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Immigration law is important and that is all that we cover most of the time. But our immigrant readers, may be facing other legal challenges from time to time. So we rely on our lawyer friends from across the country, to provide guest articles and reports. This week we are proud to feature Attorney Sergei Lemberg’s Lemon Law expertise.

That new car smell is the best. The feeling of driving around in a new ride is sensational. But what happens when the experience sours and your new car starts smelling like a lemon? California’s lemon law gives you the right to take action – and turn your lemon into lemonade. Sergei Lemberg, an attorney specializing in lemon law, offers an overview of our lemon law, and tips to make sure you can take advantage of your California lemon law rights.

According to Sergei, California Lemon Law is one of the most comprehensive in the country, and covers new and leased vehicles bought for personal, family or household use. It also covers business vehicles under 10,000 pounds, providing that owner or business has no more than five vehicles registered in the state). In addition, the chassis, chassis cab, and propulsion parts of a motor home are covered, as are dealer-owned vehicles, demonstrators, and used vehicles sold with a manufacturer’s new car warranty. Motorcycles and used cars have some protections under the Song-Beverly Warranty Act, which is also includes the state’s Lemon Law.

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USCIS finally catch up with Technology. It is now possible to receive alerts to your mobile phone about USCIS Field Office closings. USCIS is posting the alerts using Twitter, an application that limits messages to 140 characters. Click here for more info

Stay tuned for Facebook and MySpace pages!!!

USCIS recently issued new guidance memo on Continuous Residence, Physical Presence, and Overseas Naturalization for a Spouse or Child of a Member of the Armed Forces per Amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act by the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008.

We link to this important Memo here. Download file

Stay tuned for more exciting developments from USCIS.

According to NPR, the answer is yes. They published results of a 10-year study involving more than 3,000 young men and women, most of them in their 20s.

The “second generation” project looked at five groups — Russians, Dominicans, South Americans, Chinese and West Indians — and compared them with U.S.-born whites, Puerto Ricans and African-Americans. Researchers found that most in the second generation were fluent in English and working in the mainstream economy.

Read more here…

We wanted to remind our readers that Operation “Scheduled Departure”, A pilot program allowing illegal immigrants to surrender to authorities to avoid jail and have 90 days to leave the country, end today. According to the USCIS this program can be classified as big failure. In San Diego only 4 people turned themselves in to take advantage of this program.

Let us all hope that this lack of success will result in more raids by ICE, and increased enforcement to find more illegal aliens living among us. Click here for the complete AP story

This recent final rule from the Department of State amends the Department of State’s regulations relating to the application for a nonimmigrant visa, to generally require all applicants, with certain exceptions, to provide a set of ten scanned fingerprints as part of the application process.

The scanning of ten fingerprints of nonimmigrant visa applicants has already been implemented. For the purposes of verifying and confirming identity, conducting background checks, and to ensure that an applicant has not received a visa or entered into the United States under a different name, the Department of State may use the fingerprints in order to ascertain from the appropriate authorities whether they have information pertinent to the applicant’s eligibility to receive a visa and for other purposes consistent with applicable law, regulations, and Department policy. Expect more lines at the airports for sure!!

USCIS announced that in support of the initiatives of the National Ombudsman of the U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announces adoption of a small business non-retaliation policy.

If a small business questions or lodges a complaint regarding a USCIS policy (for exanple the practices of ICE raids and hiring illegals or action or seeks help from others to deal with such a policy or action, USCIS will not retaliate against that small business in any fashion. The full policy is established by this notice.

Read the policy here Download file

Here is a true story that can happen from time to time. Client send his case to USCIS via DHL, the case never reaches USCIS as DHL loose the package. Client re files the case using FEDEX, and cancels the first check. Fedex package reaches USCIS and a case is created. A week later the first package is finally delivered, but the check is canceled. USCIS issue a request for the funds via a collection notice. What is a client to do? Pay the money first and later ask for a refund. Yes, that is the current policy.

But how do you actually ask for a refund from USCIS?

The memo from Acting Director Scharfen states that clarifications were made and the USCIS Adjudicator’s Field Manual was updated in March 2008. This update instructs applicants or petitioners either to make their requests by calling the USCIS customer service line or writing the office that has jurisdiction over the application or petition in question. If this request is approved, the USCIS (and not the applicant or petitioner) will complete the Request for Refund of Fee (Form G-266).

I know that the title of this posting sounds like a bad joke, but it is true. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will roll out “Operation Scheduled Departure,” a pilot program created to encourage people who have outstanding deportation orders to turn themselves in.

San Diego and four other U.S. cities will participate in the program, which is set to end Aug. 22. The other locations are Santa Ana; Chicago; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Charlotte, N.C.

What is the likelihood of wanted illegal immigrants to turn themselves in remains to be seen. I am very skeptical about all this. Currently, there are thousands of inmates sitting in immigration jails awaiting removal. These are non criminal individuals that overstayed their visas or legal entry status. Why do ICE officials keep them locked up awaiting removal, waisting tax payers money? I am really curious to see how this program will work in practice.

Some good news for the weekend as provided by AILA. On 7/31/08 and 8/1/08, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration held a mark-up session and approved the following three pieces of immigration-related legislation:

H.R. 6020, sponsored by Representative Lofgren (D-CA), would amend the INA to allow soldiers who have served in support of contingency operations to be eligible for naturalization and for other purposes. It passed by a vote of 6-3.

H.R. 5882, sponsored by Representative Lofgren (D-CA), would recapture employment-based and family-sponsored immigrant visas lost to bureaucratic delays and to prevent losses of these visas in the future. It passed by a vote of 8-1.