oo00mustang00oo
08-10 04:48 PM
Guys,
I am happy to share with you all that I applied my 485 on 1 week of June and it got approved today.
My PD was dec 2005. eb3. India.
Thought i would share with you all.:)
I am happy to share with you all that I applied my 485 on 1 week of June and it got approved today.
My PD was dec 2005. eb3. India.
Thought i would share with you all.:)
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dontcareanymore
08-24 12:44 PM
I had 485 interview a month back (previously at the national benefits center) at the local USCIS office. The interview went fine except that they gave me an RFE asking for additional documents verifying employment. Since then I submited documents to the local office a 3 weeks back. Today my supervisor got a call from USCIS Anti Fraud Detection (homeland security) and they left a voice mail that they need to verify my immigration status.
Is this normal? Is there something i need to worry about?
My record is pretty straighforward. I am with the same employer since 2002 first on H1b and then EAD on a permanent postion and no gap in employment and never out of status
My supervisor called back but went to voicemail and left a general message
Good for you that your case is straight forward , you were never out of status and you are indeed working for the company that had sponsored your GC. It is good for every one that they are trying to weed out the bad apples. That would mean , speedier movement of dates for genuine cases :)
Nothing to worry if your case is clean. There were couple of other similar on site interviews as reported earlier on this forum..
Is this normal? Is there something i need to worry about?
My record is pretty straighforward. I am with the same employer since 2002 first on H1b and then EAD on a permanent postion and no gap in employment and never out of status
My supervisor called back but went to voicemail and left a general message
Good for you that your case is straight forward , you were never out of status and you are indeed working for the company that had sponsored your GC. It is good for every one that they are trying to weed out the bad apples. That would mean , speedier movement of dates for genuine cases :)
Nothing to worry if your case is clean. There were couple of other similar on site interviews as reported earlier on this forum..
aarbi
08-01 11:15 PM
nope... I have my receipt notice that has June 11th on it, but the only system says July 3rd, which is the day they sent my notice :)
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asterix
02-23 10:00 AM
a large number of thsoe "extra" GC were schedule A recaptures and did not affect most applicants. so really it was by profession not by country.
Here is e.g. for 2002 again this excludes schedule A here is the breakdown for india
EB1 - 3K
EB2 - 21K
EB3 - 17.5K
EB4 - 0.3K
EB5 - 0
EB Total - 41K
Am I missing something?
Here is e.g. for 2002 again this excludes schedule A here is the breakdown for india
EB1 - 3K
EB2 - 21K
EB3 - 17.5K
EB4 - 0.3K
EB5 - 0
EB Total - 41K
Am I missing something?
more...
bsbawa10
01-23 06:17 PM
Since Ombudsman invited these. Here is a very big list of them.
1. Transparency: USCIS never releases how many eb1 or eb2 cases are pending so things are so unpredictable, no body can expect the time frame at all.
2. Respect priority dates: There is no logic what so ever in giving green cards to people having priority dates 2006 when the cases with priority dates 2003, 2004 are all pending. Why is priority date even there then ?
3. Email support and some real customer service: Currently customer service is just getting their pay stubs. They just speak whatever is on the website and have no power at all. Why does this type of customer support even have to be their from the tax payers money.
4. Update the cases on the website: Often the cases on the USCIS are not updated and people can bang their heads trying to guess what is happening and customer service is as has been described. For eg. my case shows that my I485 case is in California service center whereas I know that it is in Texas Service Center. I have run from piller to post to get it changed including calling customer service many many times, writing letters to Texas Service center, calling Californa service center and Texas Service Center but to no use at all. Atlast I gave up.
5. Automatic Advance Parole and EAD: Why does USCIS try to increase load for itself ? Is it for making more money or is it to claim that they have a lot of load and then say that they are understaffed? Why not the very fact that I485 is pending should give permission for work as well as permission to reenter the country ?
Thanks.
1. Transparency: USCIS never releases how many eb1 or eb2 cases are pending so things are so unpredictable, no body can expect the time frame at all.
2. Respect priority dates: There is no logic what so ever in giving green cards to people having priority dates 2006 when the cases with priority dates 2003, 2004 are all pending. Why is priority date even there then ?
3. Email support and some real customer service: Currently customer service is just getting their pay stubs. They just speak whatever is on the website and have no power at all. Why does this type of customer support even have to be their from the tax payers money.
4. Update the cases on the website: Often the cases on the USCIS are not updated and people can bang their heads trying to guess what is happening and customer service is as has been described. For eg. my case shows that my I485 case is in California service center whereas I know that it is in Texas Service Center. I have run from piller to post to get it changed including calling customer service many many times, writing letters to Texas Service center, calling Californa service center and Texas Service Center but to no use at all. Atlast I gave up.
