bomber
08-16 06:28 PM
Does anyone have any idea what the code stands for.
485 RD 7/2
ND 7/30
FP date 8/28 for both me any my husband
FP code 3
Code 3 means "Fingerprinting, signatures and photos will be taken"
485 RD 7/2
ND 7/30
FP date 8/28 for both me any my husband
FP code 3
Code 3 means "Fingerprinting, signatures and photos will be taken"
wallpaper Fabulous Landscape Wallpaper,
polapragada
09-04 12:36 AM
Jeez! This is a really deplorable situation. USCIS has all the information and they are asking AILA for help? Why not just ask the guys who have their AOS cases pending? It's so unfortunate that this needs to be done.
You are right
You are right
jthomas
12-11 08:45 PM
I paid 3500 dollars to the attorney for H1B transfer before 3 years. I don't know the USCIS fees
Thanks. These are the fees for a new H1B. Is procedure/fees same for transfer of H1B from one employer to another? How long does it take? I know USCIS posts processing times, but a first-hand information on employer transfer will be helpful.
Thanks. These are the fees for a new H1B. Is procedure/fees same for transfer of H1B from one employer to another? How long does it take? I know USCIS posts processing times, but a first-hand information on employer transfer will be helpful.
2011 and Wildlife Wallpapers
trueguy
08-11 11:48 AM
Bump
more...
saibaba
01-21 04:30 PM
You can go for any reason. I recently got back using AP. They just verify if your AP is valid and let you in.
I second u...Infact I strongly advise everyone to use AP instead of taking chance with H1 stamping(keeping the PIMS,Secuirity check related delays in mind)...
At POE, they just verified my passport expiry date and AP Expiry date..and let me IN....
I second u...Infact I strongly advise everyone to use AP instead of taking chance with H1 stamping(keeping the PIMS,Secuirity check related delays in mind)...
At POE, they just verified my passport expiry date and AP Expiry date..and let me IN....
satishbsk
07-08 05:38 PM
They took 20 k tilll last month and no match.
____________________
contributed $260 so far
____________________
contributed $260 so far
more...
leoindiano
08-28 10:50 AM
Pappu,
I am not a recurring payment subscriber. I dont want to be. I still contributed 600$. That is like a monthly contribution of 25$ for 2 years. I am not sure why i have to explain this.
Only recurring subscribers are Donors? Is that a new definition?
I am not a recurring payment subscriber. I dont want to be. I still contributed 600$. That is like a monthly contribution of 25$ for 2 years. I am not sure why i have to explain this.
Only recurring subscribers are Donors? Is that a new definition?
2010 Free Wildlife Wallpapers from
dupedinjuly
07-15 02:07 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/us/politics/15immig.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
A Little-Known Group Claims a Victory on Immigration
July 15, 2007
A Little-Known Group Claims a Victory on Immigration
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, July 14 � When a comprehensive immigration bill collapsed last month on the Senate floor, it was a victory for a small group that had been lobbying Congress for a decade to reduce the number of immigrants � legal and illegal � in the United States.
The group, Numbers USA, tracked every twist and turn of the bill. Its members flooded the Senate with more than a million faxes, sent through the organization�s Web site. It supplied arguments and information to senators opposing the bill.
�It was a David-and-Goliath struggle,� said Roy H. Beck, the president of Numbers USA, who had been preparing for this moment since 1996, when he wrote a book titled �The Case Against Immigration.�
Supporters of the bill included President Bush, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the high-tech industry, the Roman Catholic Church, many Hispanic organizations, farmers, restaurants, hotels and the construction industry.
�The bill had support from the opinion elite in this country,� Mr. Beck said. �But we built a grass-roots army, consumed with passion for a cause, and used the power of the Internet to go around the elites and defeat a disastrous amnesty bill.�
The measure, which died on June 28, would have offered legal status and a path to citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants and created a new temporary worker program while increasing border security.
�Numbers USA initiated and turbocharged the populist revolt against the immigration reform package,� said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant advocacy group. �Roy Beck takes people who are upset about illegal immigration for different reasons, including hostility to Latino immigrants, and disciplines them so their message is based on policy rather than race-based arguments or xenophobia.�
Representative Brian P. Bilbray, Republican of California and chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, said, �We�re involved in weekly discussions with Numbers USA and other immigration-control groups as part of a team effort.�
Numbers USA had fewer than 50,000 members at the end of 2004, but now counts more than 447,000, with an increase of 83 percent since January alone.
Turning to the next phase of the debate, those members will push for enforcement of existing laws and new measures to curb the employment of illegal immigrants.
