Indian immigrants in US raise voices

Washington DC: Shilpa Ghodgaonkar, who has been living in the United States for six years, has an MBA degree. But she still hasn't been able to take up a job at Washington DC.

Why? Simply because her Green Card application, along with half-a-million others, is stuck in the system.

"My husband's application was filed at the end of 2002. We've been waiting for over three years now, but haven't even cleared the first stage. It's is still in the backlog elimination center at DOL and we hope something can get done," says a distraught Shilpa Ghodgaonkar, a Green Card applicant.

Things took a turn for the worse in last December, when the US Congress killed a budget amendment that would have allowed people like Shilpa to get their Green Card sooner.

Shilpa and 10 other Indians, who are also waiting for their Green Cards, decided to launch an online campaign called 'Immigration Voices'.

The campaign has 4 main goals -

To cut down the current Green Card processing time of 6-12 years by half.

More than double the annual Green Card quota from 140 thousand to 290 thousand.

Recapture visas that have not been used since 2001 to help reduce the backlog.

And allow applicants to file for a Green Card even if the quota has expired.

These are some of the issues that Aman, Shilpa and some of the 3,000 members of Immigration Voices have raised in their meetings with more than a dozen Senators on Capitol Hill.

Founder of the online portal, Aman Kapoor, says the achieving these goals is crucial. "If I get a promotion in the same company, I have to start my process all over again, which is some kind of an unfairness to the system," says Kapoor.

"At the same time, there are individuals who're having problems getting their driver licenses, there are families where spouses can't get their social security, which means they're not able to get their driver licenses," he adds.

Members of Immigration Voices say that as some of America's most skilled and productive residents, their voice deserves to be heard.

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