Delayed Visas, I Just Don't Understand It

by Gerard on Feb 22, 2007 11:00 AM PST

Every year it seems like we go through the same story. This is almost as frustrating as watching "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray. So every season, after the players file out of the locker rooms and pack their bags for home we lose track of them except for a few words when the Carribean Series starts up.

Yet, our players from the Carribean (who know when Spring Training starts) invariably have trouble attaining their visas on time and show up at camp late. How can this be? It's not as if they don't have calenders down there. I know that because I've seen the calenders. At this point in their careers, they are essentially consecrated due to thier abilities and money is not an issue for them as much anymore.

This year, we see our favorite alias (although mine had her show cancelled) Santiago Cassilla and Antonio Perez delayed in arriving to Papago Park. So what's the excuse this time? Yet another name change, shaky birth certificates, bad food (bad crop year for beans and rice)...what could it possibly be this time? Please share your insights.

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Antonio Perez is having Visa problems?

Sweet, my prayers have been answered!

"[Frank's] a big battler. He's the mother of battleships."

-Nick Swisher

by kaweahkaweah on Feb 22, 2007 11:01 AM PST reply actions

He can't even BUY a hit.

Maybe he should switch to Diners' Club.

Here's a picture of me!

by Poppy on Feb 22, 2007 11:11 AM PST up reply actions

I want the REAL Antonio Perez

...to show up this year. You know, the guy who hit around .300 for the Dodgers. The guy we had last year put up pitchers numbers (at the plate, that is).

"I've been accused of using too many words...I suppose that's like accusing Mozart of using too many notes." Bill King

by Gerard on Feb 22, 2007 11:23 AM PST up reply actions

How do you know...

...that the real Perez is the Dodgers' one? Maybe the A's Perez is the real one.

Here's a picture of me!

by Poppy on Feb 22, 2007 11:26 AM PST up reply actions

I suspect the real Antonio Perez...

... runs a dry cleaning business in Caracas.

The guy we think of as Antonio Perez is actually Antonio Caroccio, and he's 48.

Hence the visa issues.

"Kotsay is 31... Kotsay's back is 127." - Jeepers

by Ozzz on Feb 22, 2007 12:45 PM PST up reply actions

Have you ever tried to get a visa to come here?

Until you've gone through the visa process, don't complain. It is INCREDIBLY difficult to get a visa to come here, especially when it's one such as this where it is every year for a certain length of time and each year you have to reapply to come back and prove yet again that you have no intentions of staying in the country that will be providing your income. The visa process is long and drawn out and involves in-person meetings and interviews, so the process can't even begin until the player returns from the previous season. If the player doesn't get their contract in place until January or February, that also delays the process, since you can't even apply for a work visa without a signed contract or offer letter.

There's no crying in baseball!

by gigglingone on Feb 22, 2007 11:50 AM PST reply actions

i imagine it's really not that difficult

for major leaguers.

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on Feb 22, 2007 12:07 PM PST up reply actions

It seems that only the minor leaguers, or pre-arb

players have issues. The A's aren't the only team that has this issue though, we just hear about Casilla, and Perez, because they are local. They can usually make it before minor league camp starts.

by theblackpearl on Feb 22, 2007 12:17 PM PST up reply actions

manny also has trouble

making it here by the time camp starts

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on Feb 22, 2007 12:24 PM PST up reply actions

Yeah, they need to schedule those car shows

during the winter.

by theblackpearl on Feb 22, 2007 12:29 PM PST up reply actions

Come on.

It's hard to get a visa to go to Florida from... Florida.

"(Crosby) is a young man with a bright future. And we're all impressed with his hair, too." ~ Bob Geren

by Poppy on Feb 22, 2007 12:34 PM PST up reply actions

minor leaguers and pre-arb players

often only have one year deals, thus the need to go through the whole process again each off season.

There's no crying in baseball!

by gigglingone on Feb 22, 2007 12:39 PM PST up reply actions

Let's not forget Steven Ryder-Carter.

He was a Canadian kid who was supposed to get drafted around the 14th round or so in 2004, but because the US Government had 'run out' of visas for that year when the draft happened, he was passed up by everyone because he wouldn't have been able to play in the US.

Everyone, that is, except Oakland, who had a short season team in Canada. They picked him up in the round 28 or so.