�Our No. 1 legislative goal is to begin a system of mandatory workplace verification, to confirm that every employee is a United States citizen or an alien authorized to work in this country,� said Rosemary E. Jenks, director of government relations at Numbers USA.
The organization wants to reduce immigration � as Mr. Beck says in the subtitle of his book � for �moral, economic, social and environmental reasons.�
He contends that immigrants and their children are driving population growth, which he says is gobbling up open space, causing urban sprawl and creating more traffic congestion.
Moreover, Mr. Beck asserts that immigrants and temporary workers, by increasing the supply of labor, have depressed wages in industries from meatpacking to information technology. Numbers USA has worked most closely with conservative Republicans, but in recent weeks has built alliances with Democrats who share the concern.
Numbers USA keeps a scorecard showing every vote by every member of Congress on immigration-related issues since 1989. The group assigns a letter grade to each member.
Lawmakers who received an A-plus were all Republicans and included Representatives J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Tom Tancredo of Colorado, a presidential candidate. The lowest grades � F-minuses � went to Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Joe Baca of California, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Numbers USA objects to proposals that increase the number of legal or illegal immigrants. It steers clear of debates over the allocation of visas.
�It does not matter to us whether a visa goes to a high-tech worker, a farm worker or the sibling of a U.S. citizen,� Mr. Beck said.
Numbers USA is one of many organizations fostered by John H. Tanton, an ophthalmologist from Michigan who has also championed efforts to protect the environment, limit population growth and promote English as an official language.
Critics like the Southern Poverty Law Center and Representative Chris Cannon, Republican of Utah, have described Dr. Tanton as a father of the anti-immigration movement. Mark A. Potok, a senior researcher at the law center, called Numbers USA the �kinder, gentler side of that movement.�
Mr. Beck said Numbers USA had been independent of Dr. Tanton since 2002. On the group�s Web site, Mr. Beck cautions against �immigrant bashing� and says, �Even illegal aliens deserve humane treatment as they are detected, detained and deported.�
In the fight over the Senate bill, Numbers USA had daily conference calls with conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Eagle Forum.
For tax purposes, Numbers USA has two arms, an educational foundation and an advocacy group that lobbies Congress. Together, Mr. Beck said, they have a budget of $3 million this year, but will probably raise and spend $4.5 million.
Mr. Beck said that in the past the group received about two-thirds of its money from foundations like the Colcom Foundation of Pittsburgh and the Weeden Foundation in New York. Many of these foundations have an interest in conservation.
Numbers USA has raised the rest of its money from individual contributors over the Internet. The group collects detailed information on its members � their ethnic background, politics, religious affiliations, occupations and concerns � so it can choose the most effective advocates on any particular issue.
In a survey question on religion, the group said the information would be useful because many lawmakers were likely to respond better to people with �a very similar religious worldview.�
�This is our citizen army,� Mr. Beck said, pointing to a map that showed members of his group in every Congressional district.
Home
World U.S. N.Y. / Region Business Technology Science Health Sports Opinion Arts Style Travel Jobs Real Estate Automobiles Back to Top
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
A Little-Known Group Claims a Victory on Immigration
July 15, 2007
A Little-Known Group Claims a Victory on Immigration
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, July 14 � When a comprehensive immigration bill collapsed last month on the Senate floor, it was a victory for a small group that had been lobbying Congress for a decade to reduce the number of immigrants � legal and illegal � in the United States.
The group, Numbers USA, tracked every twist and turn of the bill. Its members flooded the Senate with more than a million faxes, sent through the organization�s Web site. It supplied arguments and information to senators opposing the bill.
�It was a David-and-Goliath struggle,� said Roy H. Beck, the president of Numbers USA, who had been preparing for this moment since 1996, when he wrote a book titled �The Case Against Immigration.�
Supporters of the bill included President Bush, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the high-tech industry, the Roman Catholic Church, many Hispanic organizations, farmers, restaurants, hotels and the construction industry.
�The bill had support from the opinion elite in this country,� Mr. Beck said. �But we built a grass-roots army, consumed with passion for a cause, and used the power of the Internet to go around the elites and defeat a disastrous amnesty bill.�
The measure, which died on June 28, would have offered legal status and a path to citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants and created a new temporary worker program while increasing border security.
�Numbers USA initiated and turbocharged the populist revolt against the immigration reform package,� said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant advocacy group. �Roy Beck takes people who are upset about illegal immigration for different reasons, including hostility to Latino immigrants, and disciplines them so their message is based on policy rather than race-based arguments or xenophobia.�
Representative Brian P. Bilbray, Republican of California and chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, said, �We�re involved in weekly discussions with Numbers USA and other immigration-control groups as part of a team effort.�
Numbers USA had fewer than 50,000 members at the end of 2004, but now counts more than 447,000, with an increase of 83 percent since January alone.
