It is our pleasure to introduce our incredibly skilled operations manager and immigration consultant, Lupe Lopez. If you have called or stopped by our San Diego office for a consultation, chances are you have already met with her to discuss your needs. Throughout her immigration career, Ms. Lopez has assisted…
Last week, we reported to our readers that on September 25th the Department of State and USCIS re-issued the October Visa Bulletin and changed the date of filing chart drastically, rolling back the ‘Dates of Filing’ for heavily used visa categories, including employment based and family-sponsored petitions. The American Immigration…
It is our pleasure to introduce our readers to our senior case manager, Inese Grate, one of the original members of the Law Offices of Jacob J. Sapochnick. Ms. Grate joined our firm when there were merely 2 employees working at the office. In addition to studying law in Latvia,…
President Obama closed off the year by announcing his highly anticipated executive action on November 20, 2014 which will go into effect early this year, but the executive action was only one of many important initiatives that occurred in 2014. 2014 was a big year for immigrants for several reasons:…
Jose came into our office yesterday. He had been here before. About a year ago he came in to have a consultation with us and it seems we didn’t have the “right” answers that he wanted to hear. This led to Jose searching for what he really wanted to hear.…
Jose Antonio Vargas has quickly become the face that has humanized the struggle for immigration reform. Unlike other immigrants, Jose is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Washington Post reporter, activist, and the founder of an immigration awareness campaign called ‘Define American’. Back in June of 2011, Vargas courageously revealed to…
By Ekaterina Powell, Esq. It’s been almost a year since the procedure for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver became effective. For all this time, USCIS has routinely denied cases where there was a reason to believe that the applicant may be subject to a ground of inadmissibility other than unlawful presence.…
Some recent guidelines have come out of USCIS regarding the processing of I-601A Provisional Waivers. New guidance has come to the consular officers related to the final rule permitting certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to apply to the USCIS for an I-601A Provisional Waiver of Unlawful Presence before leaving…
Recently there has been an increase in denials for the Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver based on the “Reason to Believe” standard that USCIS officers are implementing when adjudicating the case. To understand the importance of this new standard, there are a few facts to understand regarding the Provisional Hardship Waiver.…
Beginning today, March 4, certain immigrant visa applicants who are the spouses, children and parents of U.S. citizens (immediate relatives), and have been unlawfully present in the United States, can start applying for provisional unlawful presence waivers through a new process. The new provisional unlawful presence waiver process is for…