rajeshbillabong
09-23 11:52 PM
Hi guys,
My wife's F-1 stamping visa got rejected (IInd time)in India, though she had H-4 to F-1 approved here in US by USCIS.
We really want the OPT option that F-1 gives.
Once she is back to US on H-4, is there any way that we can get the OPT since she has been maintaining her full time intl. status?
Can we do a lawyer since the embassy is "wrong" in denying the visa since USCIS already approved it and she has only one sem. remaining.
We are very worried. Please help.
best regards,
Rajesh
My wife's F-1 stamping visa got rejected (IInd time)in India, though she had H-4 to F-1 approved here in US by USCIS.
We really want the OPT option that F-1 gives.
Once she is back to US on H-4, is there any way that we can get the OPT since she has been maintaining her full time intl. status?
Can we do a lawyer since the embassy is "wrong" in denying the visa since USCIS already approved it and she has only one sem. remaining.
We are very worried. Please help.
best regards,
Rajesh
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ramus
06-07 01:10 PM
Please contribute to IV..
Thanks.
I am surprised with this thread. There is no Deadline for employemnt based GC (this was mentioned by Sen. Robert (Bob) Men�ndez,NJ when requesting to move the FB deadline which is clearly mentioned in the bill as May 01, 2005) . Please read the summary and text carefully.
Summary:
First five years
Total number of merit-based green cards includes sum of:
a.) First five fiscal years have same number of green cards as made available to EB category in 2005. This number is 246,878.
b.) Any visa number not used by family based category.
How the total number will be divided between Current system and new merit-based system and Y visa holders --
- 10,000 (or more) reserved for exceptional aliens under �Y� visa category.
- 90,000 (exactly 90,000 � not more not less) for backlogged (pending or approved I-140 applications). Currently, this number is 140,000.
- Remaining possibly goes to new merits system. Until the merits system is ready for accepting petitions, the Y visa holders probably get a shot at this since the clause says �No more than 10,000� � leaving room to let it go up from 10,000 to whatever is left.
and the TEXT of the Bill
�(A) for the first five fiscal years shall be equal to the
33 number of immigrant visas made available to aliens
34 seeking immigrant visas under section 203(b) of this
35 Act for fiscal year 2005, plus any immigrant visas
36 not required for the class specified in (c), of which:
37 (i) at least 10,000 will be for exceptional aliens
38 in nonimmigrant status under section
39 101(a)(15)(Y); and
40 (ii) 90,000 will be for aliens who were the
41 beneficiaries of an application that was pending
42 or approved at the time of the effective date of
43 this section, per Section 502(d) of the [Insert
44 title of Act] ( Act not the bill)
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.�The amendments made by this section shall take
11 effect on the first day of the fiscal year subsequent to the fiscal year of
12 enactment.
So a bill becomes law only after signed by the president, and the effective date could be Oct 01, 2007 if not Oct 01, 2008.
So all the I-140 filed on of before Effective date are considered as pending!!
I don't know why even lawyers are getting confused here!:confused:
Thanks.
I am surprised with this thread. There is no Deadline for employemnt based GC (this was mentioned by Sen. Robert (Bob) Men�ndez,NJ when requesting to move the FB deadline which is clearly mentioned in the bill as May 01, 2005) . Please read the summary and text carefully.
Summary:
First five years
Total number of merit-based green cards includes sum of:
a.) First five fiscal years have same number of green cards as made available to EB category in 2005. This number is 246,878.
b.) Any visa number not used by family based category.
How the total number will be divided between Current system and new merit-based system and Y visa holders --
- 10,000 (or more) reserved for exceptional aliens under �Y� visa category.
- 90,000 (exactly 90,000 � not more not less) for backlogged (pending or approved I-140 applications). Currently, this number is 140,000.
- Remaining possibly goes to new merits system. Until the merits system is ready for accepting petitions, the Y visa holders probably get a shot at this since the clause says �No more than 10,000� � leaving room to let it go up from 10,000 to whatever is left.
and the TEXT of the Bill
�(A) for the first five fiscal years shall be equal to the
33 number of immigrant visas made available to aliens
34 seeking immigrant visas under section 203(b) of this
35 Act for fiscal year 2005, plus any immigrant visas
36 not required for the class specified in (c), of which:
37 (i) at least 10,000 will be for exceptional aliens
38 in nonimmigrant status under section
39 101(a)(15)(Y); and
40 (ii) 90,000 will be for aliens who were the
41 beneficiaries of an application that was pending
42 or approved at the time of the effective date of
43 this section, per Section 502(d) of the [Insert
44 title of Act] ( Act not the bill)
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.�The amendments made by this section shall take
11 effect on the first day of the fiscal year subsequent to the fiscal year of
12 enactment.
So a bill becomes law only after signed by the president, and the effective date could be Oct 01, 2007 if not Oct 01, 2008.
