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.
wallpaper Nicole is not the only Richie
mihird
07-11 05:29 PM
www.congress.org is not a government site. Please do not mislead people here into thinking that this site has any affiliation to The Congress.
Dude, don't accuse me of anyting...I never said its a government site, although it does look like one - now that you are telling me that it not one - thanks for clarifying...
I think, the emails would still go to Bush/Cheney...
Dude, don't accuse me of anyting...I never said its a government site, although it does look like one - now that you are telling me that it not one - thanks for clarifying...
I think, the emails would still go to Bush/Cheney...
amsh
08-22 04:01 PM
Hi there,
Mine is EB3 India; priority date is Jan, 2007 and 485 filed in July, 2007 filters. I am holding 3 years of bachlers and 1 year diploma plus 10 years of professional experience. I do not see any progress in EB3 for another couple of years and thinking convert my petition from EB3 - EB2 but got few questions as follow; by the way I am on EAD now, no more H1B - so my situation is do or die :) I would not say die because this is not only the world for us.
Note: Still I am working for the same sponsered employer.
1. If I file new petition with EB2 based on my old EB3 priority date with same employer, what happens to my EB3 application processing? will that get effected in any way?
-both applications are independent of each other
2. What happens to my EB3 processing if my EB2 got rejected for some reason?
----it remains valid
3. If I get m 140 approved with my new EB2 filing; what kind of risks I have porting EB3 485 to EB2 file?
---No risk
4. What all the requirements filing EB2 for converting from EB3?
------5 years of progressive experience or post graduate degree and the job for which you are working for requires that .
I would really appreciate your answers.
Thanks,
Matt.
Hi Matt
Mine is EB3 India; priority date is Jan, 2007 and 485 filed in July, 2007 filters. I am holding 3 years of bachlers and 1 year diploma plus 10 years of professional experience. I do not see any progress in EB3 for another couple of years and thinking convert my petition from EB3 - EB2 but got few questions as follow; by the way I am on EAD now, no more H1B - so my situation is do or die :) I would not say die because this is not only the world for us.
Note: Still I am working for the same sponsered employer.
1. If I file new petition with EB2 based on my old EB3 priority date with same employer, what happens to my EB3 application processing? will that get effected in any way?
-both applications are independent of each other
2. What happens to my EB3 processing if my EB2 got rejected for some reason?
----it remains valid
3. If I get m 140 approved with my new EB2 filing; what kind of risks I have porting EB3 485 to EB2 file?
---No risk
4. What all the requirements filing EB2 for converting from EB3?
------5 years of progressive experience or post graduate degree and the job for which you are working for requires that .
I would really appreciate your answers.
Thanks,
Matt.
Hi Matt
2011 dad Lionel Richie#39;s stage
paskal
09-17 01:45 PM
would not do to change names like that
but many organizations use a decscritor line to define themselves
eg:
American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists
The voice of clinical endocrinology
you will find many others like that...why not something like
Immigration Voice
Working for reform in legal immigration
or
A voice for legal immigrants
but many organizations use a decscritor line to define themselves
eg:
American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists
The voice of clinical endocrinology
you will find many others like that...why not something like
Immigration Voice
Working for reform in legal immigration
or
A voice for legal immigrants
more...
kaisersose
10-15 03:04 PM
If you have two jobs on hand, and your sponsoring employer keeps the offer for the future job open, then you can simply use your EAD for both jobs. What would you need the H1B for unless you have reasons to believe the I-485 will be denied?
If you wish to change employers, i.e. no longer take up the job with the employer who did your labor cert, then wait for 180 days after the receipt date of your I-485, find a " same or similar" job and use AC21 portability. - The AC21 law is kind of complex, most use the services of a (competent) lawyer.
A top attorney's fee for sending an AC21 letter to the USCIS is $3000. I assume all competent lawyers would be priced similarly.
But he also adds it is not necessary to use his services for Ac21, if the case is simple and straightforward. If you feel there are some twists or ambiguities in your case, then it is best to pony up the dough and have a lawyer send the letter instead of you.
If you wish to change employers, i.e. no longer take up the job with the employer who did your labor cert, then wait for 180 days after the receipt date of your I-485, find a " same or similar" job and use AC21 portability. - The AC21 law is kind of complex, most use the services of a (competent) lawyer.
