On March 14th, the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary hosted a hearing on The Separation of Nuclear Families under U.S. Immigration Law, to discuss the issues relating to the hurdles that many legal permanent residents in the U.S. encounter when they try to bring their immediate relatives to the country. Although no country or yearly caps exist for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens who want to immigrate to the United States, there are a limited number of visas available each year for spouses and minor children of legal permanent residents. This is exacerbated by the restriction that no country receive more than 7 percent of the visas available for all immigration categories in a fiscal year.
The resulting backlogs mean that some immigrants from certain countries have to wait decades before they can be reunited with their loved ones.
