doesntmatter
04-11 11:53 PM
Kudh Kare tho balaa ; hum kare tho balaathkaar is what somebody who recently got his/her gc told me - was hard to digest, but true...
"Real", "Worked hard", "law abiding" - done my masters and PhD - I know how people get through. Waa re waa - demanding "justice" - you are just plain jealous of other smart people. Guess its time somebody told you, just because you have a MS or a PhD doesn't make you smarter by default. Even if it did, doesn't mean you get everything first - teenagers behave better than that :) Time to grow up
A lot of Desi Consulting Companies do these kinds of things. They can cook up any resume and any requirement.
Real PHD guys who worked their asses off day and night in trying to publish some worth while papers are not getting consideration for EB1 and these DCC guys with a bachelors in any discipline and 5-7yrs experience can become Multi-national executives and fall under EB1.
Nothing helps us legally working people with US Masters Degrees who have been living as law abiding citizens for years.
One of my friends who did Bachelors with me in India came to US on h1B and actually bought his EB2 Labor back in 2005 through a DCC and now has a GC. He never even told me that he did that. He told me recently after he got his GC.
"Real", "Worked hard", "law abiding" - done my masters and PhD - I know how people get through. Waa re waa - demanding "justice" - you are just plain jealous of other smart people. Guess its time somebody told you, just because you have a MS or a PhD doesn't make you smarter by default. Even if it did, doesn't mean you get everything first - teenagers behave better than that :) Time to grow up
A lot of Desi Consulting Companies do these kinds of things. They can cook up any resume and any requirement.
Real PHD guys who worked their asses off day and night in trying to publish some worth while papers are not getting consideration for EB1 and these DCC guys with a bachelors in any discipline and 5-7yrs experience can become Multi-national executives and fall under EB1.
Nothing helps us legally working people with US Masters Degrees who have been living as law abiding citizens for years.
One of my friends who did Bachelors with me in India came to US on h1B and actually bought his EB2 Labor back in 2005 through a DCC and now has a GC. He never even told me that he did that. He told me recently after he got his GC.
wallpaper world map continents and oceans printable. and oceans Continents+map+
nat23
02-01 09:24 PM
Pappu just mentioned that an update is on the way...
learning01
02-01 09:12 PM
s1105 refers to a page. This corresponds to SA 187 ( and I request you to see BACKLOG REDUCTION is there).
You are correct---But to which amendment--s1105 is attached ?
You are correct---But to which amendment--s1105 is attached ?
2011 printable map of world map of
chanduv23
09-20 12:18 PM
Thanks. I missed you. I think I should have seen you but can't remember. Since morning at least 10 people who i have talked to from Tri-State area asked me if I know where is chanduv23? they just wanted to see the great motivator like you. Please point me to the picture where I can find you. Your posts on the IV forum have been an inspiration for lot of folks. It takes people like you to form a group of wonderful hardworking folks.
They probably wanted to beat me up :)
They probably wanted to beat me up :)
more...
SGP
04-18 06:52 AM
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$GOOD MORNING GC$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Deadline = April 30th, 2011
Goal = 5000 votes on survey (see I-485 filing w/o current PD thread) and momentum to continue with this campaign.The survey is a platform to gather and push for launching action items. Based on response by 04/30/2011 - IV will decide whether to even proceed with initiative or not.
Actions - 1) Vote on survey.
2)Email ivcoordinator@gmail.com with PD, ph#,email & subject "I485 filing impacted�,
3)Print/Circulate Fliers and spread FB, wiki link (see "support thread")
This is a supporting thread to the "Want to File I-485 without Current Priority Date? Gather here" thread started by pappu.
As suggested by pappu/starsun, this supporting thread provides impacted members with additional information and tools to help the initiative.
Visit Immigration Voice Wiki (http://immigrationvoice.org/wiki/index.php/Employment_Based_Green_Card#Process_.28EB1.2C_EB2. 2C_and_EB3.29) - for overview of Employment Based - Green Card process
Visit I485 Filing w/o current PD Wiki (http://immigrationvoice.org/wiki/index.php/Current_Grass-Roots_Initiative_-_I-485_Filing_without_Current_Priority_Date) - for overview of this initiative
As pappu stated in the first post of the above referenced thread - some of the ongoing efforts include finding how many IV members would get benefit from such a provision and get basic details such as username/Priority Date of impacted members. Future action items might include drafting documents and letters to support this provision. There maybe actions such as sending emails etc. However we would not be able to open a public action item unless we can have thousands of our members willing to participate in a grassroots action item. This survey intends to understand the needs of our membership for this provision and collect grassroots information.