So all the I-140 filed on of before Effective date are considered as pending!!
I don't know why even lawyers are getting confused here!:confused:
akhilmahajan
04-30 10:44 AM
see we got some hope..........
thanks a lot for the update...........
thanks a lot for the update...........
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techbuyer77
06-20 11:20 AM
File i-485 with evl from old employer as future employee. after 180 days invoke ac21 and switch to current (given both jobs are similar in duties and such)
more...
gcformeornot
12-31 07:36 PM
for wife and daughter. daughter is just 5 years old. Is it common?
My notices are still missing.......
My notices are still missing.......
anilsal
01-18 04:49 PM
People need to wake up to reality.
more...
ras
05-24 12:17 PM
EAD to H1 involves a status change that while being perfectly legal was just not envisioned policy wise as being a frequent occurrence.
Accordingly, the efforts to get back into non-immigrant status from an immigrant status is unduly complicated.
The reasons the conversion is complicated is because when you come back to H1B from EAD, you literally start from scratch, meaning you count against the cap and you also do not get a full 6 year term. In your case, if you switched back, you will have to wait for the cap to be available and you will get only 1.5 years unless you quailify otherwise for a full 6 year term. It is not enough that you were already in H1B because USCIS does not care about that. To them, you are going to a new status and that means you follow the rules for that just like anyone else.
Also, since you went back from AOS, USCIS may ask for additional documentation to record the reasons you want to switch. This is supposed to be only for cases where there are legitimate reasons to switch, like your AOS application has been denied and in order to continue staying in the US and explore other options, you need to maintain legal status, etc..etc..
Personally, I think the process is designed to be cumbersome in order to discourage people from doing it.
Disclaimer: This is based on what I heard from my attorney in part and my own research. Use at your discretion...
If anyone knows more or can confirm this, that would help...
Thanks!
--Karthik
Do you have a basis that it has to be started from scratch. Why it needs to be started from scratch when there is still time on H1 say about 1.5 years?
I think u need to start afresh a new one only if you are out of country for one year.
Folks, if any one has done this please corraborate
Accordingly, the efforts to get back into non-immigrant status from an immigrant status is unduly complicated.
The reasons the conversion is complicated is because when you come back to H1B from EAD, you literally start from scratch, meaning you count against the cap and you also do not get a full 6 year term. In your case, if you switched back, you will have to wait for the cap to be available and you will get only 1.5 years unless you quailify otherwise for a full 6 year term. It is not enough that you were already in H1B because USCIS does not care about that. To them, you are going to a new status and that means you follow the rules for that just like anyone else.
Also, since you went back from AOS, USCIS may ask for additional documentation to record the reasons you want to switch. This is supposed to be only for cases where there are legitimate reasons to switch, like your AOS application has been denied and in order to continue staying in the US and explore other options, you need to maintain legal status, etc..etc..
Personally, I think the process is designed to be cumbersome in order to discourage people from doing it.
Disclaimer: This is based on what I heard from my attorney in part and my own research. Use at your discretion...
If anyone knows more or can confirm this, that would help...
Thanks!
--Karthik
Do you have a basis that it has to be started from scratch. Why it needs to be started from scratch when there is still time on H1 say about 1.5 years?
I think u need to start afresh a new one only if you are out of country for one year.
Folks, if any one has done this please corraborate
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mihird
07-11 03:30 PM
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=9979506&content_dir=ua_congressorg
The button below the article lets you send emails to Bush and Cheney...
The button below the article lets you send emails to Bush and Cheney...
more...
Bpositive
04-03 02:26 PM
There is a substantial amount of financial adjustments required. Infact that is the reason why it is being delayed.
The lawyer will know the exact deadline...i think it is a little later than the 12 week count...
The lawyer will know the exact deadline...i think it is a little later than the 12 week count...
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jayleno
07-08 11:25 PM
Hi Guys,
Just expressing my opinion. I too feel its not good idea to involve Indian Consulate, just coz we are in course of becoming a permanent resident of a different country and it has nothing to do with our Indian citizenship.
Jay
Just expressing my opinion. I too feel its not good idea to involve Indian Consulate, just coz we are in course of becoming a permanent resident of a different country and it has nothing to do with our Indian citizenship.
Jay
more...
paskal
10-02 05:03 PM
C'mon folks...after San Jose and DC we look up to you for inspiration. The awe inspiring energy and motivation of the Cal chapters will serve as as an example for all others.
You guys are fortunate to have able leaders and energetic volunteers. This is the time to join the party! We are quietly harnessing the gains from the Dc rally and we continue to hope that there will yet be relief forthcoming soon. Nothing will happen though without your active support and participation.
Please help make the SoCal gathering a resounding success!
You guys are fortunate to have able leaders and energetic volunteers. This is the time to join the party! We are quietly harnessing the gains from the Dc rally and we continue to hope that there will yet be relief forthcoming soon. Nothing will happen though without your active support and participation.
