MeraNaamJoker
08-03 04:47 PM
I got the "card production ordered" email today which probably means that the gc application has been approved.
Here's the info for immigration voice team/users' tracking approvals
my PD is nov 2005.
Receipt date: 7/31/2007
center: nebraska
I got married last year and the lawyers were about to file the follow-to-join application for my wife in the next couple of days. But my application seems to have got approved first. Has anyone been in this situation before?
thanks!
If what I have heard is true, your lawyers made it late.
The Visa bulletin came out almost 4 weeks back. You should have hurried the application in. Check with your lawyer to see is there any special ways to get your app in.
What i will say is hurry it now at least.
Good luck buddy
Here's the info for immigration voice team/users' tracking approvals
my PD is nov 2005.
Receipt date: 7/31/2007
center: nebraska
I got married last year and the lawyers were about to file the follow-to-join application for my wife in the next couple of days. But my application seems to have got approved first. Has anyone been in this situation before?
thanks!
If what I have heard is true, your lawyers made it late.
The Visa bulletin came out almost 4 weeks back. You should have hurried the application in. Check with your lawyer to see is there any special ways to get your app in.
What i will say is hurry it now at least.
Good luck buddy
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gc_kaavaali
07-30 10:08 AM
I just talk to USCIS customer rep..She said it might take beyond 90 days because of too many applications...if my case is still pending within 90 days then only i can go to local office it seems. But USCIS already took final decision on my case so i cannot go to office. But she asked me to try once by taking infopass appointment.
Same for me too!!! i got second e-mail today also. I got another e-mail on july 14th with same content. My EAD expires in 15 days and i am on EAD. I don't know What the hell is going on. I e-filed on May 8th.
Same for me too!!! i got second e-mail today also. I got another e-mail on july 14th with same content. My EAD expires in 15 days and i am on EAD. I don't know What the hell is going on. I e-filed on May 8th.
sbay2006
07-11 10:10 AM
Comments are welcome.
However in order to work on an issue, the push and support must come from members needing it. For that we will need support of Greencard holders who think that this an issue for them and they are willing to participate and support IV to go all the way. Right now we have our hands full with current IV agenda and need to accomplish those with our limited resources
Pappu,
Can you guide us how to take this further. Please send me a message. I will muster required number of folks to make this happen....
However in order to work on an issue, the push and support must come from members needing it. For that we will need support of Greencard holders who think that this an issue for them and they are willing to participate and support IV to go all the way. Right now we have our hands full with current IV agenda and need to accomplish those with our limited resources
Pappu,
Can you guide us how to take this further. Please send me a message. I will muster required number of folks to make this happen....
2011 Cricut Cards | Permalink
subba
12-14 01:49 PM
Is there a reason this field can't be made optional or have an N/A option?
did not know this.
what about people who already have green cards/citizenship but are interested in helping? is there no way for them to register?
we might be losing membership and/or funding there.
maybe open up a separate registration for those members
did not know this.
what about people who already have green cards/citizenship but are interested in helping? is there no way for them to register?
we might be losing membership and/or funding there.
maybe open up a separate registration for those members
more...
mjdup
01-18 04:58 PM
vicks_don...
you made it to 887..
you made it to 887..
anurakt
12-21 01:42 PM
Guys !!
I hope by today night I am poorer by 500$ bucks !! I hope....
I hope by today night I am poorer by 500$ bucks !! I hope....
more...
X-Wing
08-05 01:34 PM
New message on USCIS's site https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/jsps/index.jsp -
Server is currently unavailable or down for maintenance
Server is currently unavailable or down for maintenance
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susie
11-04 10:58 AM
Today is a down day for me, so lets all unite and sort this cr-p out and get our voices heard. I will feel a bit better if I am doing something positive to get change
If a group of us wish to speak together at the same time, lets get something going, so send me a pm with your e-mail address's and phone numbers as we can all chat on line in a chat room I go to, on a set day and time to suit all
If a group of us wish to speak together at the same time, lets get something going, so send me a pm with your e-mail address's and phone numbers as we can all chat on line in a chat room I go to, on a set day and time to suit all
more...
hibhagya
07-21 05:56 PM
TSC
E-Filed on May 27 -2008
FP on June 21-2008
No updates after that.
