NewDocinUS
02-05 05:49 PM
Please email me your details, I may be able to get you an observership spot. I do not promise, but I will try
Can you please let me know if you received my email.
Thanks
Can you please let me know if you received my email.
Thanks
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njboy
07-26 11:18 AM
last i heard, ins was planning to introduce a rule saying - if i140 is not filed within 45 days of labor approval, it was going to be voided. Many people opposed this idea..but at the same time, it had its benefits because, people file labor and then sell it many years later. this rule was meant to prevent these kind of shady substitutions.
Ram_C
11-19 07:59 PM
Today there was LUD on my 140 application which was approved 1 year back. What does this mean? I received my EAD and AP is approved.
Sorry to ask this question on this thread, but i think i don't have ability to create new thread?
Can some one help please?
My PD is Feb 2006 and I am EB3 India
This is common, many of us including me received soft LUD on already approved
I-140 applications. check my post#2 on this same thread.
hope this helps
good luck :)
Sorry to ask this question on this thread, but i think i don't have ability to create new thread?
Can some one help please?
My PD is Feb 2006 and I am EB3 India
This is common, many of us including me received soft LUD on already approved
I-140 applications. check my post#2 on this same thread.
hope this helps
good luck :)
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sam571
03-08 04:47 PM
Hey Tiger ,
are you transferring your H1B to consulting to consulting firm ,or consulting to direct company?
Because there have been lots of REFs and denials in case of transferring to consultancy lately, and they highly doubt about projects availability and they use any of these excuses like past w2 to deny it ...
Thanks....
are you transferring your H1B to consulting to consulting firm ,or consulting to direct company?
Because there have been lots of REFs and denials in case of transferring to consultancy lately, and they highly doubt about projects availability and they use any of these excuses like past w2 to deny it ...
Thanks....
more...
logiclife
10-15 02:12 PM
LuDs are trivial. Sometimes there are LuDs on cases for no apparent reason.
I have had LuDs on my approved 140 even when there was nothing to begin with. Nothing pending since 140, no 485, no H1 extension. Even then there was LuD on 140.
No one really knows what LUD really indicates. Because there is really no pattern in LUDs on cases. NONE.
Rather than asking other blind men to lead you, why dont you take it upon yourself and find out for once and for all.
Let's say LUDs, or lack thereof are bothering you so much that you are losing sleep over it. You are trying to connect dots over LUD, fingerprinting and EAD etc. If you really want something so badly, why dont you stand up and fight for it and ask for it. I am not asking you to help IV or contribute funds or join state chapters. If you dont want to join state chapters, then dont. If you dont want to help IV, then its a different thing. This isnt about that.
But atleast, for your own good, if something bothers you so much, then do something for yourself. Get an appt with ASC and find out what LUD means. Fly to Washington DC, go to director of operations office at USCIS headquarters and ask them what LUD means and why isnt there more transparency in online status. Why do we have to connect dots with LUDS and whey cant there by step-by-step update of each petition. GO AND FIGHT FOR YOURSELF. Ask them why cant we know where my 485 file is at each step of adjudication process. Why is there only 3 possible status for every petition , like case is approved, or case is rejected or we sent request for more info/evidence. Just 3 possible statuses for each petition that really goes thru elaborate stages and statuses.
Sitting here and asking other people, who dont know anything more than you do, is the same thing as one blind man asking another blind man to cross the street because the blind man is too lazy and to shy to ask someone with eyesight for a favor.
Again, I am not doing this to goad you into state chapter or funds. Or joining IV. Dont want to do what IV asks, then dont. But atleast do something FOR YOURSELF. Drive to DC, sit in USCIS HQ and ask them for something better than LUDs.
It is a waste of time to speculate and connect the dots (LUDs) that dont even exist.
I have had LuDs on my approved 140 even when there was nothing to begin with. Nothing pending since 140, no 485, no H1 extension. Even then there was LuD on 140.
No one really knows what LUD really indicates. Because there is really no pattern in LUDs on cases. NONE.
Rather than asking other blind men to lead you, why dont you take it upon yourself and find out for once and for all.
Let's say LUDs, or lack thereof are bothering you so much that you are losing sleep over it. You are trying to connect dots over LUD, fingerprinting and EAD etc. If you really want something so badly, why dont you stand up and fight for it and ask for it. I am not asking you to help IV or contribute funds or join state chapters. If you dont want to join state chapters, then dont. If you dont want to help IV, then its a different thing. This isnt about that.
