APPROVED CITIZENSHIP APPLICATIONS ON THE RISE
On April 24, 2009, 10 Catholic Charities clients became United States citizens. For the month of April, there is a total of 74 approved citizenship applications.
One of our clients visited the office and was very excited. She had the biggest smile on her face and her eyes were shining brightly as she shared the good news with us. She is now a new United States citizen and could give her daughter legal status. She married a US citizen and entered the US in 2004. After she was approved for Legal Permanent Resident (LPR), she got her “green card” in the mail. She and her husband decided to adopt her grand daughter in hopes of providing the baby a better life. The adoption was successful and soon they were reunited with their daughter. Before the husband changed his daughters status with DHS, he passed away. The mothers only option was to petition for her daughter. But as a LPR, her daughter would have to wait at least 5 years before she is eligible to adjust her status to LPR. It was very important that she, the mom, become a US citizen so her daughter could adjust her status sooner. Immigration law classified single children of US citizens under 21 as immediate relative and could adjust their status immediately. Single children of LPR who are under 21 fall under 2nd preference cases. They have to wait for their priority date to be current before they could adjust status. The current priority date for children from Thailand for May 2009 is October 08, 2004. In other words, it is approximately 5 years before that child is eligible to adjust status and get a “green card”. Now that our client is a US citizen, her daughter converted from a preference case to an immediate relative and is eligible to adjust status in the USA. Once the daughter has her “green card”, she is eligible to apply for citizenship or a US passport. This explains just a portion of why the client was so happy and excited.
Update on religious workers within our Diocese: All the priests featured in our website and previous success stories were approved for their “green card” by April. They all have their “green card” in their hands and could work and travel freely without any worry or problems.