Gustavo Valencia, from Mexico, holds a photo of his father, who migrated to San Diego years ago. Valencia has waited nearly 20 years for his green card to live in California legally. (Photo: John Rosman) In his teens, Valencia left Mexico for the United States to join his father, who had migrated north himself years earlier. Soon after his father became a US citizen in 1994, Valencia, who had arrived to the US on a tourist visa and overstayed, applied for a family-based visa to live here legally too. Valencia remains in line for his green card, waiting out a process that can appear interminable. In fact, in the past nine years, slow-moving bureaucracy and a high number of visa applicants, has created a backlog that has tacked some 13 months to Valencia’s wait in line. Reporter John Rosman, of the public radio collaboration Fronteras, reports. What is your family’s immigration story?

Gustavo Valencia, from Mexico, holds a photo of his father, who migrated to San Diego years ago. Valencia has waited nearly 20 years for his green card to live in California legally. (Photo: John Rosman)

In his teens, Valencia left Mexico for the United States to join his father, who had migrated north himself years earlier. Soon after his father became a US citizen in 1994, Valencia, who had arrived to the US on a tourist visa and overstayed, applied for a family-based visa to live here legally too.

Valencia remains in line for his green card, waiting out a process that can appear interminable. In fact, in the past nine years, slow-moving bureaucracy and a high number of visa applicants, has created a backlog that has tacked some 13 months to Valencia’s wait in line.

Reporter John Rosman, of the public radio collaboration Fronteras, reports.

What is your family’s immigration story?

Tags: immigrantlives immigration immigration reform