The catch? Ryder-Carter wasn't allowed to play any games in the US because of his visa situation. He also wasn't allowed to train with the team in the US. Or travel with the team.

Home games only.

So while others were developing on the road, he was in Vancouver, throwing a ball against a wall.

He got a couple of innings of work late in the season, but only a couple, because Oakland has a rule that you can't pitch in a game unless the pitching coach sees you throw off a mound a few times first.

So Ryder-Carter would wait for the team to come back to town, start throwing off a mound, and three or four days later, when he was considered ready to pitch in a game, he'd have maybe one or two games where he was a chance of playing, before the next road trip would reset everything and he'd have to do it all over again.

Needless to say, on the few times he was sent in to pitch, he got shelled. The following season he got his visa, but (now a year older) got cut after a couple of outings.

Visas can be a bitch.

"Kotsay is 31... Kotsay's back is 127." - Jeepers

by Ozzz on Feb 22, 2007 12:53 PM PST up reply actions

we should have made him assistant groundskeeper

he could get a H-2A (seasonal agricultural worker).
</immigration law nerdyness>

A's v Giants "is kind of like the difference between going to see the Ramones and going to see the Bee Gees. A's fans will go see the Ramones." -BB 07/27/05

by xbhaskarx on Feb 22, 2007 12:57 PM PST up reply actions

Not sure if that would have worked in V-Town.

The assistant groundskeeper there was a Japanese wedding planner who digs ball so much he shuts his business down for four months each year and comes to Vancouver to mow grass and wipe seats.

Which, let's face it, is a much better story.

"Kotsay is 31... Kotsay's back is 127." - Jeepers

by Ozzz on Feb 22, 2007 1:08 PM PST up reply actions

Thanks gigglingone

for the realistic explanation of why players have a problem getting visas to enter the USA. After all these years, I figured there had to be reason why these guys where late and It couldn't be because they didn't want to get to spring training practice.

"you just have to focus on the now. What am I going to do today? What am I going to do for the next 30 minutes to get better today?" - Huston Street AN 4-7-05

by brosa49 on Feb 22, 2007 12:36 PM PST reply actions

having gone through the immigration process

having gone through the immigration process with my wife, I can tell you first hand that it is not easy. It took us over a year and $5,000 to get her into the country legally. and the federal government still has not sent us all of the papers for our son.

Rickey Henderson: 35, 24, hall of fame!

by Athletics fan and runner on Feb 23, 2007 4:43 AM PST reply actions

just curious

I am about to get married and my wife is from another country. Any advice?

by apilgrim on Feb 23, 2007 4:13 PM PST up reply actions

be patient

and take lots and lots of pictures of her with your friends and family -- don't want to make it appear that you are hiding her.

But be patient....these things take a while....

There's no crying in baseball!

by gigglingone on Feb 23, 2007 4:17 PM PST up reply actions

Keep copies of EVERYTHING

(see below).

"Even if you know the deck is stacked in your favor, you still have to have the discipline to trust the math and the cojones to go to the ATM." BB

by green star oakland on Feb 23, 2007 4:26 PM PST up reply actions

yes

thanks gstaro, that is really good advice and I will make sure to do that (thats such a hard story to read, I hope that lady was able to get her Visa).

by apilgrim on Feb 23, 2007 4:34 PM PST up reply actions

When I went to pick up my green card

at the San Franciso INS office, the woman at the next counter was being told that all of her paperwork - covering the previous 3 years of her green card application - had been lost in transit from the New York office where she had started the process, and that she was going to have to start over.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone else with quite that expression of rage, anguish and despair.

"Even if you know the deck is stacked in your favor, you still have to have the discipline to trust the math and the cojones to go to the ATM." BB

by green star oakland on Feb 23, 2007 8:13 AM PST reply actions

while Casilla's problems may be at least partly

of his own making (since he did use his friend's documentation for some years), I can assure you that visa problems for green card holders who leave the US and then try to come back have gotten worse in the past few years, and not only in baseball. I'm seeing this happen with work colleagues who dare not even visit their sick mothers during vacation, for fear that some crazy mixup will prevent their returning to work on time.

by OaklandSi on Feb 23, 2007 10:17 AM PST reply actions