The fact is we have a dedicated group of volunteers (and we need more) who have been trying their best to spread the message about this initiative so that a strong grass-roots support can be created leading up to launch of the public action items. So far we have around 1100 people who have responded. Based on quick calculations carried out using PERM data, it is estimated that there are at least 60K-70K EB applicants waiting to file I-485/EAD/AP (this is a very conservative estimate..the actual number could be much more). Grass-roots initiatives require time and patience and we request maximum number of impacted folks to participate actively.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What can you do to participate?
1) Vote on the poll/survey created by Pappu.
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/forum14-members-forum/1599353-want-to-file-485-when-pd-is-not-current-gather-here.html
Then please send an email to ivcoordinator@gmail.com (starsun) with subject - "I485 filing without current PD - Impacted Member". Include your a) IV username b) Email address c) Phone #, d) State of Residence e) Priority Date - so that grassroot efforts can be coordinated
2) Print out below Flier and circulate at all asian/indian malls/groceries/theaters. Forward the flier to your friends/co-workers and ask them to do the same.
I485 Filing Initiative Flier (http://immigrationvoice.org/wiki/images/a/a8/Flier_I485_latest2.pdf)
3) Volunteers have created a facebook community and an Immigration Voice WIKI page to spread the message about this initiative. Please circulate these links among your friends/co-workers who will be helped.
Please "Share" and "Link" and "send to friend" the facebook community via your Facebook account. Also include these two links when you post on the IV forum.
Facebook - IV I485 filing w/o current PD initiative community (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Immigration-Voice-Grass-roots-Campaigns/150562351660693?v=info)
(Just FYI that you might have to be logged in for the above link to direct to the facebook community. Alternately, search for "Immigration Voice Grass-roots Campaigns" to find the community after logging in. Search "Immigration Voice" to go to the IV's main facebook page)
Immigration Wiki -
I485 Filing Initiative - IV Wiki (http://immigrationvoice.org/wiki/index.php/Current_Grass-Roots_Initiative_-_I-485_Filing_without_Current_Priority_Date)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PM these members for additional info:
nmdial ; geevikram ; vbkris77 ; ashwin_27 ; snathan
Dedicated members can also join the leaders group: http://groups.google.com/group/485-filing-iv-initiative
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deadline = April 30th, 2011
Goal = 5000 votes on survey (see I-485 filing w/o current PD thread) and momentum to continue with this campaign.The survey is a platform to gather and push for launching action items. Based on response by 04/30/2011 - IV will decide whether to even proceed with initiative or not.
Actions - 1) Vote on survey.
2)Email ivcoordinator@gmail.com with PD, ph#,email & subject "I485 filing impacted�,
3)Print/Circulate Fliers and spread FB, wiki link (see "support thread")
This is a supporting thread to the "Want to File I-485 without Current Priority Date? Gather here" thread started by pappu.
As suggested by pappu/starsun, this supporting thread provides impacted members with additional information and tools to help the initiative.
Visit Immigration Voice Wiki (http://immigrationvoice.org/wiki/index.php/Employment_Based_Green_Card#Process_.28EB1.2C_EB2. 2C_and_EB3.29) - for overview of Employment Based - Green Card process
Visit I485 Filing w/o current PD Wiki (http://immigrationvoice.org/wiki/index.php/Current_Grass-Roots_Initiative_-_I-485_Filing_without_Current_Priority_Date) - for overview of this initiative
As pappu stated in the first post of the above referenced thread - some of the ongoing efforts include finding how many IV members would get benefit from such a provision and get basic details such as username/Priority Date of impacted members. Future action items might include drafting documents and letters to support this provision. There maybe actions such as sending emails etc. However we would not be able to open a public action item unless we can have thousands of our members willing to participate in a grassroots action item. This survey intends to understand the needs of our membership for this provision and collect grassroots information.
