How to roleplay a Russian illegal immigrant in 2022

[dimes]

OK, let me start off by saying - there's no "fresh off the boat" type shit happening in 2022. It's not happening anymore with Russian/other CIS countries' immigrants moving to US. So please, don't roleplay that you got into States in a shipping container.

 

There's two options on how to get into US, being Russian: 1) The only legal way is by getting a green card. I'm sure most of you, if not everybody, knows how it works - you apply in 2022, you get a chance to get a green card in 2023. Usually you move to US, when you're 100% sure you'll get a job there - you either have work experience in Russia and want to pursuit international career or you're fresh from the college and you hate Russian government, that's why you want to move (most of young generation hates Russian government these days). So you apply, send them all the papers and get a chance to move, basically. Even though USA stopped giving out visas to Russians, afaik, we can ignore this fact for the sake of RP. 2) Illegal immigration. There's a new trend throughout CIS countries on how to get to USA. People usually buy tours to Mexico, then they move to borderline towns next to USA, find a cheap car with US numberplates and try their luck by going through the border. There's whole forums with people discussing how to do it and how to look american as possible. Why does it work for some of them? Paper check control is located behind the border, on US territory. So if people're lucky to cross the border before they reach the paper check stop, they'll just pull up on the officer, show them their russian passports and ask for political refuge. It might not work, because the car could be checked way before immigrants reach the border and people will be sent back, so some people try their luck for 4-6 times before they eventually get lucky. Usually they have all the papers from Russia that confirms they're refugees (fake or real). It usually costs $10000 a family.

 

Those immigrants usually land up in US jail for a few days, then they get released till the court. Their russian passports get taken and exchanged for some papers without any picture on it (I-94 paper for those who's curious). So yeah, you can't find a proper job or rent a proper house with a document like that. So they end up searching for some shitty house/apartment, that'd be overpriced (because they're immigrants and people will double charge them). And yeah, these people will look for any sort of work to feed their families. It's a risky move, that's not worth the risk, unless you really need/want to get into USA for whatever reason. So because they can't find a proper job, they're searching for russian employees, who'd agree to pay them for any sort of work (and, of course, lowball them). Their children will be immigrants too, even if they're born in USA - they won't have a chance to get US citizenship, because their parents have no documents on them - only if they get married to US citizen.

 

So yeah, I'm not a guide writer, I'm just saying how it works nowadays. So the best decision would be to roleplay russian-american, who was born in US. But you could try your luck and RP illegal immigrant, but do that on your own risk - please, make sure you think of your character's background and don't drive sports cars and buy apartments, simply because it'd look stupid for an immigrant. Thank you. If you have any questions regarding that sort of RP - shoot me a PM.

 

Edited February 3, 2022 by dimes

[Musa the Warrior]

does this work in 2023 too?