newbee7
07-05 01:05 AM
From 07 report:
Case Problem Processing
1. How to Submit A Case Problem
The Ombudsman�s website, www.dhs.gov/cisombudsman, provides detailed information on how to submit a case problem:
First, please write a letter or use DHS Form 7001, which was accessible on the Ombudsman�s website as of June 6, 2007. If writing a letter, please provide the following information in the order below to assist in identifying your case.
� For the person with the case problem, please provide the person�s: (1) full name; (2) address; (3) date of birth; (4) country of birth; (5) application/petition receipt number; and (6) �A� number;
� The USCIS office at which the application/petition was filed;
� The filing date of the application/petition; and
� A description of the problem.
Finally, please mail your case problem, including your dated and signed letter and copies of documents relevant to your case inquiry, to either of the following addresses:
Via regular mail:
Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman
ATTN: Case Problems
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Mail Stop 1225
Washington, D.C. 20528-1225
Via courier service:
Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman
ATTN: Case Problems
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
245 Murray Lane
Washington, D.C. 20528-1225
Case Problem Processing
1. How to Submit A Case Problem
The Ombudsman�s website, www.dhs.gov/cisombudsman, provides detailed information on how to submit a case problem:
First, please write a letter or use DHS Form 7001, which was accessible on the Ombudsman�s website as of June 6, 2007. If writing a letter, please provide the following information in the order below to assist in identifying your case.
� For the person with the case problem, please provide the person�s: (1) full name; (2) address; (3) date of birth; (4) country of birth; (5) application/petition receipt number; and (6) �A� number;
� The USCIS office at which the application/petition was filed;
� The filing date of the application/petition; and
� A description of the problem.
Finally, please mail your case problem, including your dated and signed letter and copies of documents relevant to your case inquiry, to either of the following addresses:
Via regular mail:
Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman
ATTN: Case Problems
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Mail Stop 1225
Washington, D.C. 20528-1225
Via courier service:
Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman
ATTN: Case Problems
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
245 Murray Lane
Washington, D.C. 20528-1225
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neerajkandhari
06-04 07:47 AM
CIS should not have asked for an Affidavit of Support, but the other documents are normal. It is not unheard of for employment-based I-485 applicants to be interviewed, but usually they are not called if the priority date is not current. CIS might have confused your case with a family matter. However, you should attend the interview, and send all documents they request except the I-864. You can explain that an Aff. of Support should not be required in an EB case.
I have recently left my job I have another job offer with the same position and same and higher salary can they pay me via 1099
I had my wife start a business can i work in the same position in her business with same or higher salary can i do 1099 instead of W2
please Advice
I have recently left my job I have another job offer with the same position and same and higher salary can they pay me via 1099
I had my wife start a business can i work in the same position in her business with same or higher salary can i do 1099 instead of W2
please Advice
posmd
11-12 11:51 AM
I have looked at your link and to be sure this is an inspiring human being. As are pretty much all of the nominated CNN heros. That said, I want to make a point that I think should make people take pause.
This is firstly an immigration website. It is certainly not a ethnocentric website. IV leadership have gone to extraordinary lengths over the years to emphasize this. Yet people keep posting such requests to give the impression to all that it is Indocentric. It harms the cause.
Finally, if you are asking people to vote because he is the most deserving as CNN hero that would be one thing. If on the other hand as all the evidence suggests you are asking folks to vote because he is Indian, then I am afraid it speaks more to prejudice than anything else.
I am saying this because I hope it makes everyone think about it.
This is firstly an immigration website. It is certainly not a ethnocentric website. IV leadership have gone to extraordinary lengths over the years to emphasize this. Yet people keep posting such requests to give the impression to all that it is Indocentric. It harms the cause.
Finally, if you are asking people to vote because he is the most deserving as CNN hero that would be one thing. If on the other hand as all the evidence suggests you are asking folks to vote because he is Indian, then I am afraid it speaks more to prejudice than anything else.
I am saying this because I hope it makes everyone think about it.
