The challenges of American legal permanent residency for family- and employment-based petitioners

Abstract

One of the most debated issues in contemporary immigration policy surrounds the acquisition of the ‘greencard’ or legal permanent resident status (LPR). For many migrants who enter the country on temporary visas, legal permanent residency is crucial to upward mobility and removes the looming threat of deportation and illegality. Despite this, the pathway to permanent residency for temporary visa holders who do not adjust their status due to their direct relationship with American citizens as spouses, minor children or parents is an uncertain one. After filing to adjust status, migrants often have to deal with visa backlogs and lengthy wait periods in queues which are capped by country of origin and level of demand. Official statistics document that wait times for family- and employment-based visas can span from five years to several decades keeping petitioners in long ‘probationary’ periods of uncertainty. Using data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services Performance Analysis System, and placing emphasis on the two largest immigration channels: family and employment, this article examines the total number of applications for LPR which were approved, pending and denied for the 1992–2007 fiscal years. From this, it is argued that assimilation is not only a social process but a complicated legal one. It is also suggested that lengthy wait periods in visa queues retards the incorporation of legal immigrants into the American stratification order and inhibits chances for upward mobility and incorporation.

Keywords:

• permanent residency
• legal migration
• quota caps
• family and employment
• visa retrogression

Notes

1. Three-year residency requirement for immediate relatives (i.e. spouses, minor children and parents).

2. Visa quota limits are not applicable to immediate relatives of US citizens or LPR’s classified as spouses, minor children or parents. These immigrants have generally shorter wait times for permanent residency.

3. The filing of the I-485 application to change status to LPR.

4. The I-130 and I-485 can be filed concurrently, but there must be available visa numbers.

5. Priority dates became current for applications filed in 2006.

6. See page 113 Appendix 1 of the 2007 Ombudsman Report for all visa categories.

7. S.744 also known as the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 written by a bipartisan group of eight senators including: Charles Schumer (D-NY); Marco Rubio (R-FL); Robert Menendez (D-NJ); John McCain (R-Ariz); Richard Durbin (D-Ill); Lindsey Graham (R-SC); Michael Bennett (D-Colo) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz).