Back when control of Hong Kong was returning to Chinese rule from the British, the topic of buying your way into U.S. citizenship was a hot topic. I hadn’t seen much in the news about this strange quirk of the American immigration system again, until this week, when Yahoo Finance ran an article discussing how a green card can cost you as little as $500,000 U.S. dollars. That number was a surprise to me, since I was already familiar with the EB-5 program, established by the Immigration Act of 1990 and thought the terms involved investing $1 million U.S. dollars.
It turns out 10,000 visas are set aside for this program a year, and of those 10,000 visas, 3,000 are set aside for “targeted employment areas”, generally rural areas or areas where unemployment is greater than 150% of the national average. In these locations, you only need to invest $500,000 in a new business or preserve jobs by investing in money losing businesses to qualify for the program. This investment gets you on the fast track to a green card and citizenship. Just 10 to 18 months to a conditional green card (compared to 5 to 15 years for a green card through a relative, or 3 to 20 years for an employment based one).
So getting a green card is cheaper than I thought, a bargain at only $500,000. What’s surprising about this though, is just how little this program is used each year. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, in 2009, just 1,028 people applied for EB-5 status and 966 were approved, up from 776 applications and 485 approvals in fiscal 2007. Applications and approvals rose sharply in fiscal 2010, to 1,727 and 1,271, respectively. But all of these numbers are just a fraction of the 10,000 available slots each year.
Back when my family emigrated to the U.S., we were lucky. My dad came on a student visa, and two years after his arrival the U.S. government sent an invitation to his wife and kids to join him with a green card for each of us. It was their program to get doctoral students to stay in the U.S. Many of my relatives in the U.S. came the same way. Later on when another aunt and uncle wanted to move here, they had to go through the long “relative support” process, and it took almost 10 years before they were processed and given green cards. All of my family in the U.S. are U.S. citizens now, so no more green cards for us, but it’s certainly interesting to see what it takes to get the highly sought after green card and how it’s pretty easy if you’ve got the money.
Subscribe to our mailing list
Get the day's stories from 8Asians.com, delivered to your inbox every evening at 6:00pm PST.
I’m loving these spotlights that MTV Iggy is doing on the individual members of the K-Town cast. A few weeks ago, Eddy dished about Scarlet Chan, one of the biggest personalities on the female side of the cast… now let’s talk about Steve “Mohawk” Kim, the only member of the cast who actually lives and parties in L.A.’s Koreatown in real life.
This guy is hilarious and this video perfectly captures his personality and attitude in a short 3 minute clip. “What you see is what you get” with Steve and I love how he doesn’t hold back as he rates the women in the K-Town house, talks about what he is attracted to in a girl (“face: #1 and boobs #2…”), and of course, waxes philosophical about his distinctive hair.
Now I know I’m no hot chick, but when we were talking at Audrey’s Night Out last month, Steve literally could not finish a sentence/conversation with me because a hot chick walked by and he just turned, stopped her, and started talking to her instead of me. I didn’t take this too personally because I had actually been talking to Peter Le (also from the K-Town cast)– and also because not 30 seconds later, I witnessed a group of 5 or 6 pretty girls heading toward the elevators catching his eye. He ditched the first hot chick mid-sentence, followed the group of girls down the hallway, somehow talking his way in between the group of girls, and ended up with a girl in each arm by the time they pushed the “down” button in less than 3 minutes.
Say what you will about the guy, but there’s no denying his ability to spot and get the girls. If you’re a guy, you probably wish you had this guy’s smooth moves. And remember ladies, if you want to catch the eye of this mohawked man– it’s face first, THEN boobs. (Plan your plastic surgeries accordingly.)
Shopping With GASP!
It’s that time again! Halloween is just around the corner, which means it’s time to take a long, hard look at your closet or that store online that sells overpriced slutty costumes and realize that you have, once again, zero realistic options of finding something or someone to dress up as.
I mean, admit it: it’s hard enough to be an Asian American (or Canadian) as it is, but it’s even worse when it comes to dressing up for Halloween. Sure, you can be another Lady Gaga with a meat dress but then people would just think you’re some weird Asian girl (or guy) who decided to dress up as an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ dinner. “Oh, you’re supposed to be Lady Gaga? I thought you were the 10th round of Kalbi short ribs.” Yeah, how awkward would that be?
Maybe you thought about being the infamous Snooki from Jersey Shore? Good luck, because you’ll only look like a short Korean with a bad tan. As always, we here at 8Asians like to save the day and are proud to present some of our top ideas for 2010 Halloween costumes that both celebrate and deplore Asian Americans in pop culture. What better way to make a statement that screams, “WE EXIST, DAMMIT AND HERE’S HOW!” — even if that means highlighting some of the worst that our race can offer.
