MrWaitingGC
05-22 04:58 PM
What will happen in this case.
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optimist578
11-19 09:56 AM
Hello All,
I just got my EAD approved and I am waiting for my AP. I want to go back to school full time to pursue more education. If I do so, what will happen to my immigration status?
Can I continue on my EAD? If yes, How?
If I transfer to F-1, what will happen to my PD, EAD and AP?
After completion of studies, can I utilize my PD or EAD?
Please advice!
I am also searching for directions to the university. But I don't think EAD would allow you to move to full-time student status. EAD is Employment Authorization Document and can be used only for employment, as far as I know. I will check with my lawyer too.
I just got my EAD approved and I am waiting for my AP. I want to go back to school full time to pursue more education. If I do so, what will happen to my immigration status?
Can I continue on my EAD? If yes, How?
If I transfer to F-1, what will happen to my PD, EAD and AP?
After completion of studies, can I utilize my PD or EAD?
Please advice!
I am also searching for directions to the university. But I don't think EAD would allow you to move to full-time student status. EAD is Employment Authorization Document and can be used only for employment, as far as I know. I will check with my lawyer too.
pmpforgc
02-07 07:15 PM
Here is some more info
I am traveling from
From GSP ( Greenville Spartanburg) to Ahmedabad
or from ATLANTA to Ahmedabad
thanks
I am traveling from
From GSP ( Greenville Spartanburg) to Ahmedabad
or from ATLANTA to Ahmedabad
thanks
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mmanurker
10-17 03:11 PM
Just an advice, please do not accept 1099 from your consulting company. I had the experience and paid a lot more in tax at the end of the year than I would have paid in W2 as 1099 is considered as business income. You'll be paying more taxes than W2.
So always stick to W2 when you are getting your salary from your consulting company. If Consulting company is paying you in 1099, then they do not pay Payroll taxes on your salary and thus save money. If they are paying you in w2, which they are supposed to(you being on H1), they have to pay payroll taxes themselves.
apart from payroll tax is'nt the employer suppose to pay employer tax which I suppose is anywhere between 8 to 12 % depending on the state it is operating? or is payroll tax same as employer tax? what other taxes does an employer has to pay if he hires a person on W2? appreciate inputs on this.
So always stick to W2 when you are getting your salary from your consulting company. If Consulting company is paying you in 1099, then they do not pay Payroll taxes on your salary and thus save money. If they are paying you in w2, which they are supposed to(you being on H1), they have to pay payroll taxes themselves.
apart from payroll tax is'nt the employer suppose to pay employer tax which I suppose is anywhere between 8 to 12 % depending on the state it is operating? or is payroll tax same as employer tax? what other taxes does an employer has to pay if he hires a person on W2? appreciate inputs on this.
more...
canmt
10-19 10:37 AM
You are required to send a notice to your lawyer letting him know that you no longer require his/her service. Also notify USCIS in writing that your lawyer does not represent you anymore and send correspondence to you directly. If any USCIS notice addressed to you was transmitted to your former counsel, it should be available to you from counsel. You may wish to request forwarding of all post-representation correspondence that arrived after representation ceased. Although that lawyer may have no obligation to perform any services for you, the office should not impede your ability to answer USCIS requests. You should call the service center and request a copy of any correspondence that was sent to your lawyer until the lawyer sends a notice to USCIS letting them know that he no longer represents your case or until another lawyer files a G-28 for you.
I hope this helps and good luck on your greencard chase.
I hope this helps and good luck on your greencard chase.
saibaba
01-21 04:30 PM
You can go for any reason. I recently got back using AP. They just verify if your AP is valid and let you in.
I second u...Infact I strongly advise everyone to use AP instead of taking chance with H1 stamping(keeping the PIMS,Secuirity check related delays in mind)...
At POE, they just verified my passport expiry date and AP Expiry date..and let me IN....
I second u...Infact I strongly advise everyone to use AP instead of taking chance with H1 stamping(keeping the PIMS,Secuirity check related delays in mind)...
