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Surviving Spouses Urge End to Widow Penalty

Monday, April 30th, 2007

PORTLAND, OR – One month ago, Congressmen Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) and Jeff Flake (RAZ.) unveiled new legislation designed to fix America’s broken immigration system. The Bill includes a fix to the “widow penalty,” a little known trap in the immigration law that leads to the deportation of widows of U.S. citizens when the death occurs during immigration processing. The Bill is called the “Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007″ (”STRIVE Act”), and has been given the House bill number H.R. 1645. The “widow penalty fix” is found in Section 516 of the Bill, pages 420-426.

A non-partisan non-profit advocacy organization, Surviving Spouses Against Deportation (SSAD) was formed early this year to provide a place for grieving spouses of US Citizens facing deportation along with their orphaned minor children. They have been closely following this legislation as well as related issues. For more information you can visit SSAD.ORG.

SSAD has documented and follows many cases that demonstrate the dilemma that many families face each year. A notable example is a case where a US Citizen who was enlisted in the armed forces was killed in Iraq leaving his immigrant spouse and children behind. In this case and other just like it, the immigrant spouse of the US Citizen was left to deal with both their family’s personal tragedy and the immigration issues that followed (including possible deportation).

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Husband Seperated from Wife and Children Due to Marriage Before Entering on K-1 Visa – 10 Year Ban

Saturday, April 7th, 2007

BRADENTON, FL – A Bradenton man is fighting to keep his family together, even though they are half a world away.

He and his wife, a Japanese national, are caught in the middle of an immigration nightmare. It started with what seemed like a simple visa mistake. Now every moment of every day, Keith Campbell is fighting to bring home his wife and two young boys.

While living and working as an American expatriate in Asia, Keith Campbell met the woman that would become his wife. He soon settled into her Tokyo home as they made plans to marry.

Nine years later, his wife Akiko and their two children are back in Japan, but not by choice.

In February 1998, when Akiko applied for a K1 fiance visa, she was told the process would take three to four months to complete, Keith said, so the couple scheduled a wedding in June.

Watch Video from Fox 13 Tampa Bay

The date for the wedding approached quickly, but the visa was still missing.

The couple decided to go on with the ceremony anyway. Held in Hawaii, a midpoint for relatives flying from both Japan and the mainland United States, Keith said it would affect the lives of too many people to postpone the ceremony.
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Consular Offices Abroad Resume Accepting I-130 Petitions

Monday, March 26th, 2007

U.S. citizens, including members of the armed forces, who live abroad, may resume filing Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, with an American embassy or consulate in countries where there is no U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) international office.

USCIS international offices will continue accepting I-130 petitions from U.S. citizens who live in the country where the USCIS office is located, without interruption. The complete list of international offices and the countries they service is on the USCIS web site: http://www.uscis.gov.

In addition consular officers and USCIS officers overseas will also accept petitions from individuals who do not live abroad in cases:

Involving true emergency situations, such as life and death or health and safety, or

Where allowing overseas filing would be in the national interest, such as facilitating the processing of petitions filed by U.S. military stationed overseas who are pending imminent transfer on orders.

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USCIS Advises Petitioners Overseas – Do Not Re-File I-130

Monday, March 5th, 2007

WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) advises anyone who filed a Petition for Alien Relative, (Form I-130) with an American embassy or consulate since July 2006 that they do not need to re-file the petition. USCIS is working with the Department of State to process those petitions.

The Department of State announced in January 2007 that certain requirements of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act (enacted in July 2006) precluded them from accepting new petitions.

U.S. citizens who live abroad may continue to file new petitions with a nearby USCIS international office. A list of offices and the countries they service is on the USCIS web site: http://www.uscis.gov.

USCIS expects to issue instructions for new filings in the near future and will provide updated information once the details have been finalized with the Department of State.

Petitioners traveling overseas who actually live in the United States must file their I-130 petitions with the appropriate USCIS service center in the United States, according to the instructions on the form, http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-130.pdf.

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Separated Utah family waits for visa news

Monday, February 5th, 2007

It pains Johana Thorsted to see her 2-year-old daughter’s memories of her life in Utah fading. After living in Guatemala for nearly five months, the child has forgotten how to speak English, and Thorsted worries those fading memories could include her daughter’s father, Aaron Thorsted.

"She doesn’t remember anything about the U.S.," Thorsted said in a telephone interview. "She speaks Spanish, she doesn’t speak English anymore. It’s hard to see my baby forget everything."

Thorsted, who had been undocumented while living in Utah, returned to Guatemala with her young daughter to apply for an immigrant visa.

Neither she nor her husband thought it would take so long. Thorsted was pregnant when she left. Now she says one of the hardest things to deal with is that her husband has yet to meet his infant daughter, who was born in Guatemala. Yet, she says, the sacrifice is worth it.

"I have my life in the United States, I have my husband and my kids," she said. "That is why I want to fight to have a visa."

Her husband, Aaron Thorsted, said he started the application process for Johana’s legal status shortly after the couple married in 2003, but it was put on hold when he was called to active duty with his Army Reserve unit and served in Iraq.

As a U.S. citizen, Aaron was able to apply for his wife’s immigration visa. But because Johana Thorsted had been living in the United States illegally, she faces a 10-year bar before she can return.

New proposed CIS filing fees to increase total immigration costs up to $1,040 for K-1 applicants, K-3 up to $920

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

The new proposed CIS rate increases for fiscal year 2008 (see rate sheet below) will cost K-1 applicants up to $1,040 in additional fee’s for their entire immigration paperwork. K-3 applicants will have to pay up to $920 in additional fees. The major benefit cited by the US CIS is to reduce application processing times and to improve the operation of the CIS as a whole. As part of the proposed change Employment Authorization Documents as well as Advance Parole (travel) documents will require no additional fee(s) when filed with an I-485 (to adjust status to permanent residency). Both benefits will also incur no additional cost to renew while the I-485 application is processing.
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Family-based immigrant petitions must now be filed only with USCIS

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007

Effective immediately, in accordance with the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, overseas consular posts are no longer authorized to accept or adjudicate I-130 petitions. This also affects many intending immigrant spouses of US Citizens that wished to file their I-130’s at their local Consulate, a process also known as “Direct Consular Filing” or DCF.

The recently passed Adam Walsh Act has led to changes in the procedures American citizens resident abroad will follow if they wish to sponsor an immediate relative (spouse, parent or minor child) for an immigrant visa. According to this legislation, all family-based immigrant visa petitions (I-130s) must be screened to ensure the petitioner has not been convicted of specified criminal offences against a minor. (more…)

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Archive for the ‘Family Immigration’ Category

Surviving Spouses Urge End to Widow Penalty

Husband Seperated from Wife and Children Due to Marriage Before Entering on K-1 Visa – 10 Year Ban

Consular Offices Abroad Resume Accepting I-130 Petitions

USCIS Advises Petitioners Overseas – Do Not Re-File I-130

Separated Utah family waits for visa news

New proposed CIS filing fees to increase total immigration costs up to $1,040 for K-1 applicants, K-3 up to $920

Family-based immigrant petitions must now be filed only with USCIS

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