karanp25
08-03 02:10 AM
No worries...i am in same situation...did my FP early this yr. EAD renewal card says "No FP available".
Sorry - did not check this thread till today
My RD was July 11 for both of us - got Ead for me Aug 2 with 2 yr validity
hers is still pending
Mine shows no FP on file even though I did FP in Oct 07 ( less than 1 yr) That kinda worries me
Anyways PD is May 04 EB3 - so long way to go - and besides caring at this point when I see PD of 2006 getting GC
Sorry - did not check this thread till today
My RD was July 11 for both of us - got Ead for me Aug 2 with 2 yr validity
hers is still pending
Mine shows no FP on file even though I did FP in Oct 07 ( less than 1 yr) That kinda worries me
Anyways PD is May 04 EB3 - so long way to go - and besides caring at this point when I see PD of 2006 getting GC
wallpaper funny cat photos
rsb
06-19 07:47 PM
Fellows,
I had my PERM labour and I-140 approved with priority date Dec 2005 in EB2 category. I changed my job in April and was hoping to get the priority date transferred to with new labour and I-140 from new employer. I have not started the GC process with new employer and am in good terms with old employer. With the priority dates being current for July (and probably for August too), what are the options I have:
1. Filing new labour and pray to get approved before end of August. Then file for I-140 and I-485 concurrently. Do I stand a chance there, with advertisement publishing and other formalities?
2. Can I file my I-485 with old employer while working with new employer. What are the documents I would need from old employer.
3. If answer to question 2 is 'yes', do I need to go back and work for old employer ever (before or after getting green card)?
Thanks
I had my PERM labour and I-140 approved with priority date Dec 2005 in EB2 category. I changed my job in April and was hoping to get the priority date transferred to with new labour and I-140 from new employer. I have not started the GC process with new employer and am in good terms with old employer. With the priority dates being current for July (and probably for August too), what are the options I have:
1. Filing new labour and pray to get approved before end of August. Then file for I-140 and I-485 concurrently. Do I stand a chance there, with advertisement publishing and other formalities?
2. Can I file my I-485 with old employer while working with new employer. What are the documents I would need from old employer.
3. If answer to question 2 is 'yes', do I need to go back and work for old employer ever (before or after getting green card)?
Thanks
dealsnet
01-13 11:08 AM
I got approval 2 years back. What I did is applied for EAD when my date is current in that months's bullettin. So they picked up my file and find my date is current, so they rejected my EAD application first and approved the GC. I have lost the EAD filing fee, but got a peace in mind (GC).
Try that route, to pick your file from the shelf. (black hole)
Try that route, to pick your file from the shelf. (black hole)
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grupak
03-14 04:41 PM
Infact I know one Texas member who has contributed a percentage of his tax return last year, and will be doing it again.
BTW.. please explain what is this $600 rebate? I already filed my taxes myself, and maybe I missed this.
Its part of Bush's stimulus package... I don't don't think anything is required on your part besides filing taxes. The rebates should be coming in around May according to NPR, if I am not mistaken. $600 per individual filing. In a joint filing $600 each for husband and wife, $300 for each kid (ceiling?)
BTW.. please explain what is this $600 rebate? I already filed my taxes myself, and maybe I missed this.
Its part of Bush's stimulus package... I don't don't think anything is required on your part besides filing taxes. The rebates should be coming in around May according to NPR, if I am not mistaken. $600 per individual filing. In a joint filing $600 each for husband and wife, $300 for each kid (ceiling?)
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srgadi
07-21 01:23 AM
Wont' redirection of US Mail work to forward these?
Nope, USCIS requests USPS to not to forward but return to sender if not delivered.
Nope, USCIS requests USPS to not to forward but return to sender if not delivered.
paskal
11-08 10:33 PM
Dear IV members,
The Design and Publicity work group is an active task force dedicated to creating materials to spread IV's message. We are engaged in creating posters, fliers, Cartoons and Videos, and will also be producing web related material, informational handouts and power point presentations. We are looking for active volunteers with specific related skills to work with us on these projects. If you are working in design/media/advertising etc or simply have design/drawing/writing skills and are interested in being a part of this group, please answer to this thread. We are specifically looking for someone with knowledge of the media/advertising and an understanding of web searches especially google search rankings.
