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villages/hispanic/ AP Headlines Update Page
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US judge drops some charges against PR governor |
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Rev. Tutu opines on NY hate killing |
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Richardson longed to return to DC |
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Police seek eight in
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Julieta Venegas: la pianista marcada por el acordeón |
villages/hispanic/ AP Headlines Update Page
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New opportunities section added
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Ice on Immigration: Religious
worker visa delays
By L. Patricia Ice,
Featured Columnist
Question: I am a temporary professional religious worker for a well-known
religious denomination. In 2006, after three years, my R-1 visa status
expired. Before it expired, I filed an I-129 Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker
to extend my R-1 status for two more years. My wife filed an I-539 Application
to Extend Status for herself and our children at the same time. It has been 8
months and neither I nor my wife have gotten an approval of the extensions. A
lawyer prepared all of the paperwork and we have received receipts and requests
for additional evidence to which we have responded and complied. We know the
applications and responses to the request for evidence were timely filed. We
would like to visit our native country next month, but according to the lawyer,
we cannot leave until our extensions are approved. Why is it taking so long?
Answer: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has
reported seeing a tremendous increase in fraudulent temporary and permanent
religious visa applications. Therefore, the USCIS has decided to dedicate more
adjudication time to each and every religious visa petition or application.
First, the USCIS suspended the I-907 Premium Processing program for religious
visa petitions. The USCIS also sent out standard requests for additional
evidence to each religious visa petitioner, asking for a myriad of documents and
other information about the petitioner and the beneficiary. The USCIS now says
that it may personally visit each religious petitioner and make other changes to
the religious visa program. As a matter of fact, the USCIS recently announced
that it would make significant changes to the federal regulations affecting the
special immigrant religious immigrant visa and the R-1 temporary visa
categories. The USCIS believes that the proposed rules will ensure the
integrity of the religious worker program and, at the same time, streamline the
process for legitimate petitioners. Unfortunately, currently it is taking an
unusually long time to adjudicate any religious visa request. I advise you not
to leave the United States until your visa status extension is approved. If you
leave, you may not legally be able to return to the United States for three or
more years. I suggest that you develop a lot of patience during this difficult
period. There is not much you can do to speed up the process.
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L. Patricia Ice
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Featured
IMDiversity Immigration Columnist L. Patricia Ice is an attorney and counselor who has taught
immigration law at Mississippi College School of Law
in Jackson, and also contributes regular immigration advice stories
to La Noticia and The Jackson Advocate. A
practicing attorney, Ms. Ice has recently taken on a two-year role
as an Equal Justice Works Katrina Legal Fellow, focusing on
immigrant employment issues as fair labor standards, and wage and
hour problems, in areas around the Gulf Coast. She is also
dedicated to immigrants rights advocacy, and serves on the Board of the non-profit
rights education group,
MIRA: The Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance at
www.yourmira.org.
Articles in this column are Copyright 2006 L. Patricia Ice.
All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce further without
seeking the permission of the author.
IMDiversity.com is committed to presenting diverse points of view.
However, the viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of
the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or
employees at IMD.
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