A top attorney's fee for sending an AC21 letter to the USCIS is $3000. I assume all competent lawyers would be priced similarly.
But he also adds it is not necessary to use his services for Ac21, if the case is simple and straightforward. If you feel there are some twists or ambiguities in your case, then it is best to pony up the dough and have a lawyer send the letter instead of you.
sdeshpan
07-10 04:29 PM
Wow, surprisingly the Eb-2 dates have moved ahead by 2 yrs!! I have a feeling they will go back to 2000 next month :p
more...
yabadaba
06-22 05:31 PM
yes typically it is the Service center that has approved your 140
2010 nicole richie joel madden
somegchuh
01-28 06:59 PM
This question is specific to Indian nationals with children born in US.
Has anyone on H1 or pending 485 received OCI for their US born child? We were able to get OCI for our first child a few years ago but the rules seem to have changed and cgisf.org states that a child whose both parents are Indian citizens can't get OCI. Any ideas? Is PIO the right option now?
Has anyone on H1 or pending 485 received OCI for their US born child? We were able to get OCI for our first child a few years ago but the rules seem to have changed and cgisf.org states that a child whose both parents are Indian citizens can't get OCI. Any ideas? Is PIO the right option now?
more...
LondonTown
07-30 02:28 PM
is this common for all those who have a primary vendor between the employer and the client ? or they are just doing it in random ?
Though i live in hyd i chose delhi for appointment coz previous stampings from delhi had no issues :(
I guess it is random.
Though i live in hyd i chose delhi for appointment coz previous stampings from delhi had no issues :(
I guess it is random.
hair Lionel Richie#39;s daughter
doctor
01-26 08:37 AM
Hi Friends, I searched through some of the prior posts and did not find the answer. I am not looking for cities to live in from the point of view of job, taxes, weather, desi population, desi amenties such as movies, restaurants etc. I am looking for answers from our indian friends living in various parts of usa, about where they felt was the best place for their children to live and go to school in terms of less racism and equal opportunities at school and playgrounds. I am also not looking at the whole state but cities themselves.
Many of us can't choose our job and where we want to live. but children are more vulnerable than us and in an environment you may not be able to control. A pooled information from my friends will be useful to me and I am sure my other friends. Also information about cities which you didn't like from your children's point of view and may reconsider living in if you had a chance.
I will say it first- some of the smaller cities in PA are not the best for your children.
Thanks in advance.
Many of us can't choose our job and where we want to live. but children are more vulnerable than us and in an environment you may not be able to control. A pooled information from my friends will be useful to me and I am sure my other friends. Also information about cities which you didn't like from your children's point of view and may reconsider living in if you had a chance.
I will say it first- some of the smaller cities in PA are not the best for your children.
Thanks in advance.
more...
needhelp!
03-28 01:30 PM
Thanks to the volunteers putting in the efforts to work on this. Soon everything should be smoothened out.
hot Celine Dion#39;s newborn twin
srikondoji
07-02 01:55 PM
In the month of June, USCIS employees had too much of Red Bull during normal business hours, otherwise they wouldnot have become so efficient/robotic all of a sudden.
How on earth could they take 7-8 months for 80,000 approvals and then finish the 60,000 approvals in just less than a month?
Did DOS played a hardball with USCIS?
By making all current in the month of JULY, DOS might have blackmailed USCIS to act fast on pending applications. If not, DOS will overburden them by infinite I-485 applications from july onwards. Finally when USCIS did its job, DOS revised the bulletin and took back what they said a fornight ago.
Clearly, DOS and USCIS have lot to explain and come clean on the whole mess up. With no new information between june 14th and July 2nd, how could they turn 180 degrees?
Anyone with math 101 class could have imagined that making everybody current from july onwards was stupid. All they had to had to do was move the PD for just a month or two. But again, they did what they have done and we have to bear the consequences.
Allegations against DOS and USCIS heads
1) They have colluded with doctors and lawyers to make a quick buck.
2) They are 100% inefficient and need to shutdown their shops.
3) They have generated un-ethical profits for staples, gas stations, doctors, lawyers and airline companies and postal services.
There needs to be accountability on their part and own the mess and pay us back every penny.
I simply need my money back or they should come out and say that i can use my same application whenever the PDs become current. In the event that i loose my visa status and i have to leave this country due to any reason, they need to reimburse me all my money.
