Suzy Khimm compares immigration wait times:

There’s no one line. There are many lines with wait times that vary wildly depending on the type of green card that a prospective immigrant is applying for, the number of visas available and his or her country of origin: For those applying for work visas because of their “extraordinary ability,” including high-ranking professors and international business executives, there is virtually no wait time. By contrast, a brother or sister of a U.S. citizen from the Philippines applying for a family-sponsored visas may have been waiting 24 years, as those visas have been oversubscribed, according to the State Department’s latest figures.

For me, it was eighteen years. Because, despite Jesse Helms’ best-laid plans, I survived HIV and him. As for the general issue, I favor much more legal immigration, especially for those foreigners educated in America, especially Indians and Chinese – who will become and already are our core competitors. I fell in love with my new country within weeks of living here. Almost three decades later, I just wish that love were not now entwined with memories of the kind of anxiety and stress and trauma that no non-immigrant and no one without a stigmatized illness would ever quite understand. It should be easier and fairer. Basically: what David wrote today.