Dhundhun
11-21 06:11 PM
Please let me know the way to contact USCIS. Phone number or mail id. I tried contacting them through the 1800 number but it is an automated system, there is no human to talk to.
I had problem with I94 and used the services of USCIS field office (San Jose) to get it fixed.
If you want to follow my approach, you may find field office using this URL, get an appointment there, discuss it (that you are in US and check your records, if shows outside US, get it updated) and handover I-102.
https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=offices.type&OfficeLocator.office_type=LO
Good luck
I had problem with I94 and used the services of USCIS field office (San Jose) to get it fixed.
If you want to follow my approach, you may find field office using this URL, get an appointment there, discuss it (that you are in US and check your records, if shows outside US, get it updated) and handover I-102.
https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=offices.type&OfficeLocator.office_type=LO
Good luck
wallpaper Cheryl Cole
fromnaija
10-09 03:48 PM
I have a hard time to adjust my photo to designated spec. I shrunked to 62kb but they did not take it and if I make it lesser, it won't be 320 x 240 pixels but less. I use regular digital camera. anybody help me how to do?
Print the picture and then scan it to the required resolution.
Print the picture and then scan it to the required resolution.
apk1928
04-30 01:36 PM
Here is the format that you need. I got this from my attorney.
AFFIDAVIT
OF BIRTH
I, __________________________, certify to the following:
1. I was born on ___________, 19___, in the town of ___________________ and country of ________________________. I am _____ years of age. I am currently residing at __________________________________________________ _______________________.
2. ________________________________ was born to _________________________ and _________________________ on _______________ in ____________________.
3. The above facts are within my personal knowledge because _________________ is my _____________(uncle, cousin, friend, etc.), and I was present at the time of said birth.
Dated: ______________, 200_ _____________________________
Signature
Subscribed and sworn to before me this
________ day of ___________, 200_
at ________________________________.
My commission expires ___________, 200_
___________________________ ________________________
Notary Public Official Seal
AFFIDAVIT
OF BIRTH
I, __________________________, certify to the following:
1. I was born on ___________, 19___, in the town of ___________________ and country of ________________________. I am _____ years of age. I am currently residing at __________________________________________________ _______________________.
2. ________________________________ was born to _________________________ and _________________________ on _______________ in ____________________.
3. The above facts are within my personal knowledge because _________________ is my _____________(uncle, cousin, friend, etc.), and I was present at the time of said birth.
Dated: ______________, 200_ _____________________________
Signature
Subscribed and sworn to before me this
________ day of ___________, 200_
at ________________________________.
My commission expires ___________, 200_
___________________________ ________________________
Notary Public Official Seal
2011 Cheryl-cole-mobile-wallpaper
vdlrao
01-21 02:16 PM
Do I need Germany visa to travel on AP, to India via Germany with Lufthansa air lines.. Please let me know.
Thanks.
Thanks.
more...
vjkypally
01-26 05:01 PM
bump
Redeye
08-21 03:21 PM
Thank you, however I was not expecting it.
Be nice, give it forward. It easy to be frustrated does not take much, it takes a lot to be nice.
Njoy life . Buy a corvette. :)
Thanks, I gave you some green dots for your answers.
You asked about my age: I will be 40yrs old this December..
Be nice, give it forward. It easy to be frustrated does not take much, it takes a lot to be nice.
Njoy life . Buy a corvette. :)
Thanks, I gave you some green dots for your answers.
You asked about my age: I will be 40yrs old this December..
more...
DSLStart
07-30 07:28 PM
Just produce the docs thet asked. As for the pay difference, the labor mentioned salary is supposed to be paid to you once you receice GC. Don't worry about it.
Hello,
I just received RFE for I-140.
I-140 Details:
I have applied I-140 under EB2 India.
I have BS(3 years) with computer science & MCA(MS 3 years) in computer science. So total 6 years of education in computer science(3 yrs BS + 3 yrs MS).
In labor(PERM) we mentioned Masters required
& Major field of study is Computers.
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.
In labor(PERM) prevailing wage mentioned is $63K & offered wage mentioned is $65K.
Difference between W2 & Prevailing wage in labor(PERM) is $4000($63K - $59K).
Difference between W2 & Offered wage in labor(PERM) is $6000($65K - $59K).
Is this a serious problem???