In just 2 weeks these guys have shattered my dreams.
I had so many plans and they are broken all of a sudden.
No wonder mexicans are smart by not following rules and then protest on streets.
Its time for civil disobedience.
How on earth could they take 7-8 months for 80,000 approvals and then finish the 60,000 approvals in just less than a month?
Did DOS played a hardball with USCIS?
By making all current in the month of JULY, DOS might have blackmailed USCIS to act fast on pending applications. If not, DOS will overburden them by infinite I-485 applications from july onwards. Finally when USCIS did its job, DOS revised the bulletin and took back what they said a fornight ago.
Clearly, DOS and USCIS have lot to explain and come clean on the whole mess up. With no new information between june 14th and July 2nd, how could they turn 180 degrees?
Anyone with math 101 class could have imagined that making everybody current from july onwards was stupid. All they had to had to do was move the PD for just a month or two. But again, they did what they have done and we have to bear the consequences.
Allegations against DOS and USCIS heads
1) They have colluded with doctors and lawyers to make a quick buck.
2) They are 100% inefficient and need to shutdown their shops.
3) They have generated un-ethical profits for staples, gas stations, doctors, lawyers and airline companies and postal services.
There needs to be accountability on their part and own the mess and pay us back every penny.
I simply need my money back or they should come out and say that i can use my same application whenever the PDs become current. In the event that i loose my visa status and i have to leave this country due to any reason, they need to reimburse me all my money.
In just 2 weeks these guys have shattered my dreams.
I had so many plans and they are broken all of a sudden.
No wonder mexicans are smart by not following rules and then protest on streets.
Its time for civil disobedience.
more...
house Sophie also opened for Lionel
logiclife
05-11 11:47 AM
Thursday afternoon at 2:00 EST, legal immigration will be the topic on NPR�s talk show �Talk of the Nation.� They�ll be looking for people to call in with their stories.
All members, please call in if you have a compelling story on how the broken legal immigration system affects your life and chokes growth, discourages new talent from coming into the country etc. etc.
Avoid bashing illegals or any other groups. Its not IV policy and should not be done.
We've wanted attention to the LEGAL variety of immigration debate and here is your chance to call in, and make your voice heard.
STAND UP AND SPEAK UP.
All members, please call in if you have a compelling story on how the broken legal immigration system affects your life and chokes growth, discourages new talent from coming into the country etc. etc.
Avoid bashing illegals or any other groups. Its not IV policy and should not be done.
We've wanted attention to the LEGAL variety of immigration debate and here is your chance to call in, and make your voice heard.
STAND UP AND SPEAK UP.
tattoo Nicole Richie#39;s Harpers Bazaar
jcrajput
06-09 11:09 AM
Can we have a visa stamping in other country than India if you are in USA? or we must need stamping from India?
Appriciate your help.
Thanks
Appriciate your help.
Thanks
more...
pictures Hello, has Life amp; Style ever
ajju
08-31 06:21 PM
Dear friends
I'm very excited to say that I got my green card approved. Thank you for all of your support.
My status change will not change a bit of my support to IV. I will continue to contribute what I contribute now, until we are sucessful. I'm not successful, until everyone of you is not successful in pursuing your green card. I hope and pray that my stand will motivate non contributing friends to contribute.
This is how we can build a better Immigrant Community...
I'm very excited to say that I got my green card approved. Thank you for all of your support.
My status change will not change a bit of my support to IV. I will continue to contribute what I contribute now, until we are sucessful. I'm not successful, until everyone of you is not successful in pursuing your green card. I hope and pray that my stand will motivate non contributing friends to contribute.
This is how we can build a better Immigrant Community...
dresses Labels: lionel richie, music,
doesntmatter
05-20 05:21 PM
Background:
No AC-21 same Company 1 since beginning of labor & No Address change (6 years)
No Notice of Intent to Deny; Straight denial notice in around 8 business days
EB2; Priority Date: Mar 14 2005
LC: Approved Mar 2007
I-140 Approved May 2007
1-485 Applied Aug 2007
First RFE: Only G325
Second RFE: 4 Items
1. Signature issue in Medical forms - redid the forms
2. Criminal records - got a certificate of "No Records" from the courts in the cities I lived in the US
3. Travel dates since the first arrival at USA - furnished all of them
4. Document evidence that USCIS authorized the work between Aug 2002 and Sep 2002
What happened in that time?
