A 77-year-old Italian man has been arrested after shooting dead his wife as she lay in hospital.

Police in the Tuscan city of Prato said the man shot his 82-year-old wife, who had Alzheimer's disease, three times in full view of medical staff.

The man told police he did it because he could not stand to see her suffer.

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Now this is devotion and love.

Cool.

Good on 'em.

Best Wishes, Traveller

....if your friend loved this illegal alien, I would tell him, (or her), go for it. The process is difficult and Byzantine, but so what? I know scads of people that have accomplished this....it's no big, (if you are in love).

Study up on it, ask advice, follow the rules and it will be done.

In fact I know a much older guy, I mean older, that just accomplished this with a young woman with a past, if you know what I mean. Interestingly, his adult children are okay with this.

Which also means that maybe he raised his kids pretty damned well. I have doubts at how this will work out, but then I have doubts about everything...my defining characteristic is doubt.

They seem happy and that should be good enough for anyone.

Best Wishes, Traveller

Their initial application for him to have permanent residency and a green card was rejected. Knowing my ex, I'm sure she screwed things up somewhere along the line, but, that being said, the US immigration process is complex and difficult to navigate. There's no automatic pass if you marry an American Citizen, even if you're a well-educated, English-speaking applicant from a friendly nation.

from mexico. They had two kids who were born here in the US and are citizens.

They have been in the thick of the process of trying to make her legal for over 2 yrs. She is getting trouble from both the US and Mexico. Currently she is down in Mexico and has been there for 6 months with her children, and it is unclear when the process will be completed.

I think we should loosen up the laws, but given what they are this is a tremendous ordeal that will involve interviews with all of the man's family and would require relatives to lie. It's a huge undertaking and I wouldn't do it as a mere favor or for a few thousand bucks.

It's extremely nervewracking, especially doing it here in Manhattan. We had a lawyer representing us and filing most of the paperwork, but the fact is that CSIS case officers have a lot of discretion on how to handle a given case. When it came time to do our final interview though, the officer, a Mr. White, was kind and good-natured and we breezed through.

So I would say to anyone contemplating doing this, know that it's a lot of work and worry & involves a multi-year commitment (kind of like a real marriage). It would probably be easier on the girl's state of mind to find an American she wants to marry for real.

I emailed him this thread and I think it was enough to steer him away...he was already starting to lean against it when I spoke to him and I think this helped push him over the edge.

I have a friend from England who married a guy in the US for her papers.

It was bogus top to bottom. They lived together for a while (they were friends AT BEST... not very good friends either).

Anyway, they were grilled a couple times by INS, in separate rooms, the full ordeal. They were freaking out big time that they were going to get caught, she/he would be deported, put in jail, every scenario you could imagine.

Then, nothing happened. She's still here, still living a lie as far as I know. The worry probably took years off their lives, though.

My takeaway from the story is that INS is inconsistant and probably inept. Also, I would never, ever do this or consider doing it.

But a woman I know married a citizen, lived here illegally, and finally decided she wanted to get things legal. This required returning to her country of origin -- Guatemala -- and seven months later she's still there. But her husband is here. So is her daughter.

I married a Colombiana, all legal. Yet, while I can still only guess at the technicalities, I can assure you this is one BAD IDEA.

If the INS asks them in for an interview, they're screwed. It turned out I was not asked to do this, but I understand it can be brutal. What color toothbrush does he/she use, etc, etc.

In general, the INS is far worse than the IRS for rudeness, bureaucracy, slothiness, and tardiness.

Also, I've heard of cases where the woman had to return to her home country for a period. But I've heard of at least one case where that wasn't required. Don't know why the difference.

Sorry couldn't help more. You should have asked about divorce instead. I have more recent experience. :-)