At POE, they just verified my passport expiry date and AP Expiry date..and let me IN....
more...
njboy
09-11 01:38 PM
-----------
This is just USCIS backlogs, DOL is a separate agency and the labor backlogs do not count in this.
--------------
not true,, the DOL does not do labor certification for backlogged cases anymore..this work has been transferred over from the State workforce agencies/state departments of labor to the backlog reduction centers..So....while, the DOL is a seperate agency, the labor backlogs is no longer handled by them, it is handled by the BPC..
This is just USCIS backlogs, DOL is a separate agency and the labor backlogs do not count in this.
--------------
not true,, the DOL does not do labor certification for backlogged cases anymore..this work has been transferred over from the State workforce agencies/state departments of labor to the backlog reduction centers..So....while, the DOL is a seperate agency, the labor backlogs is no longer handled by them, it is handled by the BPC..
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abhijitp
07-19 12:57 PM
Thanks for clarifying milind70.
Abhijip - We all want to help here but please don't provide confusing info.
As for the original poster, he can still apply for AOS if he gets the receipt. I got mine from TSC on July 13 and they got the I140 on July 6. It wasn't labor subst though.
Hang in there another week. Can you verify if they cashed the check ?? They print the receipt# on the back.
Sorry... I did not know you could file concurrently before PERM came into play. So, does the original poster have to wait for the I-140 receipt? Only then can he apply for AOS using that receipt number? What if he applied for I-140 ONCE more, only this time concurrently along with a I-485? I think you can submit multiple I-140's ... just that you could only premium-process (BTW, no Premium Processing through this month anyways!) the one I-140 that goes out with the original "Labor certification approval".
Abhijip - We all want to help here but please don't provide confusing info.
As for the original poster, he can still apply for AOS if he gets the receipt. I got mine from TSC on July 13 and they got the I140 on July 6. It wasn't labor subst though.
Hang in there another week. Can you verify if they cashed the check ?? They print the receipt# on the back.
Sorry... I did not know you could file concurrently before PERM came into play. So, does the original poster have to wait for the I-140 receipt? Only then can he apply for AOS using that receipt number? What if he applied for I-140 ONCE more, only this time concurrently along with a I-485? I think you can submit multiple I-140's ... just that you could only premium-process (BTW, no Premium Processing through this month anyways!) the one I-140 that goes out with the original "Labor certification approval".
more...
nixstor
11-04 02:30 PM
There are online spell-checkers available. Here is the one that I use all the time: http://www.orfo.ru/online/ (click on [Eng] icon in the top right corner if it appears in Russian). It only shows the errors and does not suggest the correct spelling, but hey - it's free. :)
Its not about not being able to find a free spell checker. Its about doing it amidst of 10 diff things. Hope that makes sense. Its good not to have spelling mistakes, but I wouldnt consider 1 or 2 typos as a big issue.
Its not about not being able to find a free spell checker. Its about doing it amidst of 10 diff things. Hope that makes sense. Its good not to have spelling mistakes, but I wouldnt consider 1 or 2 typos as a big issue.
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Sakthisagar
04-15 08:35 AM
Most of the above documnets were optional 2 years back, but now it become compulsory in all these, Workorder/SOW and PO is very much necessary, for an approval, Since this is a Premium Processing, there are chances of getting an RFE, asking for original contract between client and the vendor, at that time you can ask the Final Vendor or Client to send or Fax the contract directly to USCIS. And ask your attorney to mention in a covering letter in the RFE that the contract is sent by your Vendor Attorney thru mail or fax,
Last year I had the same situation, on Premuim Processing, and I got the above RFE, and got an year extension, this year I am proactive I am applying for normal processing, 6 months back. with all the above documents.toatl (10 years in US)
Good Luck to you and let us enlighten us, what happened to your case.
Prayers to everyone who are in this difficult phase of life extending the H1B.