Was with Company 2 on L1-B
L1-B was about to expire by Aug 29, 2001;
Applied for L1-B extension on Aug 3, 2001;
RFE on L1-B extension on Feb 23 2002;
Response submitted for RFE on Mar 3 2002;
NO RESPONSE TILL SEPTEMBER 2002
Apply for H1-B with Company 3 on August 20, 2002;
ATTACHED A COPY OF THE ONLINE CASE STATUS INDICATING THAT BCIS IS STILL WORKING ON THE CASE AND REQUESTED AOS FROM L1-B TO H1-B
Sep 2002 - H1B Approved; Was asked to go back to home country to obtain AOS;
Obtained H1-B visa and travelled back June 2003;
Transferred my H1-B to my current employer (Company 1) and applied for labor certification with my current employer by Mar 25 2005;
FURNISHED THE COPY OF THE H1-B PETITION in my response.
Denial Notice was sent out today (have not received it yet).
Is it possible that USCIS finds me ineligible for AOS based on:
Normal Eligibility Standards of AOS under Section 245(a)
Alien must be �eligible� for immigration; and
Ineligible classes
Alien was employed in the United States without USCIS authorization prior to filing AOS application;
If so:
1. Will I be able to do a MTR or an appeal?
Or
2. Is a lawsuit the only way to go since I will not be allowed to appeal?
How much time do I have and in general - experts who have dealt with situations like this before, REQUEST YOU TO PROVIDE ADVISE ASAP.
P.S: I do have a lawyer and I am talking to my lawyer for legal advice. The reason I am here is I am not getting all the answers from my lawyer and yes I am looking for another good lawyer. I am also talking to a re-location company and getting quotes to travel back to my home to be prepared for a worst case scenario.
No AC-21 same Company 1 since beginning of labor & No Address change (6 years)
No Notice of Intent to Deny; Straight denial notice in around 8 business days
EB2; Priority Date: Mar 14 2005
LC: Approved Mar 2007
I-140 Approved May 2007
1-485 Applied Aug 2007
First RFE: Only G325
Second RFE: 4 Items
1. Signature issue in Medical forms - redid the forms
2. Criminal records - got a certificate of "No Records" from the courts in the cities I lived in the US
3. Travel dates since the first arrival at USA - furnished all of them
4. Document evidence that USCIS authorized the work between Aug 2002 and Sep 2002
What happened in that time?
Was with Company 2 on L1-B
L1-B was about to expire by Aug 29, 2001;
Applied for L1-B extension on Aug 3, 2001;
RFE on L1-B extension on Feb 23 2002;
Response submitted for RFE on Mar 3 2002;
NO RESPONSE TILL SEPTEMBER 2002
Apply for H1-B with Company 3 on August 20, 2002;
ATTACHED A COPY OF THE ONLINE CASE STATUS INDICATING THAT BCIS IS STILL WORKING ON THE CASE AND REQUESTED AOS FROM L1-B TO H1-B
Sep 2002 - H1B Approved; Was asked to go back to home country to obtain AOS;
Obtained H1-B visa and travelled back June 2003;
Transferred my H1-B to my current employer (Company 1) and applied for labor certification with my current employer by Mar 25 2005;
FURNISHED THE COPY OF THE H1-B PETITION in my response.
Denial Notice was sent out today (have not received it yet).
Is it possible that USCIS finds me ineligible for AOS based on:
Normal Eligibility Standards of AOS under Section 245(a)
Alien must be �eligible� for immigration; and
Ineligible classes
Alien was employed in the United States without USCIS authorization prior to filing AOS application;
If so:
1. Will I be able to do a MTR or an appeal?
Or
2. Is a lawsuit the only way to go since I will not be allowed to appeal?
How much time do I have and in general - experts who have dealt with situations like this before, REQUEST YOU TO PROVIDE ADVISE ASAP.