2011 makeup Pictures of Cameron Diaz in cameron diaz cosmopolitan cover 2011.
sagar_nyc
01-30 11:11 AM
I am hearing lot of cases about H1 extension denial. My advise to people is that if you have option to work on EAD please do so. I think because of current economic condition extention is becoming difficult
Hello Sac-r-ten,
Thanx a lot for your compliment. I had been following this forum online since 2007 july fiasco & this forum had given me lot of knowledge & helped me out to make the right decission whenever I was underguided or misguided by lawyers (very unfortunate though that we spend a lot on fee to give such professional people). I will always try to do my best if my knowledge can help any person like me who falls as a pray in the hands of immigration people.
Anyways, if you don't mind, can you pls. explain the reason on what basis did they deny your I-140 application. You did mention on education basis, but can you pls. elaborate the reason. I am really tensed about it at my I-140 is pending since more then 2.5 years now. I also received an RFE on it & havn't heard about it since then.
Your input might help me. Thank you in advance
Hello Sac-r-ten,
Thanx a lot for your compliment. I had been following this forum online since 2007 july fiasco & this forum had given me lot of knowledge & helped me out to make the right decission whenever I was underguided or misguided by lawyers (very unfortunate though that we spend a lot on fee to give such professional people). I will always try to do my best if my knowledge can help any person like me who falls as a pray in the hands of immigration people.
Anyways, if you don't mind, can you pls. explain the reason on what basis did they deny your I-140 application. You did mention on education basis, but can you pls. elaborate the reason. I am really tensed about it at my I-140 is pending since more then 2.5 years now. I also received an RFE on it & havn't heard about it since then.
Your input might help me. Thank you in advance
more...
the_jaguar
03-25 10:49 PM
gap between your company A exit date and the date they withdrew your I140?
As per law,, they should not do it for 6 months old approved I140 ?
As I posted earlier, I had left Company A before the I-140 approval, so I don't really know how long they waited before withdrawing the approved I-140.
Are you sure that there is a law regarding the 6 month period? AFAIK, this only applies when you have filed you I-1485. If it's prior to that, AC-21 doesn't apply...
As per law,, they should not do it for 6 months old approved I140 ?
As I posted earlier, I had left Company A before the I-140 approval, so I don't really know how long they waited before withdrawing the approved I-140.
Are you sure that there is a law regarding the 6 month period? AFAIK, this only applies when you have filed you I-1485. If it's prior to that, AC-21 doesn't apply...
vinzak
06-17 12:45 PM
I'm not a lawyer so please don't take my thoughts as the ultimate truth.
It's illegal for you to work on an F1. But it's not illegal for you to be a sleeping partner in a business. So I guess you can setup a company with a citizen/GC partner and sell yr app thru that and collect the proceeds as dividends.
Or you can also register a company in your home country and sell the app through that. So technically u wouldn't be making money in the US.
There are a million ways around these laws. The question is are you gonna make a lot of money? If you are, you can afford lawyers up the wazoo to make yr case.
So pursue yr dreams and stop worrying about silly things like immigration laws if you have a big idea.
For inspiration, look up Phillipe Kahn on wiki. He started working as an illegal immigrant programmer for HP, and became one of the greatest forces in software.
Hope that helps.
It's illegal for you to work on an F1. But it's not illegal for you to be a sleeping partner in a business. So I guess you can setup a company with a citizen/GC partner and sell yr app thru that and collect the proceeds as dividends.
Or you can also register a company in your home country and sell the app through that. So technically u wouldn't be making money in the US.
There are a million ways around these laws. The question is are you gonna make a lot of money? If you are, you can afford lawyers up the wazoo to make yr case.
So pursue yr dreams and stop worrying about silly things like immigration laws if you have a big idea.
For inspiration, look up Phillipe Kahn on wiki. He started working as an illegal immigrant programmer for HP, and became one of the greatest forces in software.
Hope that helps.
more...
VenuK
07-15 08:09 PM
any advices pls....
2010 Cameron Diaz Cosmopolitan US
leoindiano
01-31 10:35 AM
I had this experience before in Pennsylvania, same single bed room, had a PC, fridge, thats pretty much it...
Apartment management said, check with power company. Power company said the apartment have insulation problems. There are quite a few reasons why this may happen..
1) Location of apartment, corner, ground level
2) Old equipment, like washer/dryer, bad insulation
3) Normally in northern states winter power rates are more almost 2.5 times....
the highest i got was $350 dollars at that time, that was in 2004....
