cooldude0807
01-14 05:04 PM
What are your plays for tomorrow?
wallpaper By Bill Coughlin, November 11,
GCNeophyte
07-14 10:31 AM
Many are porting to EB2 from EB3, Hope that clears some traffic @EB3. I hope USCIS will equally distribute the spill over in year or two with help of IV and lawfirms.
gccovet
08-13 08:53 AM
No news on EAD,
65 days and counting.
Got RFE on e-filed AP for my wife. They probably lost photos and asked for new set. Just shipped the reply and photos back to TSC.
Hope that triggers something.
Last time, I got couple of soft LUDs on 07/24; 07/25; 07/27 on all our EADs and APs. Wife's AP has hard LUD 08/05 (when they issued RFE) and soft LUD 08/06 (when RFE was mailed).
77th Day and counting.... if this make you feel better :-). just kidding...
This is very frustrating!!!
GCCOvet
65 days and counting.
Got RFE on e-filed AP for my wife. They probably lost photos and asked for new set. Just shipped the reply and photos back to TSC.
Hope that triggers something.
Last time, I got couple of soft LUDs on 07/24; 07/25; 07/27 on all our EADs and APs. Wife's AP has hard LUD 08/05 (when they issued RFE) and soft LUD 08/06 (when RFE was mailed).
77th Day and counting.... if this make you feel better :-). just kidding...
This is very frustrating!!!
GCCOvet
2011 By Bill Coughlin, April 14,
jonty_11
05-15 03:31 PM
this thread shouldbe increasing in pages...c'mon guys keep calling..
I called top 5 ...going on ...strong..
This is the action item so lets do our part while core IV plays the bigger picture.
I called top 5 ...going on ...strong..
This is the action item so lets do our part while core IV plays the bigger picture.
more...
H1BLegal95
06-13 11:08 PM
message from IV
Despite the offensive posts and badmouthing on IV site and other sites we are keeping everyone in mind when working on our lobbying effort. We had posted messages in the past about this too. IV does not advice any flower campaign etc without consulting with us. Any wrong move can potentially hurt the interest of this community and the advocacy work we are doing. Please stop posting offensive messages and stop fighting with other members of the community.
=======================
Message from IV for BEC victims
We are aware of the issue and if there is any acion item, we will post it.
also be aware of what we posted earlier on this issue:
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6084
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?p=100024#post100024
=========================
=========================
Years we have been told priority date establishes your place in the queue.
We have spurned job offers and declined the new PERM process to hold on to the priority dates.
Many are still awaiting labor certifications from the backlog elimination centers. Out comes USCIS and says everyone with a LC can file I140 & I485.
People still waiting for LC with priority dates in 2003-2004 are seeing applicants who have priority dates as late as 2007 but with approved LCs through PERM walk through to I485.
Net result, USCIS is going to be flooded with applicants enough to retrogress the priority dates 3-4 years back as early as september. (Everybody with a LC will be able to file for I485 in July). So applicants with priority dates of 2007 are going to get EAD and GC, while LC backlogged 2003 applicants to have to wait for another 3-4 years before they can even file I485.
Aint fair. Aint fair at all. How can this be. How can rules be changed in the middle of the game.
Despite the offensive posts and badmouthing on IV site and other sites we are keeping everyone in mind when working on our lobbying effort. We had posted messages in the past about this too. IV does not advice any flower campaign etc without consulting with us. Any wrong move can potentially hurt the interest of this community and the advocacy work we are doing. Please stop posting offensive messages and stop fighting with other members of the community.
=======================
Message from IV for BEC victims
We are aware of the issue and if there is any acion item, we will post it.
also be aware of what we posted earlier on this issue:
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6084
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?p=100024#post100024
=========================
=========================
Years we have been told priority date establishes your place in the queue.
We have spurned job offers and declined the new PERM process to hold on to the priority dates.
Many are still awaiting labor certifications from the backlog elimination centers. Out comes USCIS and says everyone with a LC can file I140 & I485.