But atleast, for your own good, if something bothers you so much, then do something for yourself. Get an appt with ASC and find out what LUD means. Fly to Washington DC, go to director of operations office at USCIS headquarters and ask them what LUD means and why isnt there more transparency in online status. Why do we have to connect dots with LUDS and whey cant there by step-by-step update of each petition. GO AND FIGHT FOR YOURSELF. Ask them why cant we know where my 485 file is at each step of adjudication process. Why is there only 3 possible status for every petition , like case is approved, or case is rejected or we sent request for more info/evidence. Just 3 possible statuses for each petition that really goes thru elaborate stages and statuses.
Sitting here and asking other people, who dont know anything more than you do, is the same thing as one blind man asking another blind man to cross the street because the blind man is too lazy and to shy to ask someone with eyesight for a favor.
Again, I am not doing this to goad you into state chapter or funds. Or joining IV. Dont want to do what IV asks, then dont. But atleast do something FOR YOURSELF. Drive to DC, sit in USCIS HQ and ask them for something better than LUDs.
It is a waste of time to speculate and connect the dots (LUDs) that dont even exist.
Hong12
12-15 12:14 AM
Thank you very much for your quick response. That is very sad though I would ask my lawyer to resubmit the application. My original document is with me in order to apply for H1 Visa at the Consular. At this point, I would send the original document back to my lawyer and ask him to do the premium process on my application. Another issue is that he refused to pay for the premium filing fee. He said that he would suggest me to find another lawyer in the case that he had to pay for my premium filing fee. He did not show any responsibilities on anything. Pls advise what I should do.
more...
gc28262
07-29 11:04 PM
I don't think that dude knows what he is talking about. Anyway EB1 cases ARE separate from EB2/EB3 and ARE adjudicated separately than the rest. That's why it is current and I don't know what more that dude wanted...Just few months here and there in adjudication process of EB1 cases...so what? In this whole mess of years and years of waiting for others, what's the big deal?
This particular EB1 gc aspirant has been waiting for his gc even after 2-3 years of his PD becoming current. He don't want EB1 applications to be subjected to the processing times set for EB2/EB3 etc.
His point is, it does not make sense to wait 2-3 years for a GC once his date is current.
This particular EB1 gc aspirant has been waiting for his gc even after 2-3 years of his PD becoming current. He don't want EB1 applications to be subjected to the processing times set for EB2/EB3 etc.
His point is, it does not make sense to wait 2-3 years for a GC once his date is current.
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mjdup
03-01 06:14 PM
Quite obvious why the jobs get outsourced. Great !
more...
Robert Kumar
01-03 10:46 AM
Hello,
Respectfully, but Yinzak is incorrect. While working for a law office, we researched the issue for a client. There is a memo issued by uscis many years ago. There is NOTHING in INA that says that a person on H-1B visa or status can't attend college and the memo states that as long as attendance to college is "incidental" to the H-1B, not a problem. As such, if a person Maintains H-1B employment, and all the H-1B requirements continue to exist, one can attend college part of full time. In fact, some colleges offer in-state tuition for H-1B applicants. Changing to F-1 is impossible because of immigrant intent showed by GC petition pending for this person.
Brooklyn college is one that offers in-state tuition for H-1s and does not require change in status at all.
Thanks for information.
So are you saying, the employer need not pay me, while I'm full time in school.
1. How does it effect H1B status.
2. OK, I'm willing to loose H1B status, but can be on EAD. Is that ok, and not work anywhere.
3. I'll convince my employer about this option, and he will in 90% case will say that he'll still sponsor GC.
Respectfully, but Yinzak is incorrect. While working for a law office, we researched the issue for a client. There is a memo issued by uscis many years ago. There is NOTHING in INA that says that a person on H-1B visa or status can't attend college and the memo states that as long as attendance to college is "incidental" to the H-1B, not a problem. As such, if a person Maintains H-1B employment, and all the H-1B requirements continue to exist, one can attend college part of full time. In fact, some colleges offer in-state tuition for H-1B applicants. Changing to F-1 is impossible because of immigrant intent showed by GC petition pending for this person.
Brooklyn college is one that offers in-state tuition for H-1s and does not require change in status at all.
Thanks for information.
So are you saying, the employer need not pay me, while I'm full time in school.
