A moratorium on all(or even just most) immigration couldn't be a bad idea, until we get things back in order and start stabilizing and rebuilding our country.


http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20 ... 061387.asp

FOCUS: IMMIGRATION

Following the rules to citizenship

Russian wife of naturalized American citizen has been waiting four years for a green card

By DAN HERBECK
News Staff Reporter
5/17/2006

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Ronald J. Colleran/Buffalo News
Tatiana Shaurova and her husband, Alex Sheremetyev, picket outside U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices in downtown Buffalo.



Tatiana Shaurova has followed the national debate over millions of illegal aliens and how they should be treated.

But what really worries her is her own situation.

Shaurova is a Russian visitor to this country, married to an American citizen and living in Orchard Park. For nearly four years, she has been trying to play the U.S. immigration game by the book.

But the 30-year-old woman says it has been impossible to get an answer from U.S. immigration authorities on her request for a green card. The green card would make her a permanent resident and put her on track to become a naturalized American citizen.

"I feel so helpless," Shaurova said. "Some people come to America as illegal aliens, just to get benefits. I'm trying to do things legally, and nothing works."

Much has been said and written in recent months about illegal aliens, but the difficulties encountered by people like Shaurova seldom make news reports.

The woman's frustrations are not unusual, according to Douglas Rivlin, communications director for the National Immigration Forum, a group that has been lobbying for immigration reform.

"Delays like this happen a lot," Rivlin said. "It's one of the reasons that immigration moves to the black market. One of the reasons we have 12 million illegal immigrants in this country is that the legal immigration system is so dysfunctional."

Shaurova's husband, Alex Sheremetyev, has become so frustrated that he sometimes drives downtown and stands for hours outside the immigration building on Delaware Avenue. He wears a big sign protesting the government's treatment of his wife.

"Tatiana applied to become a permanent resident in August 2002. The government told us we'd have an answer in six to nine months," Sheremetyev said. "It's getting close to four years, and still no answer."

Add two people to the list of millions who have been affected by homeland security concerns and 9/11.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials in Buffalo declined to provide much detail on Shaurova's case. But they confirm her request is one of many in the region that are delayed because of security procedures instituted after the attacks of 2001.

"I can only tell you that the delay in her case is related to a name check," said M. Frances Holmes, Buffalo district director of the federal agency. "Everything changed after 9/11, and we're checking on the backgrounds of people much more closely than we ever did before."
The delays in Shaurova's case are unusual but not unique, Holmes said.

Government fears

The immigration agency is part of the Homeland Security Department. Background checks are needed because of the risk of terrorists or criminals establishing long-term residences in America, the agency says.

"[The government] recognizes that for those affected individuals, the additional delay and uncertainty can cause great anxiety," Homeland Security said in a recent press statement. "These security checks have yielded information about applicants involved in violent crimes, sex crimes, crimes against children, drug trafficking and individuals with known links to terrorism. These investigations require time, resources and patience."

Those words only add to the frustration of Shaurova. A check of her record will show she has never been involved with criminal activity, she said. She said she grew up in Siberia, where her late mother was a physician. Her father is an engineer who still lives in Russia.

Sheremetyev was skeptical when he heard that Holmes said the delays in Shaurova's case were related to a name check.

"Last year, someone from immigration told us that they were waiting for the FBI to complete a name check," Sheremetyev said. "[Rep.] Brian Higgins' office called the FBI, and the FBI told them the name check was completed in 2003. . . . I just think my wife's file is on a shelf in some bureaucrat's office, gathering dust."

A spokeswoman for Higgins, Suzanne Anziska, confirmed that the office has been trying to expedite Shaurova's case.
Not all Russians have such difficulty becoming Americans. In comparison to his wife, the 52-year-old Sheremetyev had an easy time establishing a residency and obtaining citizenship.

A former Russian Orthodox priest who said he left the priesthood several years ago, Sheremetyev moved to the United States in 1989. He taught Russian to American military personnel in Monterey, Calif., before moving to Buffalo in 1992. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 1995, and now drives trucks.

On a visit to the country of Kyrgyzstan in 2002, he met Shaurova. He brought her to America and married her in Orchard Park in July 2002. Both insist they married for love, and not as a ruse to get citizenship for Shaurova.

"Alex is the reason I came here - to be with the husband I love," Shaurova said.

Past marriage

Under federal immigration law, a person who legitimately marries a citizen of the United States can receive a green card, establishing permanent residency. Then, after a period of three years in most cases, the permanent resident can apply for citizenship.

Sheremetyev revealed that he was married twice before, and he said the government investigated one of his past unions as a possible sham wedding, intended to help another Russian woman get citizenship here.

"From my point of view, that was not a sham marriage. But for her, it apparently was," Sheremetyev said. "This woman left me very suddenly in August of 1999, after immigration started investigating her. We divorced in 2000."

Holmes said she could not comment on Sheremetyev's marriages, but she confirmed that allegations of sham marriages are a concern to her agency.

According to the Orchard Park couple, immigration agents never asked questions that indicated the government has suspicions about the sincerity of their marriage.

During the one-year period that ended last Sept. 30, about 1,900 applicants received green cards in Western New York and about 3,500 people were naturalized as citizens, Holmes said. The immigration services Web site displays the story of Pelageya Ilchenko, a Russian woman who became a citizen in the state of Washington at age 101. Shaurova doesn't want to wait until she is 101. She said she would like to attend college, but has delayed applying to schools until the government decides her case.

e-mail: dherbeck@buffnews.com