Apartment management said, check with power company. Power company said the apartment have insulation problems. There are quite a few reasons why this may happen..
1) Location of apartment, corner, ground level
2) Old equipment, like washer/dryer, bad insulation
3) Normally in northern states winter power rates are more almost 2.5 times....
the highest i got was $350 dollars at that time, that was in 2004....
more...
Joybose
08-10 04:50 PM
Guys,
I am happy to share with you all that I applied my 485 on 1 week of June and it got approved today.
My PD was dec 2005. eb3. India.
Thought i would share with you all.:)
You applied in June 2007 and you got approved in two months? that is awesome, which service center?
I am happy to share with you all that I applied my 485 on 1 week of June and it got approved today.
My PD was dec 2005. eb3. India.
Thought i would share with you all.:)
You applied in June 2007 and you got approved in two months? that is awesome, which service center?
hair Cameron Diaz Cosmopolitan US
krishnam70
05-08 01:47 PM
Thank you
Subscription Payment Sent (Unique Transaction ID #82G15598SR169690U)
In reference to: S-4UL2252729966384J
-cheers
kris
Subscription Payment Sent (Unique Transaction ID #82G15598SR169690U)
In reference to: S-4UL2252729966384J
-cheers
kris
more...
CantLeaveAmerica
12-08 05:37 PM
not a redundant mail..just their process.
I got the CPO email on Oct 22, a welcome notice in my email on oct 24, actual welcome notices in my snail mail on oct 27 and the actual cards on Oct 30...so it took me 8 to 9 days to get the physical cards.
I'd say wait till you get the cards in your hand before you travel if you can..it's a different feeling :)
I got the CPO email on Oct 22, a welcome notice in my email on oct 24, actual welcome notices in my snail mail on oct 27 and the actual cards on Oct 30...so it took me 8 to 9 days to get the physical cards.
I'd say wait till you get the cards in your hand before you travel if you can..it's a different feeling :)
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GCStatus
09-03 10:26 PM
My PD is current - Going for consular processing a good idea?
more...
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binadh
07-12 01:52 PM
On the second thought --- Do you think PR or Citizen Desi's are for us? Any thoughts?
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pappu
09-09 09:45 PM
Dear Members,
IV recommends that you wear IV T shirts for the Rally.
Here is a link to buy IV T-Shirts for the rally.
http://www.cafepress.com/immivoice/
If you are participating in the rally, please buy your IV-Shirt today. It would be help to convey the message if all the rally participants are wearing IV T-shirts. It would be even better if the T-Shirt would have the name of the State where you reside. IV volunteers have worked very hard to create the designs and products at IV merchandise shop. Check it out:
http://www.cafepress.com/immivoice/3465245
Pls start buying as soon as possible so that the T shirts can be shipped to your home before you come for the rally.
IV recommends that you wear IV T shirts for the Rally.
Here is a link to buy IV T-Shirts for the rally.
http://www.cafepress.com/immivoice/
If you are participating in the rally, please buy your IV-Shirt today. It would be help to convey the message if all the rally participants are wearing IV T-shirts. It would be even better if the T-Shirt would have the name of the State where you reside. IV volunteers have worked very hard to create the designs and products at IV merchandise shop. Check it out:
http://www.cafepress.com/immivoice/3465245
Pls start buying as soon as possible so that the T shirts can be shipped to your home before you come for the rally.
more...
pictures 2010 dresses Cameron Diaz
abhi_jais
12-04 03:24 PM
Bharmohan and Mukesh:
What happened to your case? Is it still pending or you got it stamped?
Please let us know.
What happened to your case? Is it still pending or you got it stamped?
Please let us know.
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bushman06
08-20 06:43 PM
I have travelled on an about to expire passport. It US immigration officer was nice and asked to promise him that I would renew my passport as soon as I got home.
more...
makeup Cameron Diaz Maxim 8
kapoorg
06-21 02:04 PM
Hi,
I am in a similar situation. I am in US on B1 visa and accidently damaged my passport.
Both my passport and I-94 are mutilated. Duplicate passport takes 6-8 weeks and I-102 takes close to 3 months.
What should I do? My exit date as per I-94 is Aug,25th.
Vinay,
Can you please tell me how did you manage to get duplicate passport in such a short time?