Turning to the next phase of the debate, those members will push for enforcement of existing laws and new measures to curb the employment of illegal immigrants.
�Our No. 1 legislative goal is to begin a system of mandatory workplace verification, to confirm that every employee is a United States citizen or an alien authorized to work in this country,� said Rosemary E. Jenks, director of government relations at Numbers USA.
The organization wants to reduce immigration � as Mr. Beck says in the subtitle of his book � for �moral, economic, social and environmental reasons.�
He contends that immigrants and their children are driving population growth, which he says is gobbling up open space, causing urban sprawl and creating more traffic congestion.
Moreover, Mr. Beck asserts that immigrants and temporary workers, by increasing the supply of labor, have depressed wages in industries from meatpacking to information technology. Numbers USA has worked most closely with conservative Republicans, but in recent weeks has built alliances with Democrats who share the concern.
Numbers USA keeps a scorecard showing every vote by every member of Congress on immigration-related issues since 1989. The group assigns a letter grade to each member.
Lawmakers who received an A-plus were all Republicans and included Representatives J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Tom Tancredo of Colorado, a presidential candidate. The lowest grades � F-minuses � went to Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Joe Baca of California, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Numbers USA objects to proposals that increase the number of legal or illegal immigrants. It steers clear of debates over the allocation of visas.
�It does not matter to us whether a visa goes to a high-tech worker, a farm worker or the sibling of a U.S. citizen,� Mr. Beck said.
Numbers USA is one of many organizations fostered by John H. Tanton, an ophthalmologist from Michigan who has also championed efforts to protect the environment, limit population growth and promote English as an official language.
Critics like the Southern Poverty Law Center and Representative Chris Cannon, Republican of Utah, have described Dr. Tanton as a father of the anti-immigration movement. Mark A. Potok, a senior researcher at the law center, called Numbers USA the �kinder, gentler side of that movement.�
Mr. Beck said Numbers USA had been independent of Dr. Tanton since 2002. On the group�s Web site, Mr. Beck cautions against �immigrant bashing� and says, �Even illegal aliens deserve humane treatment as they are detected, detained and deported.�
In the fight over the Senate bill, Numbers USA had daily conference calls with conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Eagle Forum.
For tax purposes, Numbers USA has two arms, an educational foundation and an advocacy group that lobbies Congress. Together, Mr. Beck said, they have a budget of $3 million this year, but will probably raise and spend $4.5 million.
Mr. Beck said that in the past the group received about two-thirds of its money from foundations like the Colcom Foundation of Pittsburgh and the Weeden Foundation in New York. Many of these foundations have an interest in conservation.
Numbers USA has raised the rest of its money from individual contributors over the Internet. The group collects detailed information on its members � their ethnic background, politics, religious affiliations, occupations and concerns � so it can choose the most effective advocates on any particular issue.
In a survey question on religion, the group said the information would be useful because many lawmakers were likely to respond better to people with �a very similar religious worldview.�
�This is our citizen army,� Mr. Beck said, pointing to a map that showed members of his group in every Congressional district.
Home
World U.S. N.Y. / Region Business Technology Science Health Sports Opinion Arts Style Travel Jobs Real Estate Automobiles Back to Top
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
more...
ssnd03
07-20 01:33 PM
RIP 'Labor Substitution' is the best thing happened ever happened so far!!!
Even with all pending I485s, USICS will not be able to predict yearly usuage or forward date movement with 10%-15% unpredictability or delay in FBI name-check. I expect upto 10% loss of annual visas every year.
It remains to be seen how many visas are lost in FY 2007 even though they say "Unavailable". I expect them to return those allocated visas to DOS for which they thought FBI checks will be over shortly. I am sure these visas will be lost yet again.
Even with all pending I485s, USICS will not be able to predict yearly usuage or forward date movement with 10%-15% unpredictability or delay in FBI name-check. I expect upto 10% loss of annual visas every year.
It remains to be seen how many visas are lost in FY 2007 even though they say "Unavailable". I expect them to return those allocated visas to DOS for which they thought FBI checks will be over shortly. I am sure these visas will be lost yet again.
hair Wildlife Wallpapers - Part
raju_abc
07-22 11:45 AM
Hi Thanks for your inputs.
But both the employers are consultant.
One is in Fremont CA and other in Pittsburg. Both are offering almost same salary.
So which should be an better option, if they have a similar better client list?
But both the employers are consultant.
One is in Fremont CA and other in Pittsburg. Both are offering almost same salary.
