TAMPA, Fla. — As hundreds of immigrants begin the application process under the President Biden's new immigration plan, others are learning they having to wait longer.

President Joe Biden this month announced a new legal pathway for up to 30,000 migrants per month from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua to temporarily come to the United States, as officials also plan to begin expelling people at the border from the same countries under pandemic-related restrictions.

Ronald Bouthillier applied for a spousal visa last year after meeting his now wife of two years online.

He feels like the wait to see his wife is never ending, hoping to bring her from the Philippines to the United States. He was told the wait could take up to five years.

“Basically — it rips you apart when you hear that — five years I just can’t fathom that," he said. “It’s my wife, I love her very much, I want her to be here I want us to be together.”

He now fears the wait will be even longer because of the recent immigration plan implemented by the Biden administration.

“I feel like I don’t matter," said Bouthillier. "My wife and I don’t matter, we want to do it the right way, just give you the money and wait and everybody else can come in when they want to."

Arturo Rios with the Rios Immigration Law Firm says this new plan is like the last one. “The reality is that that parole program for Venezuela, it’s taking months for people to get their paroles.”

Arturo predicts the same will happen. And it’s leaving people like Bouthillier with no option but to travel back and forth spending hundreds to see his wife.

Even after applying for a visitor visa, Bouthillier says this was his lawyer’s response.

“They might deny it because of the other application, because they’re going to be afraid that she’s not going to go back.”

Bouthillier says he wants to spend time with his wife without worrying about when they might see each other next.

As of August 2022, the average wait time for a spousal visa ranged from 11 months to over two years.