How easy is it for Jose Average from Mexico to immigrate legally to the USA?

Factual Questions
1

In any of the debates on illegal immigration that take place on this board, the anti-illegal-immigration folks always say that there are lots of people lining up to immigrate LEGALLY and that these “illegals” are jumping the queue. People boast about how their ancestors came here legally and wonder why people can’t do that today.

I am wondering about this queue. How easy is it for the “average” citizen of a third world country (as if there is such a thing) to come to the US legally?

I am Canadian so I am ignorant of these things as they pertain to the USA. I know that it is incredibly difficult for almost anybody to immigrate to Canada (especially from a third world country) unless you meet one or more of these criteria:

  • you have a very high level of education or formal credentials in a narrow field of “eligible” areas, speak and read English and French fluently, and have lots of cash on hand to pay the fees
  • you know someone in Canada who can marry you or hire you or (possibly, sometimes, under some circumstances) sponsor you as a relative
  • you can immigrate as an entrepreneur (i.e. you’re a wealthy business person, from what I understand)

That’s about it. Maybe there are others in Canada I don’t know about, but I know it’s extremely difficult. The conventional discourse that hard work and perserverence will allow anyone to succeed simply doesn’t work in this case any more: hard work and perserverence will do you no good whatsoever if you want to immigrate.

If you want to come to Canada legally and be a contractor, you’d better be qualified as a doctor if you want us to let you in the door (but don’t worry, you’ll work as a contractor when you get here …). You say you’re a contractor back home, skilled and experienced in the trade and happy to work long hours for a few Canadian dollars? You’re SOL.

My question again: what are the mechanisms by which an unskilled citizen of a third world country can legally immigrate to the United States, and how accessible are they?

Thanks!

2

Here is the basic process:

Basically the same as Canada. There’s also a Green Card Lottery, but it is only for countries that have a lower number of immigrants to the US and excludes countries like Mexico.

3

I don’t know about employment-based immigration (that’s **Eva Luna’s ** area of expertise), but do know some things about family-based immigration.

Caveat - I left the field in 1998, so the specifics may be different, but in general:

Whether and when you can immigrate to the US on a family-based case depends on what legal status your relative has (IOW - are they a citizen or a resident alien/green card holder). Different relationships have different priorites.

From the US State Department

This is the first hurdle that makes it difficult, if not near impossible, for a Mexican to immigrate to the US. There are limits to how many visas are granted to a country in each given year, and those with priority (ie - Unlimited) get them first. If you are, say Third or Fourth preference and from a country (like Mexico) that uses all its visa allocation every year, you might as well forget it.

For example, I have a friend who is an unmarried brother of a US citizen. His sister could petition for him at any time, but it will be anywhere from 10-25 YEARS before he could legally immigrate.

Another hurdle many of my clients found difficult to overcome was being able to show sufficient income to sponsor their relative. This is called an Affidavit of Support, and the US citizen/resident alien must show that they can provide up to 125% the poverty level for their household, including the petitioned-for relative (using income or assets). For example, I had a semi-retired Naturalized Citizen who wanted to petition for his daughter and her four minor children. Because he was a widow and was renting an apartment, he had to prove that he could, on his own, bring in much more money than he was making (I think he was barely over minimum wage.) A near impossible thing to do, with no other options like co-sponsors.

Lastly, INS (CIS? Hell if I know anymore… ) is inefficient, hugely backlogged, and incompetent a lot of times. The didn’t have the resources to efficiently process applications before and the backlog was huge. You add all the post 9/11 requirements and it just gets worse and worse.

Oh, and unless the law has changed, if you’ve been in the US for less than a year illegally, you have to return to your home country for processing. But you also have to wait in the penalty box, as it were, for a length of time before you can even submit your application. If you’ve been in the US for more than a year, you must return for ten years before you can submit your application. And then wait years and years for the backlog to get to you.

4

[QUOTE=cowgirl]
I am Canadian so I am ignorant of these things as they pertain to the USA. I know that it is incredibly difficult for almost anybody to immigrate to Canada (especially from a third world country) unless you meet one or more of these criteria:

  • you have a very high level of education or formal credentials in a narrow field of “eligible” areas, speak and read English and French fluently, and have lots of cash on hand to pay the fees!
    [/QUOTE]

What?! You mean would-be immigrants to Canada need to know both French and English, and not just one or the other?

