greenguru
04-03 12:29 PM
I was in the same situation.
First : Get your new passport.
Then schedule an appointment in the Consulate ( Canada ) and go for stamping.
All canadian Cons. take passport for the scheduling appointment.
First : Get your new passport.
Then schedule an appointment in the Consulate ( Canada ) and go for stamping.
All canadian Cons. take passport for the scheduling appointment.
graylensman
11-22 09:56 PM
Tomorrow is always the new day. And I'm disappointed nobody tried to bribe me.
gultie2k
07-07 12:42 PM
Mr Ganguteli!
Please refrain from intimidating others in pain. Hoping for large scale denials will not help your cause in any way.
Please refrain from intimidating others in pain. Hoping for large scale denials will not help your cause in any way.
akhilmahajan
02-23 01:40 PM
I am just curious, Are you worried about your salary going down or filing AC-21.
There are always risks involved. Its your choice what you want to do. I will request you to understand how the system works, so that when folks around here suggest you something, you can evaluate the choices based on your knowledge also.
If you think you can find a good job, then i will say keep on looking for it. Meanwhile stick with your company and see if things improve. In the end its your personal choice, as you are the one who needs to set your priorities. Also, if you can let us know your PD, then i am sure people can suggest you in a much better way.
Also, i will really appreciate if you can update your information for the tracker.
Also, please be patient and lets not use abusive language, as it is not going to help anyone.
Thanks a lot.
GO IV GO. TOGETHER WE CAN.
There are always risks involved. Its your choice what you want to do. I will request you to understand how the system works, so that when folks around here suggest you something, you can evaluate the choices based on your knowledge also.
If you think you can find a good job, then i will say keep on looking for it. Meanwhile stick with your company and see if things improve. In the end its your personal choice, as you are the one who needs to set your priorities. Also, if you can let us know your PD, then i am sure people can suggest you in a much better way.
Also, i will really appreciate if you can update your information for the tracker.
Also, please be patient and lets not use abusive language, as it is not going to help anyone.
Thanks a lot.
GO IV GO. TOGETHER WE CAN.
more...
akhilmahajan
04-23 07:55 AM
I am sure this question must have been answered before, but as i could not find anything with reference to it, so i thought of posting it here.
I just received a copy of the labor from my company. Is there a way to find out, whether the labor was cleared for EB-2 or not.
I am novice in this area.
If there are any other ways to find out, can anyone shed some light on it.
Thanks.
I just received a copy of the labor from my company. Is there a way to find out, whether the labor was cleared for EB-2 or not.
I am novice in this area.
If there are any other ways to find out, can anyone shed some light on it.
Thanks.
whoever
07-19 10:49 AM
anyone help!
more...
bklog_sufferer
12-05 08:45 PM
can anyone answer this please??
greyhair
09-18 08:25 AM
thread starter is saying it will make dates current....how is this possible with the same amount of spillover?
Family based is also heavily backlogged. How can there be flow of thousands of unused visas in Family Based for flow to Employment Based? Even in Family based there are categories 1, 2A, 2B, 3 and 4. The visas will first flow from top to bottom in Family Based. Wouldn't all the categories have to be current before any visas flow to Employment based? I read somewhere that the employment based backlog size is 800,000 applications. :confused: Let's say even if there is a small number of visa flow from Family Based to Employment Based, how can a small number of visa flow from Family Based to employment based backlog be sufficient to approve 800,000 applications?
Family based is also heavily backlogged. How can there be flow of thousands of unused visas in Family Based for flow to Employment Based? Even in Family based there are categories 1, 2A, 2B, 3 and 4. The visas will first flow from top to bottom in Family Based. Wouldn't all the categories have to be current before any visas flow to Employment based? I read somewhere that the employment based backlog size is 800,000 applications. :confused: Let's say even if there is a small number of visa flow from Family Based to Employment Based, how can a small number of visa flow from Family Based to employment based backlog be sufficient to approve 800,000 applications?
more...
anilsal
10-12 01:04 PM
Don't post for receipts people... IV people don't like it.
IV people will not like new threads on receipts. Use the lengthy "Receipts Thread" to your heart's content.
IV people will not like new threads on receipts. Use the lengthy "Receipts Thread" to your heart's content.
raghav0
11-12 11:00 AM
Thanks for the posting...just voted!
more...
sertasheep
03-25 11:18 AM
<EDIT>
added hyperlink to Enquiro Report
</EDIT>
Chidanand Rajaghatta is a guy who spends time in different countries and writes about his travails. Obviously, he's not completely educated on this, and I guess may be we could take this opportunity to make him and TOI aware of our efforts.
