The Department of Education has had its fair share of problems lately, including being perpetually understaffed. So a decade ago, the DOE attempted to recruit teachers from the Caribbean with the promise that they could earn permanent residency in the US. But years later, just 276 of the 700 immigrants have become permanent residents, leaving many living on cultural-exchange visas they need to renew every year. "We just need not to feel like we were used and thrown out," third grade teacher Shirleth Johnson-Scott told the Daily News. more ›

It is not a bad day to be a homosexual in a bi-national marriage! In the wake of President Obama's decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices have decided to stop automatically denying green card and immigration applications from gays and lesbians married to U.S. citizens. This comes a week after a Queens court agreed to delay the deportation of an Argentinian woman while the status of her marriage to an American woman from Queens was figured out in light of the sketchy future of DOMA. more ›

Used to boost investment in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the EB-5 visa has been called an "interesting and clever way to provide financing." The program offers permanent residency to foreigners investing between $500,000 and $1 million in American businesses and projects, and now that the last holdout is gone, Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner is looking to use it to his advantage. more ›

With the country's renewed focus on immigration laws, feds have been stepping up their crackdown on folks getting married for Green Cards. However, more often it seems that legitimate couples are being accused of having sham marriages. The New York Times reports on the marriage of Shari Feldman and Inderjit Singh, which is still being questioned after 17 years of happiness and fidelity. Singh came to the country illegally in 1992, but the two have been going strong since their marriage in 1993. However, they've been unable to convince immigration officials that their marriage is legitimate after five interviews. more ›

To help finance its $125 million project, the Brooklyn Navy Yard is hoping to lure investors with the tantalizing prospect of permanent residency. The EB-5 visa can be awarded to up to 10,000 foreigners who invest $500,000 to $1 million in American businesses and projects. Once the investors can document that their investments created at least 10 jobs, they are granted green cards. Robert Lieber, deputy mayor for economic development told the Wall Street Journal, "This is a real interesting and clever way to provide financing." more ›

An Israeli woman whose husband was killed in the Mumbai terrorist attacks is having trouble visiting her eight kids in Brooklyn due to immigration woes. On Feb. 5, US Customs and Border Protection agents at Kennedy Airport stopped 37-year-old Frumet Teitelbaum and said she had overused her visitor's visa by regularly traveling from her home in Israel to see her kids, who are staying with her late husband's family in Borough Park. more ›

A Richmond Hill man is accused of pretending to be an immigration officer so he could pull off $1.75 million of green card and real estate scams that exploited 19 West Indian immigrants. Shane Ramsundar, 50, allegedly dressed like an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer—armed with an air gun and a fake badge—and convinced immigrants he could help them buy property or become legal residents. more ›

And now, your daily reminder to be careful when Internet dating: Long Island resident Samina Khan has annulled her marriage with Farrukh Khan, a Pakistani immigrant who had been in need of a green card, after allegedly finding out he was gay, reports the Post. She met her husband on a Muslim dating site, where he claimed to be a "network engineer" earning $100k a year. However, Khan said, "The day after the [marriage] paperwork was in, he just ignored me." more ›

A Jackson Heights woman has been ordered to pay $3 million in penalties and restitution for convincing illegal immigrants to give her money in exchange for helping them become citizens, then doing nothing on their behalf. The State Supreme Court ruling comes after Attorney General, and still undeclared gubernatorial candidate, Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit against Miriam Mercedes Hernandez for swindling undocumented immigrants out of up to $15,000 each in Green Card and citizenship scams. more ›

A storefront pastor has been sentenced to two to six years in prison after swindling more than 100 immigrants with promises of U.S. visas and green cards. Gregorio Gonzalez, 57, was sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to collecting more than $840,000, mainly from Ecuadorian immigrants who visited him at the Iglesia Pentecostal Roca de Salvacion Eterna in Corona, according to 1010WINS. "He took our money," 27-year-old office cleaner Viviana Ordonez told the Daily News. "He took our trust in him. We right now have nothing. We don't have hope. We want justice." After Gonzalez gets out of prison, he will face deportation proceedings. more ›

The Post's front page story today is about the flourishing mail order bride business from Russia and Poland, noting "The Russian Advertiser...has an entire classified-ad section devoted to 'delovoy brak,' or 'business marriages'" A Post reporter, posing as someone needing a green card, learned it would cost $31,500—"$25,000 would go to the fiancée"—"$10,000 given up front and $15,000 paid after the green-card interview"—and "$6,500 would go to the agency for paperwork." The Post also has an amazing first-person account from "Ivan", a Sheepshead Bay construction worker who accepted $10,000 from a Polish woman who wanted a green card: "Her name was Yelena. She was really hot, in her 20s... Everything I told her to do, she did. I would scare her on purpose. I would say, 'If you don't do so and so, I am going to report you.' She was shoplifting like crazy from the stores. She was probably working as an escort... We had sex. I think she was cheating on me with other guys. I felt like she wanted to marry someone else...I've never seen anyone drink that much vodka. This girl partied like an animal. She went to the Tunnel, to the Underground, all the clubs. She knew everyone there." more ›