We are also looking for volunteers for media contacts and content creation/analysis (needs good writing and analytical skills), work groups.
If you live in the DC area (or even within reasonable driving distance) and would like to participate in lawmaker meetings, please let us know.
Please also see Pappu's request for a volunteer to work as iv-coordinator in a separate thread.
Remember that we cannot accept anonymous members. All these groups will be privy to sensitive information and we must be able to trust our volunteers. So please complete your profiles so that we can contact you.
The Design and Publicity work group is an active task force dedicated to creating materials to spread IV's message. We are engaged in creating posters, fliers, Cartoons and Videos, and will also be producing web related material, informational handouts and power point presentations. We are looking for active volunteers with specific related skills to work with us on these projects. If you are working in design/media/advertising etc or simply have design/drawing/writing skills and are interested in being a part of this group, please answer to this thread. We are specifically looking for someone with knowledge of the media/advertising and an understanding of web searches especially google search rankings.
We are also looking for volunteers for media contacts and content creation/analysis (needs good writing and analytical skills), work groups.
If you live in the DC area (or even within reasonable driving distance) and would like to participate in lawmaker meetings, please let us know.
Please also see Pappu's request for a volunteer to work as iv-coordinator in a separate thread.
Remember that we cannot accept anonymous members. All these groups will be privy to sensitive information and we must be able to trust our volunteers. So please complete your profiles so that we can contact you.
more...
cbpds
02-11 05:06 PM
I sent via USPS priority which charged 11 bucks, it reached in 7 days.....the back up plan was to reschedule the visa interview dates. The original plan worked and all ends well !!
my advice (from my experience)..if u do USPS Priority (India postal employee deliver it for sure), and chances r high that u may receive it in OPENED, MISSING, LOST (part of docs) state (we had this multiple times from different locations)
Strongly suggest NOT to use Priority unless u have had firsthand good experience!
Using USPS express was little different, fast, and prompt (guess they use some special delivery layer) :mad:
my advice (from my experience)..if u do USPS Priority (India postal employee deliver it for sure), and chances r high that u may receive it in OPENED, MISSING, LOST (part of docs) state (we had this multiple times from different locations)
Strongly suggest NOT to use Priority unless u have had firsthand good experience!
Using USPS express was little different, fast, and prompt (guess they use some special delivery layer) :mad:
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eb2_hope
08-22 06:55 PM
I support this..I call every second day .....
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rajuseattle
08-30 01:42 AM
R u working for a desi bodyshop who may have been on the blacklist of USCIS?
Usually for I-485 stage USCIS looks for last 5 yrs of employment an the latest I-94 and TAX return for past 3 yrs.
Who filed your I-485, if its attorney then he may not have provided the required evidence for your current immigration status.
Whats your I-140 status?
Usually for I-485 stage USCIS looks for last 5 yrs of employment an the latest I-94 and TAX return for past 3 yrs.
Who filed your I-485, if its attorney then he may not have provided the required evidence for your current immigration status.
Whats your I-140 status?
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rp1975
01-14 05:36 PM
You have waited very long and I think you deserve to get the green card. But under EB3 India, that wont happen for another 4-6 years to be conservative. If you were qualified for EB2 as of Nov 2001 (you held a MS or had BS + 5 yrs as of Nov 2001, you should not have any problem with retaining the old priority date while filing under EB2). Ask your client to file Perm LC under EB2 & do the I140 using the Nov 2001 PD. Then join them.If you don't qualify, do in EB3. Dont join the client if they are not stable.. better to wait with your current employer under EB3 than go EB3 with an unstable employer and risk losing it all in the worst case scenario. If they really want you that badly, they will do this under premium processing and you could be in your current state with them in a matter of a couple of months.
While the new company files for PERM EB2 LC & then 140, does the old company which applied for EB3 LC have any power to disrupt the processing in other words, can they withdraw the LC/140 so that the PD cannot be reused??
While the new company files for PERM EB2 LC & then 140, does the old company which applied for EB3 LC have any power to disrupt the processing in other words, can they withdraw the LC/140 so that the PD cannot be reused??
