The administration of President trump intends to complicate the obtaining of green cards.
This became known from the letter sent to members of Congress and got the publication The Daily Beast.
Service citizenship and US immigration (USCIS) will set new restrictions on how members of Congress can help immigrants who want to obtain a green card or citizenship.
The letter States that the USCIS will require filling several additional forms and documents as well as certified translation and notarized signatures. According to lawyers, this excessive bureaucracy would hinder obtaining the coveted immigrant green cards.
«This is nothing like an unnecessary bureaucratic obstacle to the voters appealed for help to the representatives in their Congress,» says immigration attorney David Leopold.
The fact that immigrants wishing to obtain a green card or citizenship, often turn to their members of Congress if USCIS does not respond or responds slowly. The request to Congress is really often becomes a solution.
«I’ve seen requests to Congress just magically transform what could be a deportation, a green card,» says The Daily Beast’s Matthew Kolken, a lawyer from Buffalo, new York.
Recourse to the Congress, immigrants sign a waiver of confidentiality allowing the office of Congress to contact USCIS on their behalf. In many cases, the presence of a language barrier, the staff of Congress works exclusively with family or a lawyer immigrant.
The changes that USCIS is ready to do make the job of members of Congress, increasing the volume of documents, and, as a consequence, creating new bureaucratic delays.
The letter stated that USCIS will only consider a waiver of confidentiality that meets the following requirements:
- it needs to contain a handwritten and notarized signature (even if the person is outside the United States).
- it needs to include a complete translation of any text, and the certificate of the translator from a foreign language into English.
- if after answering the USCIS has been more than 30 days, and Congress is once again drawn to the service on behalf of an immigrant, the documents must be submitted again. And so each time.
Lawyers say: given that between requests and responses can take several months, all this will not contribute to a quick solution of the situation. «In addition, the requirement of translation may be prohibitively expensive for immigrants» — says Matthew Kolken. «Certified translators can charge you up to $ 100 for each translated page».