E-Filed on May 27 -2008
FP on June 21-2008
No updates after that.
hair A Cricut MB addict. The Ideas.
thomachan72
09-03 12:22 PM
Well, asking who Hugh hefner is a cardinal sin for anybody who is a guy... God knows I grew up looking at his creations in a magazine until I met "my bunny".
Asked to choose between "approval" & a visit to the bunnie mansion, i am gonna be so confused.................. about what to wear to the mansion that is ..:D:D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:DHa ha ha very funny indeed. But do you really need be confused? They appreciate the birthday suit!!
Asked to choose between "approval" & a visit to the bunnie mansion, i am gonna be so confused.................. about what to wear to the mansion that is ..:D:D:D:D:D:D
:D:D:DHa ha ha very funny indeed. But do you really need be confused? They appreciate the birthday suit!!
more...
willwin
10-15 09:35 AM
My guess is it will take at least a year for EB3 to move beyond 2004.
If you are saying that EB3 would move from 2001 to 2004 this year, then that is what BharatPremi and I were saying. We should be OK with 3 years movement for EB3.
And, guys don't jump on me, if we accept that 3-4 years for GC is acceptable (though I agree that GC in 6 months would be the vision, dream...), then guys who have filed in 2004 should be patient till 2008 and guys who filed in 2006 should wait till 2010.
The only guys who should worry is those with PDs 2001 and 2002. Again, most of them got cleared in Jun, July this year except those who are stuck in name check and LC in BEC.
If you are saying that EB3 would move from 2001 to 2004 this year, then that is what BharatPremi and I were saying. We should be OK with 3 years movement for EB3.
And, guys don't jump on me, if we accept that 3-4 years for GC is acceptable (though I agree that GC in 6 months would be the vision, dream...), then guys who have filed in 2004 should be patient till 2008 and guys who filed in 2006 should wait till 2010.
The only guys who should worry is those with PDs 2001 and 2002. Again, most of them got cleared in Jun, July this year except those who are stuck in name check and LC in BEC.
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Lalitha
04-10 01:27 PM
Hi, I am currently on H4 visa in US and I have filed my H1B visa in the opened cap this year in April 2007. But I am planning to go back to India this month end. Would like to know if I leave the country my H1B process will get affected?
Thanks,
Lalitha
Thanks,
Lalitha
more...
house (I bet Cricut has a template,
nojoke
01-22 09:41 PM
Slumdog...I totally agree with your view point and in fact share the same. I believe you cannot put your life on hold waiting for GC or something unpredictable. I also agree with you that buying a house is a life style decision. You can live ur life hoarding cash living cheaply or you can live your life well. Also each has its advantages and its a personal choice.
Also on another note I have become a fan of your blogs. I encourage you to write more and I am sure there are other people like me.
That is a cheap shot.
Let me try - Or beg the bank to lower your mortgage.
Also on another note I have become a fan of your blogs. I encourage you to write more and I am sure there are other people like me.
That is a cheap shot.
Let me try - Or beg the bank to lower your mortgage.
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ravi98
04-22 09:24 AM
just an update from my end. I had sent my EAD renewal application to NSC by mistake when it should have gone to Phoenix lockbox. My check was cashed today from Phoenix center, so looks like NSC forwarded my application to the right place.
This is really funny!
You had sent your EAD renewal to NSC and it was sent to Phoenix lock box.....
Read another post for EAD renewal that was sent to Phoenix lock box but got re-routed to NSC........
Where is the info that tells us where exactly to send them? Anyone?
This is really funny!
You had sent your EAD renewal to NSC and it was sent to Phoenix lock box.....
Read another post for EAD renewal that was sent to Phoenix lock box but got re-routed to NSC........
Where is the info that tells us where exactly to send them? Anyone?
more...
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vasa
09-20 11:10 AM
i owe that to kanika... she is the one who was commited and i was doing my part watching kids and making sure that they do have some fun...
this is what they have learnt:
Washin-ton
monu-ment
white house
smith-sonan..
and some more funny names.
and when we went to Hyatt the third time on monday, my daughters says... i dont want to go to mommy's office. :)
cheers vasa
this is what they have learnt:
Washin-ton
monu-ment
white house
smith-sonan..
and some more funny names.
and when we went to Hyatt the third time on monday, my daughters says... i dont want to go to mommy's office. :)
cheers vasa
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Caliber
09-25 09:46 AM
Seeing the way the health care bill is going, none of the EB3 folks are seeing any hope for CIR.