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optimystic
04-22 03:49 PM
I-485 could be from family based, EB1 and ROW categories. I dont all these became Unavailable on July 2nd. Also you are right, USCIS didnt reject applications even though they came in between July 2nd and 17th.
That particular date of July 11 at NSC is for EB I-485 !
That particular date of July 11 at NSC is for EB I-485 !
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newbee7
07-05 12:53 AM
Ombudsman had correctly predicted this fiasco back in June before the dates were made current:
There will be severe consequences from rapid fluctuations in priority dates. If the priority date became current today, due to delayed USCIS processing and thus underutilization of visa numbers, some have predicted that within a few months as many as 500,000 to 750,000 individuals now residing in the United States under a temporary worker visa could apply for a green card. Additionally, DOL’s recent backlog elimination efforts, scheduled to be completed by September 30, 2007, are predicted to add 70,000 or more approved labor certifications yielding as many as 170,000 additional green card applications. As USCIS begins to complete these applications and request visa numbers from DOS, the 140,000 statutorily authorized visa numbers will be used. DOS then will be required to retrogress priority dates. Consequently, most applicants in this scenario will find themselves trapped where as they anticipated timely receipt of a green card, their wait exceeds seven or more years. In addition, all future employment-based green card applicants effectively would be barred from applying for many years.38
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/CISOMB_Annual%20Report_2007.pdf
There will be severe consequences from rapid fluctuations in priority dates. If the priority date became current today, due to delayed USCIS processing and thus underutilization of visa numbers, some have predicted that within a few months as many as 500,000 to 750,000 individuals now residing in the United States under a temporary worker visa could apply for a green card. Additionally, DOL’s recent backlog elimination efforts, scheduled to be completed by September 30, 2007, are predicted to add 70,000 or more approved labor certifications yielding as many as 170,000 additional green card applications. As USCIS begins to complete these applications and request visa numbers from DOS, the 140,000 statutorily authorized visa numbers will be used. DOS then will be required to retrogress priority dates. Consequently, most applicants in this scenario will find themselves trapped where as they anticipated timely receipt of a green card, their wait exceeds seven or more years. In addition, all future employment-based green card applicants effectively would be barred from applying for many years.38
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/CISOMB_Annual%20Report_2007.pdf
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anilsal
11-09 09:17 AM
Why don't you do I140 via premium processing?
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Berkeleybee
04-08 01:29 PM
I guess everything needs to go through the house conference. However there is a much better chance to attach it to the PACE act since Sensenbrenner may not be sitting in that conference at all. PACE act goes to this committe:
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Education and Early Childhood Development
It's none of the Judical committe's business. It will be much better if the Senate just drops the contraversial immigration bill and start to work on this bill. Attaching EB to immigration bill is really dangerous and may just futher delay everything. So pushing the immigration bill may not be a wise thing for us to do.
Don't forget that the House (Anti) Immigration Caucus has 92 members -- be assured that if not Sensenbrenner it will be another equally virulent member. Also, conference committees are nominated by the leader of the house -- nothing to stop them from nominating anyone they want.
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Education and Early Childhood Development
It's none of the Judical committe's business. It will be much better if the Senate just drops the contraversial immigration bill and start to work on this bill. Attaching EB to immigration bill is really dangerous and may just futher delay everything. So pushing the immigration bill may not be a wise thing for us to do.
Don't forget that the House (Anti) Immigration Caucus has 92 members -- be assured that if not Sensenbrenner it will be another equally virulent member. Also, conference committees are nominated by the leader of the house -- nothing to stop them from nominating anyone they want.
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pappu
05-11 01:16 PM
thanks, it worked.
dresses Funny Cats | Last Of The
sledge_hammer
04-15 07:46 AM
See my answer in blue ...
All,
I know as you all have reached 485 stage so you might be experts who can help answering few of my questions...
1) I work with a company who applied for my labor last year, its approved and now they are filling 140
2) Am applied in EB3 so not sure how many years it will take to get 485 dates to priority dates of 2008 ... am thinking abt 5-8 yrs
3) My wife works in a company who wont apply for her Green Card they dont have a policy
4) Her visa expires after 2 yrs ...
5) If I ask one of the consulting companies X to apply for her green card for future employment and pay all the cost for the green card.
