Provisional and non-provisional Z visas

It appears I was wrong when I wrote last week that the Z visa would go even to illegal aliens’ parents, spouses, and children who are not in the U.S. Writing at the Heritage Foundation website, Kris Kobach and Matthew Spalding inform us that the Z visa goes to an illegal alien who has a job, or who is the parent, spouse, or child of someone with a job, and who can provide two documents showing that he or she was in the country before January 1, 2007 and has remained in the country since then. Thus the recipient of the Z visa must be an illegal alien. In fact, a non-immigrant legal alien, such as a person here on a business or student visa, is barred from the Z visa. Only people who are here illegally can get it.

Also there is a $3,000 fee for the Z visa (thus answering my question last week about whether the fee was for the Z visa or for official legal permanent residence), but a family of five could get Z visas for $5,000.

Clearing up another confusion I’ve run into in the coverage of the bill, the authors inform us that there are two types of Z visas, provisional and non-provisional. The existence of the provisional Z visas makes a liar out of those who claim that legalization only follows completion of the enforcement “triggers”:

Proponents of the Senate approach have consistently claimed that it would allow delayed amnesty only after certain law enforcement goals are met. The text of the bill, however, tells a different story. Section 1(a) allows provisional Z visas to be issued immediately after enactment, and Section 601(f)(2) prohibits the federal government from waiting more than 180 days after enactment to begin issuing provisional Z visas.

These provisional Z visas could be valid for years, depending on when the government begins issuing non-provisional Z visas, according to Section 601(h)(4). Moreover, the “provisional” designation means little. These visas are nearly as good as non-provisional Z visas, giving the alien immediate lawful status, protection from deportation, authorization to work, and the ability to exit and reenter the country (with advance permission). These privileges are listed in Section 601(h)(1).

Next question: is the $3,000 fee for the provisional Z visa, which illegal aliens get immediately, or for the non-provisional Z visa, which comes later?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 24, 2007 11:02 AM | Send