Citing the Defense of Marriage Act, the Obama administration denied immigration benefits to a married gay couple from San Francisco and ordered the expulsion of a man who is the primary caregiver to his AIDS-afflicted spouse. Bradford Wells, a U.S. citizen, and Anthony John Makk, a citizen of Australia, were…
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed two immigration bills before members left for their summer recess. The first bill, H.R. 398, was sponsored by House Immigration Subcommittee Ranking Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and would amend the law that stipulates a 90-day period during which time an alien and…
State lawmakers considered a record number of immigration-related bills this year, highlighting their continued frustration with federal government inaction on immigration laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. A total of 1,592 bills were introduced in all 50 states and Puerto Rico in the 2011 legislative session that…
Recently, USCIS published new guidelines for the Employment Based Second Preference (EB-2) Immigrant Visa Category. In particular the new guidelines outline how Entrepreneurs can apply under the National Interest Waiver under this visa category. An Entrepreneur qualifies under this category in two ways, as a person holding an advanced degree,…
USCIS updated the Q & A document on employer-employee relationships for the purpose of determining H-1B eligibility. This updated Q & A follows from the memo entitled, “Determining Employer-Employee Relationship for Adjudication of H-1B Petitions, Including Third-Party Site Placements. The updated Q & A document addresses several key points of…
USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas discusses on the official USCIS blog, The Beacon, how current immigration policies will spur job growth and bolster the U.S. economy. The United States has a long, rich history of welcoming innovative entrepreneurs and skilled workers into our country. These men and women fuel our nation’s…
A couple weeks ago, Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois who has become a perennial thorn on immigration for President Obama, was arrested Tuesday afternoon along with about a dozen activists in a protest outside the White House. The protesters were arrested peacefully after they sat down on…
Here we go again. A federal grand jury has indicted a former Sacramento immigration consultant and 13 other individuals alleging they participated in an elaborate immigration fraud scheme in which foreign nationals from Eastern Europe and Russia paid to enter into sham marriages with locally recruited U.S. citizens. For foreign…
Attorney Ekaterina Powell from our office has prepared this article about the recently approved I-601 waiver case handled by our law firm. Our client in this case, John, got married to his U.S. citizen wife, Mary, in San Diego, California. They started the application process for adjustment of status. At…
The California DREAM Act is now law after Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 130 on Monday afternoon, but undocumented immigrant students’ say their fight for financial aid access is far from over in the state. The most important portion of the California DREAM Act has yet to pass, activists say.…