6) Assuming she gets 140 in next 2 yrs before her visa is expired.
Questions .....
a) Can she renew her visa for 3 yrs with her current employer based on 485 filling pending with company X ?
No
b) How much would it cost to apply a green card upto phase 1 and phase 2 ...I might not actually require 485 stage. I just need her processing upto 140 stage so that she can keep renewing the visa until I get my 485 cleared ...in case I leave my job then we might think for her to apply 485 but chances are less.
Depends largely on the attorneys. Anywhere from $2,000 to $7,000
Experts please guide me if this plan would work and if yes how much would it cost me ...
Thanks in advance ..
Lalit
All,
I know as you all have reached 485 stage so you might be experts who can help answering few of my questions...
1) I work with a company who applied for my labor last year, its approved and now they are filling 140
2) Am applied in EB3 so not sure how many years it will take to get 485 dates to priority dates of 2008 ... am thinking abt 5-8 yrs
3) My wife works in a company who wont apply for her Green Card they dont have a policy
4) Her visa expires after 2 yrs ...
5) If I ask one of the consulting companies X to apply for her green card for future employment and pay all the cost for the green card.
6) Assuming she gets 140 in next 2 yrs before her visa is expired.
Questions .....
a) Can she renew her visa for 3 yrs with her current employer based on 485 filling pending with company X ?
No
b) How much would it cost to apply a green card upto phase 1 and phase 2 ...I might not actually require 485 stage. I just need her processing upto 140 stage so that she can keep renewing the visa until I get my 485 cleared ...in case I leave my job then we might think for her to apply 485 but chances are less.
Depends largely on the attorneys. Anywhere from $2,000 to $7,000
Experts please guide me if this plan would work and if yes how much would it cost me ...
Thanks in advance ..
Lalit
more...
makeup At Funny Cats you will find
pappu
07-30 10:25 AM
Pappu - I agree with you in totality that it is an opportunity wasted when people focus on the individual issues. But, after listening in on a couple of calls, I find the whole call to be not much of use as they always defer the question with 'we have asked the TSC to find out' or 'that is for the USCIS to answer'.
I appreciate a channel of communication and a watchdog for USCIS activities but when communicating regarding problems with USCIS, I see ombudsman's office as a level of indirection. They seem to identify problems, pass on as a report that gets nowhere or gets partially addressed.
If USCIS took cues and had allowed a conference call with the USCIS leadership directly, or if one of us (could be me but I need some ideas as to how to approach) could do such a thing, we could see far more benefit in gathering more significant problems and getting them answered.
I would rather hear the news from the 'horse's mouth' than listening to someone who barely has an influence. I would gladly stand corrected if history has shown otherwise.
USCIS leaders too have meetings where organizations can take part. But one has to go to DC and take part in them during office hours. IV has met with their leadership a few times for our admin fixes.
Other avenue to meet USCIS is via their state offices. I had passed this information to state chapter leaders many months ago so that they start building relationship with the office in each state assigned the task of interfacing with community groups like IV in each state. I know MI chapter had reported that they established contact but do not know if they pursued it further and if other chapters too succeeded in making progress.
These calls with Ombudsman are important because they are attended by USCS and probably other officials from DHS. It is a time to talk about policy matters, recommendations, response of these recommendations from USCIS, and delays in their implementation. That can help bring positive changes for everyone rather than questions about individual cases. Just my opinion.
I appreciate a channel of communication and a watchdog for USCIS activities but when communicating regarding problems with USCIS, I see ombudsman's office as a level of indirection. They seem to identify problems, pass on as a report that gets nowhere or gets partially addressed.
If USCIS took cues and had allowed a conference call with the USCIS leadership directly, or if one of us (could be me but I need some ideas as to how to approach) could do such a thing, we could see far more benefit in gathering more significant problems and getting them answered.
I would rather hear the news from the 'horse's mouth' than listening to someone who barely has an influence. I would gladly stand corrected if history has shown otherwise.
USCIS leaders too have meetings where organizations can take part. But one has to go to DC and take part in them during office hours. IV has met with their leadership a few times for our admin fixes.
