Someone, please help INS
By Vivek | July 2nd, 2007 at 09:49 am ET
I at StartupSquad.com try to stick to tech startups and funding news, but being an immigrant in US does give me lot of more things to think and worry about. And latest news to get my attention and resulted in heated discussions with number of immigrants friends and family members is the news rumor that INS(aka USCIS) will be looking to revise the immigrant visa numbers and make them “unavailable” as early as possible.
I won’t go into details as to what those terms exactly mean, but to put in simpler words - If there are no immigrant visa numbers available, an immigrant cannot file for the last stage of his Green Card process, i.e. I-485.
It was only couple of weeks back the INS made a decision to make this process current and allowed immigrant workers to file for I-485 irrespective of when they had started their Green Car process.
Previously, only those immigrant workers who had filed their GC 3-4 years back were able to file for I-485.
Keep in mind that filing for I-485 does not mean automatic Green Card. Immigrants still have to wait for another 1-2 years before their case finally gets approved(it can even get rejected) and you get to see the actual Green Card.
No reasons were given couple of weeks back for the sudden change, and now again no reasons are being given for yet another change. Just plain and simple - no more applications are accepted. But what had really happened in the immigration community in the past couple of weeks was a renewed interest in people that they might in fact get to see the GC. So, all those people who were eligible to file immediately moved into action and started getting the paper work right. This among other things includes a medical examination that costs around $1000+/family. Not a small amount I would say considering the fact that the medical exam is valid only for 6 months. So, if INS stops accepting any more applications for I-485, all the hard-earned money spent on medical exams will go down the drain. As it seems, INS can care less.
And to add insult to injury, INS has put a temporary suspension on Premium Processing Service for Form I-140. The complete Green Card process includes 3 steps - 1. Labor certification 2. I-140 3. I-485. So, not only an immigrant worker cannot file for I-485 that is the last stage of GC, an immigrant worker who gets through Step 1 will have to wait for another excruciating 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 years just to get through Step 2 i.e. I-140.
All in all, after all the the noise made by INS that it simplifying the process for immigration, the time to “legally” get a GC still stands at 6-7 years.
I know most of the people in US could care less as to what state of life and mind immigrants live in till Microsoft et al can get the code written for cheap and Walmart has it’s miles long shelf space fully stacked and tidy. But what my observation from the past couple of years tells that patience of immigrant workers is wearing down, who now feel that they have spent the best years of their life working as slave laborers in US without any hope of getting a Green Card. Some the sharpest and intelligent immigrant friends of mine feeling bitter at the experience have already left US, and quite a few more are in process of packing up and leaving. All the changes in the past 2 weeks had renewed their interest in sticking back, but it is good to see that INS has shown it’s fickle nature so soon that has made their resolve to leave even more stronger.
And those of you who cannot see the impact of restrictions on immigration - the fact that MySpace and likes are considered to be technological revolutions just shows how displaced US is as compared to realities of the times and it’s total inability to lead the world in defining the next technological landscape.
Update 1: Above is not a rumor anymore. Those interested - Click Here