1. Tina from Glee: It goes without saying that having Tina on an immensely popular television show like Glee has been a blessing. Not only can fans experience a series that revels in singing, Broadway musicals, teen drama and dark humor, but we can also watch all of that with ASIAN AMERICANS. Sure, if you’re a guy, you can dress up like Mike Chang (played with gusto by Harry Shum, Jr) but then you’d just look like some slick Asian guy with hot moves. Come on — Halloween is all about standing out, so dig out that Gothic Lolita dress, glue some more lace on a tiny top hat and get some colorful punk streaks in your hair, practice that fake stutter and voila! You can easily Glee up your Halloween!
You are probably not a politico like me who follows politics like a hobby or vocation, but you might be aware that there is a mid-term election around the corner in two weeks. The fate of the Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate are in play, and one of the major races is for a seat in the Senate for Nevada, with Senator majority leader Harry Reid trying to retain his seat against Republican and Tea Party movement candidate Sharron Angle. Ms. Angle has been known to have some pretty extreme views and to run from the media to avoid answering questions from reporters and the public.
Sharron Angle said at a recent event with Hispanic high school students that some of the students in attendance looked “a little more Asian” to her when a student asked about her campaign ads depicting all Hispanics as illegal immigrants. Her response was that she wasn’t too sure about her having Hispanics and some of them could be Asian (as if there are a lot of illegal Asians trying to cross the Mexican border). THEN, she explains herself that most of the terrorists come across our Northern border (i.e. Canada – which, by the way, DOESN’T border Nevada). She even said that she herself has been called the first Asian state legislator, which was later revealed that a reporter had mistakenly said (somehow?) she was Asian.
Angle defends a series of campaign advertisements that lean on images of dark-skinned men. Angle, who is white and has Mexican grandsons, claims she did not know the people in the TV spots were Hispanic and makes the case that it can be difficult to pinpoint someone’s race. I’m having a hard time trying to figure out which Tea Party candidate is crazier – Sharron Angle or Christine “I’m not a witch” O’Donnell, but I’m guessing that Angle is more racist. If Angle thinks Hispanics look like Asians, I have to assume she thinks I look like a Latino.
And they say that Asians are a model minority: this infographic of famous crimes and serial killers includes the case of Charles Ng, a Chinese American serial killer suspected of killing 11-25 people in the 1980s. He currently sits on death row in San Quentin. View the full infographic after the jump! Continue Reading »
And now for what may just be a great documentary film subject in the making: after Chinese American urban chef Eddie Huang gets zero stars (!) for a review of his restaurant Xiao Ye in the New York Times, he just mans up about it instead of, say, putting mafia hits on the food critic like the Italians. (What? It’s New York! Isn’t that just what they do?) Huang then follows up the post with an e-mail of his mom chewing him out, saying he should have been a lawyer. OH, SNAP.
Most people already know that the one-child policy in China has caused a lot of sex based selection in children, causing an very lop-sided ratio of males to females in China. The United Nations estimates, there should be 40 million more women and girls living in China than the current figures indicate. Technology, abortion, giving up girls for adoption, have all contributed to this, along with the Chinese cultural traditions that foster a mistaken belief that boys are more desirable than girls. This same preference for sons, occurs in other Asian cultures as well, but of course this phenomenon hasn’t caused as pronounced gender imbalance as what we’re seeing in China.
A thesis generated at the University of Texas speculated that immigrants from cultures where sex selection occurs may retain their preferences for a son or daughter when they emigrate. A 2005 study using U.S. census data did find some evidence that Chinese-American and South Asian-American families select for sons.
This topic also became a focus of a recently published study in Canada. The study used test families with two girls and looked at the gender of the third child. In nature, without the intervention of sex based selection, about 1.05 boys are born for every girl. In the study with groups of Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese Canadian families, the third child was a boy 1.39 times more often than a girl. The difference is pronounced enough to be outside of what could be considered a normal variance.
But there’s more to this story after the jump.
Continue Reading »
San Gabriel Valley: land of delicious Asian food and mayors that assault people have misunderstandings between friends. Per KTLA: The mayor of San Gabriel, 35 year old Albert Huang, “was arrested early Friday morning on charges of felony robbery and assault charges after he allegedly grabbed a woman’s purse and sped away with her clinging to the side of his SUV.” Huang maintains that the incident was “a great misunderstanding between friends.”
UPDATE 10/21/2010: Thanks to everyone who entered! Congrats to the winners: mwei, TienVNguyen, and AbrahamLim
The San Diego Asian Film Festival celebrates the best of Asian American and international Asian film. And of course, the festival is packed full of screenings, panels, and parties. It’s right around the corner– and we’ve got giveaways for 8Asians readers!
