Time is an elemental concept of the U.S. immigration system. For foreign visitors, the two words most often preceding an immigration question are “how long. . . ?” This is a pertinent inquiry, as a visa and one’s visa ‘status’ in the United States, although distinct in form, are alike in one important respect: both can expire at any given time based on complex rules intended to govern the foreigner’s actions within the country. Conversely, one may expire while the other remains valid. This layered permission aspect of U.S. immigration can and often does cause confusion and problems.
If you are a foreigner physically present in the United States, it is important to distinguish your status from your visa. The visa in your passport is much like a ticket, or a license, which, if granted (usually by a U.S. consulate or embassy abroad) merely allows you to apply for admission at a U.S. port-of-entry, under assumed qualifications based on your expressed intent in applying for the visa. A visa allows this application at the port-of-entry, but does not guarantee your lawful presence in the United States after entry. Your ability to maintain lawful presence in the United States under a particular visa category (B-2, J-1, H-1B, etc.) is governed after entry by rules related to your actual ‘status.’
If you are in the U.S. temporarily, such as a temporary worker, student, or visitor for business or pleasure, you possess non-immigrant status. If you are in the U.S. with the intent of eventually obtaining permanent residence, you possess immigrant status. Status, as such, is the initial focal point for legal analysis related to any foreigner’s current immigration circumstances and goals moving forward.
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Not a Puzzle, a Maze: A Reply to Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick
The Wall Street Journal publishes an excerpt from a forthcoming book by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and co-author Clint Bolick, a constitutional lawyer, entitled ‘Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution.’ The article is titled ‘Solving the Immigration Puzzle.’ Immigration is not static, nor can it be ‘solved’ in a temporal sense. It should have been titled ‘Designing a Better Maze.’ My reply in the WSJ readers forum:
~ Agree, nothing ground-breaking here, limited prescriptive value to this article. I disagree with Gov. Bush’s assertion that we need to “start from scratch.” Much of the non-immigrant visa system works at it is largely designed to, classifying and controlling channels of temporary foreign visitors to the U.S., then providing avenues for meritorious promotion vis-a-vis a system of advancement to permanent residence through targeted employment or investment. Family-based adjustment of status to residence based on qualifying immediate relative relationships – the old marriage certificate shortcut – in principle, can’t change much either fundamentally.
There is, however, merit to the idea that the family chain needn’t be so constant. For instance, those who may qualify for some form of future ‘amnesty,’ if originally EWI (entry without inspection) or a long-term visa overstay, should be denied if not citizenship, than at least the ability to become a pulling link in the chain, i.e., to sponsor another family member to immigrate. And denied that right if not forever, then at least for a very long time, as the price one pays – and will continue to pay – for breaking the law as a first act in America.
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