New Immigration Bill Would Fix Family-Based Immigration

Our current immigration system which forces parents to be separated from their children and husbands to be separated from their wives for years at a time is both cruel to immigrant families and unworthy of our country's proud tradition as a nation of immigrants.

The immigration reform bill introduced by Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-IL.) and 90 co-sponsors on December 15 would improve the backlog-plagued family-based immigration system in a number of ways. We list some of the most significant changes below:

1) Immediate Relatives Would No Longer Be Subtracted from Preference Categories

Spouses, parents and children of U.S. citizens are considered "immediate relatives" and are not subject to numerical quotas that force other relatives to have to wait from four to over 22 years to qualify for permanent residence in the U.S. Current law allocates 480,000 green cards per year to numerically-limited family-based immigrants. However, this number is a complete fiction since immediate relatives are required to be counted against this number. Since the number of immediate relatives who immigrate to the U.S. each year exceeds 480,000, the number of visas remaining would be zero for immigrants under the four family-based preference categories. However, current law establishes a "floor" of 226,000 family-based preference immigrants.

The new bill would dispense with this deceptive practice. Immediate relatives would no longer be subtracted from the number of family-based preference immigrants who are allowed to obtain permanent residence each year.

2) Family Numbers Would Be Carried Forward 

Currently, unused family-based numbers are transferred to the employment-based categories in the following fiscal year. And theoretically, unused employment-based numbers are transferred to the family-based categories.

However, in reality, because immediate relatives are subtracted from the family-based numbers, family-based visa numbers never exceed the floor of 226,000. The transfer of unused EB numbers to the family-based categories, therefore, never actually occurs.

The new bill would change this by allowing unused family-based numbers in one year to be used during the next fiscal year in the family-based categories.

3) Spouses and Children of Permanent Residents

Currently, a green card holder who sponsors his spouse and children must wait between four to six years before they are allowed to reunite with him in the U.S. Recognizing the cruelty of separating nuclear families, the new bill would reclassify the spouse and children of permanent residents as "immediate relatives" thereby eliminating this wait.

4) Reallocation of Visa Numbers for Family-Based Preferences

Inasmuch as the family-based 2A preference category will disappear (since spouses and children of permanent residents would be added to the immediate relative category), the 2nd preference numbers would be reduced from 114,200 to 60,000, a decrease of 54,200 which would be reallocated to the other family-based preference categories as follows:

A) Family 1st (unmarried adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens) would increase from 23,400 to 38,000;

B) Family 3rd (married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens) would increase from 23,400 to 38,000; and

C) Family 4th (brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens) would increase from 65,000 to 90,000.

5) Increase in Per-Country Quotas

Currently, family members are unfairly penalized due to their countries of origin. For example, while brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens generally wait 10 years to become permanent residents, those born in Mexico must wait over 14 years while those born in the Philippines are forced to wait over 22 years to qualify for permanent residence. In an effort to reduce such absurdly long waiting times and to treat applicants on a more equal basis, the per-country quotas would be increased from 7% to 10% of the worldwide total. For example, coupled with the increase in visa numbers, the number of persons born in the Philippines who could obtain green cards each year under the family 4th category would increase from 4,550 per year (7% of 65,000) to 9,000 per year (10% of 90,000).

In addition, the new bill creates a number of other beneficial changes for family-based immigrants. These changes are too numerous to be listed in this article. One of the most significant changes, however, is to create a special immigrant category for sons and daughters of Filipino World War II veterans. There would be no numerical limitations on this category.

We link to the new immigration reform bill from our "Immigration Legislation" page at

http://shusterman.com/toc-leg.html#3

 

Comments

[Rolly Cruz]

The US Immigration can not be repaired. It is like a carpenter who does not want to repair his own damaged house. The Senate and Congress are doing nothing but to debate and end up nothing. Moneys collected from tax are wasted.

We need action people not always debates and ending up to square one.

[rocky patel]

C) Family 4th (brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens) would increase from 65,000 to 90,000. they need to do
fast they can ,can tall how long time they talk to approve the file ,do they 10 year or less ,

[daniel mingi]

yes you are saying the right thing because it is not fare for the guys who have acquired legal immigrats to be treat as if they are not known to this society yet we claim united states protects the right of individuals mark you it is total lies. to add some of this residence have lost the marriage coz the system itself it does not give any hope, this is the only area i normaklly see dark in us law. honarable member you are doing the right job push on you have my support because you are hearing the crys of so many familys which are breaking down due to this law.

[shana]

I still thing family based 4th preference should wait at least 10 years for a green card. the US cannot afford to have so much more unemployment. If the family members are educated and bring wealth with them to grow the economy then only should they be allowed to immigrate. They should keep the long waiting times

[kamagra online]

Is always very difficult to fix these kind of things.