Regards,
Gaurav Kapoor
I am in a similar situation. I am in US on B1 visa and accidently damaged my passport.
Both my passport and I-94 are mutilated. Duplicate passport takes 6-8 weeks and I-102 takes close to 3 months.
What should I do? My exit date as per I-94 is Aug,25th.
Vinay,
Can you please tell me how did you manage to get duplicate passport in such a short time?
Regards,
Gaurav Kapoor
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little_willy
08-08 06:07 PM
Did you try getting this info from IV tracker?
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purgan
11-11 10:32 AM
Randell,
Congratulations on getting the attention of the Times, and your tireless efforts in spreading word of the broken legal immigration system.
===
New York Times
Immigration, a Love Story
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/fashion/12green.html
WHEN Kenneth Harrell Jr., an Assemblies of God minister in South Carolina, invited Gricelda Molina to join his Spanish ministry in 2000, it didn’t take him long to realize he had found the woman he had been waiting for. On the telephone and during romantic strolls they talked about their goals, their commitment to God and how many children each would like to have. Six months flew by, and he asked her to marry him.
“She’s a beautiful woman with a beautiful spirit, very gentle, very sincere,” Mr. Harrell said. But Ms. Molina, a factory worker, was also an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, who had crossed into the United States twice, having once been deported. Mr. Harrell, the pastor of Airport Assembly of God church in West Columbia, said he was not too concerned. “Whatever came, we would walk through this path together,” he said.
Mr. Harrell and Ms. Molina, both 35, married in 2001, in a large wedding attended by family from both sides and blessed by pastors in English and Spanish. But the Harrells no longer live together, not because of divorce, but because Mrs. Harrell, now the mother of two sons and four months pregnant with their third child, has been deported. She had applied for legal residency, or a green card, with her new husband as her sponsor, Mr. Harrell said, but she was sent back to Honduras 20 months ago because of her illegal entries and told she would have to wait 10 years to try again.
“Illegals are pouring over the border,” said Mr. Harrell, who has visited his family five times. “We meet them, we fall in love with them, we marry them. And then the government tears your family apart, and they take no responsibility for letting them in, in the first place.”
Falling in love and marching toward marriage is not always easy, but a particular brand of heartache and hardship can await when one of the partners is in this country illegally. The uncertainty of such a union has only been heightened by the national debate over illegal immigration. Whether the new Democratic leadership in Congress will help people like the Harrells remains to be seen.
It is hard to quantify how many people find themselves in Mr. Harrell’s situation, but with stepped-up enforcement in recent years, deportations have increased, and so have fears of losing a loved one in that way. (There were 168,310 removals in 2005, compared with 108,000 in 2000, immigration officials said.)
And that is only one byproduct of love between two people with such uneven places in society, immigration lawyers say. Many relationships strain under the financial burden of hiring lawyers for what can turn into years of visiting government offices, producing pictures, tax records and other evidence of a legitimate marriage in the quest for legalization. And while instances of immigrants faking love for a green card are in the minority, according to immigration officials, some couples feel pressure to marry before they are ready, hoping that marriage will prevent a loved one’s deportation.
Raul Godinez, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles, said: “I ask people, ‘How much do you love this person? Because immigration is going to test your marriage.’ If you don’t feel it’s going to be a strong marriage, I wouldn’t do it.”
Many people may still believe that obtaining legal status through marriage is easy, because of periodic reports of marriage scams. In a three-year investigation called Operation Newlywed Game, immigration and customs enforcement agents caught more than 40 suspects in California for allegedly orchestrating sham marriages between hundreds of Chinese or Vietnamese nationals and United States citizens. But such fraud occurs in only a minority of cases, federal officials said.
In reality, immigration lawyers said, marrying a citizen does not automatically entitle the spouse to a green card and is only the first step in a long bureaucratic journey. The lawyers noted that changes in the law in the last five years have made this legalization path increasingly difficult, one worth choosing only if true love is at stake. (Other routes include sponsorship by immediate family members or an employer.)
The Harrells said they had no idea how difficult it could be and were shocked when Mrs. Harrell’s application for permanent residence was turned down, leaving them only 12 days to prepare for her departure. In that time, Mr. Harrell said, they decided that the children, now 4 and 3, would go with her. So Mr. Harrell obtained passports for them, and the church held a farewell service.