People still waiting for LC with priority dates in 2003-2004 are seeing applicants who have priority dates as late as 2007 but with approved LCs through PERM walk through to I485.
Net result, USCIS is going to be flooded with applicants enough to retrogress the priority dates 3-4 years back as early as september. (Everybody with a LC will be able to file for I485 in July). So applicants with priority dates of 2007 are going to get EAD and GC, while LC backlogged 2003 applicants to have to wait for another 3-4 years before they can even file I485.
Aint fair. Aint fair at all. How can this be. How can rules be changed in the middle of the game.
mpadapa
06-04 04:29 PM
Please call the house reps listed on this thread. Your calls are having a great impact. But we need more members to call to create a greater impact. Another one of the CHC member (Rep. Raul Grijalva) has become a co-sponsor for one of the bill (HR 5882)
source: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR05882:@@@P
Members please make the calls. Do also call the Reps listed on http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=19387
Together we can make it a success.
source: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR05882:@@@P
Members please make the calls. Do also call the Reps listed on http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=19387
Together we can make it a success.
more...
tabletpc
03-20 12:28 PM
Great to know about your effort. Thanks a lot. Greatly apprecite if you could consider my request too...!!!
Dependent should be removed from the cap or the primary applicant should be able to bring the dependet to US with some kind of visa while the primary applicant is using EAD/GC(its ok if this visa does not allow the dependent to work in US untill the PD becomes current and his/her 485 is filed)
At present there are many singles/married who are not switching to EAD in order not to jeoperdize the spouse H4 visa.
Thanks again for your effort..good luck...!!!!
Dependent should be removed from the cap or the primary applicant should be able to bring the dependet to US with some kind of visa while the primary applicant is using EAD/GC(its ok if this visa does not allow the dependent to work in US untill the PD becomes current and his/her 485 is filed)
At present there are many singles/married who are not switching to EAD in order not to jeoperdize the spouse H4 visa.
Thanks again for your effort..good luck...!!!!
2010 The Borden Family
nlssubbu
08-29 06:33 PM
Very true.
I think Americans have to decide.
Do they want to work with Indians/Chinese in America?
Or do they want to work with Indians/Chinese in India/China?
Their choice :)
Protect everything. Protect all the jobs. Drive all the high-tech jobs out of America.
And then either become a lawyer, or go look for a job in India/China.
What those laywers will do without people and cases? Remember that their jobs cannot be portable as the law of land is totally different in other countries :D
I think Americans have to decide.
Do they want to work with Indians/Chinese in America?
Or do they want to work with Indians/Chinese in India/China?
Their choice :)
Protect everything. Protect all the jobs. Drive all the high-tech jobs out of America.
And then either become a lawyer, or go look for a job in India/China.
What those laywers will do without people and cases? Remember that their jobs cannot be portable as the law of land is totally different in other countries :D
more...
desigirl
11-01 10:20 AM
Greg Siskind on Immigration Law and Policy: LIBERTARIANS: TIME TO RE-LEGALIZE IMMIGRATION (http://blogs.ilw.com/gregsiskind/2010/10/libertarians-time-to-re-legalize-immigration.html)
hair Family Album.
akhilmahajan
08-06 08:19 PM
How to open the SR akhilmahajan? Is it same as the Infopass appointment?
Also, there is no LUD after FP in my case. Does that mean that TSC has not received FP results yet? The post by kartikiran on the same page shows that FP was done on 5/13 but the LUD was on 7/20 when TSC received FP. I suspect the same has happened in my case. Should I check with the FP office?
please give your thoughts..
just called the 800 number and talked to a rep, and she opened a SR for me.
