for long periods. Doing so can be considered abandonment of permanent resident status. This situation often separates the permanent resident from his/her spouse/child. These days, it takes 4–5 years before family unity can be achieved. V visa The V visa is available to those beneficiaries who satisfy the following conditions: 1. An immigrant petition (I-130) must have been filed by the sponsor for the beneficiary on or before December 21, 2000. 2. The beneficiary must have been waiting for at least three years since the time the I - 130 was filed. The V visa is available regardless of whether the beneficiary is waiting for the I-130 to be approved or for an F2A visa. With this visa, the nuclear family can achieve unity in the U.S. The spouse can work and the child can go to school. International travel is permitted. The V visa remains valid as long as the underlying immigrant petition is valid. While the V visa is still available to those who satisfy the conditions, it is effectively no longer useful since the sunset date was December 21, 2000. Those who missed this deadline have no relief. Approximately 1,000,000 spouses/minor children of the lawful permanent residents are standing in the waiting line of 5–6 years for immigrant visas without being allowed to live with their spouses/parents in the U.S. Family unity in other non-immigrant and immigrant categories U.S. non-immigrants (students, specialty workers, intracompany transferees) do not have this kind of problem. Their spouses/minor children qualify for dependent visas. There are no numerical limits or processing delays associated with dependent visas. Most U.S. citizens do not experience major delays either. While U.S. citizens have to file I-130 applications for their spouses/minor children, they do not have to wait for immigrant visas. If the process takes too long, they can apply for K visas. Even without having to wait for an immigrant visa, the entire process typically takes at least one year and often as much as three years. This is caused by USCIS (6-10mo), NVC (1-4mo), and Consular (1-6mo) processing times. Under current law it is only permanent residents whose spouses/minor children must wait many years to be admitted. Legislation Bills have been introduced in previous sessions of Congress to address this issue. H.R. 1823 (109th Congress) addresses this head-on by reinstating the V visa. S.1919 (also 109th Congress) reclassifies spouses and children of permanent residents as