SANTA ANA – Immigration attorney Luis Gonzalez is bracing for a flood of clients wanting to apply for U.S. legal residency in Orange County.
Immigration officials announced Friday that the pathway to a green card will become easier for some people who are in the country illegally and have a spouse or parent who is a U.S. citizen.
Immigration officials announced Friday that they make it easier for immigrant applicants to stay with their U.S. citizen children or spouses, instead of separating them during the legal residency application process.
"This is going to open a floodgate," Gonzalez said. "I'll tell you right now... in Santa Ana, there won't be a shortage of clients who will want to do this."In a teleconference Friday, immigration officials announced a proposed regulation they said would make it easier for immigrant visa applicants to stay with their parents or spouses who are U.S. citizens, instead of separating them during the application process.
There are still some steps before the regulation is implemented, but it could go into effect some time this year, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services head Alejandro Mayorkas said in the teleconference.
Generally, people who are in the country illegally but are married or have parents or immediate relatives who are citizens are allowed under immigration law to become legal residents. Still, there has long been a snag in immigration law in those cases that requires the illegal immigrants to return to their countries of origin as a condition of receiving a legal visa.
However, once the applicant leaves the country, the law automatically bars them from returning to the U.S. for at least three years and sometimes up to a decade even though they are eligible for legal U.S. residency.
While immigration agency officials provide a waiver that allows the applicant to stay in the United States during the visa process, getting such a waiver is difficult and can take as long as gaining permanent residency.
"One of the things we've heard from the public and understand in dealing with these cases is that we have seen cases of extreme hardship when the time of separation is quite lengthy and where the length of time results in enduring hardship," Mayorkas said.
The law was written to avoid such hardships, Mayorkas said. That's why changing the process is in line with the law and doesn't change it, he added.
In fiscal year 2011, USCIS officials received 23,000 applications for such waivers. About 17,000 of them were approved, Mayorkas said.
In addition, the average processing time for such a wavier takes at least six months but often takes a lot longer, he said.
The change will make a huge difference for hundreds of thousands of American families, immigrant advocates and immigration attorneys said.
Many immigrants who were in the country illegally and qualified for legal status via their spouse or parent wouldn't apply out of fear of separation and because they simply couldn't afford to do so, attorney Gonzalez said.
His small firm in Santa Ana receives roughly 1,200 clients inquiring about immigration issues each year, he said. About 30 percent of those people, he said, are likely eligible for legal permanent status because he or she has an American citizen spouse, parent or child.
However, most don't apply because they would have to leave the U.S. for their home country during the visa processing period. Often, the applicant has a family that depends on them in some way, and their absence would cause a great hardship, Gonzalez said.
"I don't think I've had one that came in and didn't have a family member that depends on them," he said. "There are so many of them but they can't afford to leave a family without a breadwinner. They shy away. A lot of them put it off."
The change means these visa applicants will be allowed to stay during the processing of the waiver and visa application. If the applicant meets qualifications, he or she will be given a provisional waiver in the U.S. and can stay before they have to leave for their home countries to pick up their visas.
The "extreme hardship" condition is still a requirement for the granting of a waiver, Mayorkas said. Immigration officials will only grant a waiver if the person who is in the country illegally can prove that their absence will cause "extreme hardship" to an American citizen spouse or parent -- not a U.S. citizen child, according to immigration law.
The wait time for the waivers will likely remain the same. But under the new provision, applicants will be able to stay with their American families while they wait, he said.
Mayorkas emphasized that before the granting of a waiver, immigration officials would do a thorough background check. Applicants with any criminal conviction will not qualify for the waiver, he said.
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