Also, there is no LUD after FP in my case. Does that mean that TSC has not received FP results yet? The post by kartikiran on the same page shows that FP was done on 5/13 but the LUD was on 7/20 when TSC received FP. I suspect the same has happened in my case. Should I check with the FP office?
please give your thoughts..
just called the 800 number and talked to a rep, and she opened a SR for me.
more...
amitjoey
01-19 11:44 AM
To All Free Riders
please tell us what is stopping you from not contributing
1) Faith in IV -- Look at what they have done till now ( we all know about it )
2) Just too Lazy to contribute - Shame on you !! your Advance Degrees and High paying jobs your BMW or Audi are no use if you ask me ( junk)
3) too stingy to contribute-- Shame on you again 20$ you save now will result in 20k Loss in the future be prepared
4) Do not Care -- Too Bad its now or never ( many fall here i thing ) they just want to njoy the results
Come up with your Problems and We will try to help you out
Sam, one more 5) new to IV, no trust.
please tell us what is stopping you from not contributing
1) Faith in IV -- Look at what they have done till now ( we all know about it )
2) Just too Lazy to contribute - Shame on you !! your Advance Degrees and High paying jobs your BMW or Audi are no use if you ask me ( junk)
3) too stingy to contribute-- Shame on you again 20$ you save now will result in 20k Loss in the future be prepared
4) Do not Care -- Too Bad its now or never ( many fall here i thing ) they just want to njoy the results
Come up with your Problems and We will try to help you out
Sam, one more 5) new to IV, no trust.
hot A Royal Family
coldcloud
05-20 07:57 AM
Is there any updates from the lawers?
more...
house falcon, crest, dynasty, cosby,
eb2_mumbai
09-25 12:38 PM
Anything with the legislative effort aka unused visa recapture will not happen in this political environment.
My only question to the EB3I is,
Do you want to wait until the visa recapture, when ever it happens or will it ever?. More-over this has been taken up by many people in this forum and fizzled. To add more, do you know what will happen when un-used visas are recaptured ? Will it benefit EB3I or will it be given to EB2 just like the spill over. Would you do something right now to atleast get some short term relief to EB3I ?
I am here in this thread to understand what we can do for EB3I immediately. I presented an option when somebody asked in this thread. If you want to take it or leave it, its up to you to decide.
nyte_crawler I gave u green because I really appreciate you keeping the argument civilized even though we both differ in our ideas. Now just to take things a little further. You have pointed me that I am arguing to keep spill over as it is (in favour of EB2) because that will help me. I would argue the same that when you say immediate help for EB3 I feel that is because that will help your case. Tell me how does it help Eb3 with PD 2004 and further. Rather it would be in their interest to cross port to EB2 since they directly become current rather than wait for spill over to reach their PD which is good 3-4 years away. So my argument is there are three interest groups here
1) EB2
2) Eb3 prior to 2004
3) Eb3 2004 onwards.
My only question to the EB3I is,
Do you want to wait until the visa recapture, when ever it happens or will it ever?. More-over this has been taken up by many people in this forum and fizzled. To add more, do you know what will happen when un-used visas are recaptured ? Will it benefit EB3I or will it be given to EB2 just like the spill over. Would you do something right now to atleast get some short term relief to EB3I ?
I am here in this thread to understand what we can do for EB3I immediately. I presented an option when somebody asked in this thread. If you want to take it or leave it, its up to you to decide.
nyte_crawler I gave u green because I really appreciate you keeping the argument civilized even though we both differ in our ideas. Now just to take things a little further. You have pointed me that I am arguing to keep spill over as it is (in favour of EB2) because that will help me. I would argue the same that when you say immediate help for EB3 I feel that is because that will help your case. Tell me how does it help Eb3 with PD 2004 and further. Rather it would be in their interest to cross port to EB2 since they directly become current rather than wait for spill over to reach their PD which is good 3-4 years away. So my argument is there are three interest groups here
1) EB2
2) Eb3 prior to 2004
3) Eb3 2004 onwards.
tattoo Photo by Kevin Coughlin
pd052009
03-24 11:54 AM
Looks like most of the people simply think there are others who can take care of this for me. Guys.. When a promotion comes, most of us think/say.. why not me?
Why don't we have the same thought of "why not me?" when it comes to advocacy. Think about it for a moment and participate.