May GOD Bless
Last year I had the same situation, on Premuim Processing, and I got the above RFE, and got an year extension, this year I am proactive I am applying for normal processing, 6 months back. with all the above documents.toatl (10 years in US)
Good Luck to you and let us enlighten us, what happened to your case.
Prayers to everyone who are in this difficult phase of life extending the H1B.
May GOD Bless
more...
rajenk
09-16 04:35 PM
I guess you guys are not qualified for AC21 after approval! Here is the detailed article on this specific topic from Murthy.com. You should have done the AC21 before your case got approved.
MurthyDotCom : U.S. Immigration Law (http://www.murthy.com/mb_pdf/082710_P.html)
MurthyDotCom : U.S. Immigration Law (http://www.murthy.com/mb_pdf/082710_P.html)
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vban2007
05-29 11:11 AM
October 1st, 2008 your status will be changed to H1B after the approval... So you will have to move to new company
more...
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xbohdpukc
09-25 02:45 PM
If this is derivative, then how come H1 obtained should be counted towards H4. H1 is standalone and should not be counted.
Again, my wife is on H4 for 6 years and I did not get into 485 stage. Now she wants to go to India and come back after a one year break. If she comes back after a year on new H1, it would be fine for her. If she come back on H4, can she get a H1 after one year?
Any idea, whether this is possible?
Ur missing the point.
The number after the letter, which stands for the classification category is pretty much irrelevant for the purpose of determining the maximum period of stay. You might notice that in many publications USCIS addresses visitors to the US as being in B, H or L status, omitting the #.
As long as your wife maintains her H4 status properly (providing you maintain your H1 status) and as long as she possess necessary travel documents she is free to enter and exit the country.
As far as I understand she will not have any legal problem obtaining an H1 visa after staying out of the country for a year, as long as the visa # is available, she has a job offer etc.
But I do not believe that her H status clock will reset if she leaves the country for a year, then enter in H4 status (which is still a derivative and tied to your principal H status clock). Therefore she will not be able to change her status to that of H1.
Again, it's a pretty complicated matter and you might want to consult an experienced lawyer.
Again, my wife is on H4 for 6 years and I did not get into 485 stage. Now she wants to go to India and come back after a one year break. If she comes back after a year on new H1, it would be fine for her. If she come back on H4, can she get a H1 after one year?
Any idea, whether this is possible?
Ur missing the point.
The number after the letter, which stands for the classification category is pretty much irrelevant for the purpose of determining the maximum period of stay. You might notice that in many publications USCIS addresses visitors to the US as being in B, H or L status, omitting the #.
As long as your wife maintains her H4 status properly (providing you maintain your H1 status) and as long as she possess necessary travel documents she is free to enter and exit the country.
As far as I understand she will not have any legal problem obtaining an H1 visa after staying out of the country for a year, as long as the visa # is available, she has a job offer etc.
But I do not believe that her H status clock will reset if she leaves the country for a year, then enter in H4 status (which is still a derivative and tied to your principal H status clock). Therefore she will not be able to change her status to that of H1.
Again, it's a pretty complicated matter and you might want to consult an experienced lawyer.
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prinive
03-27 12:26 PM
Thanks Buddy...
Any one else ...
I am celebrating the good news from IV by pledging $100 to IV. Any one care to up the ante on this?
My Receipt ID: 54118296K6578915K
Any one else ...
I am celebrating the good news from IV by pledging $100 to IV. Any one care to up the ante on this?
My Receipt ID: 54118296K6578915K
more...
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santb1975
12-10 08:17 AM
For question 2 - you just have to put a reminder for yourself and make a contribution of 10$ every month to donations at immigrationvoice.org. May be this can be done on par with the rent/ mortgage/ credit card bill/car payment that happens every month
Hello-
1) Is it possible to allow minimum ONE TIME contributions like $10?
2) Is it possible to allow minimum RECURRING contributions like $10?
