DNA Testing A Mixed Bag For Immigrants

Others contend that consular officials have good reason to be wary.

"Look, the consulates are just trying to prevent fraud," said Luis Gonzalez, a lawyer based in Falls Church. "A lot of people think that they can just come to the consulate and say this is my son, when really he's the nephew."

Several lawyers said they have had cases in which a client learned from DNA testing that the child being sponsored was not biologically related.

DNA tests can save considerable time and difficulty for someone like Pedro Antonio Monjaras, 47, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Annandale who recently brought his 20-year-old daughter over from El Salvador. Monjaras said that he has always supported her financially but that he did not sign her birth certificate until five years ago. As a result, that document was not considered sufficient evidence of their relationship.

Monjaras might have been able to prove his case by submitting receipts for the money transfers he has sent his daughter and by obtaining affidavits from previous neighbors. But Monjaras, a delivery truck driver, said it would have taken months.

"You're here, they're over there, and each step takes forever to organize," he said. "I would literally have had to send people money for the pen and paper for each affidavit."

So when his attorney proposed a DNA test, Monjaras leapt at the idea.

"It was like, 'Great! Problem solved,' " he said.