5. Automatic Advance Parole and EAD: Why does USCIS try to increase load for itself ? Is it for making more money or is it to claim that they have a lot of load and then say that they are understaffed? Why not the very fact that I485 is pending should give permission for work as well as permission to reenter the country ?
Thanks.
BharatPremi
12-05 12:22 PM
Me too! Citizen of India.
:)
:)
more...
ruby
08-16 05:24 PM
My I485 was filled with EB3/PD Sep 2002. That time I had EB2/PD-Sep-2004 approved too but my layers said that we should file with “EB3/PD Sep 2002” and when I asked them to combine my EB2 with “EB3/ PD Sep 2002” they said USCIS will reject it.,
Now as EB3 is unavailable, is it possible to use my EB2 approved I-140 with already filled I-485 ( which was filled with EB3/PD-Sep-2002) so that I can retain my EB3/PD-sep 2003 but change the preference category to EB2.
Now as EB3 is unavailable, is it possible to use my EB2 approved I-140 with already filled I-485 ( which was filled with EB3/PD-Sep-2002) so that I can retain my EB3/PD-sep 2003 but change the preference category to EB2.
2010 Heavy Metal - 1970 Chevelle -
rupchikgulti
06-18 04:42 PM
We are planning to visit India in the month of November. We are looking to stamp our passport with H1B/H4 visas at Mumbai. How we can select appointment dates for the week of November 9 to November 13.
I have tried to look at VFS website (https://www.vfs-usa.co.in) but not showing any dates after month of July...
Can anyone please help me?
Also, we are looking to stamp our passport the next day when we arrive in Mumbai. Do anyone know the good hotel near by embassy to stay?
I really appriciate your help.
Thank you.
Sahi jawab diya Saxena. Logon ko muft main hi sari information chahiye hoti hai. Kuch homework karo bhai.
I have tried to look at VFS website (https://www.vfs-usa.co.in) but not showing any dates after month of July...
Can anyone please help me?
Also, we are looking to stamp our passport the next day when we arrive in Mumbai. Do anyone know the good hotel near by embassy to stay?
I really appriciate your help.
Thank you.
Sahi jawab diya Saxena. Logon ko muft main hi sari information chahiye hoti hai. Kuch homework karo bhai.
more...
logiclife
05-11 12:38 PM
Listen to the program and the number they give would be the number to call. I tried to find the number but its not posted on npr.org website.
Here are some general numbers though if you want to call and find out the Call-in number for participations.
General Phone Numbers:
NPR Staff Directory (202) 513-2000
Listener Services (202) 513-3232
Corporate Sponsorship (202) 513-2093
NPR Foundation (202) 513-2073
Main Fax (202) 513-3329
Media Relations:
Phone Number (202) 513-2300
Here are some general numbers though if you want to call and find out the Call-in number for participations.
General Phone Numbers:
NPR Staff Directory (202) 513-2000
Listener Services (202) 513-3232
Corporate Sponsorship (202) 513-2093
NPR Foundation (202) 513-2073
Main Fax (202) 513-3329
Media Relations:
Phone Number (202) 513-2300
hair 1970 Chevy Chevelle SS
good idea
12-03 09:41 AM
one of my friend is in same situation, he submitted docs approx 45 days back & he is expecting it may take another 1-2 months as consulate office might send all those documents to USA & cross check with H1 issue visa office.
more...
Steve555
01-31 08:38 PM
Hi,
Does anyone know any person who got atleast one H1 approved by filing more than one H1 Applications through multiple employers?
Many Thanks,
Steve
Does anyone know any person who got atleast one H1 approved by filing more than one H1 Applications through multiple employers?
Many Thanks,
Steve
hot 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454
smads
03-07 10:42 AM
sorry guyz have still been trying to find out what needs to be done....
sendmailtojk,
i was on a vacation and boarded from australia....it was a unique situation....when i left my PP was valid for 7 months when i came back it was valid for 5 months....
watzgc,
I renewed my PP on time but never did anything about my I-94.
I did a lot of research and have some updates for everyone.
1) My lawyer says we file for a petition that typically asks for forgiveness so that i dont get a 3 yr bar. dont know what that petition is called but it translates as "now for then". [can only be prepared by a lawyer and would cost me $1000]
2)I spoke to an immigration officer and he said it is a very common mistake and most of the times they just question the person and let them go. he said not to worry abt the 3 yr bar. he also said that the 3 yr and 10yr bar is more for the tourist visas where people actually think they have a 10yr visa so they can stay here for 10 yrs.
And yes like watzgc he also said file for extention I-539 i think.[costs only $300, anyone can fill it out and send it to USCIS]
now lets see if my lawyer will go with what she thinks is right or will she go with what the immigration officer thinks needs to be done.
I also think that these lawyers try to scare us and get all fancy things done so that they can charge as much as they feel like.
thanks for being so prompt and sorry for not replying sooner,
smads
sendmailtojk,
i was on a vacation and boarded from australia....it was a unique situation....when i left my PP was valid for 7 months when i came back it was valid for 5 months....
watzgc,
I renewed my PP on time but never did anything about my I-94.