Why don't we have the same thought of "why not me?" when it comes to advocacy. Think about it for a moment and participate.
more...
pictures your family and retreating
Lalitha
04-24 12:39 PM
I hold a H4 visa and my employer had applied for my H4 to H1 conversion in this cap. i have not yet got any receipt number from the USCIS. My question is that if I get the approval notice itself I will be able to work or I should wait till Oct 2007?
Any help appreciated.
Any help appreciated.
dresses the family#39;s social life,
apb
07-11 08:05 PM
Please refer to news below
Based on this..
1) USCIS cannot be holding the applications for too long.
2) The receipt number would be faster now and we do not have to worry when huge number of application will go in WHEN they revert their July 2 bulletin.
----------------------------------------------------------
New Direct Filing Instructions for Certain USCIS Forms
Petitioners and applicants are advised that new Direct Filing requirements come into effect July 30, 2007. USCIS says it will not reject cases filed in the prior filing location for 30 days after the new instructions go in to effect, that is, through August 29, 2007. This is true as long as the forms are accompanied by the proper filing fees and otherwise meet the filing requirements.
Note that on and after August 29, 2007, USCIS will reject cases filed in the wrong locations.
Direct filing will be implemented for the following forms: I-129F (Petition for Alien Fianc�(e)); Form I-131 (Application for Travel Document); I-140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker); I-360 (Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant); I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status); I-765, Application for Employment Authorization); I-907 (Request for Premium Processing).
USCIS says it will issue revised filing instructions shortly. Meanwhile, in order to help the public determine the proper direct filing location, USCIS has developed a series of filing charts and posted them on its web site at www.uscis.org at the forms information page.
The above affected forms filed with the new direct filing locations prior to July 30, 2007 will NOT be rejected.
Source http://www.immigrateusa.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1036&Itemid=35
Based on this..
1) USCIS cannot be holding the applications for too long.
2) The receipt number would be faster now and we do not have to worry when huge number of application will go in WHEN they revert their July 2 bulletin.
----------------------------------------------------------
New Direct Filing Instructions for Certain USCIS Forms
Petitioners and applicants are advised that new Direct Filing requirements come into effect July 30, 2007. USCIS says it will not reject cases filed in the prior filing location for 30 days after the new instructions go in to effect, that is, through August 29, 2007. This is true as long as the forms are accompanied by the proper filing fees and otherwise meet the filing requirements.
Note that on and after August 29, 2007, USCIS will reject cases filed in the wrong locations.
Direct filing will be implemented for the following forms: I-129F (Petition for Alien Fianc�(e)); Form I-131 (Application for Travel Document); I-140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker); I-360 (Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant); I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status); I-765, Application for Employment Authorization); I-907 (Request for Premium Processing).
USCIS says it will issue revised filing instructions shortly. Meanwhile, in order to help the public determine the proper direct filing location, USCIS has developed a series of filing charts and posted them on its web site at www.uscis.org at the forms information page.
The above affected forms filed with the new direct filing locations prior to July 30, 2007 will NOT be rejected.
Source http://www.immigrateusa.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1036&Itemid=35
more...
makeup By Bill Coughlin, April 24,
Ramba
10-05 04:48 PM
why do you say so??
Till early part of 2004 or latter part of 2003, most of the Indians applied EB3 very few applied EB2. After 2004, it was reverse. I doubt any one appled EB3 in 2005 0r 2006.
If EB3 stays continously in 2001 and EB2 in 2004 (there is 3 year difference in cutoff date between EB2 and EB3 now), the guys with EB3 PD 2002 and 2003 will convert to EB2 by applying new 140 to transfer PD. This flow will balance the cut-off dates. Eventually it will reach a common ground or a break-even point.
Till early part of 2004 or latter part of 2003, most of the Indians applied EB3 very few applied EB2. After 2004, it was reverse. I doubt any one appled EB3 in 2005 0r 2006.