The fact is we have a dedicated group of volunteers (and we need more) who have been trying their best to spread the message about this initiative so that a strong grass-roots support can be created leading up to launch of the public action items. So far we have around 1100 people who have responded. Based on quick calculations carried out using PERM data, it is estimated that there are at least 60K-70K EB applicants waiting to file I-485/EAD/AP (this is a very conservative estimate..the actual number could be much more). Grass-roots initiatives require time and patience and we request maximum number of impacted folks to participate actively.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What can you do to participate?
1) Vote on the poll/survey created by Pappu.
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/forum14-members-forum/1599353-want-to-file-485-when-pd-is-not-current-gather-here.html
Then please send an email to ivcoordinator@gmail.com (starsun) with subject - "I485 filing without current PD - Impacted Member". Include your a) IV username b) Email address c) Phone #, d) State of Residence e) Priority Date - so that grassroot efforts can be coordinated
2) Print out below Flier and circulate at all asian/indian malls/groceries/theaters. Forward the flier to your friends/co-workers and ask them to do the same.
I485 Filing Initiative Flier (http://immigrationvoice.org/wiki/images/a/a8/Flier_I485_latest2.pdf)
3) Volunteers have created a facebook community and an Immigration Voice WIKI page to spread the message about this initiative. Please circulate these links among your friends/co-workers who will be helped.
Please "Share" and "Link" and "send to friend" the facebook community via your Facebook account. Also include these two links when you post on the IV forum.
Facebook - IV I485 filing w/o current PD initiative community (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Immigration-Voice-Grass-roots-Campaigns/150562351660693?v=info)
(Just FYI that you might have to be logged in for the above link to direct to the facebook community. Alternately, search for "Immigration Voice Grass-roots Campaigns" to find the community after logging in. Search "Immigration Voice" to go to the IV's main facebook page)
Immigration Wiki -
I485 Filing Initiative - IV Wiki (http://immigrationvoice.org/wiki/index.php/Current_Grass-Roots_Initiative_-_I-485_Filing_without_Current_Priority_Date)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PM these members for additional info:
nmdial ; geevikram ; vbkris77 ; ashwin_27 ; snathan
Dedicated members can also join the leaders group: http://groups.google.com/group/485-filing-iv-initiative
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TeddyKoochu
05-05 10:34 AM
Finally, done
PD: June 7th 2006
SC: Texas
I-485 Status: Card Production Ordered
LUID: 05/04/2011
Thank you all IV friends.
One question,
Yesterday I sent my EAD renewel application. should put stop payment on check or should I call USCIS.
Thanks
MC
Congratulations MC, all the best, must be a great feeling. The new signature looks great.
Thanks Bitz,
11 years in USA,
F1 - H1, never paid a single penny to any attorney in last 11 years, i did all paperwork by myself.
Joined IV by many names. i am part of IV since beginning, even before Pappu
KAKA got banned
Dalai Lama got banned
Then MC still here.
IV is a great platform for us, i am willing to help IV in any ways.
Best of luck to all
Special Thanks to Teddy for his hardwork.
MC
Many Thanks for your kind comments.
PD: June 7th 2006
SC: Texas
I-485 Status: Card Production Ordered
LUID: 05/04/2011
Thank you all IV friends.
One question,
Yesterday I sent my EAD renewel application. should put stop payment on check or should I call USCIS.
Thanks
MC
Congratulations MC, all the best, must be a great feeling. The new signature looks great.
Thanks Bitz,
11 years in USA,
F1 - H1, never paid a single penny to any attorney in last 11 years, i did all paperwork by myself.
Joined IV by many names. i am part of IV since beginning, even before Pappu
KAKA got banned
Dalai Lama got banned
Then MC still here.
IV is a great platform for us, i am willing to help IV in any ways.
Best of luck to all
Special Thanks to Teddy for his hardwork.
MC
Many Thanks for your kind comments.
more...
akhilmahajan
08-14 05:57 PM
I have my infopass scheduled for the 18th August.
I will let you guys know what happened with my appointment.
Contacting the senator is the next step for me for sure, but i am going to wait till the 87-88th day to do so. So that i cant get the same answer, that ur 90 days have not been over yet.
Thanks for updating us and all the best with ur application.
I will let you guys know what happened with my appointment.
Contacting the senator is the next step for me for sure, but i am going to wait till the 87-88th day to do so. So that i cant get the same answer, that ur 90 days have not been over yet.
Thanks for updating us and all the best with ur application.
