Immigrating Families Need Restoration

“The U.S. immigration system has always promoted family unity by awarding the majority of visas to the families of current U.S. residents, which ensures that close family members are not kept apart. The principle of family unity has long been a central tenet of our immigration laws and has contributed to the economic and social prosperity of our country and immigrant populations.

However, the benefits of family-based immigration are undermined by the well-documented backlogs—backlogs caused by quotas in family immigration categories which fall far short of the number of immigrant visa applications. Repeated shortfalls have resulted in increasingly unreasonable wait times. For instance, the average current wait time for spouses and minor children of legal permanent residents (green card holders) is five years, and the wait time for adult children of U.S. citizens is six years for those still single and eight years for those who have married. Siblings of U.S. citizens must wait between ten and eleven years.” These families could clearly benefit from more support in U.S. immigration law to allow them to be restored to one another as they move into the United States.

See more on this important subject from an Immigration Impact blog working toward Family Unity ...

http://immigrationimpact.com/2009/10/27/family-ties-a-closer-look-at-the-problem-with-our-family-based-immigration-system/