“It was very traumatic,” he said. “Our whole world was crashing around us.”
In Yoro, in north central Honduras, where Mrs. Harrell and the children live with her parents, she said the older boy constantly asks for his father, begging, “Let’s go to my papa’s house.” She has coped with her own dejection, too. “I know how much work he has over there,” she said by telephone. “He needs his wife.”
But even in the best of circumstances, when an immigrant enters the country legally, couples may have to rearrange their lives and defer their dreams.
Paola Emery, a jewelry designer, and her husband, Randall Emery, a computer consultant in Philadelphia, said they delayed having children and buying a house for the nearly four years it took the government to complete a background check for Mrs. Emery, who had entered the country from Colombia with a tourist visa and applied for permanent residency after they married in 2002.
Mrs. Emery, 27, said lawyers advised them it was not wise for her to risk trouble by visiting her close-knit family in Colombia and then trying to re-enter this country. She said she was absent through weddings, illnesses and even the kidnapping and rescue of an uncle.
“I felt like I was in jail,” Mrs. Emery said.
Officials with the Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Homeland Security Department say that delays lasting years are rare, but some immigration lawyers say they see clients who wait three to four years for security clearance. Mrs. Emery and her husband, 34, sued Homeland Security over the delays, and she was finally cleared last May. By then Mr. Emery had helped form American Families United, a group of citizens who have sponsored immediate family members for immigration, and which advocates immigration-law change to keep families together. Immigration Services officials say they are not out to impede love or immigration. Nearly 260,000 spouses of citizens received permanent residency through marriage last year, out of 1.1 million people who became permanent residents, according to the Immigration Services office. “The goal is to give people who are eligible the benefit,” said Marie T. Sebrechts, its spokeswoman in Southern California. She said the agency does not comment on individual cases.
When a legal immigrant is sponsored by an American spouse, she said, the green card can be obtained in as little as six months. But with complications like an illegal entry, laws are not that benevolent, Ms. Sebrechts said. In those cases, the immigrant usually must return to the home country and wait 3 to 10 years to apply for residency, though waivers are sometimes granted.
Such obstacles are far from the minds of couples when they meet. And for some, so is the idea to question whether the beloved feels equally in love with them.
Sharyn T. Sooho, a divorce lawyer and a founder of divorcenet.com, a Web site for divorcing couples, said she has represented American spouses who realized too late that the person they married was more interested in a green card than in living happily ever after. “They feel conflicted, used and abused,” she said. “It’s a quick marriage, and suddenly the person who was so sweet is turning into a nightmare.”
But more often, said Carlina Tapia-Ruano, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, couples marry before they are ready because “there’s fear that if you don’t do this, somebody is going to get deported.”
Krystal Rivera, 18, a college student in Los Angeles, and her boyfriend fall into this group. Ms. Rivera is set on marrying in April 2008, even as she worries that it may put too much pressure on the relationship.
“I never wanted to follow the Hispanic ritual of getting married early,” said Ms. Rivera, a native of Los Angeles whose parents emigrated from Mexico.
She said she fell in love at 13 with a Mexican-born boy who sang in the church choir with her. “He started poking me, and I said ‘Stop it!’ ” she remembered.
Ms. Rivera is still in love with the boy, now 19, who was brought into the country illegally by his mother when he was 12. He goes to college and wants to become a teacher, while she hopes to become a doctor.
But for those plans to work, Ms. Rivera said, she needs to help him legalize his status. She said she has witnessed his frustration as he dealt with employers who didn’t pay what they owed him or struggled to find better jobs than his current one as a line cook. Because of his illegal status, he is unable to get a driver’s license or visit the brothers he left in Mexico. “We want to be normal,” Ms. Rivera said.
The Harrells, too, have decided to take charge. After months of exploring how to reunite the family and spending thousands of dollars on lawyers, Mr. Harrell has decided to leave his small congregation, sell his house and join his wife in Honduras. He will be a missionary for his church for a fraction of the $40,000 a year he makes as a minister.
Congratulations on getting the attention of the Times, and your tireless efforts in spreading word of the broken legal immigration system.