If EB3 stays continously in 2001 and EB2 in 2004 (there is 3 year difference in cutoff date between EB2 and EB3 now), the guys with EB3 PD 2002 and 2003 will convert to EB2 by applying new 140 to transfer PD. This flow will balance the cut-off dates. Eventually it will reach a common ground or a break-even point.
girlfriend of a single-family home.
supplychainwalla
04-10 01:26 PM
Agreed, Elderly people just want to be with their friends/relatives and want to be in the country they have grown up in and lived all their lives.
This is a thread that has no relevance to IV or the community that is suffering from retrogression, especially if you are a EB candidate from India & China. We need some energy devoted to the following:
Multi year EAD/AP
Recapture wasted visa numbers
Eliminate counting dependents on the Adjustment application from numerical limitations
Do away with country limits
If we can hit the target with even ONE of the demands above we have a won a battle with the larger war looming in on us and that is successfully surviving the GC's tumultuous journey.
Every discussion on the forum should concentrate on solving one of the issues above and the concept of citizenship after 5/10/15 is total nonsense.
This is a thread that has no relevance to IV or the community that is suffering from retrogression, especially if you are a EB candidate from India & China. We need some energy devoted to the following:
Multi year EAD/AP
Recapture wasted visa numbers
Eliminate counting dependents on the Adjustment application from numerical limitations
Do away with country limits
If we can hit the target with even ONE of the demands above we have a won a battle with the larger war looming in on us and that is successfully surviving the GC's tumultuous journey.
Every discussion on the forum should concentrate on solving one of the issues above and the concept of citizenship after 5/10/15 is total nonsense.
hairstyles ROOTS OF MY FAMILY IN THE
apnair2002
06-19 07:36 AM
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/19/IMMIG.TMP
When Alfonso Farf�n fell in love with an old family friend in 2002, he set out to bring his sweetheart and her two children home with him.
But nothing has gone as planned. After waiting a year for a fiancee visa for her to move here from El Salvador, he learned the paperwork had been lost.
The new application was delayed two years because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services kept using an old address for Farf�n, married now to Elizabeth Farf�n, although he had twice updated their records. And when the family's green cards arrived six weeks ago, one was missing.
"I wanted to scream," said Farf�n, a paralegal at an Oakland immigrant assistance center, recalling the day he learned the U.S. CIS had lost the $1,500 application. "But you can't,'' said. "You just have to work harder, save more money and submit a new application."
Legally immigrating to this country can be a gut-wrenching, years-long ordeal. Administrative errors, protracted security checks -- which have lengthened markedly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks -- and bad information routinely cause heartache. Immigrants and immigration lawyers say applications sometimes go into a "black hole" from which no case updates emanate.
"What's going on in Congress right now is still an add-on to an essentially outdated and overly complex, throwback system ... written in the 1950s and amended in 1965," said former immigration agency chief Doris Meissner, who is now senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. "The statutes are just hopelessly complicated and convoluted. ... It surely shouldn't have to be such an unpleasant and harrowing experience."
No plan under consideration will fundamentally overhaul the country's cobbled-together immigration law, which lawyers say rivals only the tax code in complexity.
Many legal immigrants have worried that immigration reforms proposed in Congress will allow some of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to skip this nerve-wracking process. But the bill the Senate passed last month could actually help the 3 million people currently in line for lawful permanent residence documents, or "green cards," to get them more easily. And those familiar with the bill say no illegal immigrant will get to cut into the line for a green card.
In addition to allowing several million undocumented immigrants to apply for temporary work visas and eventually permanent residence, the bill would make more green cards available overall.
But the proposal faces a tough battle in a forthcoming conference committee that will attempt to reconcile it with the immigration bill passed by the House in December. The House bill would criminalize illegal immigration and beef up immigration enforcement but makes no provision for new green cards.
Immigration advocates hope the additional green cards will, if the Senate bill becomes law, ease backlogs. The bill also could help the U.S.CIS improve its services because it will receive the new fines to be paid by undocumented immigrants adjusting to legal status. But it is not likely to address security bottlenecks or the lack of an integrated immigration computer system.