I have sent out the following email.(between asteriskes). I'll post any responses I may(will I?) receive.
**********************
Dear Mr. Rajaghatta, and Editor,
I have been a consistent reader of your articles on your travels the world over. The headline for your latest article seemed a little sensational to me, without any mention of the word "Illegal".
The NRI community(read "legal immigrants" and "legal immigrant applicants") are aware of the new Guest Worker program proposed by Mr. George Bush, but it doesn't really affect the Indian diaspora at all, because majority of us are in the US legally.
The article seemed out of context and irrelevant in a esteemed publication such as TOI. Why don't you instead write about current issues that are plaguing the NRI community? Those would be directly relevant to the concerns of affected NRIs and would draw more readers to you.
I have recently concluded a research paper(as part of my Masters program) on the inefficiencies of the US Immigration system, and its impact on applicants, especially from countries such as India and China. The outdated workflows and holes in the Immigration system have led to endless waits and affected many immigration applicants, thereby impacting US economy in terms of tax dollars, jobs lost to overseas(outsourcing), and subsequently, loss of precious foreign exchange to the home countries of these applicants.
Applicants are forced to spend precious time and effort in speculating and predicting the outcome of their immigration benefits. As per a Internet search engine study, (See Enquiro Search Engine Report, Aug 2005 http://www.enquiro.com/net-profit/Murthy-vs-Goliath.asp ), it is the website of a US Immigration Lawyer (across all practices) that gets the most eyeballs(hits), worldwide! This is testimony to the fact that several hours are spent by applicants in anticipation and speculation.
I would more than willing to collaborate and share these thoughts with you, to fuel your interest further.
May I also draw your attention to some of the grass-roots organizations fighting for these causes? One notable organization is "Immigration Voice" which is gaining great momentum.(www.immigrationvoice.org)
Best Regards
************
"Celebrate, Have Faith and Maintain Hope"--the byline of a popular immigration attorney. Isn't this quite true?
added hyperlink to Enquiro Report
</EDIT>
Chidanand Rajaghatta is a guy who spends time in different countries and writes about his travails. Obviously, he's not completely educated on this, and I guess may be we could take this opportunity to make him and TOI aware of our efforts.
I have sent out the following email.(between asteriskes). I'll post any responses I may(will I?) receive.
**********************
Dear Mr. Rajaghatta, and Editor,
I have been a consistent reader of your articles on your travels the world over. The headline for your latest article seemed a little sensational to me, without any mention of the word "Illegal".
The NRI community(read "legal immigrants" and "legal immigrant applicants") are aware of the new Guest Worker program proposed by Mr. George Bush, but it doesn't really affect the Indian diaspora at all, because majority of us are in the US legally.
The article seemed out of context and irrelevant in a esteemed publication such as TOI. Why don't you instead write about current issues that are plaguing the NRI community? Those would be directly relevant to the concerns of affected NRIs and would draw more readers to you.
I have recently concluded a research paper(as part of my Masters program) on the inefficiencies of the US Immigration system, and its impact on applicants, especially from countries such as India and China. The outdated workflows and holes in the Immigration system have led to endless waits and affected many immigration applicants, thereby impacting US economy in terms of tax dollars, jobs lost to overseas(outsourcing), and subsequently, loss of precious foreign exchange to the home countries of these applicants.
Applicants are forced to spend precious time and effort in speculating and predicting the outcome of their immigration benefits. As per a Internet search engine study, (See Enquiro Search Engine Report, Aug 2005 http://www.enquiro.com/net-profit/Murthy-vs-Goliath.asp ), it is the website of a US Immigration Lawyer (across all practices) that gets the most eyeballs(hits), worldwide! This is testimony to the fact that several hours are spent by applicants in anticipation and speculation.
I would more than willing to collaborate and share these thoughts with you, to fuel your interest further.
May I also draw your attention to some of the grass-roots organizations fighting for these causes? One notable organization is "Immigration Voice" which is gaining great momentum.(www.immigrationvoice.org)
Best Regards
************
"Celebrate, Have Faith and Maintain Hope"--the byline of a popular immigration attorney. Isn't this quite true?
sixburgh
06-28 07:29 PM
If your EAD employer is also your H1-B sponsor, then you can get H1B stamped and re-enter using H1B and subsequently continue to work for the same employer.
However, if your EAD employer is not the H1B sponsor, then entering on H1B complicates matters, as you always enter on H1B with the intention of working for your H1B sponsor, which will not be true if your EAD employer has not gone through the process for hiring a H1B employee.
Ead and h1 employer are the same.