5

[QUOTE=niblet_head]
There are limits to how many visas are granted to a country in each given year, and those with priority (ie - Unlimited) get them first. If you are, say Third or Fourth preference and from a country (like Mexico) that uses all its visa allocation every year, you might as well forget it.

[/QUOTE]

I’m confused. I thought per-country quotas had been abolished:

6

[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus]
What?! You mean would-be immigrants to Canada need to know both French and English, and not just one or the other?
[/QUOTE]
<derail>
No, one or the other is usually sufficient. However, it’s useful to know both: for skilled workers, it could be worth another eight points (out of 100) to have “high or moderate” proficiency in the second official language. You can view the details here.
</derail>

7

I cannot be much help in GQ-style answers to this question. But I do recall someone presenting, with a cite, the following: the worldwide annual immigration quota for unskilled laborers, with no other justification (family here legally, as noted above, etc.) for entry, is approximately 7,000. This is distributed across countries on a formula that I don’t recall reading, but the net figure for unskilled immigrants from Mexico who do not qualify under other criteria is two.

8

[QUOTE=cowgirl]
**How easy is it for Jose Average from Mexico to immigrate legally to the USA? **
[/QUOTE]
Sorry for being pedantic but it’s technically impossible. Jose Average has to emigrate to the USA.

9

[QUOTE=lowbrass]
I’m confused. I thought per-country quotas had been abolished:

[/QUOTE]

To clarify (again from the DOS):

So, in other words, there is a limit to how many visas are awarded in general every year, but the four countries mentioned above have a much higher demand for them. Thus, the numbers for those countries are limited in such a way that it’s fair to all the other applicants from other countries. It’s not based on a quota, but rather on a ratio of demand.

10

Oh, and to further clarify, the 1924 immigration law limited the number of people who could come to the US based on the number of people from that country that were already here (a quota).

The revised law set a limit to how many visas were available, and then set a limit on how many each country would get - IIRC most countries get the same number of that pie.

11

Should we agree to call him “Jose Medio?” (= Medium Joe?)

12

[QUOTE=Lute Skywatcher]
Sorry for being pedantic but it’s technically impossible. Jose Average has to emigrate to the USA.
[/QUOTE]
No, he emigrates from Mexico, and immigrates to the US. So, in Lute’s sentence, it seems to me that either word would have been acceptable.

13

[QUOTE=TJdude825]
No, he emigrates from Mexico, and immigrates to the US.
[/QUOTE]

No, he immigrates into the US. I’m with the nitpick.

14

[QUOTE=cowgirl]
…

If you want to come to Canada legally and be a contractor, you’d better be qualified as a doctor if you want us to let you in the door (but don’t worry, you’ll work as a contractor when you get here …). You say you’re a contractor back home, skilled and experienced in the trade and happy to work long hours for a few Canadian dollars? You’re SOL.
Thanks!
[/QUOTE]

Actually, Cowgirl, the last time I checked the employment preferences for Canadian immigration, a heavy construction contractor got quite a sizable number of points! I was surprised; I thought all Canadians knew how to operate a snowplow! Apparently there’s a shortage…okay–just kidding. Anyway, my point is that “highly skilled” doesn’t always mean “and with academic credentials.”

15

[QUOTE=TJdude825]
No, he emigrates from Mexico, and immigrates to the US. So, in Lute’s sentence, it seems to me that either word would have been acceptable.
[/QUOTE]

But isn’t the question how hard it is to get INTO the U.S. as opposed to how hard it is to get OUT of Mexico? So the question is about immigration.

16

[QUOTE=cowgirl]
If you want to come to Canada legally and be a contractor, you’d better be qualified as a doctor if you want us to let you in the door (but don’t worry, you’ll work as a contractor when you get here …). You say you’re a contractor back home, skilled and experienced in the trade and happy to work long hours for a few Canadian dollars? You’re SOL.
[/QUOTE]

Well, this depends where you are. Here in Calgary a number of folks from Mexico who presumably have skills in this department are being brought in to cook/serve/work at a group of local restaruants, which, I believe, are Mexican.

Go figure.

