Crispin R. Aranda

Crispin R. Aranda born on January 7, 1945 in Antipolo, Rizal has a two-decade record of serving the Filipino immigrant, at home and overseas.

Immigration Work

Born to a farm-based family of six, he is recognized for his expertise on U.S. immigration and visa matters in Filipino communities in the Us and abroad. Upon his departure in 1980 for the United States, Aranda moved constantly from the west to the east coasts searching out Filipino communities in need of his assistance.

After the People’s Power Peaceful Revolution in February 1986, Aranda finally settled in the San Francisco Bay Area to pursue immigrant advocacy and concentrated on immigration and visa law issues. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50716FF3C5A0C738EDDAD0894DE484D81

He established the U.S. Immigrant Services Network; a firm that until now, serves the immigration and visa needs of the Filipino and Hispanic communities via the law office on Market Street, San Francisco, and a staffing agency in the Frisco-Dallas section of Texas.

Aranda is the first and only Filipino to have produced a television show in the U.S. dealing primarily with US immigration and visa issues. The long-running show, “Manila, Manila/ Immigrant Journal” had its maiden broadcast in 1987 and ran until 1995 on KTSF Channel 26 in San Francisco. Airing from California all the way to Saipan, Manila, Manila merited a special citation from the Honorable Frank M. Jordan, then mayor of San Francisco, for the service it rendered in the interests of immigrants in California, Chicago, Hawaii, Guam and Saipan.

Despite all these business activities, Aranda nevertheless, found time for civic matters and in 1989, spearheaded the move for Daly City and Quezon City to establish sister ties and provide business opportunities for both cities.

In 1999, Aranda returned to the Philippines and with his return, once again sought a way to ventilate U.S. immigrant advocacy issues and established the Immigrant Visa Center. He serves as IVC’S Executive Director, with offices at the Prestige Tower Condominium, 10th Floor, Suite 1001, Emerald Avenue, Pasig City, Metro Manila.

IVC provides immediate and ready access to laws, rules and regulations emanating from the U.S. State Department, as well as Departments of Homeland Security and State, as well as the U.S. Social Security Administration. From early 2002 until late 2003, he was a regular columnist for Inq-7.net, the online newspaper of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and GMA-7 and his online column, Visa Matters was widely read and well received. Sensing a vacuum in information dissemination for migration issues of the commonwealth nations, the Immigrant Visa Center, began providing updates for Australia, New Zealand and Canada migration. Today, Aranda is affiliated with the law office of Imelda Argel, Esquire in Sydney, Australia.

For a new generation of would-be immigrants however, Aranda will be best known for hosting the first visa program on Philippine free T.V., Amerika, Atbp. that began airing in November 2000 and again in June 2004 until the present on the TV network of ABC-5, Saturdays 2:30-3:30 pm. Amerika Atbp. is currently being aired in Canada, the U.S. and Japan. [http://www.visacenter.org]