Please help me and other aged out students

[i_aged_out]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here I'm happy to see such a big immigration community here.

Little about me....I came to this country as a 13yr old kid on H4 visa. My parents had filed for employment based GC. Unfortunately, due to our application being sent to some backlog center and other visa delays, I turned 21 and just aged out in a matter of days. I do not qualify under CSPA even after age-freeze calculations. Ever since that, my life has become rough I had to save myself by switching to F1 visa and pay huge international fees to continue my Bachelors degree....next, who will hire a bachelors degree student with no experience + h1b sponsorship etc. What if I was say....a non-engineering student (like Social Science/Biology etc majors) where H1B jobs are very limited to none. Many aged-out kids can't even go back to their country as many of us have our family here and no one there. We have been raised here and have our life + friends are here. Many of us will be forced to apply for graduate programs and pay more international fees.

Anyways, I posted this thread to ask you guys to help me and other aged out kids.

For a couple years now, I have closely been following a bill called "Dream Act" which helps undocumented aliens who were brought here before the age of 16, to get permanent residency because they came here without their consent and are now leading a horrible life. The full text of this can be found here - http://immigration-law.com/Temporary%20II.html


The problem is that this bill is most likely meant for illegal immigrant children only but I don't know for sure because the bill does not state it directly. Couple of them on a different forum have told me that, us aged-out kids will qualify while couple other pointed out the phrase "inadmissible or deportable" in the text of the bill.

This bill finally got re-introduced this week and will soon get voted upon. I have been calling/emailing/faxing senators to help cover the legal students as well in this bill. I feel like I am fighting a loosing battle because there are only a few of us who are in this situation and we can't make a big noise like how other illegal immigrants do...I am sure there are a few other here who are in this situation or have kids who are about to age out or have already aged out. Others who are not in this situation probably understand our pain....so please help me in contacting our senators....It's a common and simple systematic process that a lot of people do when a bill is about to get voted on. Here is the list of senators and their contact addresses. http://dreamact.info/senators

Calling is the most effective method. But many of you will be hesitant to talk on the phone. Many of you wont have the time. In that case, please contact them through letters, email, or fax.

Send FAX online: http://americasvoiceonline.org/page/...ut/DaretoDream

Send Letter online: http://www.change.org/ideas/932/view..._the_dream_act


Thanks for reading this long post

[indianabacklog]

I am sorry to hear you aged out. I understand more than you think though as I am the parent of a child just like you. We have no idea what road he will be able to take and in which country.

The DREAM act will not cover you. I have checked and double checked the wording on the different versions. You and your family have done things legally and will get nothing from this legislation.

I also wish this forum would take note of this problem but do not hold your breath, I always get accused of hijacking things whenever aging out gets mentioned. Sadly I think there are just not enough families suffering for anyone to actually care, except those it affects.

My local senator is one of the co sponsors and I am attempting to get him to take my plight on board and realize that rewarding those who came here illegally and ignoring those who have followed the rules is simply morally wrong on so many levels.

Try contacting your local senators too and feel free to send me a private message via IV and maybe at least two families can be in touch and see what can be started.

[thomachan72]

Please dont loose hope. I know it is a very painful and troubling situation. Concenterate on your studies. I know other parents with kids having or about to face similar problem and I have tried to post about this issue few times in the last couple of days. Unfortunately the thread always drowns down amidst all the rest. I asume most of the visitors on this site are Indians and generally unless the issue directly pertains to me, I tend not to act/respond. Many, I am sure feel sad when they read your post but since it directly doesn't affect them, why would they take the trouble? I read a post about a guy with 3 kids who got his 485 denied after 9 years!! If that doesn't trouble you, then nothing else will. One response when I posted about this issue was "the situation of the ilegal kids is worse and needs to be addressed with more priority". When you see that kind of responses, all you can think is "may everybody be affected by the crisis whether it be aged out/back log/rejections/increased scrutiny/recession/depression or whatever, so that we all realize that only when we try to help others are we really helping ourselves". I have penned a few words by visiting the websites of various senators but let us hope others do to. Dream act if it is passed should also include the issue of legal kids who face aged out crisis!!!!

[thomachan72]

I just wanted to promise you that I will respond as you requested by sending fax/phoning later today. I will do it immediately after work time. Please continue putting out your position so that others respond too. Every body has a good heart and I am sure will realize your position and speak out for you. We all have the blood of the great Mahatma running in us. Dont worry IV will wake up for you.

[indianabacklog]

thomachan

I sincerely hope that this problem does eventually get noticed. I have no problem with the dream act but if you are going to give an almost free pass to the children of parents who came here illegally it seem seem plain fair to give the same opportunity to those who have followed the rules and stil got screwed.

The reaction you got on this forum is business as usual. As you rightly say if it does not benefit individuals they do not care. However, if the plight of the aged out kids could gain some momentum it would in turn highlight how long people have to wait and maybe the retrogression and backlogs could get some air time too.

Thank you for taking the time to submit your comments to senators etc. If enough people would do so I have to believe it could make a difference.

[hsingh82]

Sent a fax, this is what I wrote:

Hello,

While I definitely support the DREAM ACT but I think it is not comprehensive enough to cover the plight of all children who are suffering because of their status in this country. I request you to please include children of legal immigrants in this bill. While their parents have done everything legally and are waiting for PR (which you may know is taking close to 10 years for some countries) for the family these poor children get aged out and have to get some status on their own to be legal in US or leave the country. I hope you would agree with me and include some provision in your bill to include these kids for their and USA's better future.

