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Reunite Green Card Spouses

When a temporary worker on an H1B visa gets married, they are allowed to immediately bring their spouse and children to the country. If that same worker makes a commitment to integrate with American society and start on the path to becoming an American citizen by attaining lawful permanent residence and receiving a green card, that same worker -- now an American worker -- is denied the basic right to live with their spouse and children because immigration quotas on nuclear families.

We are working to change the law to eliminate quotas on spouses and children of US lawful permanent residents (LPRs) in the long-term, and advance any possible reform to alleviate the problem in the short-term.

American Families United began working on this issue in 2007 and dramatically raised the profile of the issue following our April 2007 lobby day, and national call-ins. In May 2007, Senators Clinton, Menendez, and Hagel co-sponsored an amendment to an immigration bill being debated at the time to completely fix the problem.

You must login or register before you can join the reunite LPR spouses group and take part in forum discussions.

CIR ASAP Act Introduced: Great Step Forward for Family Unity

December 15, 2009 - Congressman Ortiz and 91 co-sponsors introduced HR 4321, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009. For the first time ever, all of our urgent issues are addressed in one bill.

As constituents and voters, American Families United applauds Congressman Ortiz, Congressman Gutierrez and other co-sponsors of the bill for their strong support of family values, and we urge the Chairwoman of the Immigration Subcommittee in the House of Representatives to include these family values reforms in the final comprehensive immigration reform bill to come out of committee.

The full text of the bill is available at the Library of Congress:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.4321:

Our issues are addressed in the following sections of the bill:
End Stepchild Deportation - sections 311 and 312
Reform Hardship Waivers - sections 304 and 305
Reunite Green Card Spouses - section 302
Improve Name Check Delays - section 604

A detailed analysis of these sections of the bill will be posted in the relevant issue groups.

Holiday fundraiser

We've made great strides this year, and we want to keep going in 2010 until all our urgent issues are solved. In addition to the support of the Circle of Hope, we need to raise $17,000 to enable us continue to help more families by:

* Keeping a seat at the table in Washington, DC
* Enabling our volunteers to organize to push through laws

As soon as we meet this goal, we plan to organize our next national lobby day.

P.S. You can also donate by shopping.

Great First Step for Families and a Major Victory for American Families United

May 20th, 2009 - American Families United applauds Senators Menendez, Kennedy, Gillibrand and Schumer for the introduction of the Reuniting Families Act of 2009. The bill is a great step forward for American citizens and permanent residents legally sponsoring their spouses and young children to immigrate and live with them as fully integrated Americans.

Read the text of the bill here: The Reuniting Families Act of 2009

How does the bill address the urgent issues faced by nuclear families?

Fiancée Visa Age Out Reform - for the first time, innocent step-children and their families threatened with 10 or more year forced separation solely because they turned 21 have hope of justice! Sections 8 and 9 of the bill would ensure that US citizens can sponsor their step-children up to age 21, regardless of whether a spousal or fiancée visa is used. These changes would be retroactive to protect families in crisis now. This is a major victory for American Families United, which first proposed a solution to this problem over two years ago: this bill marks the first time the issue has been addressed in a bill.

February 2nd, 2009 Lobby Day


American Families United members in 2226 Rayburn Office Building


On Monday, Feb 2nd, 2009, AFU held it's 3rd lobby day. We met with the staff of 29 Congressmen and Senators from around the country.

October 1st, 2007 Lobby Day

Accompanied by former Congressman Bruce Morrison and Paul Donnelly, we visited the offices of 20 different Congressmen and Senators. The overall objective was to raise awareness with Legislators who were new to our issues and answer questions about our legislative proposals. We wrapped up the day with a personal visit with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren who has championed the cause of Family Immigration Reform. We had very positive feedback from the offices we visited and look forward to our followup communications.

For some American Families United members, this was the first trip to become a part of the legislative process. It was a great experience for everyone to meet our representatives in DC, learn more about the process of a bill becoming a law and meet legislators face to face. It was a special treat for many of us to meet each other after talking on the phone for so long.

AFU Attends Announcement of Clinton, Menendez, and Hagel Amendment

May 23, 2007 - American Families United was invited to the press conference conference announcing the Clinton/Menendz/Hagel amendment to eliminate quotas on spouses and children, and AFU member Amir Nikpouri attended to thank Senator Clinton for her support, and was also featured in a follow-up story in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/24/us/24family.html

April 27th, 2007 Lobby Day

Separated families from Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, West Virgina, North Carolina, and Texas came to Capitol Hill for our first lobby day on April 27th.



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