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U.S. immigration laws are based on the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act and subsequent amendments. These laws grant priority for permanent residence status to immediate relatives of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents for family reunification. Priority is also given to applicants with critical job skills, refugees and asylum seekers, and applicants from countries with low levels of immigration to the United States (diversity immigrants). The Immigration Act of 1990 specifies an annual limit of between 416,000 and 675,000 for family-sponsored preferences, employment preferences, and diversity immigrants. The annual limit for family-sponsored preferences is from 226,000 to 480,000 immigrants, accounting for more than half of all immigration priorities. There are also per country and dependent area limits of 7 percent and 2 percent respectively, for the total number of family-sponsored and employment preferences.

Family reunification consists of two categories: immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and family-sponsored preferences. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens include spouses of U.S. citizens, unmarried minor children of U.S. citizens, and parents of U.S. citizens. Immediate relatives of U.S. citizens account for 40 percent or more of the annual legal permanent residence status. This category has no numerical limit. Family-sponsored preferences consist of four numerically limited categories: (1) unmarried, adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens and their children; (2) spouses, minor children, and unmarried, adult sons and daughters of legal U.S. permanent residents; (3) married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens and their spouses and children; and (4) brothers and sisters, including their spouses and children, of adult U.S. citizens.

A Petition for Alien Relative (Form I-130), submitted by a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, must be approved by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to receive legal permanent residence as an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen or as a family preference immigrant. Filing the petition establishes a priority date for the immigrant. The U.S. State Department monitors the availability of visas within the categories and country limits, and issues a permanent immigrant visa (green card) to the immigrant if there is no administrative backlog. Before issuing the visa, the State Department completes criminal history background checks and ensures that the immigrant is not a security threat and is admissible to the United States.

Current immigration laws and practices regarding family reunification may warrant further review, as families typically experience lengthy periods of separation while waiting for reunification. In 2000, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), now known as USCIS, had 1,190,768 pending I-130 applications, as compared with 747,369 applications in 1994. This administrative backlog, caused by insufficient human resources and the increasing numbers of various application types filed, contributes to a minimum processing time of 24 months for permanent resident visas. Further, as the demand for visas exceeds the number of visas available for family-sponsorship preferences, a second backlog results from the discrepancy between the demand for visas and the actual availability of visas. Except for the immediate relative category, with no country or category limits, all other categories of family-sponsorship immigration have processing delays.

In 2000, partially addressing the consequences of backlog, Congress approved the Legal Immigration Family Equity Act (LIFE Act), granting temporary nonimmigrant status (V status) to spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents waiting for longer than 3 years for an immigrant visa. Persons granted V status would receive employment authorization and would be allowed to remain in the United States until they received permanent residence status. However, these visas had limited availability. Solutions to lessening the number of administrative backlogs also include giving immigration agencies more resources to handle their workload. Backlogs caused by the quota system could be alleviated by raising the limit on the first and second preference categories so that the number of visas available better meets demand. Proposed measures of reform also include broadening the definition of immediate relative so that more visas could be available to the remaining categories of family-sponsored immigrants, and not counting immediate relatives in the family-sponsored preferences limit.

Immigration law requires that the sponsor must file a Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, and prove an income level minimally at 125 percent of the federal poverty level before filing for a relative. If the sponsor's income does not meet the requirement, other financial assets can be considered. The income of certain other household members can also be considered if they sign a Form I-864A, Affidavit of Support Contract Between Sponsor and Household Member. Although this financial requirement is intended to ensure that immigrants will be provided for by family members and will not depend on public assistance, it may be an additional constraint to family reunification.

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 instituted a 5-year bar to admission for aliens unlawfully present in the United States for more than 180 days but less than 1 year and a 10-year bar for aliens unlawfully present in the United States for 1 year or more. The act stipulates a waiver for immigrants who are spouses or children of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents if they can satisfactorily establish to federal authorities that refusal of admission would result in extreme hardship to the citizen or lawfully resident spouse or parent of the immigrant. Although given sole discretion to waive the clause, the attorney general may not adjust the status of more than 4,000 aliens annually. Reports of recent increases in the number of denials of these waivers may constitute a further barrier to family reunification.

Bibliography:

1) Catholic Immigration Network. "Barriers to Family Reunification." Washington, DC: Catholic Immigration Network.

2) McKay, Ramah. 2003. Family Reunification. Washington, DC: Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute.

3) National Immigration Forum. 2005. "Immigration Backlogs Are Separating American Families." Washington, DC: National Immigration Forum.

4) U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 2005. "Fact Sheet: Characteristics of Family-Sponsored Legal Permanent Resident Residents: 2004." Washington, DC: Office of Immigration Statistics.

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