Other avenue to meet USCIS is via their state offices. I had passed this information to state chapter leaders many months ago so that they start building relationship with the office in each state assigned the task of interfacing with community groups like IV in each state. I know MI chapter had reported that they established contact but do not know if they pursued it further and if other chapters too succeeded in making progress.
These calls with Ombudsman are important because they are attended by USCS and probably other officials from DHS. It is a time to talk about policy matters, recommendations, response of these recommendations from USCIS, and delays in their implementation. That can help bring positive changes for everyone rather than questions about individual cases. Just my opinion.
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pdx_Soft_Eng
07-10 12:33 AM
as far as I know, since she had H1B already with her previous company, she can get a new H1B right now. She doesn't have to wait for Oct 2007. However, the time she spent on H4 is also used against her H1B time since H1 and H4 are both H visas and everybody gets 6 years in total. You should use this info at yor own risk. Double check with a lawyer. Maybe other members can confirm my response as well...
hairstyles Very Funny Cats
pappu
08-16 12:42 PM
Fact sheet for download
http://immigrationvoice.org/media/forums/iv/WashingtonDC_IV_Rally_w_FactSheet.doc
http://immigrationvoice.org/media/forums/iv/WashingtonDC_IV_Rally_w_FactSheet.doc
purgan
11-11 10:32 AM
Randell,
Congratulations on getting the attention of the Times, and your tireless efforts in spreading word of the broken legal immigration system.
===
New York Times
Immigration, a Love Story
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/fashion/12green.html
WHEN Kenneth Harrell Jr., an Assemblies of God minister in South Carolina, invited Gricelda Molina to join his Spanish ministry in 2000, it didn’t take him long to realize he had found the woman he had been waiting for. On the telephone and during romantic strolls they talked about their goals, their commitment to God and how many children each would like to have. Six months flew by, and he asked her to marry him.
“She’s a beautiful woman with a beautiful spirit, very gentle, very sincere,” Mr. Harrell said. But Ms. Molina, a factory worker, was also an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, who had crossed into the United States twice, having once been deported. Mr. Harrell, the pastor of Airport Assembly of God church in West Columbia, said he was not too concerned. “Whatever came, we would walk through this path together,” he said.
Mr. Harrell and Ms. Molina, both 35, married in 2001, in a large wedding attended by family from both sides and blessed by pastors in English and Spanish. But the Harrells no longer live together, not because of divorce, but because Mrs. Harrell, now the mother of two sons and four months pregnant with their third child, has been deported. She had applied for legal residency, or a green card, with her new husband as her sponsor, Mr. Harrell said, but she was sent back to Honduras 20 months ago because of her illegal entries and told she would have to wait 10 years to try again.
“Illegals are pouring over the border,” said Mr. Harrell, who has visited his family five times. “We meet them, we fall in love with them, we marry them. And then the government tears your family apart, and they take no responsibility for letting them in, in the first place.”
Falling in love and marching toward marriage is not always easy, but a particular brand of heartache and hardship can await when one of the partners is in this country illegally. The uncertainty of such a union has only been heightened by the national debate over illegal immigration. Whether the new Democratic leadership in Congress will help people like the Harrells remains to be seen.
It is hard to quantify how many people find themselves in Mr. Harrell’s situation, but with stepped-up enforcement in recent years, deportations have increased, and so have fears of losing a loved one in that way. (There were 168,310 removals in 2005, compared with 108,000 in 2000, immigration officials said.)
And that is only one byproduct of love between two people with such uneven places in society, immigration lawyers say. Many relationships strain under the financial burden of hiring lawyers for what can turn into years of visiting government offices, producing pictures, tax records and other evidence of a legitimate marriage in the quest for legalization. And while instances of immigrants faking love for a green card are in the minority, according to immigration officials, some couples feel pressure to marry before they are ready, hoping that marriage will prevent a loved one’s deportation.
Raul Godinez, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles, said: “I ask people, ‘How much do you love this person? Because immigration is going to test your marriage.’ If you don’t feel it’s going to be a strong marriage, I wouldn’t do it.”
Many people may still believe that obtaining legal status through marriage is easy, because of periodic reports of marriage scams. In a three-year investigation called Operation Newlywed Game, immigration and customs enforcement agents caught more than 40 suspects in California for allegedly orchestrating sham marriages between hundreds of Chinese or Vietnamese nationals and United States citizens. But such fraud occurs in only a minority of cases, federal officials said.
