When America was first discovered, immigrating was not complicated. If you wanted to come to this country, all you had to do was leave your home country and find a way to get here. You didn’t need to apply for a Social Security number or a Green Card. There was no paper work to fill out nor registration lines to wait in. You just came.
Things have really changed since those early days, though. I understand that modern nations need to have some control over who crosses their borders, but almost everyone agrees that it has become way too complicated here in America.
Since I only know about our immigration policies from immigrants I know personally, I decided to look at the official website of the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. Let me summarize some of what I learned.
Before you can even apply for a visa, you have to be sponsored by a U.S. citizen, or a relative of U.S. citizen, or by an employer who has agreed to hire you. But, you can’t even apply for a visa until that sponsor files “Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, with the USCIS Chicago Lockbox facility, following instructions on the USCIS website. U.S. employers file Form I-140, Petition for Alien Worker, as instructed on the USCIS website.”
Next, you have to fill out an immigrant petition which, “must be approved by USCIS before you can begin the immigrant visa application process.” Your petition to immigrate will take about a year before it “becomes current.” Then the National Visa Center (NVC) begins pre-processing the application, which includes collecting fees, forms, and sponsor petitions. The process can be further delayed because our country limits the number of immigrant visas per year, as well as how many can come from certain countries.
If all goes well, the next step is more paper work. Our government website goes on to explain: “The immigrant visa application process requires several exchanges of correspondence between the NVC and the parties to each petition…. You will need to submit, as part of the immigrant visa application process, a number of forms, fees, and documents to the NVC.”
Once all the fees have been received, the application forms, and an Affidavit of Support forms are collected, then you will be given a “priority date” so you can be scheduled for an interview at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate. You are also responsible for figuring out if, “There may be either additional instructions for obtaining civil documents in a specific country or additional documents required, depending on the U.S. embassy or consulate where you will apply.”
That is just a brief summary of our immigration process. What used to be relatively simple has become extremely complicated and confusing. Sadly, I believe the same thing has happened to most explanations about the immigration process to get into heaven.
Jesus explained it very simply. He said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, In fact, the Bible explains that all our personal efforts to immigrate to heaven are useless because, “a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified [declared forgiven] by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Galatians 2:16). Maybe you have been confused because there are so many religions, and each one has its own long list of what you must do to be a good enough person to make it into heaven. Trying to be good enough, though, is not only frustrating, it is impossible! No matter how good you are, it is not good enough when you compare yourself to a completely holy God. He looks at our actions as well as our motives, and at our secret thoughts and says, “…There is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:3). Our only hope of immigrating to heaven is based on what God did for us because we are NOT holy and could never become good enough. We must put our trust in Christ’s sacrificial death. He is good, perfect, in fact. He had no sin of His own to die for, but He died in our place. Jesus offers to wipe away all our sin and cover us with His own righteousness. All you need to do is turn from your sin and trust Him. When that happens, you can say with me: “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness…” (Isaiah 61:10). Your “application process” will be complete, and you’ll be ready to go when God calls you. Now, that is immigration made simple!
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