When I am talking to my friends, we felt that the above things increase the
Contributions. We are also thinking that it is easy to ask friends to contribute if there are no limits on the contributions.
If I am correct there are more than 25,000 Members. If there are 10% of active members and each contribute $10 we get another $25000 that is required for the Bill.
My Contributions:
$50 Recurring Contributions from Nov 07.
Contributed $100 for the DC Rally.
$25 to the local Northern California Chapter in Oct 07.
Contributed to AILF $100 during the July visa bulletin time.
Hello-
1) Is it possible to allow minimum ONE TIME contributions like $10?
2) Is it possible to allow minimum RECURRING contributions like $10?
When I am talking to my friends, we felt that the above things increase the
Contributions. We are also thinking that it is easy to ask friends to contribute if there are no limits on the contributions.
If I am correct there are more than 25,000 Members. If there are 10% of active members and each contribute $10 we get another $25000 that is required for the Bill.
My Contributions:
$50 Recurring Contributions from Nov 07.
Contributed $100 for the DC Rally.
$25 to the local Northern California Chapter in Oct 07.
Contributed to AILF $100 during the July visa bulletin time.
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dixie
09-18 01:32 PM
No, we are not against the concept of H1-B visas as such .. just that we want it to be conditional on reforming the broken EB system; we believe that is in the interest of all future H1-Bs. In any case, the point of excluding H1-B and FB is not so much that we are against it as to focus our objectives clearly and cut down on opposition - as nycgal pointed out, lot more ordinary americans are concerned about H1-Bs than granting GCs to those already here.
I never knew IV was against H1Bs. Is IV only for people that have filed a petition for GC? Why is it then that one of our publicity drive is to recruit students still in school on F1?? Aren't they going to get an H1B before even filing for a GC?? Am I missing something??
....better still:
Immigration Voice
A Voice for High Skilled Legal Immigrants
I never knew IV was against H1Bs. Is IV only for people that have filed a petition for GC? Why is it then that one of our publicity drive is to recruit students still in school on F1?? Aren't they going to get an H1B before even filing for a GC?? Am I missing something??
....better still:
Immigration Voice
A Voice for High Skilled Legal Immigrants
more...
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amitga
05-23 01:45 PM
My attorney told me that EAD to H1 will not counted against the cap if the person was on H1 before going on EAD. Is it true.
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gcformeornot
12-31 09:39 PM
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dilbert_cal
06-29 09:28 PM
As per H1B you cannot do this.. the second job will be illegal
Mr Saxena
Please do not post misleading information. If you are not sure of something, please refrain from posting on such topics.
Now on to the OP :-
YES, you can have another H1. It is considered as a concurrent H1 or part time H1. You may work on it without any issues once you get it.
It would be a seperate case.
It should not have any effect on your current H1 or 140.
Mr Saxena
Please do not post misleading information. If you are not sure of something, please refrain from posting on such topics.
Now on to the OP :-
YES, you can have another H1. It is considered as a concurrent H1 or part time H1. You may work on it without any issues once you get it.
It would be a seperate case.
It should not have any effect on your current H1 or 140.
gopinathan
04-13 01:55 PM
braindrain - can you please update on your parents visa please ..
I have a similar issue that I need some guidance..
My Wife last name is spelled with 2 e's and my in-laws last names in her passport are spelled with 2 e's. Our Marriage certificate is based on the passport name and has 'ee'.
Her Birth Certificate has only one 'e' and the parents last name in that certificate have single 'e'. Also, my in-laws passports have single 'e'.
how bad is this additional 'e' ?? I wil update her birth certificate to 'ee' so that it matches her passport name (no problems in future for I-485) but can her birth certificate have her parents name as singe 'e' that matches their passports ?? (or is this a stupid idea to have different surnames for child and parents in birth certificate ?)
thanks
Gopi
I have a similar issue that I need some guidance..
My Wife last name is spelled with 2 e's and my in-laws last names in her passport are spelled with 2 e's. Our Marriage certificate is based on the passport name and has 'ee'.
