Born in but not citizen of a special registration country

[zana]

Hi,

My husband and I are both citizens and natives (passort holders) of India but my husband was born in a country that falls in the registration list. He has not special registered as of now. I have applied and got I-140 approval for both of us under NIW (self sponsorship category). We applied for our I-485 and travel parole in October 2002 and I received my travel parole approval in March 2003. However my lawyer now informs us that INS is still reveiwing my husbands application to see if he requires special registration.

Our lawyer says that he does not need to register as of now. Does anyone have any experience with this situation? Will he have to special register? How does this affect chances of getting the greencard in the same time frame as me?

Any advice is welcome!

[shriyaz]

Hello,

I myself have been in a similar situation. Citizen and Native of India but born in 'Bahrain'

During the registration period I got mixed response from different immigration lawyers on whether I should register.

I did go ahead and got registered nonetheless just to be on the safer side.

So that is my story. Please do update us on the INS decision on your husband's pending case

Thanks

[last_gasp]

zana,

How did that go? Was your lwayer successful in proving that your husband doesn't need to register? or did he have to register? Thanks

[zana]

Actually he went to the local INS office and at first they made a big fuss saying that he had missed all the signing up deadlines etc and now it would take special interview with an officer etc. Then after they looked at the passport more closely the lady in charge said that she didnt think that he had to register at all! But she wanted to confirm it with her boss, we made sure she wrote on the I-94 card in the passport that we had checked in with the INS office (so that we would have that record at least). Anyway the next day she called back and said that as of now there were no rules regarding this issue and whatever we wanted to do (signing up or not) was entirely voluntary. We gave it some thought and finally decided to go ahead with it and my husband did special register.

Mainly we were concerned that this issue would keep dogging us everytime the INS had to process any of our greencard stuff. Sure enough although he is now stuck with all the hassles of special registering, his travel parole and EAD documents came through almost immediately ! What can you do!
Hope this was helpful.

[last_gasp]

Thanks zana

[ravi2patel]

Zana,

Did you guys go volantarily or did your attorney advice you to go and register ? I understand you guys went in recently ?

Thanks

[zana]

Yes we went by ourselves (although our lawyer did offer to come with us if we wanted). At this point I dont think anyone including lawyers or even INS officials know what the exact rules are. Legally we would probably have been okay not doing anything, but as i mentioned we were concerned that this issue would keep coming up and each time we would have to go through these same explanations!

[ravi2patel]

Just wanted to update on my case. I am glad to say that I received my approval notice. Only thing is that I changed my regular processing to premium process and voila! it got approved with in 12 days of paying that $1000 bucks !


Regards,
ravi2patel

[pusram]

Hello All,

I am new to this forum. It is very interesting to see different stories and experiences. So thought I will share some of my experiences with you guys.

I am born in one of the SR countries and I was an Indian Citizen. Now I am a Canadian Citizen for the past 8 years. I don't know if it was my bad time, on my way back from one of the South American countries I was one of the few lucky guys to be picked up for Spl registration. The only reason being on my Canadian passport the Place of birth is mentioned as one of the SR countries and had been on a business trip to UAE. This immigration officer (black lady) had not clue as to what this stamp means and asked me if I was from IRAN ( ). I could not control my laughter so I asked her if she was talking to me. She immediately sent me for Spl registration. Although I knew I was going thru some trouble, inside me I was laughing at the ignorance and geographical knowledge these officers have about the world. I also told the officer inside the Spl reg officer that I am a Hindu by birth and I am from Southern Part of India and my name clearly identifies that I am not from one of the SR countries. I also told the officer that it was not my fault that I was born in a SR country 30 years ago. I showed her my Indian passport, my letter from company and also had a photo of Ganapathy in my Wallet. Nothing really helped because I was @ the wrong place @ the wrong time with a stupid, ignorant officer who was doing what he was told to do by her superiors. She just checked my place of birth and UAE stamp on my passport which was in Arabic and thought I was from Iran. Anyway that was just the beginning of the horrible, irritating SR experience.

Moral of the story, Expect the Unexpected from the US immigration officers, as they have no idea that the world consists of Asia, America and Europe and the Middle East.

To be continued. Stay tuned for more exiting stories about the SR Registration and my every week experience @ different Airports in the US and World.

[pusram]

My second trip to South America via Atlanta. Since I was flying out from Canada, all the immigration formalities are to be completed in Canada. So I went to the immigration officer, he looked @ my passport and asked me to go for Spl registration. Inside one of the officer looked @ my passport, my name and my H1 visa and asked me; why am I here and made a note on my passport that I am exempt from special registration. I told him that one of the officers sent me in here to get registered. He laughed @ me and said you don’t have to do this and that he will not be registering me. So I left for my flight. Landed in Atlanta and since I was not sure, I went to one of the immigration officer in Atlanta airport and told him that I was here for Spl registration. He looked at my passport and told me that he cannot register my exit as I was not registered for entry in to US. As usual I was laughing and I told him that I have to get registered. He said he cannot register and will not do it. So I carried on my flight to South America.

Moral of the story, don’t invite trouble, If trouble doesn’t want the invitation and don’t argue with the US immigration officer as he can never make a mistake.

Honest to God I am not making this up. My job requires travelling every week and I experience different situatons every week.

To be Continued next week.

[ravi2patel]

pusram,

Very interesting events. Keep posting. Well, currently I am on vacation to INDIA. Lets hope my return trip does'nt end up like yours. Actual now I have decided that out of the two baggages allowed, one should be dedicated to documents to prove yourself

-Ravi

[mmx]

Immigration officers are very knowledgeable about rules but if you show impatience especially if the flight time is near it might trigger additional questions and delays for you. Sometimes people assume that the officer may not know the rules that's why asking more questions and try to be overly helpful. Give yurself ample time at the airport for immigration, if it is a stopover then give couple of hours atleast.

If you need to report to immigration before departing (or during stopover) then give couple of hrs., generally officers are available from 8:30am to 5-6 pm, different ports of exit/entry may have different office times (based on arrival/departure of international flights), make sure you are travelling within those times. For example if you are in Atlanta be sure that your connecting flight internationally (incl. Canada although considered domestic flt.) is between the 9am-5pm timeframe as the officers might not be present (officers follow international flt. schedule not the domestic), to be sure call the immigration for office times at the last airport from which you will depart from.

[nazim]

We, myself my wife and my son applied for GC my son was born in Duabi but holds an Indian PP. Me and my wife got our EID but INS has sent RFE for my son asking as to why he was not registered with the INS as required by the citizen of the group of special contries.
My lawyer said she will reply to INS after some research.My son came here in 2000 and is a university student. He has always complied by timely informing the INS with his change of address etc whenever he changed his dorms. We belived that because he holds Indian PP he was exemted from registering.
Now that all deadlines are over we are confused.
Please guide us.