Legal, working and need a green card? It might be a few years
By Alfonso Chardy
McClatchy Newspapers
Monday, January 02, 2007
MIAMI - Michael Bander, a Miami immigration attorney, was discussing how his client could qualify for a green card when he suddenly asked a personal question: "Do you have a boyfriend?"
Monica Rengifo, a 28-year-old Colombian graphic designer, said she did - but back home. Thus her dilemma: Without an American husband, Rengifo may end up waiting years for a green card - stuck in the same job. With a U.S. spouse, she could get a green card in months.
Rengifo is typical of the thousands of foreigners who turn up at the offices of an ever-growing number of immigration attorneys in American cities. They are legal, but they face excessive delays in getting residence or citizenship.
Rigorous background checks, visa caps and applications for visas that exceed U.S. government quotas - all largely the result of an immigrant surge and post-Sept. 11 security restrictions - have rendered the immigration system as complex as the Internal Revenue Code.
While media attention focuses on undocumented immigrants in trouble, legal immigrants face equally daunting obstacles securing green cards or citizenship certificates.
Once a lawyering backwater, immigration has become a thriving legal practice.
"As demographics changed in the U.S. and the demand grew for foreign workers, lawyers followed that demand," said Ira Kurzban, a Miami immigration lawyer. In the 1970s he was one of about 20 immigration lawyers in South Florida. Today there are more than 700.
Even more lawyers are likely to take up the practice if Congress approves comprehensive immigration reform that would legalize most of the nation's more than 12 million undocumented immigrants who could seek green cards or work visas. Bills in Congress also would increase the number of green cards and business visas available to those already legally in the country or waiting abroad.
While most applicants eventually receive a green card, securing the card is no easy task - particularly for business-sponsored immigrants. They have to wait years.
"It's a stupid process," said Tammy Fox-Isicoff, an immigration attorney who specializes in business visas. "It's the reason Miami is losing its status as gateway to the Americas.
"We have created endless delays for obtaining the services of a foreign professional worker."
Fox-Isicoff says companies that would otherwise bring foreign employees to Miami are considering relocation abroad because of visa restrictions.
Recently, more than 900 companies signed a letter warning Congress that unless immigration rules are relaxed the United States will lose the race in an increasingly global economy.
What sparked concern is the growing unavailability of professional business visas and business-sponsored green cards.
"It is estimated that 15 percent of nurses serving sick Americans are foreign-born," said Michael Le Monier, chief executive officer of MedPro Staffing in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., one of the companies that signed the letter. "These professionals are in very short supply and you will see impending shortages of 800,000 to 1,200,000 nurses by 2014."
Family-based immigrant visas for relatives of green-card holders and non-immediate relatives of U.S. citizens fare no better.
Immediate relatives - such as spouses or children - of U.S. citizens, certain Cuban green-card holders and foreign nationals deemed of "extraordinary ability" - such as scientists and artists - generally get faster delivery: roughly six months to a year between application and approval. But all others generally must wait years. If they come from a country where al-Qaida and other terrorist groups operate the wait can be longer, immigration attorney Mazen Sukkar said.
At the heart of the problem is the popularity of the United States. Far more foreign nationals apply for visas than there are visas available.
Rengifo, the Colombian graphic designer, is here on a temporary visa - but her company agreed to sponsor her for a green card.
Trouble is that so many Colombians have applied for green cards that her petition will not be processed for four to five years.
In the meantime, her company must guarantee that she will remain in the same job until her card is approved and that it cannot find a U.S. worker to fill that job.
Rengifo initially agreed to sit tight, but now is having second thoughts.
"Can you imagine? All my friends and colleagues get promoted or get new jobs elsewhere, and I'm stuck here ... frozen in time."
One recent morning, Fox-Isicoff received her morning clients - a Colombian at an air cargo company, an Israeli executive and a German working on a private yacht want green cards - but all have to wait five or six years because of visa overbooking.
"None can believe it will take years to get residence, even if their employers sponsor them," said Fox-Isicoff. "They're upset."
One of Sukkar's clients is still waiting for a green card three years after applying for one under business sponsorship.
David Brennan, a 43-year-old Canadian business executive in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will have to wait at least one more year before he'll get approved because business-sponsored visas have surpassed quotas.
"It's a privilege to get the opportunity to live in America," said Brennan, "but I think the delays are more hurting America."
Brennan said many highly-qualified foreign executives find American immigration rules so inflexible that they fear applying for residence here.
Other immigration lawyers see an increase in clients when leftist leaders rise in Latin America.
Wilfredo Allen, a veteran immigration attorney in Miami, said the number of Venezuelans seeking services at his office has been rising steadily since Hugo Chavez was first elected president in Caracas in 1998.
He expects more Venezuelan clients now that Chavez was re-elected Dec. 3.
"You tell me where a crisis is, where there's a problem and what country and I'll tell you where we get folks from," said Allen, referring to the growing niche in his immigration practice: political hot spots.
A South Florida Haitian couple helped by immigration attorney Andre Pierre recently illustrated the joy that immigrants experience when they finally get their papers.
Eric Hilaire waited five years for his green card. He had expected to receive one sooner because his wife, Annie Noel, is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Finally, on Dec. 5, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer approved Hilaire for residency, stamping his Haitian passport showing he was authorized to work.
"We finally did it!" Hilaire screamed with joy as the couple emerged onto the street, holding hands.
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OBTAINING IMMIGRANT VISAS
Foreign nationals generally can obtain immigrant visas to the United States if a U.S. citizen or U.S. business sponsors them or if they win a green card in an annual lottery.
By law, the number of visas available to prospective immigrants is generally limited annually to 421,000: 226,000 for certain relatives of U.S. citizens and green-card holders, 140,000 for business-sponsored foreign workers and 55,000 for green-card lottery winners.
There is no cap on the number of visas available to foreign nationals who are the immediate relatives - spouses, minor children or parents - of U.S. citizens.
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HOUSE AND SENATE PROPOSALS
Proposals in Congress this year would have increased the number of business visas and green cards.
A Senate bill, for example, would increase the annual number of employment-based green cards from the current 140,000 to 450,000 through fiscal year 2016, and set the limit at 290,000 annually thereafter.
The bill would also increase the number of business visas known as H-1Bs from the current 65,000 per year to 115,000.
Other bills, however, would restrict legal immigration by eliminating the green-card lottery and reducing the number of employment-based immigrant visas. One House bill would reduce annual job-related green cards from 140,000 to 5,200 and only for foreign nationals of "extraordinary ability," such as scientists.
A newly elected Congress will file new legislation in 2007.
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IMMIGRANT VISA BACKLOG
An immigrant visa application is like an airline ticket. Sometimes airlines overbook travelers even when they have their ticket - so they must wait for another flight. For visas, you can qualify and file an application, but that doesn't mean you will be going anywhere soon. That's because thousands of applications exceed visa quotas set by the U.S. government.
Only 226,000 immigrant visas for certain relatives of U.S. citizens and green-card holders and only 140,000 visas for foreign workers sponsored by U.S. businesses are available each year. As a result, a huge immigrant visa backlog has developed.
For example, if a worker in India sponsored by a U.S. business applied for a green card on April 22, 2001, the U.S. Consulate would now be about to process the application.
There are no visa quotas for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, and visas for foreign workers of extraordinary ability are also generally available immediately.
All other categories are backlogged - particularly in China, India, Mexico and the Philippines.