I did a lot of research and have some updates for everyone.
1) My lawyer says we file for a petition that typically asks for forgiveness so that i dont get a 3 yr bar. dont know what that petition is called but it translates as "now for then". [can only be prepared by a lawyer and would cost me $1000]
2)I spoke to an immigration officer and he said it is a very common mistake and most of the times they just question the person and let them go. he said not to worry abt the 3 yr bar. he also said that the 3 yr and 10yr bar is more for the tourist visas where people actually think they have a 10yr visa so they can stay here for 10 yrs.
And yes like watzgc he also said file for extention I-539 i think.[costs only $300, anyone can fill it out and send it to USCIS]
now lets see if my lawyer will go with what she thinks is right or will she go with what the immigration officer thinks needs to be done.
I also think that these lawyers try to scare us and get all fancy things done so that they can charge as much as they feel like.
thanks for being so prompt and sorry for not replying sooner,
smads
more...
house Sean Johnson#39;s #39;70 Chevelle
rockstart
05-28 12:21 PM
Since your PD is not current so there is almost no chance they will pick your application randomly to process. The out of turn processing you are refering is say todat EB2- I date is Apr 2004 and so there is every chance that a guy with Jan 04 might get his GC before a guy with Nov 03 date but I am absolutely sure they will not process a guy with Aug 05 date since it is not within processing date. So in your case wait and watch the dates moving in case the processing dates get to your PD then you can make the choice of either withdrawing or proceeding with your application. Best is consult a lawyer to be absolutely sure.
tattoo When I see a 1970 Roadrunner
UKannan
05-23 09:24 AM
Is there anyway to get the I140 Approval or at least the Receipt # other than that off thru employer?
more...
pictures Interior Shot
desi485
03-24 02:19 PM
Now everything is queued..... no more cutting lines.
no more lc substitution!!! isnt' this was already done last year??? :confused:
were you sleeping? why there is a sudden new thread today?
no more lc substitution!!! isnt' this was already done last year??? :confused:
were you sleeping? why there is a sudden new thread today?
dresses 1970 Chevy Chevelle SS - Total
va_il
12-27 01:49 PM
With a EB3 PD of July 2002 from IN what can i expect after this May 1st hurdle being crossed.
Any insight would be appreciated.
Clueless i guess.
Any insight would be appreciated.
Clueless i guess.
more...
makeup 1970 Chevelle Interior
help43
09-11 05:03 PM
i am applying for H1-B amendment before going to the stamping
is it a good step to handle the situation?
They said like you have been applied for a new H1-B, NOT for Change of status thats y u didnt got the I-94.
Please advise on these options....
is it a good step to handle the situation?
They said like you have been applied for a new H1-B, NOT for Change of status thats y u didnt got the I-94.
Please advise on these options....
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for_gc
05-01 10:25 AM
I very much like this idea. I can help you on this if you want. I may not be able to spend much time on it during the work hours but may try to squeeze out something in the evenings, weekends.
I was very curious when CIS/DOS made a comment yesterday that FIFO is very complex to follow. I understand that it has to be complex but on the other hand if we can help them in any ways that will be great.
Also, it will help if we can make this as a IV org level campaign and see if we can get some transparency out of USCIS/DOS as to how they are arriving at the cut off dates.
I was very curious when CIS/DOS made a comment yesterday that FIFO is very complex to follow. I understand that it has to be complex but on the other hand if we can help them in any ways that will be great.
Also, it will help if we can make this as a IV org level campaign and see if we can get some transparency out of USCIS/DOS as to how they are arriving at the cut off dates.
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Cali2006
07-07 09:59 PM
Hi,
My ad says MS + 1 yr of experience.
Question 1: My 1 yr will be prior to my MS so can i use this experience ?
If your position requires a MS + 1 year of experience, you must have had the MS + 1 year of experience when you started the job. If you obtained your MS after you started the job this criteria would not be valid.
My ad says MS + 1 yr of experience.
Question 1: My 1 yr will be prior to my MS so can i use this experience ?
If your position requires a MS + 1 year of experience, you must have had the MS + 1 year of experience when you started the job. If you obtained your MS after you started the job this criteria would not be valid.
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.
gondalguru
06-20 11:52 AM
I thought that you can use AC21 only if you work for employer and I-485 pending more than 180 days and then you leave the employer to work for somebody else.
Is it possible to use prior employer's I-140, Empolyment offer letter - and file I-485 for future employment--- wait 6 months and then use AC21 clause to get greencard - All these while working for company other than original employer who file I-140?
Is it possible to use prior employer's I-140, Empolyment offer letter - and file I-485 for future employment--- wait 6 months and then use AC21 clause to get greencard - All these while working for company other than original employer who file I-140?
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