Caribbean nationals continue to lead the total of green card visa

Caribbean nationals from two regional nations continue to lead the total of green card visa or legal permanent residents in the United States, according to a latest report from the Department of Homeland Security.

The latest report shows that out of 12.6 million LPRs living in the United States on January 1, 2008 the Dominican Republic and Cuba were among the top ten countries for LPR`s. DHS statistics show there were 420,000 green card visa holders from the Dominican Republic who obtained their LPR status for 2008.

Cubans accounted for 350,000 for the same period. Haitians and Jamaicans, the only other Caribbean nations to make the top 20 list, were put at 230,000 each. Mexico was the leading country of origin of the LPR population in 2008. An estimated 3.4 million or 27 percent of LPRs came from Mexico. The next leading source country was the Philippines with 0.6 million, followed by India and the People`s Republic of China with 0.5 million each.

California was the leading state of residence with an estimated 3.4 million LPRs in 2008 followed by New York at 1.5 million, Texas at 1.3 million and Florida at 1.2 million. Nearly 76 percent of LPRs in the United States in 2008 obtained permanent residence in 1990. Fifty percent gained LPR status between 2000 and 2007, and 14 percent became LPRs before 1980.

[Source: Caribbean World News]

Living the Dream [source:Teen Ink]

While the majority of students are worrying about getting into their dream schools and being able to afford them, others worry about a bigger issue. Students brought to this country illegally, who must leave a blank space on applications that ask for their Social Security number, know they will not be accepted regardless of their outstanding grades and extracurricular involvement. However, there may be some hope in the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act).

Of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants residing in the United States (70 percent from Mexico), 2.7 million are children. These young people benefit from the U.S. school system, but only up through high school. Their education often stops there due to a 1996 federal law that prohibits states from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants unless the state also offers in-state tuition rates to all U.S. citizens.

The DREAM Act is a massive amnesty program for the millions of illegal immigrants (age 12 to 35) who entered the United States before they are 16. Those who apply for this amnesty can receive conditional, temporary resident status, which can be converted, once earned, to a nonconditional green card visa (permanent U.S. residency) after six years. These immigrants can then use their newly acquired status to seek green cards for their parents. In this way, it can also provide amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens who brought their children to the United States.

“I don’t necessarily live in fear of being deported,” says Juan, a high school junior who was born in Mexico. “For the most part, I live a normal life. Except, now everyone is getting their driver’s license, and I can’t.”

Juan came to the U.S. with his mother and older brother in 2000 when he was eight. He is just one of millions of students in the nation hoping for the DREAM Act to be passed. While he does not claim to have experienced any overt prejudice in high school, Juan still faces racial stereotypes.

“It bothers me when people joke around and ask me for my green card,” Juan explains. “I laugh, but deep down I know they are offending me for something I have no control over. I was born in Mexico, but my life is here.”

His older brother, who graduated a few years ago, now attends a community college and plans to transfer to a university. Juan hopes to take a similar path. “I have no doubt that I can go to college,” Juan says. “I know it’s going to be hard, but as long as I stay in this country, I have a chance.”

The DREAM Act was reintroduced in both chambers of Congress last March by Senators Dick Durbin and Richard Lugar.

“I can only hope that the DREAM Act will pass,” Juan says. “All I want is a good life and a promising future, just like everyone else.”

[source: Teen Ink]

The I-485 Inventory Numbers Require Attention

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released the most recent inventory numbers of employment-based green card applications on its newly-designed website1 in late September of 2009. These statistics are released in a comprehensive manner, categorized by country of chargeability and preference category. Although visa backlog has been a known problem for many years, these well-organized statistics still provide a clear picture as to exactly where the congestions are and where each visa applicant stands in the multilayered queues for immigration.

How is the visa pie dived up?