I also do not have hopes on CIR. We really are in hopeless situation.
I also do not have hopes on CIR. We really are in hopeless situation.
more...
makeup Back To Card Ideas
santb1975
04-08 12:11 PM
Thanks for letting me know Chanduv. I will PM him during the day
IV handle 'sertasheep' who is also a core team member Naren, created the group. You may want to email him or PM him just in case.
IV handle 'sertasheep' who is also a core team member Naren, created the group. You may want to email him or PM him just in case.
girlfriend Status: offline, SECOND CARD I
stealthgt
04-08 11:52 AM
How do you know that this year quota finished on first day because of �Indian Companies�? Do you have any proof to support your blame? And what is �Indian consulting firms�? Why is it ok for one group of companies to file for H1 and not ok for another group of companies to file H1? Why is it �UNFAIR� for consulting companies to take large number of H1 quota? Isn�t H1 considered to be for the �best and the brightest�? Wouldn�t it make more useful for the �best and the brightest� to provide solutions to many companies at the same time by working for consulting companies? Why discriminate against consulting industry?
Here is some information that may help you gauge the reality. There is lot of companies in US that would not fit into your definition of �Indian Companies�. These companies have filed for large number of H1s that too would have finished the H1 quota. If it is ok for an H1 employee to work for a shoe making company, then why is it �UNFAIR� for H1 employee to work for a consulting company?
Bottom line is:
1.) There is green card backlog for 6-10 yr. Any company would love to get an insurance policy that an employee will work for them for that long period. So one reason for this quest for H1 is due to delays in green card processing. If someone gets their greencard in 1-2 yrs., H1 visa approval will not get the employers any insurance policy for long term employee. And the demand for H1 due to this factor would subside.
2.) More importantly, even if demand for H1 would subside due to green card processing in 1-2 yr, the fact that unemployment rate is very low will still exist. Unemployment rate is making it hard for companies to find the right people at the right time at the right place. So companies are looking for ways to recruit the necessary talent, wherever that talent is available. IEEE wants all foreign engineers out of the country so that their membership base of engineers here, who do not want to learn new technology, could get the taste of late 90s. So for you to first attack a set of consulting companies and then cheer around the bill hoping that �the changes going to be introduced to fix the system will not screw us and complicate more the immigration process.� is exactly how it is going to play out. Infact, anti-immigrants will come to this site and cut-paste comments like yours into their report to strengthen their argument when they would go out to lobby in favor of this bill. So Best of Luck for your ranting.
For the sake of clarity, I do not work for a consulting company. But I realize that this bill could potentially effect everybody on this forum. Also, I see a racist attitude in this bill against the huge consulting industry. And this negative attitude against consulting industry will have a snow ball effect into rest of the economy and society. I don't think IEEE took that into consideration.
I have no problem with the consulting business. In fact, I had been working on this in my home country. The problem is the way we are or would be affected due of some them are not so transparent immigration practices which are mainly from India.
Let see this case, a company sponsor a large number of H-1B to individuals that does not have real job offer, but look for real jobs after they get approved, while a second person does have a job offer but cannot get it because the H-1B quota was reached very early.
Does this makes those individuals �the best and brightest�, while the second person not?
Knowing that there are very limited H-1B available per year, do you think this situation is FAIR for the second person or his sponsor company?
From last year information, who are the top ten H-1B sponsors? What they have in common, their home country or type of business? And it is not a secret that more than half of the whole H-1B where issued to the top two H-1B sponsor companies combined, and in a very short time. You don�t need to be very bright to figure out what will be their next steps to secure H-1B visas within their company. So I presume that all those top H-1B sponsors will compete again for their piece of cake, but more fiercely.
I have never mention to be in favor or against for any proposed bill. The apparently abuse of the system is what causing all this mess, which are the real more reasons to the anti-immigrant, but not my comments or your comments. For now it look like we will be facing a dilemma, not to be able to apply for the H-1B because the quota is reached before we can accept a job offer, or face stricter and harder rules that probably will make the application almost impossible. I only hope the H-1B can be regulated without impacting us negatively.
Here is some information that may help you gauge the reality. There is lot of companies in US that would not fit into your definition of �Indian Companies�. These companies have filed for large number of H1s that too would have finished the H1 quota. If it is ok for an H1 employee to work for a shoe making company, then why is it �UNFAIR� for H1 employee to work for a consulting company?