In reality, immigration lawyers said, marrying a citizen does not automatically entitle the spouse to a green card and is only the first step in a long bureaucratic journey. The lawyers noted that changes in the law in the last five years have made this legalization path increasingly difficult, one worth choosing only if true love is at stake. (Other routes include sponsorship by immediate family members or an employer.)
The Harrells said they had no idea how difficult it could be and were shocked when Mrs. Harrell’s application for permanent residence was turned down, leaving them only 12 days to prepare for her departure. In that time, Mr. Harrell said, they decided that the children, now 4 and 3, would go with her. So Mr. Harrell obtained passports for them, and the church held a farewell service.
“It was very traumatic,” he said. “Our whole world was crashing around us.”
In Yoro, in north central Honduras, where Mrs. Harrell and the children live with her parents, she said the older boy constantly asks for his father, begging, “Let’s go to my papa’s house.” She has coped with her own dejection, too. “I know how much work he has over there,” she said by telephone. “He needs his wife.”
But even in the best of circumstances, when an immigrant enters the country legally, couples may have to rearrange their lives and defer their dreams.
Paola Emery, a jewelry designer, and her husband, Randall Emery, a computer consultant in Philadelphia, said they delayed having children and buying a house for the nearly four years it took the government to complete a background check for Mrs. Emery, who had entered the country from Colombia with a tourist visa and applied for permanent residency after they married in 2002.
Mrs. Emery, 27, said lawyers advised them it was not wise for her to risk trouble by visiting her close-knit family in Colombia and then trying to re-enter this country. She said she was absent through weddings, illnesses and even the kidnapping and rescue of an uncle.
“I felt like I was in jail,” Mrs. Emery said.
Officials with the Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Homeland Security Department say that delays lasting years are rare, but some immigration lawyers say they see clients who wait three to four years for security clearance. Mrs. Emery and her husband, 34, sued Homeland Security over the delays, and she was finally cleared last May. By then Mr. Emery had helped form American Families United, a group of citizens who have sponsored immediate family members for immigration, and which advocates immigration-law change to keep families together. Immigration Services officials say they are not out to impede love or immigration. Nearly 260,000 spouses of citizens received permanent residency through marriage last year, out of 1.1 million people who became permanent residents, according to the Immigration Services office. “The goal is to give people who are eligible the benefit,” said Marie T. Sebrechts, its spokeswoman in Southern California. She said the agency does not comment on individual cases.
When a legal immigrant is sponsored by an American spouse, she said, the green card can be obtained in as little as six months. But with complications like an illegal entry, laws are not that benevolent, Ms. Sebrechts said. In those cases, the immigrant usually must return to the home country and wait 3 to 10 years to apply for residency, though waivers are sometimes granted.
Such obstacles are far from the minds of couples when they meet. And for some, so is the idea to question whether the beloved feels equally in love with them.
Sharyn T. Sooho, a divorce lawyer and a founder of divorcenet.com, a Web site for divorcing couples, said she has represented American spouses who realized too late that the person they married was more interested in a green card than in living happily ever after. “They feel conflicted, used and abused,” she said. “It’s a quick marriage, and suddenly the person who was so sweet is turning into a nightmare.”
But more often, said Carlina Tapia-Ruano, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, couples marry before they are ready because “there’s fear that if you don’t do this, somebody is going to get deported.”
Krystal Rivera, 18, a college student in Los Angeles, and her boyfriend fall into this group. Ms. Rivera is set on marrying in April 2008, even as she worries that it may put too much pressure on the relationship.
“I never wanted to follow the Hispanic ritual of getting married early,” said Ms. Rivera, a native of Los Angeles whose parents emigrated from Mexico.
She said she fell in love at 13 with a Mexican-born boy who sang in the church choir with her. “He started poking me, and I said ‘Stop it!’ ” she remembered.
Ms. Rivera is still in love with the boy, now 19, who was brought into the country illegally by his mother when he was 12. He goes to college and wants to become a teacher, while she hopes to become a doctor.