"It would be nice for them to get into the 20th century, let alone the 21st," said Crystal Williams, deputy director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, D.C. "Everything is done by paper right now. We have the problem of paper being shifted back and forth around the country. Virtually nothing is done electronically."
The National Foundation for American Policy in Washington, D.C., reported last month that skilled workers must now wait more than five years for a green card and, in spite of recent progress, the backlogs are as long as they always have been for some categories of family-sponsored visas.
Filipino siblings of U.S. citizens still can expect to wait 22 years to immigrate. Adult children of U.S. citizens in Mexico will wait 13 years. And then there are the indignities:
-- Visitors to San Francisco's immigration office must pay nearby deli and copy shop workers $5 to hold their cell phones because they are forbidden in the building.
-- People seeking visas from abroad must pay $18 each time they schedule an appointment or check on their case.
-- People renewing temporary skilled-worker visas must return to their home countries, sometimes at a cost of thousands of dollars in airfare, to obtain the visa stamp in their passports that allows them to travel. "It really is Kafkaesque," said Susan Bowyer, managing attorney at the International Institute of the East Bay. "All the power is in the immigration service's hands, because the burden is on the applicant to show by clear and convincing evidence that they're eligible."
Bowyer recalled the case of a Tongan woman who won the "diversity lottery," a program to admit 50,000 people a year from countries that don't produce many immigrants to the United States. She had to forgo her spot because she couldn't prove to she had completed high school after the small religious institution folded.
A Salvadoran woman who petitioned in 1992 to bring her brother and his family from El Salvador saw the case summarily closed after a 12-year wait, Bowyer said, because a government clerk thought a note on a document saying the man was already here on a visit meant the family no longer wanted to immigrate.
Williams, of the immigration lawyers association, estimated that major errors like this occur in up to 10 percent of cases. Occasionally, the errors affect large numbers of people, she said. U.S.CIS recently rescinded 10,000 fiancee visas after realizing it hadn't asked about the citizen petitioners' criminal histories.
Simple matters, like getting the immigration service to keep track of a changed address, fail more often, said San Francisco attorney Angela Moore, chair of the Northern California chapter of the immigration lawyers group. When mail is returned to the agency, applicants can miss hearings or have their green cards destroyed, which means paying $260 for a replacement.
"I would guess it's at least 20 to 30 percent of the time," said Moore. "It's not infrequent at all."
Strict formulas that limit the number of immigrants from any one country and the order of preference by which relatives can apply for reunification can cause decades-long delays. That and the lack of green cards or even temporary visas for low-skilled immigrants promote illegal migration, said Traci Hong, director of immigration programs, Asian American Justice Center in Washington, D.C.
But the Senate's plan to offer permanent residence to millions of undocumented immigrants strikes a raw nerve with many people who came here legally.
"Part of my frustration is to hear illegal immigrants called immigrants when I'm called an alien. I'm doing things right, but I'm still called an alien," said French-born Florence Ahlouche, who has spent nine years in the United States. "If I lose my job tomorrow, my reward is a ticket back home."
First an au pair, then a student and now working on an H1B visa as a contracts administrator for a Foster City biotech company, Ahlouche longs to put down roots here in the country where she came of age. She began the green card application two years ago and expects to wait two or three more years, but she's concerned that a legalization program would let the undocumented jump ahead of her in line.
Others see a glimmer of hope in offering legal status to illegal immigrants. Kondala Rao Palaka, an Indian citizen who has lived in the United States for 16 years as a student and then an H1B worker, just got his green card last month, after a four-year wait. But his wife is still waiting for hers.
"These are hardworking people, just looking for a better life," said Palaka, a Fremont resident. "And because of their efforts, their demonstrations and lobbying, if Congress decides to allow them into the line, that will help people who are already waiting. It will mean they have to keep the line moving."