My labor already got approved.
My company is financially very good.
Now which wage USCIS consider or match with W2??
I will really appreciate your response.
Thanks.
Hello,
I just received RFE for I-140.
I-140 Details:
I have applied I-140 under EB2 India.
I have BS(3 years) with computer science & MCA(MS 3 years) in computer science. So total 6 years of education in computer science(3 yrs BS + 3 yrs MS).
In labor(PERM) we mentioned Masters required
& Major field of study is Computers.
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.
In labor(PERM) prevailing wage mentioned is $63K & offered wage mentioned is $65K.
Difference between W2 & Prevailing wage in labor(PERM) is $4000($63K - $59K).
Difference between W2 & Offered wage in labor(PERM) is $6000($65K - $59K).
Is this a serious problem???
My labor already got approved.
My company is financially very good.
Now which wage USCIS consider or match with W2??
I will really appreciate your response.
Thanks.
2010 Cheryl Cole wallpaper
logiclife
01-31 10:51 AM
Go to websites such as ZAZONA.com and numbersusa.com and check out their arguments that they use to oppose H1b and EB-greencards. You are saying the same thing and feeding into those arguments by using the word "Slavery".
And by the way, regarding public opinion, remember that immigration(legal or illegal) is issue number 5 or 6 after economy, healthcare, Iraq, security, deficits etc. etc.
Public opinion is not going to care about 350,000 H1bs in line for GC. But still, getting overall media attention is good for our cause and I urge you to write letters to the editors of NYT, LA times, Time mag, Newsweek. etc etc. like you suggested. But there is not POINT IN BEING RHETORICAL or SARCASTIC.
--logiclife.
And by the way, regarding public opinion, remember that immigration(legal or illegal) is issue number 5 or 6 after economy, healthcare, Iraq, security, deficits etc. etc.
Public opinion is not going to care about 350,000 H1bs in line for GC. But still, getting overall media attention is good for our cause and I urge you to write letters to the editors of NYT, LA times, Time mag, Newsweek. etc etc. like you suggested. But there is not POINT IN BEING RHETORICAL or SARCASTIC.
--logiclife.
more...
pmb76
09-05 09:30 PM
I finally got my AP, 15 days after my EAD (100 days total) . I was happy to open the packet, until this......
THEY SENT ME MY AP WITH SOMEONE ELSE'S PICTURE!!!!!!!
Everything else is Correct (address, DOB, A# etc...)
GURUS, please advise what should I do...... I am so pissed!!!!! Thankfully my EAD has the correct pic.... I had done an E-file....June 7th and my previous AP expires Sept 20
Do ypu remember that Seinfeld episode where Costanza airbrushes off himself from the picture in Kruger's office. You could try something similar.. Just kidding :D. My sympathies are with you dear friend. Murphy's law always holds true when it comes to dealing with USCIS.
THEY SENT ME MY AP WITH SOMEONE ELSE'S PICTURE!!!!!!!
Everything else is Correct (address, DOB, A# etc...)
GURUS, please advise what should I do...... I am so pissed!!!!! Thankfully my EAD has the correct pic.... I had done an E-file....June 7th and my previous AP expires Sept 20
Do ypu remember that Seinfeld episode where Costanza airbrushes off himself from the picture in Kruger's office. You could try something similar.. Just kidding :D. My sympathies are with you dear friend. Murphy's law always holds true when it comes to dealing with USCIS.
hair Dofeb , us x cole wallpapers
immi_twinges
09-06 09:05 AM
Received card production ordered email today!!!
For all those whose spouses are in F1 status do not worry
I applied through my husband(EB3 July 2004) and i was on F1 when i applied with him. Got funding through F1. Did not use 485 EAD.
Graduated but did not apply for OPT and started using 485-EAD to work.
Well... one more thing our lawyer forgot to include our BC while applying.
Actually he had them when he mailed them initially in DEC 2004 but got rejected and after he came back from vacation in March 05 he reapplied based on the rejected mail in Dec 04 and its then when he forgot to include BC.
I was ver scared reading about F1 being non immigrant visa blah blah... and should not apply for GC..blah blah..unfortunately i could not find a similar case like me...recently i saw a lot of people applying in F1 ...
I am happy to tell...do not worry if you are on F1 and
do not travel on F1 visa
Do not apply for OPT ( my limited knowledge advice)
Your lawyer knows the best!