Bottom line is:
1.) There is green card backlog for 6-10 yr. Any company would love to get an insurance policy that an employee will work for them for that long period. So one reason for this quest for H1 is due to delays in green card processing. If someone gets their greencard in 1-2 yrs., H1 visa approval will not get the employers any insurance policy for long term employee. And the demand for H1 due to this factor would subside.
2.) More importantly, even if demand for H1 would subside due to green card processing in 1-2 yr, the fact that unemployment rate is very low will still exist. Unemployment rate is making it hard for companies to find the right people at the right time at the right place. So companies are looking for ways to recruit the necessary talent, wherever that talent is available. IEEE wants all foreign engineers out of the country so that their membership base of engineers here, who do not want to learn new technology, could get the taste of late 90s. So for you to first attack a set of consulting companies and then cheer around the bill hoping that �the changes going to be introduced to fix the system will not screw us and complicate more the immigration process.� is exactly how it is going to play out. Infact, anti-immigrants will come to this site and cut-paste comments like yours into their report to strengthen their argument when they would go out to lobby in favor of this bill. So Best of Luck for your ranting.
For the sake of clarity, I do not work for a consulting company. But I realize that this bill could potentially effect everybody on this forum. Also, I see a racist attitude in this bill against the huge consulting industry. And this negative attitude against consulting industry will have a snow ball effect into rest of the economy and society. I don't think IEEE took that into consideration.
I have no problem with the consulting business. In fact, I had been working on this in my home country. The problem is the way we are or would be affected due of some them are not so transparent immigration practices which are mainly from India.
Let see this case, a company sponsor a large number of H-1B to individuals that does not have real job offer, but look for real jobs after they get approved, while a second person does have a job offer but cannot get it because the H-1B quota was reached very early.
Does this makes those individuals �the best and brightest�, while the second person not?
Knowing that there are very limited H-1B available per year, do you think this situation is FAIR for the second person or his sponsor company?
From last year information, who are the top ten H-1B sponsors? What they have in common, their home country or type of business? And it is not a secret that more than half of the whole H-1B where issued to the top two H-1B sponsor companies combined, and in a very short time. You don�t need to be very bright to figure out what will be their next steps to secure H-1B visas within their company. So I presume that all those top H-1B sponsors will compete again for their piece of cake, but more fiercely.
I have never mention to be in favor or against for any proposed bill. The apparently abuse of the system is what causing all this mess, which are the real more reasons to the anti-immigrant, but not my comments or your comments. For now it look like we will be facing a dilemma, not to be able to apply for the H-1B because the quota is reached before we can accept a job offer, or face stricter and harder rules that probably will make the application almost impossible. I only hope the H-1B can be regulated without impacting us negatively.
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mrajatish
10-05 04:17 PM
I do not understand how dates for India will get worse by processing July/August apps - mostly applicants with Pri dates after June 2003 (EB3) or Apr 2004 (EB2) applied in July/August.
I would say dates would get worse once they process June folks.
I would say dates would get worse once they process June folks.
srinivasa
04-19 07:27 PM
he didnot apply new H1.my wife came to u.s.a on april 2 and he took the i-94 and
he has applied for transfer to the old H1(2005 one for which stamping was no done)with i-94 attached
he has applied for transfer to the old H1(2005 one for which stamping was no done)with i-94 attached
apnair2002
06-19 07:36 AM
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/19/IMMIG.TMP
When Alfonso Farf�n fell in love with an old family friend in 2002, he set out to bring his sweetheart and her two children home with him.
But nothing has gone as planned. After waiting a year for a fiancee visa for her to move here from El Salvador, he learned the paperwork had been lost.
The new application was delayed two years because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services kept using an old address for Farf�n, married now to Elizabeth Farf�n, although he had twice updated their records. And when the family's green cards arrived six weeks ago, one was missing.
"I wanted to scream," said Farf�n, a paralegal at an Oakland immigrant assistance center, recalling the day he learned the U.S. CIS had lost the $1,500 application. "But you can't,'' said. "You just have to work harder, save more money and submit a new application."
Legally immigrating to this country can be a gut-wrenching, years-long ordeal. Administrative errors, protracted security checks -- which have lengthened markedly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks -- and bad information routinely cause heartache. Immigrants and immigration lawyers say applications sometimes go into a "black hole" from which no case updates emanate.