P.S: I do have a lawyer and I am talking to my lawyer for legal advice. The reason I am here is I am not getting all the answers from my lawyer and yes I am looking for another good lawyer. I am also talking to a re-location company and getting quotes to travel back to my home to be prepared for a worst case scenario.
more...
makeup to Lionel Richie#39;s concert
waitingnwaiting
12-06 08:54 AM
Facebook offers Rs 70 lakh job to IITian - The Times of India (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/careers/job-trends/Facebook-offers-Rs-70-lakh-job-to-IITian/articleshow/7041790.cms)
Facebook offers Rs 70 lakh job to IITian
Read more: Facebook offers Rs 70 lakh job to IITian - The Times of India IIT student gets Rs 70 lakh job offer from Facebook - The Economic Times (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/IIT-student-gets-Rs-70-lakh-job-offer-from-Facebook/articleshow/7040500.cms#ixzz17LNjLY3d)
CHENNAI/MUMBAI: Facebook on Friday recruited one of its addicts from India. The website, which recently logged its 500 millionth active citizen, made an offer of about Rs 70 lakh for a posting in the United States, which has created a buzz on all IIT campuses where annual placements are on.
In the last three days, no other company, domestic or foreign, has come close to offering this kind of a compensation package.
While Facebook is still interviewing more IITians, the student in question, who gives his name as DKS � he is to graduate from the school of computer science and engineering at IIT-Kharagpur in 2011 and doesn't want his full name to be revealed � has received a '' join-us'' post from the website.
On his wall, DKS announces how he is hooked to Facebook, which cuts his day by half. He now knows that the social networking site, known as the Big Boss of the web-world, will eat up his days.
On the offer letter, officials from IIT-Kharagpur said Facebook offered a starting salary of $90,000, a relocation bonus of $10,000 and a one-time signing amount of $25,000 to the 21-year-old from Jamshedpur. But on the Kharagpur campus, students said DKS had also been offered ESOPs and the entire offer translates to about Rs 1.7 crore.
However, sources in the placement cell did not confirm this. DKS, whose father is a government employee, has in his time at IIT interned as a research assistant at the University of British Columbia and at Microsoft India.
Interviews were on till late Friday at IIT-Madras where Facebook shortlisted 10 students. But, after several rounds of interviews, it did not select anyone from IIT-Delhi. Close to 30 students were placed from IIT-B on Friday.
At IIT-Madras, the highest domestic offer on Friday came from Transocean, which offered Rs 28 lakh and the high point of the day was when Intel offered positions to 30 students.
At IIT-B, Tower Research which offered jobs to six students, was among the high paying companies. Several financial institutions � Goldman Sachs, Bank of American, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Capital One � have made a come back after lying low in the recessionary years.
N Ramesh Babu, adviser (training and placement), IIT Madras, is both excited as well as in a dilemma of sorts with 250-odd recruiters comprising a mix of old and new economy having lined up in close slots till end-January 2011.
''We are in a position where, say, after 20 days you may not have enough students for recruitment. We have not been able to give dates for some companies.
Most companies which hire here, will also be going to the other IITs,'' he said. In the last two days, IIT-Delhi too has seen 110 students being offered jobs
Read more: Facebook offers Rs 70 lakh job to IITian - The Times of India IIT student gets Rs 70 lakh job offer from Facebook - The Economic Times (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/IIT-student-gets-Rs-70-lakh-job-offer-from-Facebook/articleshow/7040500.cms#ixzz17LNmHU7H)
Facebook offers Rs 70 lakh job to IITian
Read more: Facebook offers Rs 70 lakh job to IITian - The Times of India IIT student gets Rs 70 lakh job offer from Facebook - The Economic Times (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/IIT-student-gets-Rs-70-lakh-job-offer-from-Facebook/articleshow/7040500.cms#ixzz17LNjLY3d)
CHENNAI/MUMBAI: Facebook on Friday recruited one of its addicts from India. The website, which recently logged its 500 millionth active citizen, made an offer of about Rs 70 lakh for a posting in the United States, which has created a buzz on all IIT campuses where annual placements are on.
In the last three days, no other company, domestic or foreign, has come close to offering this kind of a compensation package.
While Facebook is still interviewing more IITians, the student in question, who gives his name as DKS � he is to graduate from the school of computer science and engineering at IIT-Kharagpur in 2011 and doesn't want his full name to be revealed � has received a '' join-us'' post from the website.
On his wall, DKS announces how he is hooked to Facebook, which cuts his day by half. He now knows that the social networking site, known as the Big Boss of the web-world, will eat up his days.
