http://nctimes.com/articles/2006/04/...6_284_8_06.txt
Long and winding road: Path to legal immigration is laden with long waits

By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer

Hundreds of chanting teens took to streets in North County over the last few weeks, hundreds of thousands of people throughout the nation did the same.

Locally and nationally, some of the protesters worried openly about what would happen to their families, or to themselves, as Congress debated what to do about the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living the U.S.

Among the proposals alarming protesters: making it a criminal felony to be an illegal immigrant.


While protesters on North County streets waved Mexican flags and chanted slogans in Spanish some critics of the rallies said those here illegally should either go back to their home countries or apply for legal residency.

But lawyers and immigrant advocates say applying for legal residency isn't that quick or that easy. In fact, in some cases, the government is handing out visas for people who first applied in 1983.

And it is close to impossible for anyone living illegally in this country to apply for citizenship without going to their home nation for a long wait.

Some decide it's just easier to fly under the radar. One 36-year-old man who just got his green card said he came to the country illegally at 11 years old.

"You are living under a shadow all the time," the man said. "It's pretty scary. You have to live it to understand."

But that man, who'd never had a run-in with the law, says his life underground ended when border patrol agents stopped him at the San Clemente check point.

He spent three months in jail and $6,000 on an attorney and began the legalization process. His wife, a U.S. citizen sponsored him.

Immigration lawyers agree that each case is unique, that there is no easy path, and that each immigrant faces hurdle after hurdle.

"There are so many ifs, thens and thats" facing anyone who wants to legally live in the United States permanently, said immigration attorney Jennifer Robbins of the National Immigration Law Corporation in San Diego.

Even with no complications ---- like living in the U.S. illegally or having prior run-ins with the law anywhere ---- burdening the application, getting legal residency can be "very difficult and confusing," Robbins said.

Not just any person can apply for legal permanent residency. The applicant must have a sponsor ---- be it a family member or an employer, said Marie Sebrechts, West Coast spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

And then there's the wait. Often, a very long wait.

The length of the wait depends on a number of factors, including where immigrants are coming from and who in the United States is sponsoring them.

Those who find a U.S. employer willing to sponsor them ---- and willing to jump through the required hoops to do so ---- still have to get in line for an employment-based visa. Those who find employers to sponsor them must wait about five years to come into the country legally to work, immigration attorneys said.

Depending on the circumstances, immigrants from different countries face different wait times.

Worst case scenario is the one faced by folks who want to bring over a sibling from the Philippines to live in the United States as a permanent resident. The state department is just now giving visas for people who applied more than 22 years ago, in October 1983. The reason: the number of applicants from certain nations ---- China, India, Mexico and the Philippines ---- far exceeds the supply of visas available.

Someone trying to legally get a brother or sister in from Mexico faces a 12-year wait ---- the visas going out now are for applications from 1994.

And people trying to get permanent residency in the United States are supposed to spend the long wait for a visa in their home countries, not in the U.S.

Why so long of a wait?

Sebrechts said, and some immigration attorneys agree, that the application process itself takes only about six months for processing time.

The wait happens simply because the demand for visas is higher than the supply.

The United States only offers a limited number of visas for permanent residency each year.

For applicants with family members who are legal U.S. residents sponsoring their requests, the U.S. will issue a base number of 480,000 visas this year, said Laura Tischler, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, which falls under the U.S. Department of State.

Employment-based visas ---- for people who have jobs waiting for them once they move to the United States ---- are capped this year at 25,620 visas per country ---- be it Mexico, France or Laos ---- Tischler said.

Not only are limited numbers of visas available, but the State Department has different wait times for different countries: People from China, India, the Philippines and Mexico are on separate waiting lists than immigrants from the rest of the world.

Tischler said it's an issue of supply and demand: each country around the world gets the same amount of visas per years, but the waiting lists to immigrate from those four countries are longer because there are so many applicants from each of those four nations, far more than from other places around the world.