[rego]

This is a genuine cause.

It must be an easy/possible task for IV to take up this issue and add Legal Kids to the Act.

I do know some kids who are about to age out and this could be a great relief for them.

IV Core - Your opinions?

[chanduv23]

Originally Posted by rego

This is a genuine cause.

It must be an easy/possible task for IV to take up this issue and add Legal Kids to the Act.

I do know some kids who are about to age out and this could be a great relief for them.

IV Core - Your opinions?

IV core will definitely help if someone volunteers to steer head the effort.

[rego]

I can offer to spend my time in helping anyone who can spearhead the effort. I can prepare letters, do research, etc..

[thomachan72]

The fax and letter links you included are all supporting the ilegal kids dream act. If we just fax and send letters through these websites, we will just be counted among the many who just support the dream bill. However, what we need is for people to phone the senators who authored the dream bill and also other senators who might likely get this bill passed. we have to highlight the issue faced by young high school/college graduates like I_aged_out.
This issue has to be raised seperately and clearly from the dream act. What I mean is; just by supporting dream act will not help. They will not realize that we are talking about kids affected by the BACKLOG AND RESULTANT AGEDOUT SCENARIO.
Now how to do that? Personally I have no clue. Hopefully some clever IV member could take a lead and tell us how to attack this issue.
Let me be clear:
we are achieving not only a benefit for the affected kids but also highlighting the problems faced by the EB community due to visa number wastage and the backlogg. This is indeed a rare opportunity for EB community to put out its issues before the law makers.

[fromnaija]

As a parent of a kid who nearly aged out but got saved by the July 2007 fiasco, I really understand the pains of legal immigrant parents whose children face this issue. Even now, I don't know what my sons would do if my I-485 is denied as two of them are now over 21!
I would support this issue and send faxes and call my Senators and Representatives.
Congress should not be rewarding children of illegal immigrants while neglecting to act on same issues that children of legal immigrants face.

[nk2006]

Originally Posted by thomachan72

.........
This issue has to be raised seperately and clearly from the dream act. What I mean is; just by supporting dream act will not help. They will not realize that we are talking about kids affected by the BACKLOG AND RESULTANT AGEDOUT SCENARIO.
Now how to do that? Personally I have no clue. Hopefully some clever IV member could take a lead and tell us how to attack this issue.
Let me be clear:
we are achieving not only a benefit for the affected kids but also highlighting the problems faced by the EB community due to visa number wastage and the backlogg. This is indeed a rare opportunity for EB community to put out its issues before the law makers.

+1
The aged out issue in itself is worthy of pursuing but it also highlights the severity of backlog issue in EB community. Now that DreamAct is getting some press coverage - it is a good time to first highlight the issue of kids of legal immigrants and how/why they should be given an opportunity as part of this bill; and its also may be a good time to highlight the root cause of this issue - an unbelievably long journey of a legal immigrant to get to the permanent resident status.

[thomachan72]

Originally Posted by fromnaija

As a parent of a kid who nearly aged out but got saved by the July 2007 fiasco, I really understand the pains of legal immigrant parents whose children face this issue. Even now, I don't know what my sons would do if my I-485 is denied as two of them are now over 21!
I would support this issue and send faxes and call my Senators and Representatives.
Congress should not be rewarding children of illegal immigrants while neglecting to act on same issues that children of legal immigrants face.

fromnaija, great that you joined and support this idea based on personal experience. I am personally not facing this issue, but am really surprised why EB community has not risen to the occasion and championed for the kids. Particularly when there is a bill in the houses considering a pathway for ilegal kids. They argue that "ilegal kids have nowhere to go" and we definitely will not argue against it. what we say is "legal kids too have nowhere to go" they have lived here more than 5 years, consider this their home, have cleared the morality test and often being the best in the classes will be great future citizens. We should definitely include the clause for legal kids into the Dream act. The issue faced by a IV member (south Korean) whose 485 got denied after 9 years and his kids are in high school/college is pathetic and shocking. We cannot let this opportunity pass. At this point of time, I dont think our lobbying for reducing backlogg, taking off country limits etc is going to work, however, that argument could be strengthened if we get the "KIDS ISSUE" into the limelight. If people have genuine stories about agedout / verge of being agedout to tell, I woud recomend compiling these and sending as emails / hard copies to senators. Even if your kid is not close to being agedout ever, we still gain by highlighting this issue. Even a video campaign authored by kids who are getting close to the agedout and kids who are really young and might face this issue in future due to visa backloggs might help.

[rego]

Can IV come up with a volunteer from the core who knows how to go about this? I am sure this will gain momentum and bring in a lot more volunteers. I will be one of the volunteers.

Can we make this an Action Item in IV?

[yvjoshi100]

Hi,
I am also a parent of a child who aged out just by 12 days. My case was also backlogged for Labor clearance for 4 years and then unfortunately my I140 got cleared in just 29 days without premium processing (it could have bee a boon for any one else, but not for me as I could not take benefit of CSPA provisions) .For last 4 years I have been living with this pain of possibility of me and my wife being separated from my son. We also followed all rules and despite that we are in this plight.
I am very much prepared to work with any one to bring our plight to the notice of all who matters to get law amended to give benefits of time taken for labor clearance for computing age of children under CSPA .I request all and more importantly to IV team to let me know how can I help our cause