Her Birth Certificate has only one 'e' and the parents last name in that certificate have single 'e'. Also, my in-laws passports have single 'e'.
how bad is this additional 'e' ?? I wil update her birth certificate to 'ee' so that it matches her passport name (no problems in future for I-485) but can her birth certificate have her parents name as singe 'e' that matches their passports ?? (or is this a stupid idea to have different surnames for child and parents in birth certificate ?)
thanks
Gopi
GodHelpUs
03-21 10:48 AM
I am really shocked on looking at this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/nyregion/21immigrant.html?hp
An Agent, a Green Card, and a Demand for Sex
Article Tools Sponsored By
By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: March 21, 2008
No problems so far, the immigration agent told the American citizen and his 22-year-old Colombian wife at her green card interview in December. After he stapled one of their wedding photos to her application for legal permanent residency, he had just one more question: What was her cellphone number?
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Uli Seit for The New York Times
Isaac R. Baichu, 46, an adjudicator for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, was arrested after he met with a green card applicant at the Flagship Restaurant, a diner in Queens. He is charged with coercing oral sex from her.
Audio A Secret Recording
Enlarge This Image
Uli Seit for The New York Times
The Flagship Restaurant, where Mr. Baichu met with a green card applicant.
The calls from the agent started three days later. He hinted, she said, at his power to derail her life and deport her relatives, alluding to a brush she had with the law before her marriage. He summoned her to a private meeting. And at noon on Dec. 21, in a parked car on Queens Boulevard, he named his price � not realizing that she was recording everything on the cellphone in her purse.
�I want sex,� he said on the recording. �One or two times. That�s all. You get your green card. You won�t have to see me anymore.�
She reluctantly agreed to a future meeting. But when she tried to leave his car, he demanded oral sex �now,� to �know that you�re serious.� And despite her protests, she said, he got his way.
The 16-minute recording, which the woman first took to The New York Times and then to the Queens district attorney, suggests the vast power of low-level immigration law enforcers, and a growing desperation on the part of immigrants seeking legal status. The aftermath, which included the arrest of an immigration agent last week, underscores the difficulty and danger of making a complaint, even in the rare case when abuse of power may have been caught on tape.
No one knows how widespread sexual blackmail is, but the case echoes other instances of sexual coercion that have surfaced in recent years, including agents criminally charged in Atlanta, Miami and Santa Ana, Calif. And it raises broader questions about the system�s vulnerability to corruption at a time when millions of noncitizens live in a kind of legal no-man�s land, increasingly fearful of seeking the law�s protection.
The agent arrested last week, Isaac R. Baichu, 46, himself an immigrant from Guyana, handled some 8,000 green card applications during his three years as an adjudicator in the Garden City, N.Y., office of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the federal Department of Homeland Security. He pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges of coercing the young woman to perform oral sex, and of promising to help her secure immigration papers in exchange for further sexual favors. If convicted, he will face up to seven years in prison.
His agency has suspended him with pay, and the inspector general of Homeland Security is reviewing his other cases, a spokesman said Wednesday. Prosecutors, who say they recorded a meeting between Mr. Baichu and the woman on March 11 at which he made similar demands for sex, urge any other victims to come forward.
Money, not sex, is the more common currency of corruption in immigration, but according to Congressional testimony in 2006 by Michael Maxwell, former director of the agency�s internal investigations, more than 3,000 backlogged complaints of employee misconduct had gone uninvestigated for lack of staff, including 528 involving criminal allegations.
The agency says it has tripled its investigative staff since then, and counts only 165 serious complaints pending. But it stopped posting an e-mail address and phone number for such complaints last year, said Jan Lane, chief of security and integrity, because it lacks the staff to cull the thousands of mostly irrelevant messages that resulted. Immigrants, she advised, should report wrongdoing to any law enforcement agency they trust.
