By J.Bradley Ortins, Esquire
Mr. Ortins is an attorney concentrating on immigration and nationality law and a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. His office is at 1601 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20009; telephone (202) 2348906, fax (202) 2348917.
Many families in the United States find it necessary to hire help in the home. Parents often need help with young children and grown children sometimes need help with older parents. Elderly persons living alone frequently need help around the home also. But finding home care workers for this kind of job can be difficult and employers in many cases offer employment to immigrants.
Such a household employer, however, finds himself in a difficult position. The law requires that employers, including household employers, hire only persons authorized to work in the United States. But many home care workers do not have work permission from the INS. To correct this problem, many household employers “sponsor” the home care worker for permanent residence. Everyone is disappointed, however, to find that it could take up to seven or eight years to get permanent residence in this way.
The reason for this long waiting period is that home care workers are classified by the INS as “unskilled workers.” In the sponsoring process, the employer will apply for a labor certification and then apply to INS to classify the position in one of the immigration categories for permanent workers. The case falls into the unskilled worker category. When the alien Lakes the next step and applies for an immigrant visa based on the labor certification and the classification, he or she finds that the number of visas for unskilled workers is very limited. The law provides that only 10,000 unskilled worker visas will be issued each fiscal year. Because more than 10,000 persons apply each year for unskilled worker visas, a long waiting list has developed. Each month the list gets longer.
For example, at this time (August 1992), home care workers who started their labor certifications in September 1987 are now eligible to apply for immigrant visas abroad. Thus, these workers have waited five years to become permanent residents through their jobs.
A solution to the problem of visa availability for home care workers is the creation of anew immigrant visa category for such workers. Home care workers can be taken out of the unskilled worker category and placed in a category of their own. Congress is now beginning to examine this issue, Interested persons are urged to call and write their U.S. Representative or Senator {0 express support for such a visa category. If sufficient need can be shown to Congress for immigrants to work in the home, Congress should act to make immigration law less of a burner to legal status for home care workers.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 29, 1993