"What's going on in Congress right now is still an add-on to an essentially outdated and overly complex, throwback system ... written in the 1950s and amended in 1965," said former immigration agency chief Doris Meissner, who is now senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. "The statutes are just hopelessly complicated and convoluted. ... It surely shouldn't have to be such an unpleasant and harrowing experience."
No plan under consideration will fundamentally overhaul the country's cobbled-together immigration law, which lawyers say rivals only the tax code in complexity.
Many legal immigrants have worried that immigration reforms proposed in Congress will allow some of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to skip this nerve-wracking process. But the bill the Senate passed last month could actually help the 3 million people currently in line for lawful permanent residence documents, or "green cards," to get them more easily. And those familiar with the bill say no illegal immigrant will get to cut into the line for a green card.
In addition to allowing several million undocumented immigrants to apply for temporary work visas and eventually permanent residence, the bill would make more green cards available overall.
But the proposal faces a tough battle in a forthcoming conference committee that will attempt to reconcile it with the immigration bill passed by the House in December. The House bill would criminalize illegal immigration and beef up immigration enforcement but makes no provision for new green cards.
Immigration advocates hope the additional green cards will, if the Senate bill becomes law, ease backlogs. The bill also could help the U.S.CIS improve its services because it will receive the new fines to be paid by undocumented immigrants adjusting to legal status. But it is not likely to address security bottlenecks or the lack of an integrated immigration computer system.
"It would be nice for them to get into the 20th century, let alone the 21st," said Crystal Williams, deputy director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, D.C. "Everything is done by paper right now. We have the problem of paper being shifted back and forth around the country. Virtually nothing is done electronically."
The National Foundation for American Policy in Washington, D.C., reported last month that skilled workers must now wait more than five years for a green card and, in spite of recent progress, the backlogs are as long as they always have been for some categories of family-sponsored visas.
Filipino siblings of U.S. citizens still can expect to wait 22 years to immigrate. Adult children of U.S. citizens in Mexico will wait 13 years. And then there are the indignities:
-- Visitors to San Francisco's immigration office must pay nearby deli and copy shop workers $5 to hold their cell phones because they are forbidden in the building.
-- People seeking visas from abroad must pay $18 each time they schedule an appointment or check on their case.
-- People renewing temporary skilled-worker visas must return to their home countries, sometimes at a cost of thousands of dollars in airfare, to obtain the visa stamp in their passports that allows them to travel. "It really is Kafkaesque," said Susan Bowyer, managing attorney at the International Institute of the East Bay. "All the power is in the immigration service's hands, because the burden is on the applicant to show by clear and convincing evidence that they're eligible."
Bowyer recalled the case of a Tongan woman who won the "diversity lottery," a program to admit 50,000 people a year from countries that don't produce many immigrants to the United States. She had to forgo her spot because she couldn't prove to she had completed high school after the small religious institution folded.
A Salvadoran woman who petitioned in 1992 to bring her brother and his family from El Salvador saw the case summarily closed after a 12-year wait, Bowyer said, because a government clerk thought a note on a document saying the man was already here on a visit meant the family no longer wanted to immigrate.
Williams, of the immigration lawyers association, estimated that major errors like this occur in up to 10 percent of cases. Occasionally, the errors affect large numbers of people, she said. U.S.CIS recently rescinded 10,000 fiancee visas after realizing it hadn't asked about the citizen petitioners' criminal histories.
Simple matters, like getting the immigration service to keep track of a changed address, fail more often, said San Francisco attorney Angela Moore, chair of the Northern California chapter of the immigration lawyers group. When mail is returned to the agency, applicants can miss hearings or have their green cards destroyed, which means paying $260 for a replacement.
"I would guess it's at least 20 to 30 percent of the time," said Moore. "It's not infrequent at all."
Strict formulas that limit the number of immigrants from any one country and the order of preference by which relatives can apply for reunification can cause decades-long delays. That and the lack of green cards or even temporary visas for low-skilled immigrants promote illegal migration, said Traci Hong, director of immigration programs, Asian American Justice Center in Washington, D.C.
But the Senate's plan to offer permanent residence to millions of undocumented immigrants strikes a raw nerve with many people who came here legally.