17

By virtue of having lived in a hotel here in southern Ontario since May, I have a lot of trouble reconciling the CIC requirements with the people I actually meet. The hotel, for example, employs a very high number of Latin American workers – Columbian and Venezuelan principally (my Spanish-speaking wife finds out these things). Is being a chambermaid a skilled worker? In the greater Toronto are moreso than in any other part of Canada or the US, there are immigrants all over the place, and they’re doing decidedly unskilled work. Perhaps they came along with husbands/wives who do the skilled work? (I’ve also discovered that “native” Canadians are generally just as xenophobic as Americans.)

Actually, now looking at the self-assessment, it seems that the bar isn’t very high, especially given all of the “or equivilents” that are present on it.

**

18

[QUOTE=niblet_head]

So, in other words, there is a limit to how many visas are awarded in general every year, but the four countries mentioned above have a much higher demand for them. Thus, the numbers for those countries are limited in such a way that it’s fair to all the other applicants from other countries. It’s not based on a quota, but rather on a ratio of demand.
[/QUOTE]

It works in an analogous way for employment-based green cards once you get to the final stage of the process (determining whether, and when, immigrant visa - i.e. green card - numbers are available):

"The worldwide level for annual employment-based preference immigrants is at least 140,000. Section 202 prescribes that the per-country limit for preference immigrants is set at 7% of the total annual family-sponsored and employment-based preference limits, i.e., 25,620. The dependent area limit is set at 2%, or 7,320.

  1. Section 203 of the INA prescribes preference classes for allotment of immigrant visas as follows:

[snip with family-based immigration info]

EMPLOYMENT-BASED PREFERENCES

First: Priority Workers: 28.6% of the worldwide employment-based preference level, plus any numbers not required for fourth and fifth preferences.

Second: Members of the Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability: 28.6% of the worldwide employment-based preference level, plus any numbers not required by first preference.

Third: Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers: 28.6% of the worldwide level, plus any numbers not required by first and second
preferences, not more than 10,000 of which to “Other Workers”.

Schedule A Workers: Employment First, Second, and Third preference Schedule A applicants are entitled to up to 50,000 “recaptured” numbers.

Fourth: Certain Special Immigrants: 7.1% of the worldwide level.

Fifth: Employment Creation: 7.1% of the worldwide level, not less than 3,000 of which reserved for investors in a targeted rural or high-unemployment area, and 3,000 set aside for investors in regional centers by Sec. 610 of P.L. 102-395.

  1. INA Section 203(e) provides that family-sponsored and employment-based preference visas be issued to eligible immigrants in the order in which a petition in behalf of each has been filed. Section 203(d) provides that spouses and children of preference immigrants are entitled to the same
    status, and the same order of consideration, if accompanying or following to join the principal. The visa prorating provisions of Section 202(e)
    apply to allocations for a foreign state or dependent area when visa demand exceeds the per-country limit. These provisions apply at present to the following oversubscribed chargeability areas: CHINA-mainland born, INDIA, MEXICO, and PHILIPPINES. "

So - the total annual employment-based green card quota is 140,000. Unskilled labor (defined as jobs which don’t require a bachelor’s degree) green cards are capped at a maximum of 10,000 annually, of which no more than 7% of the total, or 700 employment-based green cards, can go to natives of any single country. That total includes dependents, so if you assume an average family size of, oh, 3, then we are talking about 200-some unskilled Mexican workers who can get employment-based green cards legally every year. If you want to see just how long the delays are, just follow the link - I couldn’t get the charts to copy properly. But suffice it to say the Feds don’t even quote backlogs for unskilled employment, because they are so long.

Needless to say, this is a drop in the bucket. And before a worker can even get in the immigrant visa queue, he/she has to document through a painful, expensive, and exhausting process that there are insufficient numbers of U.S. workers that are willing and available to hold his/her job, and that the job pays at least the prevailing wage for the position and geographic location. More detailed info on that process (which is called “labor certification”) can be found here. To get a flavor of just how Kafkaesque the permanent alien labor certification process is, just take a look at the application form. (That’s even without getting into details about tracking and screening applicants, whether they are qualified for the position or not.)

But hey, it keeps me gainfully employed. So that’s at least one job created for a U.S. worker.

Eva Luna, Employment-Based Immigration Paralegal