Regarding LUDs:
If you guys see LUDs on your cases atleast one...be very happy...that means they are about to give you a green card...
I am planning on attending the Rally to show my support to 1V
I hope 2007 will be lucky to every one
Believ me journey through 485 process is nerve-wracking...
Just think if it really makes a difference think about it ...no
Just believe in god ( satyanarayan swami pooja cheyinchukondi)...dont laugh
All the Best:o
EB3
PD : July 2004
RD : March 2005
VSC--> TSC : Mar 2007
LUDs on 485 : July 29, Sep3rd 4th
and card production ordered on 5th
For all those whose spouses are in F1 status do not worry
I applied through my husband(EB3 July 2004) and i was on F1 when i applied with him. Got funding through F1. Did not use 485 EAD.
Graduated but did not apply for OPT and started using 485-EAD to work.
Well... one more thing our lawyer forgot to include our BC while applying.
Actually he had them when he mailed them initially in DEC 2004 but got rejected and after he came back from vacation in March 05 he reapplied based on the rejected mail in Dec 04 and its then when he forgot to include BC.
I was ver scared reading about F1 being non immigrant visa blah blah... and should not apply for GC..blah blah..unfortunately i could not find a similar case like me...recently i saw a lot of people applying in F1 ...
I am happy to tell...do not worry if you are on F1 and
do not travel on F1 visa
Do not apply for OPT ( my limited knowledge advice)
Your lawyer knows the best!
Regarding LUDs:
If you guys see LUDs on your cases atleast one...be very happy...that means they are about to give you a green card...
I am planning on attending the Rally to show my support to 1V
I hope 2007 will be lucky to every one
Believ me journey through 485 process is nerve-wracking...
Just think if it really makes a difference think about it ...no
Just believe in god ( satyanarayan swami pooja cheyinchukondi)...dont laugh
All the Best:o
EB3
PD : July 2004
RD : March 2005
VSC--> TSC : Mar 2007
LUDs on 485 : July 29, Sep3rd 4th
and card production ordered on 5th
more...
smiledentist
10-26 01:16 PM
thanks arnet
hot cheryl-cole(Wallpaper)
vjkypally
08-19 10:38 AM
That way we can keep people who have got GC's connected to this site.
more...
house cheryl cole wallpaper. Cheryl Cole HD Wallpapers
Jaime
09-05 03:51 PM
Please visit this site http://www.immigration-law.com/Canada.html . You will see that STRIVE bill is about to be introduced in both houses. Also notice that this bill is a bipartisan bill with Democrats in the lead. This increase chances of its success.
Note that though it is a comprehensive immigration reform bill but it does have some positive provisions, which greatly affect us. For example: The effective yearly green cards will be increased from 140K per year to 290K *2.5 = 725K, where 2.5 is the multiplier for spouse and children as they will be exempted from the quota.
In simple terms, priority dates will become current as soon as the bill passes.
Unfortunately, the bill needs to be passed by certain majority and there are three categories of people who will vote on this a) In favor b) Not in favor c) Haven�t decided yet. Category �C� are the ones that need to be convinced to vote in favor of the bill.
One of the goals of the Sep 18th rally is to meet with the category �c� lawmakers and try bringing then on our side. But if our number is not large enough they will most likely be voting Nay and hence defeating the bill.
So think and act�.
Excellent points! All the more reason to attend the DC rally on the 18th!
Note that though it is a comprehensive immigration reform bill but it does have some positive provisions, which greatly affect us. For example: The effective yearly green cards will be increased from 140K per year to 290K *2.5 = 725K, where 2.5 is the multiplier for spouse and children as they will be exempted from the quota.
In simple terms, priority dates will become current as soon as the bill passes.
Unfortunately, the bill needs to be passed by certain majority and there are three categories of people who will vote on this a) In favor b) Not in favor c) Haven�t decided yet. Category �C� are the ones that need to be convinced to vote in favor of the bill.
One of the goals of the Sep 18th rally is to meet with the category �c� lawmakers and try bringing then on our side. But if our number is not large enough they will most likely be voting Nay and hence defeating the bill.
So think and act�.
Excellent points! All the more reason to attend the DC rally on the 18th!
tattoo Cheryl Tweedy
Kodi
07-03 10:49 AM
ROW means Rest Of the World. That's countries other than India, China and Phil.
