Congress considers tighter restrictions on family visas

Dr. Puneet Bhalla became a U.S. citizen in 2012, almost 15 years after he moved to the U.S. from India.

But he misses his only sibling, Dr. Tarun Bhalla, 45, who remains in India with their father. So last week, Puneet Bhalla, an oncologist, completed the paperwork to apply for a green card for his brother to join him in the United States.

"I would like some family here," said Bhalla, 41.

He is hardly alone. Every year, tens of thousands of U.S. citizens file green-card visa petitions for their brothers and sisters to immigrate to the U.S.

But the decades-old practice could be coming to an end. There is a growing consensus in Congress, even among lawmakers who support immigration reform, that family-based visas should be reined in to make room for more employment-based visas that serve the nation's economic needs.

The proposed changes have angered immigrant-advocacy groups, especially those representing Asian-Americans. They rely heavily on family-based visas to bring relatives to the U.S. and say the change would hurt immigrant families who often rely on siblings to care for relatives and start businesses.

"Improving the business immigration system should not come at the expense of the family-based immigration system," said Marita Etcubanez, director of programs for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, a civil-rights group in Washington, D.C.

The bipartisan immigration-reform bill passed by the Senate in June calls for eliminating family-based visas for adult siblings of U.S. citizens.

The bill also calls for setting an age limit for married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens seeking green cards.

Once married sons and daughters reached the age of 31, their U.S. citizen parents would no longer be able to sponsor them for a green card. Currently, there is no age limit.

A comprehensive bill introduced in October by Democrats in the House calls for similar cuts to the family-based visa system.

The change would be significant. In 2012, 58,235 immigrants received visas through the sibling category, according to U.S. State Department data.

An additional 19,962 immigrants received visas through the category of married sons or daughters of U.S. citizens.

Combined, those visas accounted for 16.2 percent of the total 482,300 family-based green cards issued to immigrants in 2012.

Still, the change has received little attention because the debate in Washington over immigration reform has focused mostly on border security and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

But as immigration reform heats up again in the House, immigrant- advocacy groups are ramping up opposition to the proposed changes to the family-based immigration system.

Immigration lawyers, meanwhile, have been urging people considering applying for green cards for siblings or married sons and daughters to hurry up in case those categories are eliminated.

"We tell them, 'Don't let time pass in vain,' " said Lisette Flores, executive director of immigration legal services at Friendly House, a social-services agency in Phoenix. "It's better to apply for the petition now."

Reuniting families

Puneet Bhalla, who came to the U.S. in January 1998 on a non-immigrant exchange visitor visa to complete his medical residency at William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan, sees his brother, a doctor and businessman, twice a year. Once a year, he travels to India, and once a year, his brother visits him in the U.S.

Bhalla said it would also be nice to have his brother living nearby.

"When one comes to this country, we don't have a support system," Bhalla said. "We leave our support system behind."

Because Bhalla is applying now, his brother will be eligible for sibling sponsorship. Still, it could take 12 years for Bhalla's brother to receive a visa, said his lawyer, Elizabeth Chatham.

The government caps the number of visas issued to siblings of U.S. citizens at 65,000 a year. The government also limits the total number of visas allotted to countries.

That has created a long backlog of immigrants waiting to receive family-based visas, especially from countries like India that have large numbers of immigrants seeking visas to come to the U.S.

As of Nov. 1, 2012, there were 2.5 million people waiting for green cards to come to the U.S. through the sibling category. Of those, the largest number were from Mexico, with 746,137 people waiting for sibling visas.

The next six countries with the highest number of people waiting for sibling visas are all in Asia: India, 230,799; Philippines, 188,521; Vietnam, 174,841; China, 171,057; Bangladesh, 150,747; and Pakistan, 91,286.

Combined, those six Asian countries account for 1,007,251, or about 40 percent of the 2.5 million people waiting for sibling visas, which highlights one of the reasons why Asian-Americans don't want to see access to certain family-based visas curtailed.

Immigrants who have been waiting in line for family-based visas would be grandfathered under the comprehensive bill passed by the Senate and pending in the House.

'Chain migration'

There have been efforts to get rid of the sibling category for decades, and it now appears likely that Congress will eliminate the category if immigration reform passes, said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute's office at New York University Law School.

The change is primarily being driven by growing momentum in Congress to move away from an immigration system that favors family reunification toward a system more in line with the nation's economic needs.

To do so, lawmakers want to scale back on so-called "chain migration," which allows legal immigrants to petition for visas for parents, spouses, children and siblings, who in turn can petition for more immediate relatives.

"The legislation eliminates a good part of that," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chief Republican negotiator of the bipartisan bill that passed the Senate on June 27.

Eliminating visas for siblings of U.S. citizens would mean that, in the future, family-based visas would be limited only to parents, spouses, and children.

To get green cards, siblings would have to apply under different family-based categories or under a new merit-based system that awards points based on education, skills and language, as well as family relations.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., another member of the "Gang of Eight" who wrote the Senate bill, said the change is part of an effort to better balance the immigration system for the U.S. economy.

"We wanted to hold as many visas as possible for skill-based, education-based categories, and there would be a bit of a shift," Flake told The Arizona Republic.

"Obviously, we have to have some limits. We can't just open the door for everybody who wants to come. So, if you acknowledge that you are going to have some limits, then you have to decide what the proper mix is."

Contributing: Republic reporter Dan Nowicki