But for those plans to work, Ms. Rivera said, she needs to help him legalize his status. She said she has witnessed his frustration as he dealt with employers who didn’t pay what they owed him or struggled to find better jobs than his current one as a line cook. Because of his illegal status, he is unable to get a driver’s license or visit the brothers he left in Mexico. “We want to be normal,” Ms. Rivera said.
The Harrells, too, have decided to take charge. After months of exploring how to reunite the family and spending thousands of dollars on lawyers, Mr. Harrell has decided to leave his small congregation, sell his house and join his wife in Honduras. He will be a missionary for his church for a fraction of the $40,000 a year he makes as a minister.
Congratulations on getting the attention of the Times, and your tireless efforts in spreading word of the broken legal immigration system.
===
New York Times
Immigration, a Love Story
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/fashion/12green.html
WHEN Kenneth Harrell Jr., an Assemblies of God minister in South Carolina, invited Gricelda Molina to join his Spanish ministry in 2000, it didn’t take him long to realize he had found the woman he had been waiting for. On the telephone and during romantic strolls they talked about their goals, their commitment to God and how many children each would like to have. Six months flew by, and he asked her to marry him.
“She’s a beautiful woman with a beautiful spirit, very gentle, very sincere,” Mr. Harrell said. But Ms. Molina, a factory worker, was also an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, who had crossed into the United States twice, having once been deported. Mr. Harrell, the pastor of Airport Assembly of God church in West Columbia, said he was not too concerned. “Whatever came, we would walk through this path together,” he said.
Mr. Harrell and Ms. Molina, both 35, married in 2001, in a large wedding attended by family from both sides and blessed by pastors in English and Spanish. But the Harrells no longer live together, not because of divorce, but because Mrs. Harrell, now the mother of two sons and four months pregnant with their third child, has been deported. She had applied for legal residency, or a green card, with her new husband as her sponsor, Mr. Harrell said, but she was sent back to Honduras 20 months ago because of her illegal entries and told she would have to wait 10 years to try again.
“Illegals are pouring over the border,” said Mr. Harrell, who has visited his family five times. “We meet them, we fall in love with them, we marry them. And then the government tears your family apart, and they take no responsibility for letting them in, in the first place.”
Falling in love and marching toward marriage is not always easy, but a particular brand of heartache and hardship can await when one of the partners is in this country illegally. The uncertainty of such a union has only been heightened by the national debate over illegal immigration. Whether the new Democratic leadership in Congress will help people like the Harrells remains to be seen.
It is hard to quantify how many people find themselves in Mr. Harrell’s situation, but with stepped-up enforcement in recent years, deportations have increased, and so have fears of losing a loved one in that way. (There were 168,310 removals in 2005, compared with 108,000 in 2000, immigration officials said.)
And that is only one byproduct of love between two people with such uneven places in society, immigration lawyers say. Many relationships strain under the financial burden of hiring lawyers for what can turn into years of visiting government offices, producing pictures, tax records and other evidence of a legitimate marriage in the quest for legalization. And while instances of immigrants faking love for a green card are in the minority, according to immigration officials, some couples feel pressure to marry before they are ready, hoping that marriage will prevent a loved one’s deportation.
Raul Godinez, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles, said: “I ask people, ‘How much do you love this person? Because immigration is going to test your marriage.’ If you don’t feel it’s going to be a strong marriage, I wouldn’t do it.”
Many people may still believe that obtaining legal status through marriage is easy, because of periodic reports of marriage scams. In a three-year investigation called Operation Newlywed Game, immigration and customs enforcement agents caught more than 40 suspects in California for allegedly orchestrating sham marriages between hundreds of Chinese or Vietnamese nationals and United States citizens. But such fraud occurs in only a minority of cases, federal officials said.
In reality, immigration lawyers said, marrying a citizen does not automatically entitle the spouse to a green card and is only the first step in a long bureaucratic journey. The lawyers noted that changes in the law in the last five years have made this legalization path increasingly difficult, one worth choosing only if true love is at stake. (Other routes include sponsorship by immediate family members or an employer.)
The Harrells said they had no idea how difficult it could be and were shocked when Mrs. Harrell’s application for permanent residence was turned down, leaving them only 12 days to prepare for her departure. In that time, Mr. Harrell said, they decided that the children, now 4 and 3, would go with her. So Mr. Harrell obtained passports for them, and the church held a farewell service.