A quick review of the congressional allocation of employment visa numbers will be helpful for the analysis of these I-485 inventory numbers. Section 201(d)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allocates an annual minimum of 140,000 visa numbers for employment-based immigrant visas. Although there are 140,000 employment visas available for worldwide usage, each country may not take more than 7% or 25,620 of the annual visa quota.2 Furthermore, each of the five employment visa preference category is subject to the following limits:3

First (Priority Worker): 28.6% of the worldwide quota, or 40,040, plus unused numbers from the fourth and fifth preferences.

Second (Advanced degree professionals or exceptional ability aliens): 28.6% of the worldwide quota, or 40,040, plus unused numbers from first preference.

Third (Skill Workers, Professionals and Other Workers): 28.6% of the worldwide quota, or 40,040, plus any numbers not used by the first and second preferences. “Other Workers” may only receive up to 10,000 of the visa numbers.4

Fourth (Certain Special Immigrants): 7.1% of the worldwide quota or 9,940.

Fifth (Employment Creation): 7.1% of the worldwide quota.

What is the big picture like?

Generally speaking, there are no big surprises regarding the big picture. There are altogether 233,816 I-485 adjustment applications as of August 25, 2009 pending adjudication before the USCIS, of which 4,050 belong to Eb-1, 74,932 to Eb-2, and151,231 to Eb-3. In terms of geographical distribution, 26,170 cases come from China, 111,296 from India, 12,481 from the Philippines, 8,415 from Mexico, and 74,914 from the rest of the world. Visa numbers remind very tight for the most popular preference categories including Eb-2 second preference and Eb-3 third preference. As expected, the countries which have triggered the per-country cap in recent years are suffering a multi-year backlog of visa numbers. These countries – China (Mainland), India, Mexico, and the Philippines – all have their own I-485 inventory tables. While all countries are struggling in the Eb-3 preference category, China and India are also having a huge backlog in the second preference category. The “other countries” are also looking at a multi-year wait in the third preference category, with a dismal priority date of June 1, 2002 in the October 2009 Visa Bulletin.5 The Eb-1 Priority Worker category remains current for all countries.

Putting the numbers in perspective

There are different ways that these inventory numbers can be useful and analyzed. The following are some interesting observations:

These I-485 inventory numbers represent only the immigrant cases that are filed within the U.S. only. The USCIS indicates that about 15% of the immigrant visas are processed through overseas consular processing. Hence, the actual numbers of applicants for an immigrant visa are actually higher.
There are still 6,170 I-485 applications pending from April 2001, plus another 500+ cases from 2000 and the first three months of 2001. Many of these cases were likely filed under or in anticipation of the INA Section 245(i)6 provision. However, the impact of these cases has dissipated over the years. The most current Visa Bulletin shows that only India’s Eb-3 category has a cutoff date in April of 2001.
The notion that Eb-2 cases are faster than their Eb-3 counterparts still holds true for now but may begin to change soon. While all countries are backlogged under Eb-3, all but two countries are current in Eb-2. China and India have respectively 18,365 and 39,972 I-485 applications pending in the Eb-2 category due to visa backlog. (See Illustration 1 below) In fact, China has three times more Eb-2 cases than Eb-3 cases. The worldwide I-485 inventory table with all pending cases7 shows the number of pending Eb-2 cases was trailing Eb-3 until 2008; the year 2008 has 4,235 pending Eb-2 cases vs. 540 pending Eb-3 cases. Similar trend is also present in the India table, where the number of pending Eb-2 cases first surpassed Eb-3 in the year 2005.8
The number of pending “other workers” cases is proportionately low, with only 1,520 pending I-485s worldwide. One can draw the conclusion that the majority of intending (employment-based) immigrants are skilled workers and professionals.

[read the full story at ilw]

About The Author

Paul Szeto, Esq. is a former INS assistant district counsel in New York City. A winner of the AILF’s Edward L. Dubroff Memorial Award for outstanding writing in the field of Immigration and Nationality Law in 1994, Paul is now in private practice in Edison, New Jersey, focusing on Immigration and Nationality Law. Paul Szeto can be reached at info@szetolaw.com.