Immigration experts say that's precisely what would happen if the Senate bill becomes law. The increase in green cards is expected to eliminate all backlogs within six years, and everyone who has a pending application would be taken care of before any undocumented immigrant gets a green card.
But some immigration observers say making life easier for would-be immigrants should not be the government's first priority. Yeh Ling Ling, director of the Oakland-based Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America and herself an immigrant from Vietnam, believes the United States lacks the resources to absorb more immigrants. She opposes the Senate bill, both for its expansion of legal immigration and for its offer of legal residence to illegal immigrants.
"If the Senate amnesty bill becomes law, we can expect 12 million illegal aliens to apply and, once naturalized, they can bring in their family members, spouses and children," said Yeh. "You cannot invite people to your house for dinner if some of your kids are starving."
When Alfonso Farf�n fell in love with an old family friend in 2002, he set out to bring his sweetheart and her two children home with him.
But nothing has gone as planned. After waiting a year for a fiancee visa for her to move here from El Salvador, he learned the paperwork had been lost.
The new application was delayed two years because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services kept using an old address for Farf�n, married now to Elizabeth Farf�n, although he had twice updated their records. And when the family's green cards arrived six weeks ago, one was missing.
"I wanted to scream," said Farf�n, a paralegal at an Oakland immigrant assistance center, recalling the day he learned the U.S. CIS had lost the $1,500 application. "But you can't,'' said. "You just have to work harder, save more money and submit a new application."
Legally immigrating to this country can be a gut-wrenching, years-long ordeal. Administrative errors, protracted security checks -- which have lengthened markedly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks -- and bad information routinely cause heartache. Immigrants and immigration lawyers say applications sometimes go into a "black hole" from which no case updates emanate.
"What's going on in Congress right now is still an add-on to an essentially outdated and overly complex, throwback system ... written in the 1950s and amended in 1965," said former immigration agency chief Doris Meissner, who is now senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. "The statutes are just hopelessly complicated and convoluted. ... It surely shouldn't have to be such an unpleasant and harrowing experience."
No plan under consideration will fundamentally overhaul the country's cobbled-together immigration law, which lawyers say rivals only the tax code in complexity.
Many legal immigrants have worried that immigration reforms proposed in Congress will allow some of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to skip this nerve-wracking process. But the bill the Senate passed last month could actually help the 3 million people currently in line for lawful permanent residence documents, or "green cards," to get them more easily. And those familiar with the bill say no illegal immigrant will get to cut into the line for a green card.
In addition to allowing several million undocumented immigrants to apply for temporary work visas and eventually permanent residence, the bill would make more green cards available overall.
But the proposal faces a tough battle in a forthcoming conference committee that will attempt to reconcile it with the immigration bill passed by the House in December. The House bill would criminalize illegal immigration and beef up immigration enforcement but makes no provision for new green cards.
Immigration advocates hope the additional green cards will, if the Senate bill becomes law, ease backlogs. The bill also could help the U.S.CIS improve its services because it will receive the new fines to be paid by undocumented immigrants adjusting to legal status. But it is not likely to address security bottlenecks or the lack of an integrated immigration computer system.
"It would be nice for them to get into the 20th century, let alone the 21st," said Crystal Williams, deputy director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, D.C. "Everything is done by paper right now. We have the problem of paper being shifted back and forth around the country. Virtually nothing is done electronically."
The National Foundation for American Policy in Washington, D.C., reported last month that skilled workers must now wait more than five years for a green card and, in spite of recent progress, the backlogs are as long as they always have been for some categories of family-sponsored visas.
Filipino siblings of U.S. citizens still can expect to wait 22 years to immigrate. Adult children of U.S. citizens in Mexico will wait 13 years. And then there are the indignities:
-- Visitors to San Francisco's immigration office must pay nearby deli and copy shop workers $5 to hold their cell phones because they are forbidden in the building.
-- People seeking visas from abroad must pay $18 each time they schedule an appointment or check on their case.
