INS Sees Smooth Sailing for Filipino Sailor’s Residency

It appears that Navy corpsman Alfred B. Quiambao has won his battle with the Immigration and Naturalization Service bureaucracy.

The Persian Gulf War veteran had been frustrated for almost a year by failed attempts to persuade immigration personnel to allow his wife, who is a permanent U.S. resident, to sponsor him for permanent residency.

Undaunted by the unbending INS bureaucracy, Quiambao, 31, and a native of the Philippines, deployed with the 1st Marine Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment to Kuwait earlier this year, where he was decorated for treating wounded Marines under fire.

When he returned to Camp Pendleton in April, INS officials appeared to have a change of heart and announced that they were looking for a way to resolve Quiambao’s immigration problem in his favor. However, those hopes were dashed in August, when an INS official in San Diego informed the eight-year Navy veteran that he would not be getting any special privileges after all.

Legally, the INS could have required Quiambao to return to the Philippines when his enlistment ended in December, leaving his wife and two young daughters in San Diego. Purita Quiambao, 38, is a nurse at Paradise Valley Hospital. The family lives in Paradise Hills.

Like thousands of other Filipinos, Quiambao joined the Navy under an obscure law that allows Filipino nationals to enlist in the Navy without getting an immigration visa.

On Tuesday, INS officials in San Diego and U.S. Consul General Ted Cubbison in Tijuana said that Quiambao’s perseverance has paid off. And in the process, seven other Filipino sailors whose immigrant status was identical to Quiambao’s will also profit from his efforts.

“As far as we’re concerned, this is fait accompli. Quiambao and the others are on their way to getting permanent residency. . . . All Filipino sailors who have been petitioned for by family members are eligible for immediate visas,” said INS spokesman Rudy Murillo in San Diego.

Murillo was talking only about those sailors whose petitions were submitted to the INS district office in San Diego. He said that he was unsure how the precedent-setting action will impact other Filipino sailors in similar situations who are stationed in other U.S. cities.

U.S. consulate officials in Tijuana have requested the San Diego men’s files from the U.S. Consulate in Manila, Cubbison said. Like Quiambao, the other sailors are stationed at San Diego-area bases, but it is not known if they served in the Persian Gulf War.

Under the plan, Quiambao and the other sailors will be summoned to the U.S. consulate in Tijuana once their files are processed. Then they will be given an immigrant visa to return to the United States. When they go through the port-of-entry, the INS will make each man a permanent resident alien.

Permanent resident aliens are eligible for citizenship after seven years.

“Normally, they would be required to present their petition in Manila. . . . We handle mainly cases involving Mexican citizens,” Cubbison said. “We have to say no to non-Mexican cases. However, because of special circumstances, these cases will be processed here without having these folks go back to the Philippines.”

Although the INS denied that the unusual arrangement was prompted by political pressure, both Cubbison and Murillo acknowledged that “there was congressional interest in the Quiambao case” from local congressmen.

“We wanted to do the right thing and help these folks out,” Cubbison said.

Were it not for the INS and consulate’s decision to grant Quiambao permanent residency, he would have had to re-enlist in December to avoid being deported to the Philippines. Filipino nationals who enlist in the Navy have no immigration status, and are allowed to enter the United States with their families on military orders.

Quiambao, his wife and oldest daughter Michelle, 7, entered the United States on his military orders. A second daughter, Elaine, 1, was born here. In 1989, Purita Quiambao received permanent residency overnight when Congress passed a law that extended special preference to foreign-born nurses. The law was passed to fill a critical shortage of nurses in U.S. hospitals.

As a permanent resident, Purita Quiambao sponsored her older daughter as a permanent resident. However, she was unable to sponsor her husband because he was already in the United States on military orders and without a visa.

Quiambao was in training at Camp Pendleton Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. However, his wife said she was overjoyed by the news.

“That’s great news for my husband and our family. I’m overwhelmed right now,” Purita Quiambao said.