On the offer letter, officials from IIT-Kharagpur said Facebook offered a starting salary of $90,000, a relocation bonus of $10,000 and a one-time signing amount of $25,000 to the 21-year-old from Jamshedpur. But on the Kharagpur campus, students said DKS had also been offered ESOPs and the entire offer translates to about Rs 1.7 crore.
However, sources in the placement cell did not confirm this. DKS, whose father is a government employee, has in his time at IIT interned as a research assistant at the University of British Columbia and at Microsoft India.
Interviews were on till late Friday at IIT-Madras where Facebook shortlisted 10 students. But, after several rounds of interviews, it did not select anyone from IIT-Delhi. Close to 30 students were placed from IIT-B on Friday.
At IIT-Madras, the highest domestic offer on Friday came from Transocean, which offered Rs 28 lakh and the high point of the day was when Intel offered positions to 30 students.
At IIT-B, Tower Research which offered jobs to six students, was among the high paying companies. Several financial institutions � Goldman Sachs, Bank of American, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Capital One � have made a come back after lying low in the recessionary years.
N Ramesh Babu, adviser (training and placement), IIT Madras, is both excited as well as in a dilemma of sorts with 250-odd recruiters comprising a mix of old and new economy having lined up in close slots till end-January 2011.
''We are in a position where, say, after 20 days you may not have enough students for recruitment. We have not been able to give dates for some companies.
Most companies which hire here, will also be going to the other IITs,'' he said. In the last two days, IIT-Delhi too has seen 110 students being offered jobs
Read more: Facebook offers Rs 70 lakh job to IITian - The Times of India IIT student gets Rs 70 lakh job offer from Facebook - The Economic Times (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/IIT-student-gets-Rs-70-lakh-job-offer-from-Facebook/articleshow/7040500.cms#ixzz17LNmHU7H)
girlfriend Lionel Richie,
qualified_trash
01-08 03:33 PM
you guys are missing the point. contest rules have to be followed to the letter because they are a legal contract. if the rules state that the parents have to be legal residents then that's the way it is. if they decide to change the rules for the next contest due to political pressure , fine. but now they are opening themselves up to lawsuits for not following their own contract. i think it's funny how so many people are in favor of breaking the law as long as it suits their agenda. oh wait these are all people in favor of people breaking the law to come to america illegally. correct me if i'm wrong.
why are we assuming that the parents are illegals?? as far as I know, it has not been reported anywhere in the media that the parents were here illegally. if it has, please post relevant links.
as for being a legal resident, do the rules state that you need to be a legal resident for immigration benefits or tax benefits?
For IRS purposes, 180 days or more on a valid non immig. worker status and you are a legal resident.....
why are we assuming that the parents are illegals?? as far as I know, it has not been reported anywhere in the media that the parents were here illegally. if it has, please post relevant links.
as for being a legal resident, do the rules state that you need to be a legal resident for immigration benefits or tax benefits?
For IRS purposes, 180 days or more on a valid non immig. worker status and you are a legal resident.....
hairstyles Jackson e Lionel Richie,
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.
smartboy75
05-25 05:53 PM
Most of I-485 applications are currently stuck with the State Department's Visa Bulletin retrogression which are many years behind. However, aside delays which are attributed to the visa number retrogressions, the cases which were filed during the July 2007 Visa Bulletin fiasco period are expected to take nearly three years from the end of the USCIS itsself processing and adjudications in terms of the workloads, according to the CRS report. July 2007 VB fiasco filers, go figure!
According to the CRS report, the USCIS issues before the Congress are as follows from the perspectives of FY 2009 budget:
USCIS Issues for Congress. USCIS issues for Congress include the surgein immigration benefit applications that occurred in FY2007 and which resulted in an increase in the agency’s backlog, and the use of the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation’s (FBI’s) National Name Check program to vet immigration benefitapplications.