The young woman in Queens, whose name is being withheld because the authorities consider her the victim of a sex crime, did not even tell her husband what had happened. Two weeks after the meeting in the car, finding no way to make a confidential complaint to the immigration agency and afraid to go to the police, she and two older female relatives took the recording to The Times.
Reasons to Worry
A slim, shy woman who looks like a teenager, she said she had spent recent months baby-sitting for relatives in Queens, crying over the deaths of her two brothers back in Cali, Colombia, and longing for the right stamp in her passport � one that would let her return to the United States if she visited her family.
She came to the United States on a tourist visa in 2004 and overstayed. When she married an American citizen a year ago, the law allowed her to apply to �adjust� her illegal status. But unless her green card application was approved, she could not visit her parents or her brothers� graves and then legally re-enter the United States. And if her application was denied, she would face deportation.
She had another reason to be fearful, and not only for herself. About 15 months ago, she said, an acquaintance hired her and two female relatives in New York to carry $12,000 in cash to the bank. The three women, all living in the country illegally, were arrested on the street by customs officers apparently acting on a tip in a money-laundering investigation. After determining that the women had no useful information, the officers released them.
But the closed investigation file had showed up in the computer when she applied for a green card, Mr. Baichu told her in December; until he obtained the file and dealt with it, her application would not be approved. If she defied him, she feared, he could summon immigration enforcement agents to take her relatives to detention.
So instead of calling the police, she turned on the video recorder in her cellphone, put the phone in her purse and walked to meet the agent. Two family members said they watched anxiously from their parked car as she disappeared behind the tinted windows of his red Lexus.
�We were worried that the guy would take off, take her away and do something to her,� the woman�s widowed sister-in-law said in Spanish.
As the recorder captured the agent�s words and a lilting Guyanese accent, he laid out his terms in an easy, almost paternal style. He would not ask too much, he said: sex �once or twice,� visits to his home in the Bronx, perhaps a link to other Colombians who needed his help with their immigration problems.
In shaky English, the woman expressed reluctance, and questioned how she could be sure he would keep his word.
�If I do it, it�s like very hard for me, because I have my husband, and I really fall in love with him,� she said.
The agent insisted that she had to trust him. �I wouldn�t ask you to do something for me if I can�t do something for you, right?� he said, and reasoned, �Nobody going to help you for nothing,� noting that she had no money.
He described himself as the single father of a 10-year-old daughter, telling her, �I need love, too,� and predicting, �You will get to like me because I�m a nice guy.�
Repeatedly, she responded �O.K.,� without conviction. At one point he thanked her for showing up, saying, �I know you feel very scared.�
Finally, she tried to leave. �Let me go because I tell my husband I come home,� she said.
His reply, the recording shows, was a blunt demand for oral sex.
�Right now? No!� she protested. �No, no, right now I can�t.�
He insisted, cajoled, even empathized. �I came from a different country, too,� he said. �I got my green card just like you.�
Then, she said, he grabbed her. During the speechless minute that follows on the recording, she said she yielded to his demand out of fear that he would use his authority against her.
How Much Corruption?
The charges against Mr. Baichu, who became a United States citizen in 1991 and earns roughly $50,000 a year, appear to be part of a larger pattern, according to government records and interviews.
Mr. Maxwell, the immigration agency�s former chief investigator, told Congress in 2006 that internal corruption was �rampant,� and that employees faced constant temptations to commit crime.
�It is only a small step from granting a discretionary waiver of an eligibility rule to asking for a favor or taking a bribe in exchange for granting that waiver,� he contended. �Once an employee learns he can get away with low-level corruption and still advance up the ranks, he or she becomes more brazen.�
�Despite our best efforts there are always people ready to use their position for personal gain or personal pleasure,� said Chris Bentley, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services. �Our responsibility is to ferret them out.�
When the Queens woman came to The Times with her recording on Jan. 3, she was afraid of retaliation from the agent, and uncertain about making a criminal complaint, though she had an appointment the next day at the Queens district attorney�s office.