-- People renewing temporary skilled-worker visas must return to their home countries, sometimes at a cost of thousands of dollars in airfare, to obtain the visa stamp in their passports that allows them to travel. "It really is Kafkaesque," said Susan Bowyer, managing attorney at the International Institute of the East Bay. "All the power is in the immigration service's hands, because the burden is on the applicant to show by clear and convincing evidence that they're eligible."
Bowyer recalled the case of a Tongan woman who won the "diversity lottery," a program to admit 50,000 people a year from countries that don't produce many immigrants to the United States. She had to forgo her spot because she couldn't prove to she had completed high school after the small religious institution folded.
A Salvadoran woman who petitioned in 1992 to bring her brother and his family from El Salvador saw the case summarily closed after a 12-year wait, Bowyer said, because a government clerk thought a note on a document saying the man was already here on a visit meant the family no longer wanted to immigrate.
Williams, of the immigration lawyers association, estimated that major errors like this occur in up to 10 percent of cases. Occasionally, the errors affect large numbers of people, she said. U.S.CIS recently rescinded 10,000 fiancee visas after realizing it hadn't asked about the citizen petitioners' criminal histories.
Simple matters, like getting the immigration service to keep track of a changed address, fail more often, said San Francisco attorney Angela Moore, chair of the Northern California chapter of the immigration lawyers group. When mail is returned to the agency, applicants can miss hearings or have their green cards destroyed, which means paying $260 for a replacement.
"I would guess it's at least 20 to 30 percent of the time," said Moore. "It's not infrequent at all."
Strict formulas that limit the number of immigrants from any one country and the order of preference by which relatives can apply for reunification can cause decades-long delays. That and the lack of green cards or even temporary visas for low-skilled immigrants promote illegal migration, said Traci Hong, director of immigration programs, Asian American Justice Center in Washington, D.C.
But the Senate's plan to offer permanent residence to millions of undocumented immigrants strikes a raw nerve with many people who came here legally.
"Part of my frustration is to hear illegal immigrants called immigrants when I'm called an alien. I'm doing things right, but I'm still called an alien," said French-born Florence Ahlouche, who has spent nine years in the United States. "If I lose my job tomorrow, my reward is a ticket back home."
First an au pair, then a student and now working on an H1B visa as a contracts administrator for a Foster City biotech company, Ahlouche longs to put down roots here in the country where she came of age. She began the green card application two years ago and expects to wait two or three more years, but she's concerned that a legalization program would let the undocumented jump ahead of her in line.
Others see a glimmer of hope in offering legal status to illegal immigrants. Kondala Rao Palaka, an Indian citizen who has lived in the United States for 16 years as a student and then an H1B worker, just got his green card last month, after a four-year wait. But his wife is still waiting for hers.
"These are hardworking people, just looking for a better life," said Palaka, a Fremont resident. "And because of their efforts, their demonstrations and lobbying, if Congress decides to allow them into the line, that will help people who are already waiting. It will mean they have to keep the line moving."
Immigration experts say that's precisely what would happen if the Senate bill becomes law. The increase in green cards is expected to eliminate all backlogs within six years, and everyone who has a pending application would be taken care of before any undocumented immigrant gets a green card.
But some immigration observers say making life easier for would-be immigrants should not be the government's first priority. Yeh Ling Ling, director of the Oakland-based Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America and herself an immigrant from Vietnam, believes the United States lacks the resources to absorb more immigrants. She opposes the Senate bill, both for its expansion of legal immigration and for its offer of legal residence to illegal immigrants.
"If the Senate amnesty bill becomes law, we can expect 12 million illegal aliens to apply and, once naturalized, they can bring in their family members, spouses and children," said Yeh. "You cannot invite people to your house for dinner if some of your kids are starving."
tikka
05-30 04:18 PM
up we go...
jasmin45
07-11 05:12 PM
Some of the interviews with USCIS officials on july bulletin feaso, noted saying "not waiting for security clearence" adjudicated the cases working overtime during end of June. I guess all this will play against and they are in deep trouble now.