Accountability in Immigration Repatriation Act of 2008

What is happening in the US and to our US immigration process!

Last month, in the US senate, a bill was introduced by Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. It was famously (and certainly not very famous for us who are looking for immigration to US) called “AIR”. Its full form is “Accountability in Immigration Repatriation Act of 2008’.

Now you may wonder what it has to do with your immigration process! Yes! It has everything to do with your immigration process as it can simply kill your American dreams or at least cause your American trip to get postponed indefinitely.

The “AIR” is a legislation that requires countries to take back illegal migrants who have been convicted of crimes in the United States. The eight countries which are going to be affected by this legislation are “India, China, Laos, Iran, Eritrea, Vietnam, Jamaica and Ethiopia”. These countries have refused to repatriate a total of over 1, 39,000 illegal migrants and the worst thing to be noted is this that out of these about 18,000 are dreaded criminals and most of them are of Asian origin.

Now the “AIR” introduced a bill to repatriate these illegal migrants to their own respective countries but a new legislation, which can rightly called the Companion of “AIR” has been introduced in the US senate by Congressman Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania Michael Castle of Delaware.

This new legislation puts India in a greater risk because the bill, if came into effect, could cause all the visa processes even at the level of NVCs to be suspended till the country agrees to repatriate all its illegal migrants.

Now we know it is not going to be any easy task for the Indian Government to take such an action and worse even to get such a bill passed in the Parliament, and hence our chances to get an interview call from the National Visa Center may remain a distant dream, at least for some time, I mean either till the Indian Government takes backs its illegal migrants in the US or the Bill is defeated in the US senate.

But still Nurses and PTs have an edge over others as they are declared to be a special category and are listed as “Having acute shortage and also essential service” as we are called schedule A category. We hope the efforts of senators to reintroduce the Recapturing of 61,000 unused visas may success and it may help in the fast clearing of the back logs and the Current Dates may jump to an earlier date. One thing to remember is AOS(adjustment of status) persons are not affected, and only persons like us who are in their own countries, the CPs (Consular Process)are affected.

The bill requires reports to Congress every 90 days on the countries which inhibit repatriation. Receipt of the report automatically triggers denial of foreign aid as well as suspension of all Visa Issuances to the listed countries. The administration an request a waiver from the congress but must justify such a waiver to be in national interest, and this is exactly our hope, though not a guaranty that a VISA will be issued to us in the normal course of time.

So be very careful about agencies promising immediate recruitment and 12 to 19 months immigration to the States, it is simply not possible, and all such claims need to be dealt with care. I do not think any agency in its right mind would risk spending huge amounts when there is no guaranty that the people they select from a country like India can ever hope to get a Visa or at least in the near future.

So please keep on visiting our blogsite and we will be very prompt to notify you of all the latest developments in the US Senate that affect our immigration plans and process.

As usual we request you to keep visiting our blogsite and urge you to keep your spirits up as things may get brighter soon.