Perhaps because of a long history with the United States, many Filipinos dream of coming to America. Some just want to visit; some only to make money; some plan to settle here in search of more opportunities and maybe a better life for themselves and their families. Whatever the reason, Filipinos have been coming to the US for over a hundred years. Today, it is said that Filipinos are the 2nd fastest growing Asian population in the US. It is thus safe to say that more and more Filipinos still want to come to America.There is a wealth of information on US immigration laws available online. The US government’s website at www.uscis.gov has good information. Many US immigration lawyers or law firms have their own web sites. But they can be complex and confusing to most people. When it was first suggested to us to write a column on US immigration laws to help demystify the subject, we thought of the many folks from our hometown of Cagayan de Oro city in the southern Philippines who have asked about coming to the U.S., or have ties to friends and family all over the U.S. We decided that if we were going to write on the topic, it would be for a newspaper ran by Kagay-anons for Kagay-anons and all Mindanao-ans. The Mindanao Current fits the bill. So we write a regular column, Visa Q & As, for this paper – and its online edition found at https://themindanaocurrent.blogspot.com/.

We invite readers to submit any and all questions they have on US immigration laws, and we triy to answer them as simply as possible and in the least complicated way. Questions and answers are reprinted here.