BE WISE. LOVE FILM at the 11th San Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF). With over 120 film premieres, hundreds of filmmakers and actors, and special events, this year’s Festival will be the largest yet! Special guests include Daniel Dae Kim (LOST, HAWAII 5-0), Ellen Wong (Scott Pilgrim Vs the World), Harry Shum Jr (Glee), Justin Lin (Director Fast and Furious), and many more. The 11th season will be held October 21-28 at the Hazard Center UltraStar Cinemas in Mission Valley. For more information visit www.sdaff.org or contact 858.565.1264 | [email protected]
Want to check it out, Southern Californians?
What you could win from the San Diego Asian Film Festival and 8Asians:
A free pair of tickets good for any film program at SDAFF 2010 throughout the festival, other than opening night film or closing night filmHow do you enter?
All you have to do is to leave a comment with what films you’re most excited to see at SDAFF and three lucky winners will be selected!Rules for entering:
1) Please be serious about using the tickets– unused free tix suck!
2) You’ll need to get there on your own. Sorry, travel is not covered in any way by 8Asians or SDAFF)
3) Contributors to 8Asians and their immediate family members are not eligible to win.Prize courtesy of: SDAFF.
Okay, now that we’ve heard “Like a G6″ everywhere — basketball games, kids soccer matches, inside the food court at the mall, we should probably remind you that Far East Movement has other songs out, songs you will want to listen to in five months when you inevitably get tired of their (albeit really catchy) synth bass lines. To that, music blog Arjan Writes would like you to know about “Fighting for Air,” a collaboration done with British pop-synth guy Frankmusik. Less freestyley and more classic pop style, and that’s okay, because I’m old and that fast music makes my heart beat too fast.
Token from Brandon Johnson
Today’s featured video on Funny or Die is Token written by Kulap Vilaysack (The Office, The Sarah Silverman Program) and Kevin Seccia (Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Premium Blend).
It pairs Kulap and Brandon Johnson (HBO’s Funny or Die Presents, Get Him to the Greek) in a farce about needing to be the only minority in any room. Have you ever been the “token” in a room?
Michelle Rhee, elected as a Chancellor to Washington DC’s public school district two years ago announced her resignation this week, along with the chairman of the DC City Council who supported her. Rhee sought sweeping control over one of the nation’s most dysfunctional school systems, but pitted the Teachers Union against her administration, “an issue that divided the city largely on racial lines.”
Custom Search
Recent Posts
- Cherry Blossom Favor Candles
- Michelle Kwan Inducted Into Figure Skating Hall of Fame
- 7500 Teaser Trailer Reveals My Worst Nightmare
- Some Skin Whitening Creams Can Be Hazardous To Your Health
- I am Bruce Lee Documentary Trailer & Why We Should Remember His Legacy
- Sukiyaki Western Django
- NPR Interviews Fred Korematsu’s Daughter On His Civil Rights Work & Celebrating Fred Korematsu Day
Recent Comments
- : Did... did the overhead luggage compartment just eat Jamie Chung? – 7500 Teaser Trailer Reveals My Worst Nightmare
- : I'm such a scardey cat. I couldn't even watch the entire trailer. Someone tell me when it's over, ok? – 7500 Teaser Trailer Reveals My Worst Nightmare
- : Who better to be the Founding Father of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), than someone of mixed racial heritage? Who more likely to teach non-Asians in... – I am Bruce Lee Documentary Trailer & Why We Should Remember His Legacy
- : One person says in that video clip that Bruce Lee was "the superhero of the Asian community." Funny, but back before he was rich &... – I am Bruce Lee Documentary Trailer & Why We Should Remember His Legacy
- : I never understood it. I have international friends, especially in India, and this role on the Disney Channel does not do that ethnicity justice. I... – Is The Portrayal of Ravi On Disney Channel’s “Jessie” Racist, Unfunny, or Both?
APA Events
Feb 9: (Los Angeles, CA) East West Players presents THREE YEAR SWIM CLUB
Feb 9: (Los Angeles, CA) OR (Orphan Relief): China Care Bruin’s 4th Annual Awareness Night
Feb 10: (Los Angeles, CA) CAUSE: Women in Power Annual Luncheon
Feb 15: (Seattle, WA) Pork Filled Players Enter The Year of the Dragon Spam*O*Rama
Feb 16: Adam WarRock and Kirby Krackle: West Cost Tour Dates!!!
Feb 16: (New York, NY) Amar Chitra Katha: Monica Ferrell, Chitra Ganesh, Keshni Kashyap, and Himanshu “Heems” Suri of Das Racist
Feb 17: (Los Angeles, CA) All My Sons- Feb 18: (San Francisco, CA) NAAAP-SF Lunar New Year Gala 2012
Staff and Contributors
- Editors
- Ernie Hsiung - Founder, Editor-in-Chief
- Moye Ishimoto - Co-Editor, Editorial
- Joz Wang - Co-Editor, PR & APA Outreach