“It was very traumatic,” he said. “Our whole world was crashing around us.”
In Yoro, in north central Honduras, where Mrs. Harrell and the children live with her parents, she said the older boy constantly asks for his father, begging, “Let’s go to my papa’s house.” She has coped with her own dejection, too. “I know how much work he has over there,” she said by telephone. “He needs his wife.”
But even in the best of circumstances, when an immigrant enters the country legally, couples may have to rearrange their lives and defer their dreams.
Paola Emery, a jewelry designer, and her husband, Randall Emery, a computer consultant in Philadelphia, said they delayed having children and buying a house for the nearly four years it took the government to complete a background check for Mrs. Emery, who had entered the country from Colombia with a tourist visa and applied for permanent residency after they married in 2002.
Mrs. Emery, 27, said lawyers advised them it was not wise for her to risk trouble by visiting her close-knit family in Colombia and then trying to re-enter this country. She said she was absent through weddings, illnesses and even the kidnapping and rescue of an uncle.
“I felt like I was in jail,” Mrs. Emery said.
Officials with the Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Homeland Security Department say that delays lasting years are rare, but some immigration lawyers say they see clients who wait three to four years for security clearance. Mrs. Emery and her husband, 34, sued Homeland Security over the delays, and she was finally cleared last May. By then Mr. Emery had helped form American Families United, a group of citizens who have sponsored immediate family members for immigration, and which advocates immigration-law change to keep families together. Immigration Services officials say they are not out to impede love or immigration. Nearly 260,000 spouses of citizens received permanent residency through marriage last year, out of 1.1 million people who became permanent residents, according to the Immigration Services office. “The goal is to give people who are eligible the benefit,” said Marie T. Sebrechts, its spokeswoman in Southern California. She said the agency does not comment on individual cases.
When a legal immigrant is sponsored by an American spouse, she said, the green card can be obtained in as little as six months. But with complications like an illegal entry, laws are not that benevolent, Ms. Sebrechts said. In those cases, the immigrant usually must return to the home country and wait 3 to 10 years to apply for residency, though waivers are sometimes granted.
Such obstacles are far from the minds of couples when they meet. And for some, so is the idea to question whether the beloved feels equally in love with them.
Sharyn T. Sooho, a divorce lawyer and a founder of divorcenet.com, a Web site for divorcing couples, said she has represented American spouses who realized too late that the person they married was more interested in a green card than in living happily ever after. “They feel conflicted, used and abused,” she said. “It’s a quick marriage, and suddenly the person who was so sweet is turning into a nightmare.”
But more often, said Carlina Tapia-Ruano, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, couples marry before they are ready because “there’s fear that if you don’t do this, somebody is going to get deported.”
Krystal Rivera, 18, a college student in Los Angeles, and her boyfriend fall into this group. Ms. Rivera is set on marrying in April 2008, even as she worries that it may put too much pressure on the relationship.
“I never wanted to follow the Hispanic ritual of getting married early,” said Ms. Rivera, a native of Los Angeles whose parents emigrated from Mexico.
She said she fell in love at 13 with a Mexican-born boy who sang in the church choir with her. “He started poking me, and I said ‘Stop it!’ ” she remembered.
Ms. Rivera is still in love with the boy, now 19, who was brought into the country illegally by his mother when he was 12. He goes to college and wants to become a teacher, while she hopes to become a doctor.
But for those plans to work, Ms. Rivera said, she needs to help him legalize his status. She said she has witnessed his frustration as he dealt with employers who didn’t pay what they owed him or struggled to find better jobs than his current one as a line cook. Because of his illegal status, he is unable to get a driver’s license or visit the brothers he left in Mexico. “We want to be normal,” Ms. Rivera said.
The Harrells, too, have decided to take charge. After months of exploring how to reunite the family and spending thousands of dollars on lawyers, Mr. Harrell has decided to leave his small congregation, sell his house and join his wife in Honduras. He will be a missionary for his church for a fraction of the $40,000 a year he makes as a minister.
gcisadawg
08-11 04:14 PM
bump
done. EB3-I Oct 2003
done. EB3-I Oct 2003
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