In an effort to alleviate the state department’s workload, President
Bush announced last week that the government will allow green-card
applicants to obtain permanent residency before FBI security check are
complete, Christian Science Monitor reports. The rule change will
instantly benefit nearly 47,000 foreigners hopeful for US residency.
An
estimated 3 million people were waiting for green cards in 2006. The
backlog
has not been reduced since then, even in the face of a drastic
application fee hike last summer, from $395 to $1,010 per applicant.
The process comes at a time when the application process for US
permanent residency has become more arduous and difficult than ever
before.
In addition to the often years-long wait and the steep fee increase,
applicants must find suitable sponsors and legal representation,
gather
and submit hundreds of pages of personal documents that vouch for
their
identity and professional/familial relationships, in addition to
scattered countless expenses for photos, medical examinations, and
vaccinations.
With all of these headaches, and despite the Bush administration’s
pledge to speed the process along, there’s still a long way to go
for a
reasonable return on an application status. “It’s not where we
want it to be,” said USCIS spokesman Shawn Saucier. He estimates
that
an estimate 4 million people outside of the US are still waiting to
even have the opportunity to apply for the finite number of visas
offered
annually. Citizens of high-volume countries such as India, China and
Mexico have so much demand for the applications that exceed
availability
that it could potentially take longer for them to be eligible for
application.
Though no new application estimates have been released since 2006,
Saucier claims that, by that years end, much of USCIS’ applicant
backlog
had been eliminated and that processing times for “high
preference”
applications and those not subject to quotas or additional FBI checks
has improved measurably.
I hope not ...