East High student continues to wait for permanent residency

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By MARGARET REIST / Lincoln Journal Star

Alan Xu is waiting.

The Lincoln East High School senior has his eye on a couple of prestigious colleges and an academic record that makes him competitive.

He’s also got a problem: a federal immigration backlog that could threaten his eligibility for  college financial aid and make getting accepted to some schools more difficult.

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Alan Xu, 17, a senior at Lincoln East High School takes notes during his AP Literature class Monday October 13, 2008. Xu has lived in the United States with his parents since he was 4, but is having trouble getting a green card and could possibly be deported. (Erin Duerr)

Alan Xu, 17, a senior at Lincoln East High School takes notes during his AP Literature class Monday October 13, 2008. Xu has lived in the United States with his parents since he was 4, but is having trouble getting a green card and could possibly be deported. (Erin Duerr)

Alan, who has lived in the United States since he was 4 years old, is waiting to become a permanent resident.

He’s been waiting three years.

His parents, with whom he came from his birthplace in China, got their permanent residency — or green cards — more than a year ago.

For some reason, Alan’s application was delayed because of an FBI name and background check that took months longer than his parents.

“It seems like all we can do is wait and that’s the kind of thing that’s frustrating us,” said Alan’s father, Liukang Xu.

Shortly after the Xus got their permanent residency, they began trying to find out what was happening with their son’s case. They called immigration services, had their lawyer write letters and contacted two U.S. senators.

East High administrators tried to help by calling a senator and by inquiring with colleges about their admissions and financial aid policies.

“He is such an awesome candidate for any school,” said East High counselor Noelle Baker. It’s unfair, she said, “for him to be put in a position that’s not of his doing.”

Alan has done all the hard work: He’s earned grades that put him in the top 1 percent of his class at East, he’s  a National Merit  Scholarship semi-finalist and he has thrived in local, state and national math competitions since middle school.

As a 17-year-old senior, he’s taking a class at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in addition to his high school classes.

Alan could attend UNL as a state resident since he will have graduated from a Nebraska high school.

But if he doesn’t become a permanent resident within a few months, when the first round of college applications are due, he’ll have to apply to other colleges as an international student.

At some schools, admissions requirements are more stringent and competitive for international students, and in many cases scholarship money is more limited than it is for permanent residents or U.S. citizens.

Alan, who likes math and is considering a field such as engineering, said UNL is an option, but he’d like to be able to consider other colleges, too.

“It reduces my choices,” Alan said of the situation.

Alan’s request is far from being the only one at immigration services, which is part of the problem.

About 175,000 employment-based applications are pending in the Nebraska center, said Jerry Heinauer,  director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration’s Nebraska service center in Lincoln.

This year, the center has completed about 75,000 employment-based applications, which is what  Alan and his parents filed. Worldwide, around 140,000 employment-based visas were approved this year.

Liukang Xu, Alan’s father, came to the United States in 1994 to do graduate work at the University of California-Davis. His wife and son followed nine months later, and Alan attended grade school in California.

In 2004, Xu got a job with Licor and was transferred to Lincoln, where Alan finished seventh grade at Lux Middle School.

All three filed their applications with immigration services in in October 2005.

Getting an application approved is dependent on several federal offices: immigration, which processes the applications, the FBI, which does the name background checks, and the state department, which issues the visas.

Applicants for employment-based visas also must be certified by the Department of Labor, which ensures the applicant isn’t taking a job that could be filled by a U.S. citizen.

The FBI check is where Alan’s case appears to have stalled.

Marilu Cabrera, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman, said after the Sept. 11 attacks the checks became more stringent and it created a  backlog.

“We do these on every single application we receive,” she said.

In April, immigration officials  met with FBI officials to address that backlog, and since then the process is moving more quickly, she said.

Now, about 90 percent of cases clear within three months and the vast majority within 60 days, officials said.

Alan’s appears to have fallen within the small minority, but it is unclear why.

Although the Xus received a letter from immigration services in January saying Alan’s case still hadn’t cleared with the FBI, Heinauer did a check that showed his name cleared in October 2007.

But that didn’t solve the problem. Once the application is ready for approval, there has to be a visa available.

The state department issues only a certain number of visas, which are granted based on when the application process began.

That means the availability varies, depending on type of job the applicant has, and the size of the backlog, especially in countries that have a lot of applications, like China and India.

That availability can change from month to month and for a couple of small windows since October 2007, there should have been a visa available for Alan.

But likely so were a lot of other cases, and his didn’t get processed before them, Heinauer said.

Right now, although Alan’s application is ready to be approved, there are no permanent residency visas available.

“I think the bottom line is it was just a series of unfortunate circumstances,” Heinauer said.

It’s likely, though, that one will become available in the next few months, he said.

And so Alan waits.

Alan’s father stressed that he doesn’t want to criticize the U.S. government, but it’s frustrating because they’ve done everything right and still his son isn’t a permanent resident.

When it comes to paying for a college education, financial aid is important, Alan’s father said.

“If the school said he got accepted but they cannot give financial aid, it’s the same as ‘no’ to me.”

Reach Margaret Reist at 473-7226 or

mreist@journalstar.com

.