Fernando maintains that he came here legally and thought he'd done everything required. His parents, who live in rural Pennsylvania, started the citizenship process for their six children soon after coming to the U.S. in the mid-1990s. Garcia lived with his family in Pennsylvania for a few years before moving to New York. He has a legal New York state driver's license and documents that state that his status was approved for review so he thought the citizenship process was still under way.
His parents recently became citizens after seven years in the system, but the paperwork they started for their children was nullified as each turned 21, Sadie said.
But no one ever told him that, he said.
He entered the country legally with his parents when he was a child. His parents applied for citizenship for him and he has the paperwork to prove it.
He is a victim of "timing out." That's when a dependent's turns 21 before their case is processed. At that point, he is no longer considered a dependent and USCIS drops his case due to ineligibility.
In other words, even though the family did everything right, the immigration bureaucracy took too long so they cancelled his application. And the government did not notify him!
So he thought he was legal and that's why he never had his wife sponsor him.
This case is a real example of how the current immigration system is broken. With most other visas, the date is based on when you file, not when Immigration gets to your case.
He and his family do have my sympathies for this plight.
Legal immigration takes a very long time. I'm in the middle of the process and I've been here, legally, for over 12 years! I still have 1-2 years to go based on current USCIS processing times. So if I had any kids 9 years of age or older when I came here, they would not be allowed to be in the country because they would have gotten too old because of processing times!
Immigration might be a time consuming process, but Fernando's story is BS.
He entered the country legally with his parents when he was a child. His parents applied for citizenship for him and he has the paperwork to prove it.
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I doubt that’s true. They seem like visa overstayers
I’ve heard similar stories before, I just don’t buy it.
That’s not true. You merely have to file papers individually for your children, and not try to get them admitted as your dependents if they are going to turn 21 before your papers are accepted.
From the article:
"He has a legal New York state driver's license and documents that state that his status was approved for review so he thought the citizenship process was still under way."
Trouble is, he "timed out" seven years ago. The burden is on him to make sure that his process is still "under way". If he hasn't heard from them in seven years, and never bothered to check, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for him. Sounds like willful ignorance to me.
Besides, even if he thought he was still being processed under his parents' claim, he had a new legitimate claim to citizenship through his marriage, and should have made that application.
Legal immigration takes a very long time. I'm in the middle of the process and I've been here, legally, for over 12 years! I still have 1-2 years to go based on current USCIS processing times. So if I had any kids 9 years of age or older when I came here, they would not be allowed to be in the country because they would have gotten too old because of processing times!
Maybe so, but he got married to a US Citizen. That means a green card, which takes significantly less time (a year or so), and a temporary work permit (EAD) while he waited for his permanent legal residency to come through. The important thing is that he'll be legal while waiting. Not legal as in "I was legal seven years ago and hope I still am" but honest-to-goodness legal.
Immigration is complicated, but so what? Life is hard. He didn't even make a tiny effort to involve himself in his own process.
The difference is that you WOULD have a clue as to whether you are in bounds because you’ve been keeping track of it. I have H1B colleagues and others who know when they can and cannot leave the country, who make visits to the consulates when needed, etc. this man had 6 or 7 YEARS to figure out what the heck happened to his application. He never bothered to find out.
I paid tens of thousands in income taxes this year. If I “forgot” to pay my taxes, the visit from the IRS would not be pleasant. I dont consider ignorance an excuse in this matter.
Oh, and the legal immigration system is screwed up in part because of the massive volume of such cases. All the more reason to oppose amnesty, which will swamp the bureaucrats like a Tsunami.