1. How does it effect H1B status.
2. OK, I'm willing to loose H1B status, but can be on EAD. Is that ok, and not work anywhere.
3. I'll convince my employer about this option, and he will in 90% case will say that he'll still sponsor GC.
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satishku_2000
08-01 05:09 PM
I hope and pray that they take into consideration of the post mark date . Guys any one has an idea how late in night NSC will accept incoming mail.
more...
pcs
05-16 02:52 PM
I wrote a strong but polite letter with a special request on the very top of the letter for his staff ...." Office staff, for GOD's sake please read this letter & DO not send a generic reply"
I got a call back from their office in no time & she said... please let me know what you want us to do to solve your problem.
This was in Ohio
I will suggest you to call the Congressman instead of Senator as they are more focussed. Send a letter & even better just drive up & meet them. You will not be able to meet the Congressman but the office staff will take care of your problem
all the best
I got a call back from their office in no time & she said... please let me know what you want us to do to solve your problem.
This was in Ohio
I will suggest you to call the Congressman instead of Senator as they are more focussed. Send a letter & even better just drive up & meet them. You will not be able to meet the Congressman but the office staff will take care of your problem
all the best
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doctor
01-26 08:37 AM
Hi Friends, I searched through some of the prior posts and did not find the answer. I am not looking for cities to live in from the point of view of job, taxes, weather, desi population, desi amenties such as movies, restaurants etc. I am looking for answers from our indian friends living in various parts of usa, about where they felt was the best place for their children to live and go to school in terms of less racism and equal opportunities at school and playgrounds. I am also not looking at the whole state but cities themselves.
Many of us can't choose our job and where we want to live. but children are more vulnerable than us and in an environment you may not be able to control. A pooled information from my friends will be useful to me and I am sure my other friends. Also information about cities which you didn't like from your children's point of view and may reconsider living in if you had a chance.
I will say it first- some of the smaller cities in PA are not the best for your children.
Thanks in advance.
Many of us can't choose our job and where we want to live. but children are more vulnerable than us and in an environment you may not be able to control. A pooled information from my friends will be useful to me and I am sure my other friends. Also information about cities which you didn't like from your children's point of view and may reconsider living in if you had a chance.
I will say it first- some of the smaller cities in PA are not the best for your children.
Thanks in advance.
more...
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ggc
10-16 04:41 PM
No, I received interview cancellation letter for the interview that scheduled in 2009. Reason not mentioned in that letter. We moved to CA, this year and San Jose field office scheduled interview
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dealsnet
04-13 09:14 PM
Citizenship of child do not consider for cross chargiability. Only the birth place of spouse will taken into consideration, if you file with details shown in the petition.
Child can be charged to either parent's country's quota, reverse is not allowed.
http://www.hooyou.com/news/news050807cross.html
Hi,
I am Canadian citizen lived in Canada for 9 years. In 2005, I moved to USA on TN visa. Here is my case details.....
Priority Date : Jun-06
Category : EB2
I140 Approved : 08/15/2006
Chargeability : India
Processing Stage : I-485, EAD, AP
I485 Mailed Date : 07/02/2007
My daughter is born in Canada in year 2000.
My quastion is can I use my daughter's birth country for cross chargeability. I know this is not very common, most of the time spouse's country of birth can be used for cross chargeability. But while I was googling I found the defination on the below website....
http://www.visapro.com/Immigration-Dictionary/C1.asp
Cross Chargeability : When a Green Card applicant is subject to a quota waiting list, but is the child or the spouse of persons born in a country with more favorable quota, the applicant may cross charge to the most favorable quota.
I would really appreciate your help.
Thanks
Child can be charged to either parent's country's quota, reverse is not allowed.
http://www.hooyou.com/news/news050807cross.html
Hi,
I am Canadian citizen lived in Canada for 9 years. In 2005, I moved to USA on TN visa. Here is my case details.....
Priority Date : Jun-06
Category : EB2
I140 Approved : 08/15/2006
Chargeability : India
Processing Stage : I-485, EAD, AP
I485 Mailed Date : 07/02/2007
My daughter is born in Canada in year 2000.
My quastion is can I use my daughter's birth country for cross chargeability. I know this is not very common, most of the time spouse's country of birth can be used for cross chargeability. But while I was googling I found the defination on the below website....
http://www.visapro.com/Immigration-Dictionary/C1.asp
Cross Chargeability : When a Green Card applicant is subject to a quota waiting list, but is the child or the spouse of persons born in a country with more favorable quota, the applicant may cross charge to the most favorable quota.
