Monday, August 1, 2011

Legal Immigration: How long Is the Wait?

National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), in a May 2006 study entitled "Legal Immigrants: Waiting Forever An Analysis of the Green Card Backlogs and Processing Delays Affecting Families, Skilled Professionals and U.S. Employers," concluded:
"Why don’t people wait to immigrate legally to the United States? The answer is that many people do come here legally but processing delays and the family and employment-based immigration quotas legislated by Congress result in significant wait times – and much frustration – for potential immigrants and U.S. employers. [...] Many Americans do not realize the significant waiting times foreign visitors and business travelers experience to obtain a visa to enter the United States...

Those who 'play by the rules' are likely to wait many years to become a lawful permanent resident, whether they are sponsored by an employer or a family member. Waits for green cards (permanent residence) in the Skilled Workers and Professionals category have worsened considerably in the past few years, with the current wait for a newly sponsored high skill immigrant in this category exceeding 5 years...

Siblings of U.S. citizens can expect to wait 11 to 12 years from today before immigrating to America (22 years from the Philippines). Unmarried adult children can anticipate waiting 6 years, but 13 years if from Mexico and 14 years from the Philippines. A spouse or minor child of a legal resident (green card holder) from Mexico has a 7 year wait (a 5 year wait from other countries).
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May 2006 - National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP)

See more of this and similar articles:  http://immigration.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000760

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