"Part of my frustration is to hear illegal immigrants called immigrants when I'm called an alien. I'm doing things right, but I'm still called an alien," said French-born Florence Ahlouche, who has spent nine years in the United States. "If I lose my job tomorrow, my reward is a ticket back home."
First an au pair, then a student and now working on an H1B visa as a contracts administrator for a Foster City biotech company, Ahlouche longs to put down roots here in the country where she came of age. She began the green card application two years ago and expects to wait two or three more years, but she's concerned that a legalization program would let the undocumented jump ahead of her in line.
Others see a glimmer of hope in offering legal status to illegal immigrants. Kondala Rao Palaka, an Indian citizen who has lived in the United States for 16 years as a student and then an H1B worker, just got his green card last month, after a four-year wait. But his wife is still waiting for hers.
"These are hardworking people, just looking for a better life," said Palaka, a Fremont resident. "And because of their efforts, their demonstrations and lobbying, if Congress decides to allow them into the line, that will help people who are already waiting. It will mean they have to keep the line moving."
Immigration experts say that's precisely what would happen if the Senate bill becomes law. The increase in green cards is expected to eliminate all backlogs within six years, and everyone who has a pending application would be taken care of before any undocumented immigrant gets a green card.
But some immigration observers say making life easier for would-be immigrants should not be the government's first priority. Yeh Ling Ling, director of the Oakland-based Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America and herself an immigrant from Vietnam, believes the United States lacks the resources to absorb more immigrants. She opposes the Senate bill, both for its expansion of legal immigration and for its offer of legal residence to illegal immigrants.
"If the Senate amnesty bill becomes law, we can expect 12 million illegal aliens to apply and, once naturalized, they can bring in their family members, spouses and children," said Yeh. "You cannot invite people to your house for dinner if some of your kids are starving."
When Alfonso Farf�n fell in love with an old family friend in 2002, he set out to bring his sweetheart and her two children home with him.
But nothing has gone as planned. After waiting a year for a fiancee visa for her to move here from El Salvador, he learned the paperwork had been lost.
The new application was delayed two years because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services kept using an old address for Farf�n, married now to Elizabeth Farf�n, although he had twice updated their records. And when the family's green cards arrived six weeks ago, one was missing.
"I wanted to scream," said Farf�n, a paralegal at an Oakland immigrant assistance center, recalling the day he learned the U.S. CIS had lost the $1,500 application. "But you can't,'' said. "You just have to work harder, save more money and submit a new application."
Legally immigrating to this country can be a gut-wrenching, years-long ordeal. Administrative errors, protracted security checks -- which have lengthened markedly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks -- and bad information routinely cause heartache. Immigrants and immigration lawyers say applications sometimes go into a "black hole" from which no case updates emanate.
"What's going on in Congress right now is still an add-on to an essentially outdated and overly complex, throwback system ... written in the 1950s and amended in 1965," said former immigration agency chief Doris Meissner, who is now senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. "The statutes are just hopelessly complicated and convoluted. ... It surely shouldn't have to be such an unpleasant and harrowing experience."
No plan under consideration will fundamentally overhaul the country's cobbled-together immigration law, which lawyers say rivals only the tax code in complexity.
Many legal immigrants have worried that immigration reforms proposed in Congress will allow some of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to skip this nerve-wracking process. But the bill the Senate passed last month could actually help the 3 million people currently in line for lawful permanent residence documents, or "green cards," to get them more easily. And those familiar with the bill say no illegal immigrant will get to cut into the line for a green card.
In addition to allowing several million undocumented immigrants to apply for temporary work visas and eventually permanent residence, the bill would make more green cards available overall.
But the proposal faces a tough battle in a forthcoming conference committee that will attempt to reconcile it with the immigration bill passed by the House in December. The House bill would criminalize illegal immigration and beef up immigration enforcement but makes no provision for new green cards.
Immigration advocates hope the additional green cards will, if the Senate bill becomes law, ease backlogs. The bill also could help the U.S.CIS improve its services because it will receive the new fines to be paid by undocumented immigrants adjusting to legal status. But it is not likely to address security bottlenecks or the lack of an integrated immigration computer system.
"It would be nice for them to get into the 20th century, let alone the 21st," said Crystal Williams, deputy director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, D.C. "Everything is done by paper right now. We have the problem of paper being shifted back and forth around the country. Virtually nothing is done electronically."