Please help make the SoCal gathering a resounding success!
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paskal
09-11 05:31 PM
i ordered friday night
used standard shipping instead of regular (pain <2 bucks more for 3 items)
next b day ie monday am it was shipped ups ground
now in ups transit for delivery tomorrow
pretty fast!
used standard shipping instead of regular (pain <2 bucks more for 3 items)
next b day ie monday am it was shipped ups ground
now in ups transit for delivery tomorrow
pretty fast!
more...
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priderock
07-11 04:55 PM
Expecting help from Cheney ?:confused:
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vxg
09-10 03:42 PM
Folks,
After more than an hour drive to a shitty town in northern mass Lawrence....no bottles please..cell phones be turned off...
Officer: Purpose
Me: Me approved my wife not
Officer: cases..
Me: Presented cases
Officer: Yes you are approved...your wife is pending
Me: Oh really that is a revelation....
Me: Why so?is she preadjudicated?
Officer: There could be many reasons...no she is not pre-adjudicated...
Me: What can we do to expedite as she is current
Officer: Nuthin ....I was loosing my temper now...
I said how long should one wait...I opened an SR I got a reply that they are doing additional review contact after 6 months..3 days later I get approval email...no one has a clue...the right hand does not know what the left is doing....my wife is kicking me on the foot asking in native language be happy with yours do u want to loose urs too...
Officer: gave a vague Monalisa smile...
Me: Well I guess that's it I didn;t know anything after driving 60 miles that I didn't know before...
On the way back got a mail from my attorney...he checked thru AILA and talked withan IO ...it seems her biometrics need to be redone...it is ordered and she shld get it in 2 weeks she will be current next month too...so keep fingers crossed...well my fingers are crooked and can't be straightened now...
Hope the info helps..
SoP
You do not need Biometrics uploaded for approval. My case was approved without it however they will only send cards after Biometrics are updated.
After more than an hour drive to a shitty town in northern mass Lawrence....no bottles please..cell phones be turned off...
Officer: Purpose
Me: Me approved my wife not
Officer: cases..
Me: Presented cases
Officer: Yes you are approved...your wife is pending
Me: Oh really that is a revelation....
Me: Why so?is she preadjudicated?
Officer: There could be many reasons...no she is not pre-adjudicated...
Me: What can we do to expedite as she is current
Officer: Nuthin ....I was loosing my temper now...
I said how long should one wait...I opened an SR I got a reply that they are doing additional review contact after 6 months..3 days later I get approval email...no one has a clue...the right hand does not know what the left is doing....my wife is kicking me on the foot asking in native language be happy with yours do u want to loose urs too...
Officer: gave a vague Monalisa smile...
Me: Well I guess that's it I didn;t know anything after driving 60 miles that I didn't know before...
On the way back got a mail from my attorney...he checked thru AILA and talked withan IO ...it seems her biometrics need to be redone...it is ordered and she shld get it in 2 weeks she will be current next month too...so keep fingers crossed...well my fingers are crooked and can't be straightened now...
Hope the info helps..
SoP
You do not need Biometrics uploaded for approval. My case was approved without it however they will only send cards after Biometrics are updated.
more...
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bskrishna
06-09 11:49 AM
Thanks a lot for the VISA issue....
Cant i travel via Germany to India with stolen visa issue ?
Your travel agent should know if he/she is experienced about transit visa. Amsterdam does not need a transit visa (even with an invalid US visa). Not sure about Frankfurt.
You will need one for sure if you travel via UK. I had some friends who had to go through a lot of difficulty for going back on a B1 visa to India via Heathrow
Cant i travel via Germany to India with stolen visa issue ?
Your travel agent should know if he/she is experienced about transit visa. Amsterdam does not need a transit visa (even with an invalid US visa). Not sure about Frankfurt.
You will need one for sure if you travel via UK. I had some friends who had to go through a lot of difficulty for going back on a B1 visa to India via Heathrow
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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.
more...
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misha
07-12 01:13 PM
Question for July I-485 filers.
Did anybody receive I-485 July Rejection Notice by mail?
Did anybody receive I-485 July Rejection Notice by mail?
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mariner5555
05-27 06:57 AM
why did they come out with this statement ? maybe to tell state dept not to do this in future ? for many it will take 5 years for the visas to be available ..say EB3 - I with PD of 2006 who was lucky enough to file for 485 during the fiasco ..
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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.
chanduv23
12-09 12:38 PM
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hopefulgc
03-28 10:56 AM
same here. i have updated my information but it doesn't show up in stats
Thanks for this great feature. It definitely looks promising. But, some how I find my information missing. Is there a place where I can add my information. my IV profile already got all my info.
Thanks for this great feature. It definitely looks promising. But, some how I find my information missing. Is there a place where I can add my information. my IV profile already got all my info.
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