They arrived in the United States 22 days after the cutoff date of January 1. 1982. and thus were not eligible for amnesty. Leon faces the excruciatingly painful decision between breaking up his family or breaking the law of his new country and keeping these individuals here illegally. Eventually his family could benefit from the second preference relative petitions. however they would have to wait a substantial period of time. and during that period they would not be eligible to work and they would live in fear of being separated from their families through deportation. What are the requirements on them? First. they must wait until Leon and other legalized family members become permanent residents. which would occur by October 1990. Then they would have to wait for a visa to become available. Currently there is a 20month waiting period for visas through the second preference. Immigration advocates fear that as new legalized individuals petition for their families the waiting period could jump from 3 to 5 years. The sole recourse for the newly legalized with undocumented family members is a family fairness policy. Let me just describe that briefly. That was instituted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in October of 1987. It provides nondiscretionary relief only for minor children. We are not talking about spouses.
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Immigration visa Naturalization undocumented visas deportation