Mr. Baichu was arrested as he emerged from the diner and headed to his car, wearing much gold and diamond jewelry, prosecutors said. Later released on $15,000 bail, Mr. Baichu referred calls for comment to his lawyer, Sally Attia, who said he did not have authority to grant or deny green card petitions without his supervisor�s approval.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/nyregion/21immigrant.html?hp
An Agent, a Green Card, and a Demand for Sex
Article Tools Sponsored By
By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: March 21, 2008
No problems so far, the immigration agent told the American citizen and his 22-year-old Colombian wife at her green card interview in December. After he stapled one of their wedding photos to her application for legal permanent residency, he had just one more question: What was her cellphone number?
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Uli Seit for The New York Times
Isaac R. Baichu, 46, an adjudicator for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, was arrested after he met with a green card applicant at the Flagship Restaurant, a diner in Queens. He is charged with coercing oral sex from her.
Audio A Secret Recording
Enlarge This Image
Uli Seit for The New York Times
The Flagship Restaurant, where Mr. Baichu met with a green card applicant.
The calls from the agent started three days later. He hinted, she said, at his power to derail her life and deport her relatives, alluding to a brush she had with the law before her marriage. He summoned her to a private meeting. And at noon on Dec. 21, in a parked car on Queens Boulevard, he named his price � not realizing that she was recording everything on the cellphone in her purse.
�I want sex,� he said on the recording. �One or two times. That�s all. You get your green card. You won�t have to see me anymore.�
She reluctantly agreed to a future meeting. But when she tried to leave his car, he demanded oral sex �now,� to �know that you�re serious.� And despite her protests, she said, he got his way.
The 16-minute recording, which the woman first took to The New York Times and then to the Queens district attorney, suggests the vast power of low-level immigration law enforcers, and a growing desperation on the part of immigrants seeking legal status. The aftermath, which included the arrest of an immigration agent last week, underscores the difficulty and danger of making a complaint, even in the rare case when abuse of power may have been caught on tape.
No one knows how widespread sexual blackmail is, but the case echoes other instances of sexual coercion that have surfaced in recent years, including agents criminally charged in Atlanta, Miami and Santa Ana, Calif. And it raises broader questions about the system�s vulnerability to corruption at a time when millions of noncitizens live in a kind of legal no-man�s land, increasingly fearful of seeking the law�s protection.
The agent arrested last week, Isaac R. Baichu, 46, himself an immigrant from Guyana, handled some 8,000 green card applications during his three years as an adjudicator in the Garden City, N.Y., office of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the federal Department of Homeland Security. He pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges of coercing the young woman to perform oral sex, and of promising to help her secure immigration papers in exchange for further sexual favors. If convicted, he will face up to seven years in prison.
His agency has suspended him with pay, and the inspector general of Homeland Security is reviewing his other cases, a spokesman said Wednesday. Prosecutors, who say they recorded a meeting between Mr. Baichu and the woman on March 11 at which he made similar demands for sex, urge any other victims to come forward.
Money, not sex, is the more common currency of corruption in immigration, but according to Congressional testimony in 2006 by Michael Maxwell, former director of the agency�s internal investigations, more than 3,000 backlogged complaints of employee misconduct had gone uninvestigated for lack of staff, including 528 involving criminal allegations.
The agency says it has tripled its investigative staff since then, and counts only 165 serious complaints pending. But it stopped posting an e-mail address and phone number for such complaints last year, said Jan Lane, chief of security and integrity, because it lacks the staff to cull the thousands of mostly irrelevant messages that resulted. Immigrants, she advised, should report wrongdoing to any law enforcement agency they trust.
The young woman in Queens, whose name is being withheld because the authorities consider her the victim of a sex crime, did not even tell her husband what had happened. Two weeks after the meeting in the car, finding no way to make a confidential complaint to the immigration agency and afraid to go to the police, she and two older female relatives took the recording to The Times.
