RESIDENCY EASED FOR CUBANS BORN ABROAD

The Miami Herald - Saturday, July 8, 2006
Author: ALFONSO CHARDY, achardy@MiamiHerald.com

For years, U.S. immigration authorities in Miami routinely rejected green card applications from children born outside Cuba to Cuban parents because they could not produce certain Cuban government-issued documents to prove they were Cuban citizens.

No longer, thanks to Liliana Lozano Buschini, a 45-year-old woman born in Venezuela, and her attorneys.

They recently persuaded U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to reverse a long-standing practice in the Miami immigration office to turn down applications by the children of Cuban parents who happened to be born abroad and didn't have the required proof of citizenship.

RESTRICTION LIFTED

The decision, issued June 30 by the chief of USCIS' administrative appeals office, opens a whole new avenue for people of Cuban ancestry to claim protection under the Cuban Adjustment Act, say immigration lawyers familiar with the issue. They say the change could affect conceivably thousands of people - born outside Cuba - who have a Cuban parent.

The story of why the federal government changed its policy begins with Lozano Buschini, who showed up June 6, 2005 at the Miami immigration office seeking a green card to allow her to remain here permanently. She thought it would be granted since her mother was Cuban and she had documents showing she was Cuban herself.

She assumed she qualified under the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows any Cuban to apply for U.S. residency after more than a year in the United States.

THE PAPERWORK

But Lozano Buschini's application was denied because she did not have a Cuban passport, birth certificate or government-issued citizenship certificate. She only had certified letters from a Cuban government official and a Venezuelan birth certificate to establish her claim to Cuban citizenship.

She was hardly an isolated case. Lozano Buschini's lawyers, who sued the federal government, discovered that many people born abroad of Cuban parents were denied residency - even though the Cuban constitution says anyone born abroad with at least one Cuban parent can claim Cuban citizenship.

Immigration lawyers familiar with the issue say the policy change will benefit hundreds or thousands of people who have a Cuban mother or father and were born outside Cuba.

Among the largest group: Venezuelans with Cuban parents. Venezuela, in fact, has one of the largest Cuban exile communities outside the United States. Cuban government officials and exiles have previously estimated the number of Cuban exiles in Venezuela at between 25,000 and 50,000.

Stephen Bander , the Miami immigration lawyer who represents Lozano Buschini, said he began seeing denials in 2003 when an increasing number of Venezuelans of Cuban ancestry started showing up in South Florida. Many were leaving the country because of President Hugo Chávez's alliance with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

A senior immigration official in the Miami office said he has seen a ``few hundred'' cases similar to Lozano Buschini's.

Bander expressed relief at the policy change, saying it will benefit many more foreign nationals seeking U.S. protection under the Cuban Adjustment Act - not just Cubans born in Cuba.

Lozano Buschini now likely will be granted a green card; she declined to comment through her attorney.

FLEEING CHAVEZ

Other Venezuelans claiming Cuban citizenship and who were denied residence talked about their cases with The Miami Herald.

Guillermo Meyer, 35, was born in Venezuela of Cuban parents who fled Cuba in 1961. He left Venezuela four years ago with his wife and a young daughter because he feared that Venezuela could become another Cuba.

Meyer eventually went to the Miami immigration office and requested residence as a Cuban citizen.

``They rejected it because I did not have a Cuban passport,'' Meyer said.

Eventually Meyer obtained a Cuban consular document specifically stating he is a Cuban citizen because he is the son of Cuban parents. Bander said Meyer now likely will receive a green card.

The senior immigration official in the Miami office said his staff denied requests such as those from Meyer and Lozano Buschini because at the time the only documents Miami officers were told to accept were a valid Cuban passport, a Cuban government-issued citizenship certificate or a birth certificate.

Bander said the policy was not consistent with practice in other immigration offices.

Miami residence rejections were previously reversed by the administrative appeals office but those decisions were not binding on other cases, Bander said.

ACCEPTABLE DOCUMENTATION

Under the new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ruling, foreign nationals who have a Cuban parent may seek a green card, or permanent residency - even if they don't have a Cuban passport, birth certificate or citizenship certificate.

U.S. immigration authorities expanded the list of acceptable documents. Among them: a Cuban Civil Registry document, a Cuban consular certificate of citizenship, or other document signed by a Cuban official with appropriate authority over the registration of citizens saying that the person is a citizen.