” Maybe, it’s no simple because they’ve been through a lot of things, especially illegal immigrants. Therefore, it’s hard, you have to build that trust. They occasionally experience extensive pain. It’s very comforting, but it’s also extremely difficult, a very challenging job”.
The International Institute of Southwest Missouri’s Aline windows Santos Gomes is the country’s immigration consultant. She provides guidance to migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees who need assistance with the administrative requirements of the USCIS.
She tells me every case is unique. She assists undocumented immigrants as well as those seeking citizen who have their Green Card and are awaiting asylum, some who are in the country publicly as refugees, and those who have permanent residency and are pending Green Cards.
Dos Santos Gomes even assists people in moving their families to the United States. She said the language barrier is the most common issue she encounters. Few of her clients speak conversational English, many ca n’t read or write. And she also said some of her users, particularly those entering at the Southern Border, come to the U. S. with myths that pose their personal problem.
” Citizens come, and it’s very sad”, she explained, “people come with an assumption that their career is going to be really simple, and that there are a lot of options if you just come. It’s not that there are n’t, but it’s very hard”.
They might also be given false data once they arrive.
” They go to other lawyers”, she said,” they go to different nonprofits, and they come with the wrong information or they hear from friends, and they’re here and they have very different expectations or they do n’t know anything about it. They lose documents and people say: ‘ oh you do n’t need this’. It’s really a lot of misinformation out it”.
This can lead to suspicion and distress. It can also make people believe they need to stay or work under the board, which can lead to serious problems later.
” That’s a big problem”, dos Santos Gomes said, explaining one example of an issue she said is unfortunately common, “like, if you do n’t tell me you have a kid but then later on you become a U. S. citizen and you want to petition, you want to bring your child here to the U. S., how am I going to tell the U. S. government that you actually have a child if you lied on your first application”?
Those who are not currently refugees may apply for asylum. They may take years to complete their prison application and may wait at least six months before obtaining work authorization.
She explained that you can apply for a green cards after a month if you are granted prison. After your green card is granted, you become a permanent resident of the United States. That implies that you can also be deported, but that also implies that you must actually commit a crime of some kind, or something similar. After five years of having your clean card, that’s when you’re ready to become a U. S. citizen”.
And it is n’t all cheap. A green card program, with the necessary medical examinations and pictures, is estimated to cost me$ 1,000.
Hamid Safi interacts with customers at the International Institute. He said once one’s document is submitted, all they can do is procrastinate. They may be asked to appear before a judge, go through a number of conversations, undergo genetic checks, and have their background checked. Any way that you come, Safi said,” they may check you” and your event.
He said clients do n’t receive any updates on their case, and wait times are only increasing.
” It’s a pretty tough condition”, he explained, saying that papers are taking times longer to process than they have in the past.
The Guardian reported that there were 3.3 million multiculturalism cases pending in December 2023 and that only 682 immigration courts were present. While some asylum seekers wait to see if they will be deported or given asylum status, some, especially those who cross the southern borders, are allowed into the land and given court dates, but the overwhelming majority of their cases end up languishing in a sort of limbo.
Dos Santos Gomes ‘ words” USCIS or emigration will only show them:” OK, I’ll let you come in, but you have to go to judge every time”? They’re not allowed to work, they’re not allowed to get a sociable. They are n’t far away in America. S”.
While they can assist their clients in filling out the necessary paperwork, they are finally at the mercy of a complicated administrative system that necessitates patience and a long-term perspective, something that many who have spent day-by-day trekking to the southern border or in refugee camps who now live in the United States are under the pressure of merely getting by are facing.
But their persistence and document give them the best chance to settle down in America.