Reasons to Worry
A slim, shy woman who looks like a teenager, she said she had spent recent months baby-sitting for relatives in Queens, crying over the deaths of her two brothers back in Cali, Colombia, and longing for the right stamp in her passport � one that would let her return to the United States if she visited her family.
She came to the United States on a tourist visa in 2004 and overstayed. When she married an American citizen a year ago, the law allowed her to apply to �adjust� her illegal status. But unless her green card application was approved, she could not visit her parents or her brothers� graves and then legally re-enter the United States. And if her application was denied, she would face deportation.
She had another reason to be fearful, and not only for herself. About 15 months ago, she said, an acquaintance hired her and two female relatives in New York to carry $12,000 in cash to the bank. The three women, all living in the country illegally, were arrested on the street by customs officers apparently acting on a tip in a money-laundering investigation. After determining that the women had no useful information, the officers released them.
But the closed investigation file had showed up in the computer when she applied for a green card, Mr. Baichu told her in December; until he obtained the file and dealt with it, her application would not be approved. If she defied him, she feared, he could summon immigration enforcement agents to take her relatives to detention.
So instead of calling the police, she turned on the video recorder in her cellphone, put the phone in her purse and walked to meet the agent. Two family members said they watched anxiously from their parked car as she disappeared behind the tinted windows of his red Lexus.
�We were worried that the guy would take off, take her away and do something to her,� the woman�s widowed sister-in-law said in Spanish.
As the recorder captured the agent�s words and a lilting Guyanese accent, he laid out his terms in an easy, almost paternal style. He would not ask too much, he said: sex �once or twice,� visits to his home in the Bronx, perhaps a link to other Colombians who needed his help with their immigration problems.
In shaky English, the woman expressed reluctance, and questioned how she could be sure he would keep his word.
�If I do it, it�s like very hard for me, because I have my husband, and I really fall in love with him,� she said.
The agent insisted that she had to trust him. �I wouldn�t ask you to do something for me if I can�t do something for you, right?� he said, and reasoned, �Nobody going to help you for nothing,� noting that she had no money.
He described himself as the single father of a 10-year-old daughter, telling her, �I need love, too,� and predicting, �You will get to like me because I�m a nice guy.�
Repeatedly, she responded �O.K.,� without conviction. At one point he thanked her for showing up, saying, �I know you feel very scared.�
Finally, she tried to leave. �Let me go because I tell my husband I come home,� she said.
His reply, the recording shows, was a blunt demand for oral sex.
�Right now? No!� she protested. �No, no, right now I can�t.�
He insisted, cajoled, even empathized. �I came from a different country, too,� he said. �I got my green card just like you.�
Then, she said, he grabbed her. During the speechless minute that follows on the recording, she said she yielded to his demand out of fear that he would use his authority against her.
How Much Corruption?
The charges against Mr. Baichu, who became a United States citizen in 1991 and earns roughly $50,000 a year, appear to be part of a larger pattern, according to government records and interviews.
Mr. Maxwell, the immigration agency�s former chief investigator, told Congress in 2006 that internal corruption was �rampant,� and that employees faced constant temptations to commit crime.
�It is only a small step from granting a discretionary waiver of an eligibility rule to asking for a favor or taking a bribe in exchange for granting that waiver,� he contended. �Once an employee learns he can get away with low-level corruption and still advance up the ranks, he or she becomes more brazen.�
�Despite our best efforts there are always people ready to use their position for personal gain or personal pleasure,� said Chris Bentley, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services. �Our responsibility is to ferret them out.�
When the Queens woman came to The Times with her recording on Jan. 3, she was afraid of retaliation from the agent, and uncertain about making a criminal complaint, though she had an appointment the next day at the Queens district attorney�s office.
Mr. Baichu was arrested as he emerged from the diner and headed to his car, wearing much gold and diamond jewelry, prosecutors said. Later released on $15,000 bail, Mr. Baichu referred calls for comment to his lawyer, Sally Attia, who said he did not have authority to grant or deny green card petitions without his supervisor�s approval.
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