2010 blank world map continents
santb1975
04-12 09:38 PM
I have been taking several fitness classes in Tristate area and So.Cal over the past 7 years and in every class I have taken so far the number of female participants have always outnumbered the number of male participants. Be it Kickboxing or Strength and Endurance Training. One of my co-worker has started taking Strength Training classes a couple of weeks ago only to tell me that he has new found respect for all the ladies who take those classes religiously every week. I cracked up when he told me ... he was dying to complete the class and kept lowering the weights he picked up while the ladies were going like drill sergeants
I know that females are disproportionately represented in these forums - even so.........I would like to see more women participate. Going forward, I will give $10 towards even female who signs up (upto 10 memberships). If you cannot find company, exercise with a cell phone and pepper spray on you.
I know that females are disproportionately represented in these forums - even so.........I would like to see more women participate. Going forward, I will give $10 towards even female who signs up (upto 10 memberships). If you cannot find company, exercise with a cell phone and pepper spray on you.
more...
chanduv23
09-20 06:52 AM
Please keep writing your amusing experiences - this thread is an inspiration to everyone.
For those who did not attend - this thread is to just make you feel nice and comfortable about IV folks - we are all sweet fun loving people who are standing up for ourselves.
IV members were all extremely delighted when they saw real people behind handles.
For those who did not attend - this thread is to just make you feel nice and comfortable about IV folks - we are all sweet fun loving people who are standing up for ourselves.
IV members were all extremely delighted when they saw real people behind handles.
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pdakwala
09-20 04:20 PM
Everyone please three cheers for these girls.
Kanika: She was working with her one year old or may be less than a year kid in one hand. By the way her kid was helping her to to hold the phone and her another hand was holding the apointment document and pen.
Niloufer: She came to IV situation room for the first time. Her daughter was with her husband. We were running short of people and had lot of things to do. I was the one who did not even ask whether she is ok to do some work on that day. Sorry for that Niloufer but you are wonderful person.
Meenal: After working for three whole days, she was without even thinking about herself kept looking for my laptop. My company would have fired me if they would have found that I have some company data in the laptop which is lost. But fortunately I found my laptop. You were on the top of it and were very determined to find my laptop. Thanks for all your help
Sumita: Oh man, she speaks a lot. But let me tell you one thing. Without her help we would not have the successfull "Meet the Lawmaker day". We had 100+ meetings arranged on Monday. She made sure that our members attend each of these meetings.
Nili: She had a broken ankle but was on her feet from day one. She took care of each of the CA members and made sure that they meet each of the CA lawmakers in DC.
Tamsen: I think she have never said "NO" in her life. I think in her dictationary there is the word "NO" is not listed. We kept assigning lot of the task to her and she kept doing it.
Your dedication to IV is the real strength of IV.
Kanika: She was working with her one year old or may be less than a year kid in one hand. By the way her kid was helping her to to hold the phone and her another hand was holding the apointment document and pen.
Niloufer: She came to IV situation room for the first time. Her daughter was with her husband. We were running short of people and had lot of things to do. I was the one who did not even ask whether she is ok to do some work on that day. Sorry for that Niloufer but you are wonderful person.
Meenal: After working for three whole days, she was without even thinking about herself kept looking for my laptop. My company would have fired me if they would have found that I have some company data in the laptop which is lost. But fortunately I found my laptop. You were on the top of it and were very determined to find my laptop. Thanks for all your help
Sumita: Oh man, she speaks a lot. But let me tell you one thing. Without her help we would not have the successfull "Meet the Lawmaker day". We had 100+ meetings arranged on Monday. She made sure that our members attend each of these meetings.
Nili: She had a broken ankle but was on her feet from day one. She took care of each of the CA members and made sure that they meet each of the CA lawmakers in DC.
Tamsen: I think she have never said "NO" in her life. I think in her dictationary there is the word "NO" is not listed. We kept assigning lot of the task to her and she kept doing it.
Your dedication to IV is the real strength of IV.
more...
goosetavo
03-17 02:55 PM
One more person from WA confirmed!
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suriajay12
03-21 11:15 AM
Canadians don't have as many problems as Indians, but a broken system doesn't work for anyone. I know of Canadians who are also very frustrated with the system, myself included.
Very quick response.. good. You are trying to do a good job.
You missed two points:
Can you please update your profile.
And you said "As some of you know...." . Were you trying in these lines before too. Can you direct me to any one of your forums more than 2 months old where we can see what you did before.