===
New York Times
Immigration, a Love Story
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/fashion/12green.html
WHEN Kenneth Harrell Jr., an Assemblies of God minister in South Carolina, invited Gricelda Molina to join his Spanish ministry in 2000, it didn’t take him long to realize he had found the woman he had been waiting for. On the telephone and during romantic strolls they talked about their goals, their commitment to God and how many children each would like to have. Six months flew by, and he asked her to marry him.
“She’s a beautiful woman with a beautiful spirit, very gentle, very sincere,” Mr. Harrell said. But Ms. Molina, a factory worker, was also an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, who had crossed into the United States twice, having once been deported. Mr. Harrell, the pastor of Airport Assembly of God church in West Columbia, said he was not too concerned. “Whatever came, we would walk through this path together,” he said.
Mr. Harrell and Ms. Molina, both 35, married in 2001, in a large wedding attended by family from both sides and blessed by pastors in English and Spanish. But the Harrells no longer live together, not because of divorce, but because Mrs. Harrell, now the mother of two sons and four months pregnant with their third child, has been deported. She had applied for legal residency, or a green card, with her new husband as her sponsor, Mr. Harrell said, but she was sent back to Honduras 20 months ago because of her illegal entries and told she would have to wait 10 years to try again.
“Illegals are pouring over the border,” said Mr. Harrell, who has visited his family five times. “We meet them, we fall in love with them, we marry them. And then the government tears your family apart, and they take no responsibility for letting them in, in the first place.”
Falling in love and marching toward marriage is not always easy, but a particular brand of heartache and hardship can await when one of the partners is in this country illegally. The uncertainty of such a union has only been heightened by the national debate over illegal immigration. Whether the new Democratic leadership in Congress will help people like the Harrells remains to be seen.
It is hard to quantify how many people find themselves in Mr. Harrell’s situation, but with stepped-up enforcement in recent years, deportations have increased, and so have fears of losing a loved one in that way. (There were 168,310 removals in 2005, compared with 108,000 in 2000, immigration officials said.)
And that is only one byproduct of love between two people with such uneven places in society, immigration lawyers say. Many relationships strain under the financial burden of hiring lawyers for what can turn into years of visiting government offices, producing pictures, tax records and other evidence of a legitimate marriage in the quest for legalization. And while instances of immigrants faking love for a green card are in the minority, according to immigration officials, some couples feel pressure to marry before they are ready, hoping that marriage will prevent a loved one’s deportation.
Raul Godinez, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles, said: “I ask people, ‘How much do you love this person? Because immigration is going to test your marriage.’ If you don’t feel it’s going to be a strong marriage, I wouldn’t do it.”
Many people may still believe that obtaining legal status through marriage is easy, because of periodic reports of marriage scams. In a three-year investigation called Operation Newlywed Game, immigration and customs enforcement agents caught more than 40 suspects in California for allegedly orchestrating sham marriages between hundreds of Chinese or Vietnamese nationals and United States citizens. But such fraud occurs in only a minority of cases, federal officials said.
In reality, immigration lawyers said, marrying a citizen does not automatically entitle the spouse to a green card and is only the first step in a long bureaucratic journey. The lawyers noted that changes in the law in the last five years have made this legalization path increasingly difficult, one worth choosing only if true love is at stake. (Other routes include sponsorship by immediate family members or an employer.)
The Harrells said they had no idea how difficult it could be and were shocked when Mrs. Harrell’s application for permanent residence was turned down, leaving them only 12 days to prepare for her departure. In that time, Mr. Harrell said, they decided that the children, now 4 and 3, would go with her. So Mr. Harrell obtained passports for them, and the church held a farewell service.
“It was very traumatic,” he said. “Our whole world was crashing around us.”
In Yoro, in north central Honduras, where Mrs. Harrell and the children live with her parents, she said the older boy constantly asks for his father, begging, “Let’s go to my papa’s house.” She has coped with her own dejection, too. “I know how much work he has over there,” she said by telephone. “He needs his wife.”
But even in the best of circumstances, when an immigrant enters the country legally, couples may have to rearrange their lives and defer their dreams.
Paola Emery, a jewelry designer, and her husband, Randall Emery, a computer consultant in Philadelphia, said they delayed having children and buying a house for the nearly four years it took the government to complete a background check for Mrs. Emery, who had entered the country from Colombia with a tourist visa and applied for permanent residency after they married in 2002.
