กมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกมกม

Subject: 
       An Outlook for U.S. Immigration by Mainland Chinese
  Date: 
       Sun, 20 Dec 1998 11:33:34 EST
  From: 
       ImmiAssoc@aol.com
    To: 
       ImmiAssoc@aol.com


An Outlook for U.S. Immigration by Mainland Chinese

As the waiting line becomes longer and longer, we received
lots of inquires about the current immigration situation
for mainland Chinese. Following is an analysis. We hope you
find it informative. 

Let us start by explaining the procedures of obtaining a
green card. There are two steps in the process. The first
step is immigration petition which establishes an
eligibility for you to obtain the green card. The second
step is adjustment of status which issues you the green
card. When you file an immigration petition, the INS will
give you a priority date which determines when you can file
for adjustment of status. Before you file for adjustment of
status, you have to maintain a legal status (F, J, H or
other valid visas).

The immigration law specifies a maximum of 20,000
immigrants per year per country for all categories of
immigration. (Categories are ranks of preference for
different groups of people). When the total number of
people applying for green card exceeds 20,000 for a
country, a waiting line appears. Regarding the number of
employment-based immigrants, Indian is number 1 and Chinese
is number 2 (in 1996, about 40% H-1B are Indian, 10% are
Chinese). Indian has waiting lines for all preferences of
employment-based immigration except the first preference.
Chinese has a waiting line even for first preference. The
waiting lines for Chinese are rapidly becoming longer and
longer. Based on the current rate, many people will not
have a chance to file for adjustment of status within the
6-year period of their H-1B, a very scary scenario. 

Why does this happen? Certainly, the main reason is that
the number of applicants becomes larger and larger. Another
major reason is the 1993 Chinese Student Protection Act,
over 80,000 green cards under this Act will be deducted
from Chinese quota in the subsequent years. Is our
organization also responsible? We might be partially
responsible. Currently, we have about 1000 Chinese members.
The beneficiary number, however, could be several times
bigger. Our products helped many many people holding
various visas (even B-2 visa) with or without job offers.
We also discovered severe copyright violations to our
products by many people. We did send letters to INS
complaining about those individuals. IT IS REALLY NOT WORTH
IT TO LEAVE A BAD RECORD IN INS FOR SAVING THIS SEVERAL
DOLLARS. 

Is the waiting situation getting better? Do you expect any
policy change to eliminate the backlog? From the current
tendency, the waiting situation is becoming worse and
worse. Chinese has explored every avenue. Even the
investment immigration has a waiting line now. We did not
sense any policy change eliminating the backlog in the near
future. Backlog is not new for INS. For so many years,
Philippine has about 10-year waiting for the family-based
first-preference immigration. Nothing has yet happened to
change the situation even with so much effort, pain, lobby,
pressure or whatsoever. 

What can I do? Getting in the line earlier! File an
immigration petition. Obtain a priority date and establish
your self a front position in the line. Currently, the
first preference is a much shorter waiting line. Our
packages will let you know the criteria and tricks of
filing a petition in this category. 

I will hire a lawyer to do it for me, why should I bother
now? We are pretty sure you will be regretting this idea. A
lawyer can file petition (filling out the forms) for you.
But you have to establish the eligibility yourself. You
have to collect the documents (evidences) yourself.

Finally, good luck to everyone.

For more information, visit our web page:
http://members.aol.com/ImmiAssoc or
http://www.angelfire.com/ks/USimmigration (case sensitive)
or e-mail us ImmiAssoc@aol.com.

Immigration Association
December 18, 1998.