How Guyanese are sponsored for United States visas
By Vishnu Bisram
GUYANESE have been emigrating to the United States in record numbers and Guyana is ranked 24th, just above Jamaica and the Dominican Republic among CARICOM nations, in terms of source countries of immigrants. The primary objective behind US immigration [please note: link provided by Guyana: LOSP website] policy (sponsorship provisions) has been to unite families or what is referred to as "family reunification". Thus, permanent residents and citizens can sponsor relatives. However, the US government has prioritised the status and closeness of the relationship between the sponsor (called the petitioner) and the sponsored and categorise each sponsorship under different preferences. For obvious reasons, spouses of US citizens have priority or preference over all other applicants in sponsorships; a visa is immediately available for a spouse. Similarly, a citizen sponsoring a child is placed in a priority preference over a resident sponsoring a child. Unmarried children are given preference over married children in joining their parents. Thus, a citizen sponsoring an unmarried child is placed in a different preference from that of a married child. And minors (under 21) are given preference over adults (over 21). All sponsorships have a preference number. The First Preference include unmarried sons and daughters of US citizens. Spouses and unmarried (under 21 years old) children of permanent residents are in 2nd Preference (A). Unmarried sons and daughters, over 21, of permanent residents are in 2nd Preference (B). Married sons and daughters of US citizens are in the 3rd preference. Brothers and sisters of citizens are in the 4th preference. There are also all kinds of employment preferences, investors preferences, and religious workers preferences which round out the eight different preferences under which visas are issued. The petitioner has to file an application with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) which determines the preference of the sponsored. A few months later, the petitioner receives an acknowledgement of receipt of the petition called the approval date. The sponsored has to wait for an interview with a US Consulate officer (in Georgetown) who determines the applicant (s)'s eligibility and the date for a permanent resident visa. The sponsored person is tested on the ability to comprehend English and also has to fulfill a number of other criteria such as evidence (affidavit of support, job offer, etc) that he or she will not be a burden on US taxpayers and has no link with any communist movement. The sponsored must also have a Police clearance indicating that he or she had or had no criminal record. Getting an interview is not a simple matter and is determined by the INS in collaboration with the visa issuing officer. The INS monitors all immigration matters. It allocates the approximately 650,000 resident visas that Congress allots every year to the various preferences for all countries. Some countries (such as Mexico, Philippines, India, Jamaica, Pakistan, etc) are allotted as many as 20,000 visas (which are divided up by preferences) annually whereas others (Guyana, Trinidad, etc) are allotted a little less than 10,000). At one time in the 1980s, it was believed Guyana was allotted 20,000 a year. The INS has its own policy on visa allocation (preferences and for each country) which is a complex process and which the various US embassies around the world have no influence over. The embassies simply carry out the policy as handed down by the INS. Since there are many more sponsorships than available visas, the sponsorship process takes a long time. When the number of visas in the particular preference for a country have been used up, the pending applicants have to wait until visas in that category become available for that country; visas allocated to one country cannot be transferred to another country. In some cases, for the fourth preference, for example, people have to wait as long as fourteen years for an interview. Right now, the INS is working on brother/sister sponsorship for June 1987, which is more than ten years behind. Spousal sponsorship by residents is back logged to November 1993. First preference for spouses of US citizens is current; in other words, one gets a visa almost immediately. In addition to acquiring a green card through sponsorship by the various preferences, a number of residency visas are allotted every year to a Diversity Visa Lottery Programme; this programme is based on luck. The visas are meant for people who have no relatives in the US and therefore have no chance of being sponsored. However, virtually anyone from the qualified countries, sponsored or not, can apply under the DV programme. A number of Guyanese have won these lotto visas; they also have to go through the interview process. Several Guyanese in the US have obtained green cards as bona fide religious workers (singers, dancers, cooks, etc) or as priests in all three of Guyana's main religions. In the past, Guyanese used to apply for refugee status which if successful allows for permanent residency. But there is no recent report of any successful case. Recently, following a number of successful ruling regarding central American, African, South Asian and Middle eastern women, a number of Guyanese women have applied for green cards based on spousal abuse. But none of the cases have been adjudicated as yet. It will be interesting to see how judges will rule when the cases come up for hearing later this year. Based on rulings in other cases, it appears that some spouses will be granted permanent residency based on domestic abuse. Visa availability moves very slowly for Guyana, just about a month for every month for the first two preferences and about two weeks a month for the other. The US updates its availability of visas monthly for the various preferences and this paper will soon publish the visa dates as available for the month of June 1999. Since citizenship confers priority in sponsorship over other residents, Guyanese have been filing citizenship applications in record numbers. In a follow-up article, I will examine how Guyanese become American citizens.
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