Mrs. Emery, 27, said lawyers advised them it was not wise for her to risk trouble by visiting her close-knit family in Colombia and then trying to re-enter this country. She said she was absent through weddings, illnesses and even the kidnapping and rescue of an uncle.
“I felt like I was in jail,” Mrs. Emery said.
Officials with the Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Homeland Security Department say that delays lasting years are rare, but some immigration lawyers say they see clients who wait three to four years for security clearance. Mrs. Emery and her husband, 34, sued Homeland Security over the delays, and she was finally cleared last May. By then Mr. Emery had helped form American Families United, a group of citizens who have sponsored immediate family members for immigration, and which advocates immigration-law change to keep families together. Immigration Services officials say they are not out to impede love or immigration. Nearly 260,000 spouses of citizens received permanent residency through marriage last year, out of 1.1 million people who became permanent residents, according to the Immigration Services office. “The goal is to give people who are eligible the benefit,” said Marie T. Sebrechts, its spokeswoman in Southern California. She said the agency does not comment on individual cases.
When a legal immigrant is sponsored by an American spouse, she said, the green card can be obtained in as little as six months. But with complications like an illegal entry, laws are not that benevolent, Ms. Sebrechts said. In those cases, the immigrant usually must return to the home country and wait 3 to 10 years to apply for residency, though waivers are sometimes granted.
Such obstacles are far from the minds of couples when they meet. And for some, so is the idea to question whether the beloved feels equally in love with them.
Sharyn T. Sooho, a divorce lawyer and a founder of divorcenet.com, a Web site for divorcing couples, said she has represented American spouses who realized too late that the person they married was more interested in a green card than in living happily ever after. “They feel conflicted, used and abused,” she said. “It’s a quick marriage, and suddenly the person who was so sweet is turning into a nightmare.”
But more often, said Carlina Tapia-Ruano, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, couples marry before they are ready because “there’s fear that if you don’t do this, somebody is going to get deported.”
Krystal Rivera, 18, a college student in Los Angeles, and her boyfriend fall into this group. Ms. Rivera is set on marrying in April 2008, even as she worries that it may put too much pressure on the relationship.
“I never wanted to follow the Hispanic ritual of getting married early,” said Ms. Rivera, a native of Los Angeles whose parents emigrated from Mexico.
She said she fell in love at 13 with a Mexican-born boy who sang in the church choir with her. “He started poking me, and I said ‘Stop it!’ ” she remembered.
Ms. Rivera is still in love with the boy, now 19, who was brought into the country illegally by his mother when he was 12. He goes to college and wants to become a teacher, while she hopes to become a doctor.
But for those plans to work, Ms. Rivera said, she needs to help him legalize his status. She said she has witnessed his frustration as he dealt with employers who didn’t pay what they owed him or struggled to find better jobs than his current one as a line cook. Because of his illegal status, he is unable to get a driver’s license or visit the brothers he left in Mexico. “We want to be normal,” Ms. Rivera said.
The Harrells, too, have decided to take charge. After months of exploring how to reunite the family and spending thousands of dollars on lawyers, Mr. Harrell has decided to leave his small congregation, sell his house and join his wife in Honduras. He will be a missionary for his church for a fraction of the $40,000 a year he makes as a minister.
MArch172008
05-22 06:58 PM
As mentioned by my HR attorney applied my labour application electronically on march 17th and forwarded me a case number starting with c , so i am assuming it was appl;ied at chicago center.
Its more then two months now i did not have any update from my HR inturn from attorney.
At the time of aplying attorney did not took any signature either from me or my HR , she said we have to sign at the later stages.
My fear is I might get a query or it may go into incomplete staus as it was not filled properly.
I am not sure if it should be filed in that way ....
Let me know if i am heading in right direction ...
Its more then two months now i did not have any update from my HR inturn from attorney.
At the time of aplying attorney did not took any signature either from me or my HR , she said we have to sign at the later stages.
My fear is I might get a query or it may go into incomplete staus as it was not filled properly.
I am not sure if it should be filed in that way ....
Let me know if i am heading in right direction ...
freedom_fighter
01-14 09:26 PM
i used hopeforhaiti.com, they use paypal.
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