa because of the difference in fees.
I'm surprised he even got as far as an interview.
If this is really about seeing his family I would tell him to book a ticket to Cancun or Cabo.
I'm surprised he even got as far as an interview.
If this is really about seeing his family I would tell him to book a ticket to Cancun or Cabo.
Do you think he and his wife had a chat and they concluded they should send the wife and kids off to USA and the husband would later join and illegally overstay his visa?Miguelito wrote:For clarification, based on his letter, he has only been separated from his children "since last summer." The U.S. did not tear him away from his family in the states, leaving him from seeing his children there for decades. He met an American woman here, in Cambodia, and married her here and had children here. When they made these decisions, they very clearly knew that he may never be able to return.
Or could it have been more along the lines of them getting a better education in the States and vastly improved living conditions in general that made him feel that the pros outweighed the cons of not being able to see them as often as he would wish.
Obviously, I think the latter, and there is just no way that intention could translate to the intention to overstay his visa regardless of type. Since he was deported at the age of 19 or whatever he's obviously changed, helped found an NGO, started a network of activists fighting for what they believe to be justice and gotten an ordinary job at a newspaper. Let's be frank: the odds were against him and he turned out OK in the end.
What I don't understand how you can disregard the latter half of his entire life to say that he is at high risk of overstaying because he "didn't leave voluntarily". Come on, he was deported at what 19, what realistic option did he even have to "leave voluntarily" at that age?
How does a 18-19 something year old kid even leave their home country voluntarily? It must happen quite often since the fact that he didn't leave USA voluntarily makes it so probable that he would illegally overstay his visa 18 years later.gavinmac wrote:you previously lived there and only left involuntarily
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