Finn (from the Smoke Signal): When did you immigrate to America? And where did you immigrate from?
Anonymous: [I immigrated in] October 1990 from mainland China.
F: What place did you first come to in America? Where did you land?
A: San Francisco Airport.
F: Well, first, what made you want to move to America, or made your family want to move to America?
A: In 1949, my mother’s brother and three sisters went to Taiwan, then later, one of her sisters came to the United States. So, step-by-step, she applied for [the] sisters to [come] to the United States. Then, in late 1970s, maybe in 1980, some Americans were able to go to China. They found one guy, maybe that time he worked in IBM or somewhere. So, he was a famous scientist. So, when he went to China, he was invited by Deng Xiaoping. DO you know Deng Xiaoping?
F: No.
A: The chairman of China at that time. Because he [was] our family friend for years, so my aunties asked him to go to China to find us, because they wanted to have a family reunion.
Finn: How did your immigration process start? How was it?
A: It was not good, but my parents didn’t tell us the details, because we were kids at that time. They didn’t even want to tell us. They [wanted] to keep it as a secret at [the] beginning. But later, I heard it was not that easy, because the government did not give us a clear instruction to let us know what documents we needed. For example, first they [said], ‘Okay, we need document ABC.’ So when we finish [that] document and submit them, they say, ‘Oh, no, no, no, we need CDF.’ So when we give them CDF, they say, ‘Oh, we need GHI.’ So it took my parents a lot of time to go back and forth to prepare the documents, and [the government] also [asked for] money or presents, otherwise they [didn’t] want to do the processing. My father only met one guy that [rejected] any money, but people [called] him dumb.
F: So the Chinese Government gave you a lot of trouble?
A: Yes.
F: What about when you were leaving China? You had trouble because of your name?
A: Well, yeah, because [we started to leave] right after the Tiananmen Square event. At my school, I [had] to prepare a document called “Noncriminal Certification” or something, which means I have to, I had to say that I didn’t participate in this event. Then, I was allowed to go to Guangzhou, because we needed to go to Guangzhou to do the interview. It was okay at that time. But every time, if we went through the Chinese government, they [checked] my name and [looked] at me because my name sounds like on Tiananmen Square leader.
F: What visa– what card did you apply for?
A: Green card.
F: What does that do?
A: That means we were not citizens, but we have [a] legal document to come to the United States so we can study here and work here, but maybe we cannot work in the government.
F: So, your first day in America, what was all the immigration processing like for you?
A: At the San Francisco Airport, I don’t remember the details, because [my parents] just [give the US government] some documents that the US government gave to us and showed them our passports. That’s it.
F: And you got to leave?
A: leave? Yes.
F: Leave the airport and just go out?
A: Yeah, it was pretty easy. [I] also remember my father had to sign some document, then he made a mistake, so maybe he signed the wrong name or something, maybe the spelling was wrong. He was panicked and asked me what to do. So that was the first time I spoke English. I learned a little English when [I] was in China. I told them that my father made a mistake and his name is this, not that. They’re nice, they [said], ‘Okay, then sign the document again.’
F: And what about the years after? Did you have to go to immigration courts or anything?
A: No, but I think we went someplace. I forgot the name. The reason is, they lost my mom’s fingerprint, which we did when we were in China. We had [to do it] one more time.
F: Because you had a green card, how did you become a citizen?
A: After four years and six months, we just [applied] to be a citizen.
F: Would you say your experience of immigrating to America was a lot easier then than it is now?
A: I don’t know, because that time, we [waited] for eight years, and I heard now the waiting time is longer. I don’t know the details.