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Despite US Government promises to speed things up, thousands of people are still waiting for US immigration visas, often for years, reports the newspaper USA Today.
By some estimates there are over 600,000 foreigners with family members in the US waiting for their green cards, which would let them live and work permanently in America. Last spring the US Citizenship and Immigration Services started a campaign to clear all backlogged immigration applications including green cards, which had risen to 6 million in 2003.
Some progress has been made, with the total backlog now at about 4.7 million applications, and the wait for green cards reduced from 20 months to 11 months over the last year. The Bush administration has announced that by the end of 2006 it wants the waiting time to be just six months.
"We want to restore public confidence in the integrity of America's immigration services," said US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Eduardo Aguirre.
A variety of factors are blamed for the situation. Security checks as part of the "war on terror" and a one-year cap on visas slow things down. However, the authorities are also criticized for taking a hostile attitude toward legal immigrants in an effort to keep them out, while being powerless to keep out or deport illegals in the southwest due to a lack of resources. And some argue that the Bush administration's plan to grant guest worker status to illegal immigrants will further entrench this situation.
There are annual caps on family-based visas (480,000), employment visas (140,000), and refugee permits (70,000 in 2004.) Green card applicants from India, China, the Philippines and Mexico have especially long waits because demand from these countries is so great.
