Subject: Reform Administrative Procedures for Employment-based Immigration
Process
Dear Mr. President,
If a dog comes to your home, bringing friendship, loyalty, and help, you
treat him as family. You won’t live with him for many years, but in the
meanwhile ready to kick him out of your house at any time.
We come to this country because we love this country, and we can help make
her better. We want to make this country better because our children are
growing up here. Our children are growing up here because we spend our best
years working for this country. We are helpers, friends, and parents. But
in the meanwhile we’re ready to be kicked out of this country at any time.
In USCIS, in Department of State and Department of Labor, we are employment-
based immigration petitioners. All men are created equal, except us
employment-based immigration petitioners.
We come from thousands of miles away, bringing to this country our knowledge
and experience, abiding by U.S. laws and regulations, contributing to U.S.
economic growth and cultural diversity. We help U.S. employers start
entrepreneurships, grow businesses, and manage global operations. The more
competitive U.S. companies become, the more wealth and jobs are created,
hence a more powerful United States.
By the current employment-based immigration process, no matter how long you
have been helping, no matter how much you have been contributing, no matter
how well you have been behaving, no matter how proud you feel about your
children, no matter how loyal you are to U.S. culture, if you lose your job,
you have to find another job immediately or leave this country immediately.
Why does the current employment-based immigration process have to put us in
such an inhumane situation, or indoggy situation? Why we choose to abide by
the law, only to find ourselves the most regulated human beings? Why you
would allow such a process to discriminate us in the fashion that you won’t
treat your dog?
We urge you to immediately reform administrative procedures for employment-
based immigration process:
1. Grant a grace period for employment-based immigration petitioners
proportionally to the time they have been working for U.S. employers.
Ideally if a foreign worker has been legally working in U.S. for 5 years and
lost her job, she should be given a 5-month grace period to find out
whether another U.S. employer needs her knowledge and skills.
2. Allow employment-based immigration petitioners to submit I-485 forms
if they have been legally working in U.S. for 5 years and are 180 days since
their I-140 petitions have been approved.
a) In the first place, we can’t choose where we were born. It’s unfair
to assert our birthplaces as our original sin. The current process
mercilessly punishes us if we were born in populous countries by making us
wait year after year before we can file I-485 to adjust our immigration
status.
b) In the second place, we are not even challenging any law. We are
simply asking for an administrative convenience. The law sets a limited
number of visas to be issued to employment-based immigrants. We respect the
law and always abide by the laws. But the law doesn’t forbid submitting I
-485 applications.
c) In the third place, we are not even challenging the Visa Bulletin.
Although immigrants from less populous countries receive their green cards
in a few months, for those from populous countries, every month, Mr. Charles
Oppenheim in the Department of State decides the cut-off dates so that
nobody can file I-485 form if their “Priority Date” is not prior to the
cut-ff date in Visa Bulletin. As a result, the Visa Bulletin is the most
read document among employment-based immigrants community. We respect the
Visa Bulletin but we believe the Visa Bulletin was established to control
the issuance of green cards, rather than to control the filing of I-485.
To summarize, we urge you to reform the current inhuman immigration
procedures by allowing a grace period and separating I-485 filing from Visa
Bulletin. Such two simple and small steps will significantly relieve us of
tremendous pressures that have been hindering us from visiting our families
in home countries, from making long-term investments such as buying a house,
from … 大家一起想，最后由NIU专家组决定。