The National Foundation for American Policy in Washington, D.C., reported last month that skilled workers must now wait more than five years for a green card and, in spite of recent progress, the backlogs are as long as they always have been for some categories of family-sponsored visas.
Filipino siblings of U.S. citizens still can expect to wait 22 years to immigrate. Adult children of U.S. citizens in Mexico will wait 13 years. And then there are the indignities:
-- Visitors to San Francisco's immigration office must pay nearby deli and copy shop workers $5 to hold their cell phones because they are forbidden in the building.
-- People seeking visas from abroad must pay $18 each time they schedule an appointment or check on their case.
-- People renewing temporary skilled-worker visas must return to their home countries, sometimes at a cost of thousands of dollars in airfare, to obtain the visa stamp in their passports that allows them to travel. "It really is Kafkaesque," said Susan Bowyer, managing attorney at the International Institute of the East Bay. "All the power is in the immigration service's hands, because the burden is on the applicant to show by clear and convincing evidence that they're eligible."
Bowyer recalled the case of a Tongan woman who won the "diversity lottery," a program to admit 50,000 people a year from countries that don't produce many immigrants to the United States. She had to forgo her spot because she couldn't prove to she had completed high school after the small religious institution folded.
A Salvadoran woman who petitioned in 1992 to bring her brother and his family from El Salvador saw the case summarily closed after a 12-year wait, Bowyer said, because a government clerk thought a note on a document saying the man was already here on a visit meant the family no longer wanted to immigrate.
Williams, of the immigration lawyers association, estimated that major errors like this occur in up to 10 percent of cases. Occasionally, the errors affect large numbers of people, she said. U.S.CIS recently rescinded 10,000 fiancee visas after realizing it hadn't asked about the citizen petitioners' criminal histories.
Simple matters, like getting the immigration service to keep track of a changed address, fail more often, said San Francisco attorney Angela Moore, chair of the Northern California chapter of the immigration lawyers group. When mail is returned to the agency, applicants can miss hearings or have their green cards destroyed, which means paying $260 for a replacement.
"I would guess it's at least 20 to 30 percent of the time," said Moore. "It's not infrequent at all."
Strict formulas that limit the number of immigrants from any one country and the order of preference by which relatives can apply for reunification can cause decades-long delays. That and the lack of green cards or even temporary visas for low-skilled immigrants promote illegal migration, said Traci Hong, director of immigration programs, Asian American Justice Center in Washington, D.C.
But the Senate's plan to offer permanent residence to millions of undocumented immigrants strikes a raw nerve with many people who came here legally.
"Part of my frustration is to hear illegal immigrants called immigrants when I'm called an alien. I'm doing things right, but I'm still called an alien," said French-born Florence Ahlouche, who has spent nine years in the United States. "If I lose my job tomorrow, my reward is a ticket back home."
First an au pair, then a student and now working on an H1B visa as a contracts administrator for a Foster City biotech company, Ahlouche longs to put down roots here in the country where she came of age. She began the green card application two years ago and expects to wait two or three more years, but she's concerned that a legalization program would let the undocumented jump ahead of her in line.
Others see a glimmer of hope in offering legal status to illegal immigrants. Kondala Rao Palaka, an Indian citizen who has lived in the United States for 16 years as a student and then an H1B worker, just got his green card last month, after a four-year wait. But his wife is still waiting for hers.
"These are hardworking people, just looking for a better life," said Palaka, a Fremont resident. "And because of their efforts, their demonstrations and lobbying, if Congress decides to allow them into the line, that will help people who are already waiting. It will mean they have to keep the line moving."
Immigration experts say that's precisely what would happen if the Senate bill becomes law. The increase in green cards is expected to eliminate all backlogs within six years, and everyone who has a pending application would be taken care of before any undocumented immigrant gets a green card.
But some immigration observers say making life easier for would-be immigrants should not be the government's first priority. Yeh Ling Ling, director of the Oakland-based Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America and herself an immigrant from Vietnam, believes the United States lacks the resources to absorb more immigrants. She opposes the Senate bill, both for its expansion of legal immigration and for its offer of legal residence to illegal immigrants.
"If the Senate amnesty bill becomes law, we can expect 12 million illegal aliens to apply and, once naturalized, they can bring in their family members, spouses and children," said Yeh. "You cannot invite people to your house for dinner if some of your kids are starving."