I would really appreciate your help.
Thanks
more...
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gc_kaavaali
11-14 04:31 PM
It is upto you...you can intimate them for job changes...or wait for USCIS come back to you...they usually send you RFE...if you want details about how to intimate USCIS, please take a look at below link...somebody got GC after invoking AC21...so it is upto you. As far as job description...your labor has good details...it covers everything...I think u r fine...you can go ahead and join compnay....but i am not an attorney...contact your attorney...
http://boards.immigration.com/showthread.php?t=153407
I have same question......if for example as above someone changes to SAP....what should be done in terms of notification to USCIS..?
Do we just go ahead and join the new job / consulting firm and get a letter from them to match the O*NET code or description as above...?
http://boards.immigration.com/showthread.php?t=153407
I have same question......if for example as above someone changes to SAP....what should be done in terms of notification to USCIS..?
Do we just go ahead and join the new job / consulting firm and get a letter from them to match the O*NET code or description as above...?
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Sachin_Stock
09-18 10:29 AM
Healthcare reforms and their covering of "illegal aliens" in question.
Both are non-issue in this forum!
Both are non-issue in this forum!
more...
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bharmohan
08-15 10:20 PM
Gurus,
On Aug 13th got an automated email from USCIS that they received information from DOS on Aug 9th and the present status is "Post Decision Actvity". I think my case is moving. Anybody knows how long it took from now?. I appreciate your valuable answers.
On Aug 13th got an automated email from USCIS that they received information from DOS on Aug 9th and the present status is "Post Decision Actvity". I think my case is moving. Anybody knows how long it took from now?. I appreciate your valuable answers.
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desi3933
07-31 04:11 PM
....
....
Do I qualify for EB2?? Plz let me know.
RFE details:
1) Degree evaluation(what's the procedure?)
&
2) They want most recent W2 for 2007.
In 2007(W2) I got paid $59K(gross) & in LCA(H1B) prevailing wage mentioned is $55k.
......
......
Thanks.
1. Submit degree evaluation again, if not submitted with I-140 application. BS+MCA qualifies for eb2, but it also depends on the wording in labor job requirement.
2. The job offer letter should mention 65k salary. Current salary 55k is ok, but it puts a very good question - if employer wants to pay you 65k after GC why are they paying 55k now? Before you say it, I know that GC is for a future job but getting less salary before gc approval makes employer less credible.
The question is - why 55k now and 65k when I-485 is approved? Are these 2 jobs different? If so, how and justify. The answer is not that simple.
Good Luck.
________________________
Not a legal advice.
US Permanent Resident since 2002
....
Do I qualify for EB2?? Plz let me know.
RFE details:
1) Degree evaluation(what's the procedure?)
&
2) They want most recent W2 for 2007.
In 2007(W2) I got paid $59K(gross) & in LCA(H1B) prevailing wage mentioned is $55k.
......
......
Thanks.
1. Submit degree evaluation again, if not submitted with I-140 application. BS+MCA qualifies for eb2, but it also depends on the wording in labor job requirement.
2. The job offer letter should mention 65k salary. Current salary 55k is ok, but it puts a very good question - if employer wants to pay you 65k after GC why are they paying 55k now? Before you say it, I know that GC is for a future job but getting less salary before gc approval makes employer less credible.
The question is - why 55k now and 65k when I-485 is approved? Are these 2 jobs different? If so, how and justify. The answer is not that simple.
Good Luck.
________________________
Not a legal advice.
US Permanent Resident since 2002
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deepimpact
09-17 11:13 PM
Spill over from FB should go to most retrogressed EB category regardless of the EB1,2,3,..
In this case, if any spill over from FB should go to EB3-I. I dont know whether spill over will happen from FB or NOT.
FB spillover from a year gets added to overall EB quota of 140K for next year. And each category gets its proportional share of the spillover.
In this case, if any spill over from FB should go to EB3-I. I dont know whether spill over will happen from FB or NOT.
FB spillover from a year gets added to overall EB quota of 140K for next year. And each category gets its proportional share of the spillover.
venetian
07-06 11:44 AM
Please let me know whether it is possible for a person with valid H1B pettion with expired visa stamping can use the AP at POE to enter the US and continue to work in H1B without using EAD.
Thanks.
Thanks.
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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