What happens when I want to change my job by using ac21 later?
However, if your EAD employer is not the H1B sponsor, then entering on H1B complicates matters, as you always enter on H1B with the intention of working for your H1B sponsor, which will not be true if your EAD employer has not gone through the process for hiring a H1B employee.
Ead and h1 employer are the same.
What happens when I want to change my job by using ac21 later?
more...
Desertfox
10-30 08:33 PM
is it from the receipt date or notice date?
It starts from the receipt date, and USCIS confirmed it multiple times in their receipting update on the website.
It starts from the receipt date, and USCIS confirmed it multiple times in their receipting update on the website.
lord_labaku
09-16 09:54 PM
Do you know whether the substituted LC was used by the original employee by using AC21. If that previous employee got their GC...then the subbed LC is void so 140 will be denied.
This confusion w.r.t AC21 & labor sub was the very reason that LC sub was abolished.
Good luck.
This confusion w.r.t AC21 & labor sub was the very reason that LC sub was abolished.
Good luck.
more...
VenuK
06-16 02:10 PM
HI,
I recently went for stamping in Canada and they did ask me recent paystubs.
I woudl work for the new company , have some paystubs and then go to neighboring country to get the stamping done. But if the current visa on passport is valid for some more time, I dont think its really needed to get visa from latest company. To my knowledge u can always use old stamp to travel, as long as you have the latest aproval petition and you carry with you,I may be wrong if somehting changed recently,
Thanks,
Sri.
Hi Sri,
Thanks for your feedback.
The current/recent visa on my passport is expired in Dec 2007. but i have applied for H1-B extension in June 2007.
Thats why im so nervous about the whole situation.
fyi... I have all the pay stubs from my old company till May 2008.
Venu
I recently went for stamping in Canada and they did ask me recent paystubs.
I woudl work for the new company , have some paystubs and then go to neighboring country to get the stamping done. But if the current visa on passport is valid for some more time, I dont think its really needed to get visa from latest company. To my knowledge u can always use old stamp to travel, as long as you have the latest aproval petition and you carry with you,I may be wrong if somehting changed recently,
Thanks,
Sri.
Hi Sri,
Thanks for your feedback.
The current/recent visa on my passport is expired in Dec 2007. but i have applied for H1-B extension in June 2007.
Thats why im so nervous about the whole situation.
fyi... I have all the pay stubs from my old company till May 2008.
Venu
anilsal
07-30 01:36 AM
Unless you screw up something, they will not deny in Canada. But may in the rarest of cases ask you to go to your country of origin to get the visa.
Having a US degree helps. Just appear confident and brush up your English and accent(do not fake it. Just be normal and greet as you do with American friends. Also do not show off.). The VO really like people who seem to have assimilated into the culture.
Having a US degree helps. Just appear confident and brush up your English and accent(do not fake it. Just be normal and greet as you do with American friends. Also do not show off.). The VO really like people who seem to have assimilated into the culture.
more...
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.
BharatPremi
07-18 04:31 PM
THE TRUE answer seems to be "Nobody (even USCIS) knows".
WeldonSprings
01-29 12:42 AM
Also, the E-Verify bill was supposed to expire this March 06, 2009; but has been extended by four years because of the House Stimulus Bill. It is still in the senate. It has to be stopped.
augustus
07-09 04:19 PM
You said your employer is agreable, in that case, If you did not get your EAD before your current EAD expires, you can choose to work for free for those days and try to get paid for it after your EAD comes in effect.
Or even if you don't get paid for it, you are building some good will and you are not jeopardizing your job. It will definitely keep you in the good books of this employer.
Or even if you don't get paid for it, you are building some good will and you are not jeopardizing your job. It will definitely keep you in the good books of this employer.
shivaniraina
07-21 02:20 PM
You are exempt from the cap:) . Your immigration lawyer can confirm this.
I was on HIB till 2005. I quit my job sometime last year as I was pregnant and we moved to another city. I went back to a new job/new company/new HIB early this year even though quota was exhausted. However, i had no problem is getting the approval as people holding HIB previously in 6 years do not count under quota. The only difference is that you will have to wait for the approval before you join new job unlike visa transfer. I had consulted several lawyers before i decided to quit my job.
I was on HIB till 2005. I quit my job sometime last year as I was pregnant and we moved to another city. I went back to a new job/new company/new HIB early this year even though quota was exhausted. However, i had no problem is getting the approval as people holding HIB previously in 6 years do not count under quota. The only difference is that you will have to wait for the approval before you join new job unlike visa transfer. I had consulted several lawyers before i decided to quit my job.
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