Quote:
|
Originally Posted by ShaniFaye
Kinda hard to sign up when you're from another country and part of the immigration process doesn't inform you of the necessity
|
That was precisely the point I was trying to make. I'm not opposed at all to signing up for the Selective Service if they require it, although I don't think I am an ideal candidate for drafting so why they'd want me to is beyond me. I don't oppose having to do this, I am just pissed that this was not an issue that was ever brought up by the immigration agency when I came over. They could easily have made signing up for the SS an actual requirement for permanent resident status - or at least, going through the process of determining whether I need to sign up or am exempt.
I don't really appreciate some of the replies that go along the line of "if you want to live here, blah blah blah...". What you need to understand, is that whereas you may have taken it for granted since you turned 18 that you had to deal with this one way or another, I was never made aware of it. So, anyone not registering for SS between 18 and 25 is subject to jail time or quarter of a million dollar fine...that's nice, but they never told me anything about it. And getting through the immigration process requires no small amount of research, take my word for it, and yet this subject never surfaced anywhere.
As a sidenote, I find it curious that some people equate questioning the bureaucracy as somehow un-American. That because I live here now, I am to just stfu and play by the rules, without giving any thought to their validity or asking questions? Similar to the way you are considered unpatriotic if you do not mindlessly support the war. "Don't ask questions, don't question how anything is done". I'm sorry it's taking me time as a European to get accustomed to this line of thinking, I am used to free speech.
It is equally unnecessary to bring up the subject of nations where the military drafts every male as they turn 18, seeing as I am from one of those countries. I was exempt from the draft originally because I was attending something similar to junior college, for a degree which was required there in order to ever attend a university. Later, as they automatically tried to draft me again, I was exempt due to being consistently on Valium and various antidepressants. They didn't want to put a gun in the hand of someone who needed sedatives just to go to a grocery store, I guess.