People who come to ---- or stay in --- the U.S. illegally face even longer waits, because illegal residency can cost penalty time from three to 10 years.

Why? Illegal immigrants must go back to their home countries ---- all Mexican citizens, for example, must go to the American consulate in Juarez ---- to pick up their application papers and have their visa interviews in person there.

"If you came in illegally, you have to leave to get papers," San Diego-based immigration attorney Jonathan Montag said this week. "Everyday I get calls from people asking for ways to get papers. If you entered illegally, in (almost) no situation can a person get papers here."

People in the U.S. illegally for under a year face an automatic three-year ban from the U.S; it's a 10-year bar for people illegally in the U.S. for more than a year.

But people frequently lie about where they have been living, said immigration attorney Donald Sheppard from the Law Office of Jan Bejar in San Diego.

So what of illegal immigrants who lie and tell the American consular officials that they've never lived in the U.S. ---- even though they have.

Well, attorney Montag from Montag & Nadalin LLP in San Diego said, the burden of proof is on the applicant to show where they have been living ---- and it's mighty difficult to lie when that person has minor kids in school in the United States.

And if they sneak back across the border to wait out the 10 years in the U.S., and get caught living here? They lose their shot at the visa, Montag said.

Children don't always know status


But if the illegal immigrants have children born here ---- people born in the U.S. to immigrants are automatically U.S. citizens ---- does that make the process easier?

Not really. Children cannot sponsor their mothers or fathers for permanent residency until age 21.

Dan Stracka is an attorney with the Immigration Services division of Catholic Charities San Diego. He said the organization's four offices ---- three in San Diego County (including his office in Vista) and one in Imperial County ---- probably see 7,000 new cases each year. And the organization follows cases through to the end, which, of course, takes years.

He said his office often sees legal permanent residents who illegally bring their families to live in the U.S. with them, rather than living apart for seven, eight, nine years while waiting for visas to come through.

Often times, Stracka said, children were brought to the country as babies and don't even know they are here without documents. It never occurs to a child to ask, he said.

"Most children don't know that they are undocumented," Stracka said. "Their parents haven't told them, and they (kids) don't think about that issue. They (parents) don't want them to live this dual life and be afraid. They don't want to burden their kids."

Push often comes to shove, Stracka said, when kids become teenagers and want to get driving licenses or social security numbers to get a job. That's when many find out the truth, he said.

Coming over as a child doesn't make it easier to get residency or citizenship, Stracka said. Children in the country illegally have to follow the same rules as those who immigrate illegally as adults.

There are hardship waivers for many situations, immigration attorneys said. For example, waivers may be granted to people who need to come to the U.S. to care for parents living legally in the United States.

But getting a hardship waiver is increasingly difficult, attorneys said. Even an illegal immigrant who, for example, marries an ill person and becomes their caretaker still must wait outside the country for up to a year for the hardship waiver to come through, Montag said.

Work visas

What about coming into the country on a permanent work visa? That, too, is a long wait. Work visas fall into a number of categories, with highly skilled employees at the top of the waiting list.

But this class is reserved for the cream of the crop ---- thoseÝwho have won the Nobel Peace prize or are high-level athletes, attorney Robbins said.

The second category, immigration attorneys said, is for people with master's degrees and the like.

Unskilled workers fall among those in the third preference category, but everybody from every country in the world has a long wait. Although there are exceptions for certain professions, like nursing, the U.S. State Department is just now handing out work visas to people who applied in 2001 and fall into the third category.

The turnaround time for visas for temporary workers is much shorter, but applicants still must have a U.S. sponsor. An agricultural worker in Monterrey, Mexico, for example, has a wait time of about 156 days from the day he applied to the day the U.S. government issues a visa, Tischler said.

But, she noted, a temporary worker must prove that he does not intend to permanently immigrate.

The wait lists for permanent visas in all categories is updated monthly on the State Department's Web site at http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulle ... _1360.html.

The list also includes family-sponsored applications.

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.