Visa Lawyer Blog

Articles Posted in Immigrant Visas

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On Saturday, September 6th, the White House announced that the President would be holding off on taking executive action, to bring about immigration reform, until after November elections. Although president Obama announced that he would take executive action in June, mounting pressure from Senate Democrats prompted president Obama to abandon ship on such promises until later this year. Democrats fighting for a seat in the Senate had been fearful that if President Obama would act on the promise he had made earlier this summer, they would lose their re-election bids, and overall bargaining power in the House and Senate. White House officials expressed that if the president were to act on such a promise, before the November elections; the decision might jeopardize the sustainability of the policy and might have negative repercussions on comprehensive immigration reform as a whole. While some have considered President Obama’s move to be strategic, others have seen the decision as another empty promise and failed attempt by the Obama administration to bring about comprehensive immigration reform. In a recent interview with NBC, president Obama reiterated that he would act on immigration reform, because he feels it is the right thing. According to him however, it would be most effective to act if the public understands the facts on immigration. According to white house officials, after November elections, the pressure to act on immigration reform would take on a whole new meaning. The house and senate would be re-energized and the topic would no longer be as politicized. Within this frame of mind, Republicans and Democrats alike could maximize the odds of bringing about immigration reform by coming together with integrity on the issue, rather than at each other’s throats prior to the elections. For further updates, please continue to visit our blog. 

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What is the purpose of filing an I-751 Petition for Removal of Conditions?

If you were granted conditional residence based on your marriage to a U.S. Citizen or legal permanent resident, you must file the I-751 Petition to Remove Conditions on your Permanent Resident Card. This form allows the conditional resident to request USCIS to remove the conditions on their residence. For conditional residents who are still married, the petition must be filed jointly with your spouse through with you gained your conditional residence.

But what happens when the marriage ends in divorce, annulment, or other factors?

The conditional resident can request for waiver of the joint filing requirement IF any of the following applies:

  1. You entered the marriage in good faith but your spouse died
  2. You entered the marriage in good faith, but the marriage was later terminated through divorce or annulment
  3. You entered the marriage in good faith, but were battered or the victim of ‘extreme cruelty’ by the spouse with whom you gained conditional residence
  4. Your conditional resident parent entered the marriage in good faith, but you have been battered or the victim of ‘extreme cruelty’ by your parent’s U.S. Citizen or permanent resident spouse or by your conditional resident parent or
  5. The termination of your conditional resident status and removal would result in extreme hardship 

For the purposes of this segment, we will focus on what must be proven when a conditional resident’s marriage ends in divorce or annulment.

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By Marie Puertollano, Esq.

When an immigrant gets married with a U.S citizen, the immigrant can obtain a green card either through consular processing, if the immigrant is outside the United States, or through adjustment of status within the United States, if the immigrant entered with a visa and is present in the United States. This article will focus on the interview that will be the last step of the adjustment of status and will take place at a USCIS field office within the United States.

Why are we interviewed?

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On August 23rd the Chief of the Department of State’s Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division, Charles Oppenheim, made an important announcement regarding significant changes made to the EB-5 preference category. Oppenheim announced that for the first time since the creation of the EB-5 category, the EB-5 preference category would become unavailable to Chinese applicants for the 2014 fiscal years.

What does it mean for the EB-5 preference category to become unavailable? 

What the department means is that, the maximum number of EB-5 immigrant visas available to Chinese applicants for the fiscal year of 2014 have already been issued. Thus, there are no longer any available EB-5 immigrant visas for the 2014 fiscal year.

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You are a H-1B visa holder from a country with a backlogged employment based category and you are currently living and working in the United States. You have applied for permanent residence through your employer. You have been working for the same employer for years and have extensive experience in your field. Despite all of these factors, you are still waiting in line for your priority date to become current, and what’s more, your spouse has not been eligible to apply for their employment authorization due to the restrictions on their visa. What, if anything, can be done to receive your permanent resident card sooner?

Thousands of immigrants are in the same hypothetical situation. Comprehensive Immigration Reform is necessary not just for undocumented immigrants living in the United States, but also for such specialty workers who regularly contribute to our economy and society, but are stuck in limbo awaiting their permanent residency. Comprehensive immigration reform is also necessary because specialty occupation workers often run out of their H-1B status while they are in line for their priority date to become current. If the specialty occupation worker is married, chances are their spouse has not had the opportunity or privilege to legally obtain employment while the primary applicant has been in line waiting to adjust their status. Many immigrants who have found themselves in similar situations fear international travel due to the risk they may run in not being able to return to the United States.

Bypassing the Quota System

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Want to track the status of a pending case? Moving to a new address? Want to report a problem with your case? No problem!

Our loyal fans and followers, who communicate with us through our various social networking sites and web page, often ask our law office how they can track or check the status of their pending case, how they can change their address with USCIS while their case is pending, and how they can report a problem with their case. These are all very important questions. It is imperative that all applicants who have pending cases with USCIS regularly check the status of their case both online and by calling USCIS. There are several ways to communicate with USCIS. You can check the status of your pending case online, submit a service request online, schedule an Infopass online, and submit a change of address online.  For time sensitive issues, applicants should check the status of their pending case or report a problem with their pending case by calling USCIS directly by phone. In this post we will walk you through the steps of how to communicate with USCIS via all of these methods.

How to check the status of a case online:

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USCIS recently announced new policy changes regarding Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record. Starting June 1, 2014, USCIS has limited the validity period for all Forms I-693 to one year from the date that USCIS receives the form. This updated policy applies to any Form I-693 supporting a benefit application that USCIS adjudicates on or after June 1, 2014.

If you are applying for adjustment of status, you may submit Form I-693 in one of the following ways:

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By Marie Puertollano, Esq. 

Form 1-131 Application for Travel Document is the form you must file with immigration when requesting a travel authorization from USCIS. This Application for Travel Document can be requested in various situations for the purposes of obtaining a reentry permit or advance parole.

One of the most common Form I-131 application’s we file within our practice, is the advance parole for an applicant who has a pending I-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status application for a green card. While awaiting a decision from USCIS about the green card application, the applicant CANNOT leave the United States without a travel authorization issued by USCIS, or the application will be considered abandoned.  Given that many applicants need to travel while their green card application is pending, we submit an I-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status application along with Form I-131 Application for Travel Document to request an advance parole which will allow the green card applicant to travel once it is issued by USCIS, approximately 60-90 days after being filed. The applicant need not pay any fees for the I-131 Application for Travel Document, if it was submitted with an I-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, to obtain a green card.

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By Yingfei Zhou, Esq.

Today, June 09, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that children who waited for years with their parents to obtain immigrant visas still have to go to the back of the line when they turn 21.

BACKGROUND: The case, Mayorkas v Cuellar de Osorio, began as two separate suits, one joining many individual plaintiffs, and the other certified as class action.  One of the respondents involved in this case is a Salvadoran family-sponsored immigrant who was in line for a visa along with her 13-year-old son.  But after years of waiting, her son turned 21 and government officials said he no longer qualified as an eligible child.  The aged-out son was then placed at the back of the line, resulting in a wait of several more years.

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