Trust me, in the past we knew of some guys who tried to distract the forum attention with proposals of doing somethings in the lines as you have said. Their goal is to distract and divert attention.
Not that we do not trust you, but we expect you have atleast your profile updated.
What do you do, when you come across someone who says I can get you a big job done for you, as I have contacts.. Not blindly trust, right.. We also check he his credentials. I am to some extent doing that, to be frank, not that everyone has profiles here with real information.
I told about you to my friends, and they asked me "Why do we trust him, dont you think he may be a Canadian who is trying to distract these innocent Indians and hence make sure they remain in backlogs"...
Very quick response.. good. You are trying to do a good job.
You missed two points:
Can you please update your profile.
And you said "As some of you know...." . Were you trying in these lines before too. Can you direct me to any one of your forums more than 2 months old where we can see what you did before.
Trust me, in the past we knew of some guys who tried to distract the forum attention with proposals of doing somethings in the lines as you have said. Their goal is to distract and divert attention.
Not that we do not trust you, but we expect you have atleast your profile updated.
What do you do, when you come across someone who says I can get you a big job done for you, as I have contacts.. Not blindly trust, right.. We also check he his credentials. I am to some extent doing that, to be frank, not that everyone has profiles here with real information.
I told about you to my friends, and they asked me "Why do we trust him, dont you think he may be a Canadian who is trying to distract these innocent Indians and hence make sure they remain in backlogs"...
more...
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ArunAntonio
01-19 01:52 PM
I had been meaning to do this for a few days now but got stuck with stuff.. I wanted to thank the Core team for keeping up the drive of this effort. Please be assured there is a lot of support behind you.
- Good Luck
- Good Luck
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Edison99
09-01 01:49 PM
Congrats NolaIndian32 and enjoy the freedom!
more...
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eager_immi
02-02 08:22 AM
moderators please close this thread....
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buddyinsd
08-04 01:20 PM
...majority of approvals are from Feb06/jan06. It looks like uscis is again following LIFO not FIFO
Feb 06 and still waiting...So I doubt what u r saying is true (however I wish its true and I get it sooner)
Feb 06 and still waiting...So I doubt what u r saying is true (however I wish its true and I get it sooner)
more...
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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."
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bishwas123
02-16 09:02 AM
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firegarden
02-27 04:04 PM
I just received form ETA-9035E pdf from my employer. The email says you should keep this for your record. At the bottom of all the pages in the pdf it says "FORM CERTIFIED". And also there is a section name "US Government Agency Use Only" which is signed by chief of Division of Foreign Labor Certification.
Do you know what does this means? My employer is not giving me clear answer.
Thanks in advance for your reply.
Do you know what does this means? My employer is not giving me clear answer.
Thanks in advance for your reply.
ram112
09-03 05:07 AM
Folks,
I got greened today, surprisingly. Could anyone let me know what are the good numbers to reach a human in USCIS, hopefully with less wait time. I wanted to check with them what address they have on file. I filed an address change in JUne but I am not sure if they have it right in their systems. Also, is there a way to get this information without calling them.
Thanks a lot ..
I got greened today, surprisingly. Could anyone let me know what are the good numbers to reach a human in USCIS, hopefully with less wait time. I wanted to check with them what address they have on file. I filed an address change in JUne but I am not sure if they have it right in their systems. Also, is there a way to get this information without calling them.
Thanks a lot ..
susie
08-20 11:49 PM
My daughter aged out a couple of years ago due to the fact that my husband's labor was in process and it took about 2 plus years to get approved. Another thing is we have no options at all because our child is severely handicapped and we came here only to participate in a research and never went back as doctors advised her to stay here due to her health issues. We continue to keep her in legal status by applying for B2 visa all the time and which USCIS has been kind enough to grant it to her based on doctor's letters. I hope something is done for the children who have aged out. I even took up our case through Senator's office but nothing happened. It would be really great if IV could do something for the Aged Out Children and parents. I had to leave the job and get into H4 due to her ill health and be her primary care giver.
Kay Ahuja
Contributed to IV
This is just terrible, soemthing must be done and maybe we should all get together , exchange details via pm and try and fight if IV does not/can not/ or is not able to help us
Kay Ahuja
Contributed to IV
This is just terrible, soemthing must be done and maybe we should all get together , exchange details via pm and try and fight if IV does not/can not/ or is not able to help us