You're not from the above countries which is probably why you got approved so fast.
You're not from the above countries which is probably why you got approved so fast.
more...
pictures Image: Wallpaper. Cheryl Cole
Catherine
06-27 11:16 PM
Thank you for the information, Tazike. I've heard many conflicting viewpoints on this but none that say you immediately lose your status - I will look into it.
I can say, though, that I've traveled in and out of the US on my green card since the divorce became final, including telling an immigration official that I was now divorced on my most recent return, and yet I have still been allowed back in each time. Perhaps I have just been lucky. Also, I did mention on that last journey that I have a waiver application currently submitted.
Fingers crossed...
I can say, though, that I've traveled in and out of the US on my green card since the divorce became final, including telling an immigration official that I was now divorced on my most recent return, and yet I have still been allowed back in each time. Perhaps I have just been lucky. Also, I did mention on that last journey that I have a waiver application currently submitted.
Fingers crossed...
dresses Photo: Cheryl Cole Wallpapers
TheCanadian
01-22 12:56 AM
Holy it's hard to choose. Now would be a good time to offer me a bribe. Shall we say 75% of the prize money?
more...
makeup Cheryl Cole
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.
girlfriend Cheryl Cole(Wallpaper)
yjprakash
10-20 04:07 PM
I faxed expedite processing request on last Tuesday and sent email to Ombudsman.
there was soft LUD on same day (address change) on my 485 & EAD & AP. Today status changed to card ordered for production. what a relief!!!!!!!!!
but any thing can happen till it comes to my hand
Here is the fax number for NSC 4022196344
I have infopass appointment on 24th. Should I go or cancel that appointment now ???
there was soft LUD on same day (address change) on my 485 & EAD & AP. Today status changed to card ordered for production. what a relief!!!!!!!!!
but any thing can happen till it comes to my hand
Here is the fax number for NSC 4022196344
I have infopass appointment on 24th. Should I go or cancel that appointment now ???
hairstyles Cheryl Cole Photos Pics
devikas81
02-26 11:22 AM
In which state you are practicing as a PT??
pitha
05-22 07:28 PM
I am not sure it says only people who applied for I140 after May 21 retain there priority date. Everybody retains there priority date no matter when they applied for I140.
Since there is a quota, priority date will come into play. That is why the new bill specifies that those who files I-140 after May 21, 2007 and those whose LC are approved or pending will maintain their priority dates. Anyone who files under the new point based system will have their receipt dates as their priority dates.
Since there is a quota, priority date will come into play. That is why the new bill specifies that those who files I-140 after May 21, 2007 and those whose LC are approved or pending will maintain their priority dates. Anyone who files under the new point based system will have their receipt dates as their priority dates.
shirish
09-02 01:54 PM
I am in the same situation. My lawyer sent the application with out medicals one day before the medical reports reached him.
He is saying, he checked with USCIS customer service, that the medicals do expire after 12 months. So i will have to go for medical exam again when i get RFE.
As explained earlier I proactively decided to send in the medicals with a copy of the receipt notices since I didn't want to waste processing time through RFEs and was under the impression that medicals expire in 12-18 mths. However, when I spoke to the lawyer about this she said: "The medicals do not expire any more . . . let's "keep our fingers crossed" that the medicals make it to your files; we usually wait for CIS to send us an RFE, as that way there is a bar code on the cover letter to help get the medical to the examiner who has the file."
She also said that I wouldn't get any receipt notice or anything regarding the submission. So I guess I'll have to keep my fingers crossed.
He is saying, he checked with USCIS customer service, that the medicals do expire after 12 months. So i will have to go for medical exam again when i get RFE.
As explained earlier I proactively decided to send in the medicals with a copy of the receipt notices since I didn't want to waste processing time through RFEs and was under the impression that medicals expire in 12-18 mths. However, when I spoke to the lawyer about this she said: "The medicals do not expire any more . . . let's "keep our fingers crossed" that the medicals make it to your files; we usually wait for CIS to send us an RFE, as that way there is a bar code on the cover letter to help get the medical to the examiner who has the file."
She also said that I wouldn't get any receipt notice or anything regarding the submission. So I guess I'll have to keep my fingers crossed.