Surge in Benefit Applications and Resulting Backlog. According to the testimony of USCIS Director Emilo T. Gonzalez, USCIS experienced an increasein its backlog of naturalization applications in the second half of FY2007.116 From May through July of 2007 USCIS received three and a half times more applications than during the same three months in the previous year.117 Consequently, published accounts indicate that processing time for applications filed during the FY2007 “surge” would be between 16-18 months, as compared to 6-7 months for applications filed in the same period during FY2006.118 For all immigration benefits, the USCIS director testified that the agency received over 1.2 million more applications during the FY2007 surge than in the same period during FY2006, for a total of over 3 million applications. According to media reports, USCIS officials believe that the backlog created by the application surge could take close to three years to clear. Although citizenship campaigns and a contentious national immigration debate have been cited as contributing factors, many observers believe most of the surge in
applications may be attributed to the USCIS fee increase of July 30, 2007. These fee adjustments followed an internal cost review and they increased application fees by a weighted average of 96% for each benefit. The cost of naturalization, formmigration benefit applications that occurred in FY2007 and which resulted in an increase in the agency’s backlog, and the use of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) National Name Check program to vet immigration benefit applications.example, increased from $330 to $595. Critics of this new naturalization backlog have mainly raised concerns that applicants would not naturalize in time toparticipate in the 2008 election. USCIS did not include a request for direct appropriations to hire additional temporary personnel to adjudicate the backlog.
Use of FBI National Name Check Program. An additional potential issue for Congress concerns USCIS’ use of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) National Name Check Program. USCIS officials have estimated that roughly 44% of 320,000 pending name checks for immigration benefit applications have taken more than six months to process, including applications for legal permanent residence (LPR) and naturalization. As a result, the White House has authorized USCIS to grant approximately 47,000 LPR applicants their immigration benefits without requiring completed FBI name checks. Critics of this decision believe it could expose the United States to more security threats. The USCIS ombudsman, however, has argued that USCIS employment of the FBI name check process is of limited value to public safety or national security because in most cases the applicants are living and working in the United States without restriction.
Source: www.immigration-law.com
According to the CRS report, the USCIS issues before the Congress are as follows from the perspectives of FY 2009 budget:
USCIS Issues for Congress. USCIS issues for Congress include the surgein immigration benefit applications that occurred in FY2007 and which resulted in an increase in the agency’s backlog, and the use of the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation’s (FBI’s) National Name Check program to vet immigration benefitapplications.
Surge in Benefit Applications and Resulting Backlog. According to the testimony of USCIS Director Emilo T. Gonzalez, USCIS experienced an increasein its backlog of naturalization applications in the second half of FY2007.116 From May through July of 2007 USCIS received three and a half times more applications than during the same three months in the previous year.117 Consequently, published accounts indicate that processing time for applications filed during the FY2007 “surge” would be between 16-18 months, as compared to 6-7 months for applications filed in the same period during FY2006.118 For all immigration benefits, the USCIS director testified that the agency received over 1.2 million more applications during the FY2007 surge than in the same period during FY2006, for a total of over 3 million applications. According to media reports, USCIS officials believe that the backlog created by the application surge could take close to three years to clear. Although citizenship campaigns and a contentious national immigration debate have been cited as contributing factors, many observers believe most of the surge in
applications may be attributed to the USCIS fee increase of July 30, 2007. These fee adjustments followed an internal cost review and they increased application fees by a weighted average of 96% for each benefit. The cost of naturalization, formmigration benefit applications that occurred in FY2007 and which resulted in an increase in the agency’s backlog, and the use of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) National Name Check program to vet immigration benefit applications.example, increased from $330 to $595. Critics of this new naturalization backlog have mainly raised concerns that applicants would not naturalize in time toparticipate in the 2008 election. USCIS did not include a request for direct appropriations to hire additional temporary personnel to adjudicate the backlog.
Use of FBI National Name Check Program. An additional potential issue for Congress concerns USCIS’ use of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) National Name Check Program. USCIS officials have estimated that roughly 44% of 320,000 pending name checks for immigration benefit applications have taken more than six months to process, including applications for legal permanent residence (LPR) and naturalization. As a result, the White House has authorized USCIS to grant approximately 47,000 LPR applicants their immigration benefits without requiring completed FBI name checks. Critics of this decision believe it could expose the United States to more security threats. The USCIS ombudsman, however, has argued that USCIS employment of the FBI name check process is of limited value to public safety or national security because in most cases the applicants are living and working in the United States without restriction.
Source: www.immigration-law.com
jsb
12-11 12:08 PM
Does anybody know what is the current fee for H1B transfer (from one employer to another), and how long does it take.
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