The Current State of American Immigration

One thing is certain about the future of US Immigration: the process is constantly changing. This article looks briefly at the past year and the issues that have arisen in the field of US Immigration.

American immigration rules are subject to constant changes. However in recent years the rate of change has accelerated greatly. Some attribute this to the organizational changes made to the Immigration system itself. At one time, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was under the jurisdiction of the United States Attorney General. Now United States Immigration matters are dealt with under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security.

Further compounding the changes to the Immigration system are the proposed changes to be made to Immigration law should recently proposed changes be made to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Under the current provisions of the INA same sex couples are not allowed to petition for Immigration benefits based upon marriage to a same sex partner. There have been numerous recent attempts to repeal this restriction. At the time of this writing, none of the proposed legislation on this issue has been passed by either House of the Legislative Branch of the United States Federal Government.

Recently, a bill was proposed in the US Congress that would make sweeping changes to the American Immigration system. Commonly referred to as "Comprehensive Immigration Reform," or "CIR" for short, this initiative seeks to rectify perceived injustices in the current United States visa process. The ultimate impact of the CIR movement remains to be seen.

An interesting aspect of the current Immigration environment within the past year is the increasing attention that immigration fraud is getting from the New York Attorney General's office. This attention to fraudulent activity has been most apparent in the current Attorney General's attitude toward those who would take advantage of the lack of consumer sophistication on the part of the immigrant community. This endeavor to thwart illegal activity should be embraced by the community at large.

When this article was written, the K1 visa was still a highly utilized travel document for those traveling to America in order to re-unite with a fiance. Also, the K3 marriage visa is still commonly used by those with an alien spouse. Those interested in filing for a K-1 or K-3 visa should look into filing a well-founded I-129f petition.

USCIS: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service is the main adjudicator of K visa applications and it is in their position as adjudicators that the American Department of Homeland Security pre-screens virtually all family based visa applicants to ensure that they are both eligible for benefits and do not pose a foreseeable threat to the United States. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Service offers one more layer of security as it is their responsibility to inspect and admit aliens at ports of entry in America.