For American dream, immigrants cope with green card visa, red tape.

José Diaz and his wife Yudys came to America at different times in their lives. But both found the immigration process to be taxing and expensive.
On October 14, 1968, three-year old José Diaz along with his parents, brother and sister left the Dominican Republic to immigrate to the United States.
Diaz’s grandparents came to the United States in the early 1920s. Once they settled in New York, they built a supermarket business and now the rest of their family was joining them in their venture. “I remember being in the airport and I had a little suit on with ‘high water’ pants. I was growing out of them. That was the best we had. I grew up in a family of farmers, so we were all poor over there,” Diaz recalled.
As Diaz grew older, and even until this day, people would often confuse his ethnicity.
“A lot of people confuse me for being Mexican, Egyptian, or even Iraqi because of my facial features and because I dress differently. Some Americans like to pick on me by imitating my accent and the way I talk. I know I have a heavy accent.”
Diaz admits that while instances of stereotyping and racial profiling have been few for him, he knows that it happens to a lot of other Hispanic people—something that his wife, Yudys, knows all too well.
“Some people, are rude and act like they’re high class and I’m not. My accent is terrible and when I talk, a person will go, ‘Say again! Say again!’ and throw their hands up. I don’t worry, because I say, ‘I came here, I speak Spanish very well and I speak English, so I know both languages. To know both languages is really good these days,” said Yudys.
Yudys, came to America from Cuba in 2005 to be with José. The two first “met” through pictures.
As Diaz worked as an interpreter for Yudys’ step-grandmother, he saw a 5×7 photo of Yudys. “She was lovely in those pictures. We ended up talking over the phone and I spent one dollar and 63 cents per minute to talk to her. So, it got expensive. I had to sell my car just to pay the phone bill,” Diaz shared.
They sent each other pictures and letters to keep in touch. But soon, Diaz traveled to meet her in Cuba. To get to the island, Diaz traveled to his native Dominican Republic as it was illegal for an American to travel straight into Cuba and vice versa. One week later, he asked her to marry him. But the immigration process is an expensive one—something that most Americans fail to realize according to Diaz.
“I had to send her more than one thousand dollars for some paperwork. There’s all that red tape through this government and her government. She had to do an interview at the Swiss Embassy as the Swiss there work as a mediator between America and Cuba for the interviews. They asked a lot of questions to see if our relationship was real,” said Diaz.
Diaz had to also file for a K-1 Fiancée Visa. To get the visa, an American citizen must prove that they have the intention of getting married and petition with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Once the petition is approved, the American citizen and the immigrant have to marry within in 90 days.
The more than 145 pictures that Diaz sent to her came in handy as they served as evidence of their relationship. “I had so many pictures. They looked and said, ‘Congratulations.’ But some people have to go to the Embassy two or three times to get approved,” Yudys explained.
Then it was on to the next phase. After the interview was completed, Yudys had to have a physical in Cuba, which cost more than four hundred dollars (U.S.) “The government over there is really abusive and we went through a lot just to have a stamp to say that everything’s okay and for them to say, ‘You’re fine and healthy.’ But when you come down here to America, you have to go through all of that again through their government just to make sure that paperwork from another country is not a lie,” Diaz shared.
José and Yudys are now married living legally in North Carolina with one son and another baby on the way. José is employed as a maintenance worker and Yudys works as a seamstress.But with the government getting tougher on illegal immigration, Diaz wants people to remember that all immigrants aren’t illegal. He said, “We came here legally. Everyone is not illegal and every Hispanic is not Mexican. People need to be more educated about other cultures. “Some people will think someone is Mexican when he’s actually Pakistani or they will think someone is Mexican when he’s actually Spanish. People need to overcome stereotypes by not doing or saying what they see on T.V. or saying what peer pressures tell them to. People just need to talk and educate themselves.”

[source: Carolina Peace Maker]