You are pretty dead on.
My best friend of 20 years came to this country from England and over stayed his welcome. He had a social security card with his name on it and also had "not valid for work" stomped on it. He needed that to get his Drivers license.
This guy tried and tried to get his Green card. Denied, denied over and over. With what he did, our country had tons what he did thats why he was getting denied.
This guy did construction, drywalling+plastering and before that, he served soft served yogurt because there was no work. This guy had the very best work ethic out of anyone i have ever met. I used to call him the "white Mexican".
Long story short, He saved his money, he paid taxes, some how got a tax return, bought 5 different properties, flipped them and cashed out when they were prime and made a shitload. Hired a attorney after 911,(was that much more difficult to get into this country after 911) to set up his paper work to come into the United states as a $500K investor.
The tricky part was leaving the country back to England to not show that he ever over stayed his welcome. So he left through Mexico back to his port of entry which was England.
When he came back to the US, customs saw according to their records that he never left the US. But since he went back to England he had a new passport with no stamps and had all of his paper work in order stating he was a serious investor with money already in US banks. The US customs saw that oversight as their mistake and they welcomed him with open arms.
Was it right? Nope. Did he make it right? Yup.
At the end of the day, this guy has over 1 million liquid in the bank, and owns 2 apartment buildings and pays a butt load in US taxes. This is what our country wants. It is kind of lame that it is that difficult to get into this country.
I do know that it can be very difficult to get into this country, but the rules are the rules.