So which should be an better option, if they have a similar better client list?
more...
desi3933
08-21 11:44 AM
I know people might have answered this before. So, sorry for any redundancy. I have a query. If I travel outside of US on my valid H1B visa and when I am out of US, my 485 gets approved. What happens then? Say, I do not have AP with me. Will I have problems entering the US?
You can enter on H1 on "deferred inspection" status. Google for deferred inspection for more details.
You can enter on H1 on "deferred inspection" status. Google for deferred inspection for more details.
hot Vista Wildlife Wallpapers
somegchuh
10-26 12:18 PM
My wife went for H4 visa stamping in New Delhi embassy yesterday. The visa officer asked her a couple of questions, then asked for my I797 approval notice. He kept the passport and the approval notice and said they will mail the passport with visa.
Do they mail the I797 back with passport? I need the original approval notice for travel and my documentation. Has anyone been through this? Is there a way to follow up with the embassy to get it back? If they lose the document that will be a serious problem.
Do they mail the I797 back with passport? I need the original approval notice for travel and my documentation. Has anyone been through this? Is there a way to follow up with the embassy to get it back? If they lose the document that will be a serious problem.
more...
house wildlife wallpapers 50 Amazing
eb2dec2005
10-28 10:33 AM
I applied for the renewal of my expired AP on Oct 12 which was received on Oct 14th.But neither the checks are cashes nor any reciept notice received.
Is there anybody else in the same boat,Btw, the service center is NSC.
Is there anybody else in the same boat,Btw, the service center is NSC.
tattoo Vista Wildlife Wallpapers
Ramba
05-28 11:56 AM
If you withdraw 485 now, you can reapply after getting married, only if your current GC sponering employer willing to give you the job offer (and offer letter) as per the terms and condition of LC and 140 at that time you re apply 485 in future. If you lose the employment relationship with your sponser, you have to start from scratch (LC-140-485), if you find another sponser. Only thing you can retain is PD. All other, you have to start from grounf zero.
You have to make your choice.
You have to make your choice.
more...
pictures world wildlife wallpaper
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.
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gk_2000
11-02 07:58 PM
gali gali mein phirta hei
tu kyu banke banjara
aa mere dil mein bas ja
mere nagrik awara
tu kyu banke banjara
aa mere dil mein bas ja
mere nagrik awara
more...
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aamchimumbai
08-05 10:03 PM
it was pending..pls check the PM I sent you.
Thanks for your PM. Is it possible for you to provide additional details so that I can analyze your situation vs. mine.
I sent my I-485 application thrice to NSC and they returned my package. Although, the response rejecting my application was received from TSC, how funny!!
Anyways. I am hoping for dates to move forward in both category in Sep08 bulletin.
Thanks for your PM. Is it possible for you to provide additional details so that I can analyze your situation vs. mine.
I sent my I-485 application thrice to NSC and they returned my package. Although, the response rejecting my application was received from TSC, how funny!!
Anyways. I am hoping for dates to move forward in both category in Sep08 bulletin.
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saimrathi
08-02 01:41 PM
Yes, copies should be fine..IMHO only, you can check with a lawyer though.
Gemini,
Isn't it enough to send a copy of the Affidavits of Birth and not the original. I think USCIS requires only copies of all documents. Correct me if I am wrong.
Gemini,
Isn't it enough to send a copy of the Affidavits of Birth and not the original. I think USCIS requires only copies of all documents. Correct me if I am wrong.
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Pineapple
07-17 06:48 PM
This should inspire more people!
I don't have words to show my gratitude and appreciation for IV team.
....
To help in that area, I am making first time $500 contribution and then $20 per month.
Thanks a lot IV!
- Amit
__________
Order Details - Jul 17, 2007 15:46 GMT-07:00
Google Order #900330157495295
I don't have words to show my gratitude and appreciation for IV team.
....
To help in that area, I am making first time $500 contribution and then $20 per month.
Thanks a lot IV!
- Amit
__________
Order Details - Jul 17, 2007 15:46 GMT-07:00
Google Order #900330157495295
map_boiler
09-25 05:27 PM
I agree that technically he should be able to file based on the visa bulletin. However, note that this time, they kept the "unavailability" information under wraps unlike in July 2007.
he is still eligible to file.
he is still eligible to file.
seahawks
09-09 12:51 PM
Calling all WA State (OR also) IV members to join yahoo group. We need to coordinate stuff and contact all of you as a group, so please join the yahoo group created for channelizing IV message, organizing and sharing the vision and bringing awareness to Northwest region on Legal Immigration issues.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WA_Immigration_Voice/
Thanks and appreciate your help
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WA_Immigration_Voice/
Thanks and appreciate your help
