Visa Lawyer Blog

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The Fourth of July is a truly special day and means a lot to most American citizens. bit for those that aspire to become American one day, this day means so much more. This is a great article posted on Huff Post today, read more.

When I was an illegal immigrant I celebrated Independence Day as if it were a spiritual holiday. In the charged rhetoric about Latino immigration our national conversation could benefit from re-imagining our unalienable rights. Our values and moral compass would be deepened by viewing the pursuit of life, liberty and justice through the lens of our mutual pursuit of inter-dependence.

The ideal and promise of equality is more than a holy grail. Our founding document galvanizes the aspirations and hopes of immigrants and new citizens. We believe in the promise. Like U.S. citizens, we do not wish for a promised land in some after-life. We expect to be full citizens, inter-dependent with Americans of every stripe in the present, rather than cheap shots for uncourageous hapless leaders.

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The share of U.S. small businesses owned by immigrants has expanded by 50 percent since 1990, with almost one-fifth of business owners born outside the country. The number of foreign-born business owners has increased in tandem with the immigrant workforce. Immigrants made up about 9 percent of workers in 1990 and 12 percent of business owners with fewer than 100 employees, according to the report, which analyzed U.S. Census data. In 2010, the foreign-born share of the workforce had grown to 16 percent, and immigrants made up 18 percent of small business owners.

According to the New York Times, Immigrant entrepreneurs are concentrated in professional and business services, retail, construction, educational and social services, and leisure and hospitality. They own restaurants, doctor’s offices, real-estate firms, groceries and truck-transportation services. More of them come from Mexico than any other country, followed by Indians, Koreans, Cubans, Chinese and Vietnamese. California has the highest percentage of immigrants among small-business owners at 33 percent, followed by New York (29 percent), New Jersey (28 percent), Florida (26 percent) and Hawaii (23 percent).

A new study from the Fiscal Policy Institut rousingly affirming the centrality of immigration in the American economy, the study exposes a fault line running through the Republican Party, which mythologizes small-business owners while treating immigrants with hostility bordering on fury. Something to think about.

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This issue of criminal offenses and who may be excluded because of this from the Deferred Action changes, is a subject of concern for many people. The American Immigration Council issued a Guide on the subject and you can see a discussion below on this subject.

Individuals are not eligible for deferred action if they have been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety. The FAQ issued by DHS provides important information regarding how these categories will be defined.

A “felony offense” includes any federal, state or local criminal offense punishable by imprisonment for more than one year. Thus, some state misdemeanor offenses may be characterized as felonies for purposes of the new memorandum.

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Recently we have seen many cases where Tourist Visa B2 extensions were denied by the Service. The rise in denials is concerning, but how can you increase your chances to get approved. Our very own Attorney Nadia Galash shares her experience in fighting B2 Tourist Visa denials.

Based on our experience working with responses to USCIS’s requests for additional evidence and motions to re-open/reconsider USCIS denials of requests for extensions on behalf of our clients, We can see that some factors are more important to prove to USCIS than others. Below is the overview of the requirements that any applicant should follow.

A B Visa visitor may apply for extensions of stay in six month increments. An extension of stay may not be approved if the extension was filed after the previously accorded status expired which may be excused at the discretion of USCIS. Extensions are not available to people who entered on visa waivers.

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Arguing against immigration policies that force foreign-born innovators to leave the United States, a new study to be released on Tuesday shows that immigrants played a role in more than three out of four patents at the nation’s top research universities.

Conducted by the Partnership for a New American Economy, a nonprofit group co-founded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, the study notes that nearly all the patents were in science, technology, engineering and math, the so-called STEM fields that are a crucial driver of job growth.

The report points out that while many of the world’s top foreign-born innovators are trained at United States universities, after graduation they face “daunting or insurmountable immigration hurdles that force them to leave and bring their talents elsewhere.”
The Partnership for a New American Economy released a paper in May saying that other nations were aggressively courting highly skilled citizens who had settled in the United States, urging them to return to their home countries. The partnership supports legislation that would make it easier for foreign-born STEM graduates and entrepreneurs to stay in the United States.

But some worry that the partnership’s ideas for immigration reform would undermine similarly skilled American workers while failing to address broader problems with immigration policy.

“No one is asking what is in their best interest, the American worker,” said Eric Ruark, director of research for the Federal for American Immigration Reform, an advocacy group that is pushing for reduced immigration. “It’s what is best for the employers. What is best for the foreign workers. It’s not as if the foreign workers aren’t skilled. What’s being ignored is we already have a domestic work force that has the same skills.”
The most recent study seeks to quantify the potential costs of immigration policies by reviewing 1,469 patents from the 10 universities and university systems that had obtained the most in 2011. The schools include the University of California system, Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Patents, the study maintains, are a gauge for a nation’s level of innovation and an important way for the United States to maintain an edge in STEM fields.

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These are major News!! The court struck down three portions of Arizona’s controversial immigration law on Monday, but allowed one of the key provisions to stand in a highly anticipated split decision.

The Supreme Court stated that Arizona overstepped its authority by creating state crimes targeting illegal immigrants. One provision made it a state crime for illegal immigrants who failed to carry registration papers and another created a crime for soliciting work. The third portion of the law struck down allowed state and local police to arrest illegal immigrants without a warrant in some cases.

The court did allow the main component of the law to stand. That requires state and local police to check the immigration status of people they’ve stopped or detained if a “reasonable suspicion” exists that they’re in the country illegally.

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We get a lot of inquiries from individuals interested in applying for green card through EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW) category. Attorney Ekaterina Powell from our office has prepared this summary of important considerations when filing EB-2 NIW application.

You may be eligible for an employment-based, second preference green card, if you are a member of the professions holding an advanced degree or its equivalent, or if you have exceptional ability. Normally, an employer must petition for its employees, and each EB-2 petition must be accompanied by an approved individual labor certification from the Department of Labor, which takes a lot of time and effort to obtain.

Instead of going through Labor Certification route, qualified applicants may submit National Interest Waiver request with their EB-2 petition without going through the Department of Labor stages. Qualified applicants may self-petition and do not need an employer to sponsor them for EB-2 category with National Interest Waiver.

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This information may be interesting to people and advocates who are planning on filing for benefits under this program in the near future (hopefully mid August), this is regarding a call we got from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) yesterday. It seems that ICE HQ in Washington are pre-selecting candidates for Deferred action, and are doing so nationwide.

The message from the ICE official was clear, your client was pre selected for Deferred Action under the new order and you will be contacted in the next few weeks with information on how to proceed. We have several clients with cases we managed to close before the Court (all for DREAMERS), and the clients will be eligible for this benefit. With all the confusion on how and when to file, it seems that the system is also working from within to create a list of clearly qualified applicants, I am curious to know if any other practitioners got the same call/contact?

So what do we do now? No one can file anything, but there are things applicants could do in the next few months.

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A memo was released recently through the National Foundation for American Policy which provided a revealing analysis in which data reveals high denial rates for L-1 and H-1b petitions submitted to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Analysis of new data obtained from USCIS reveals the agency has dramatically increased denials of L-1 and H-1B petitions over the past four years, harming the competitiveness of U.S. employers and encouraging companies to keep more jobs and resources outside the United States.

The high denial rates belie the notion adjudications have become more lenient. Employers report the time lost due to the increase in denials and Requests for Evidence are costing them millions of dollars in project delays and contract penalties, while aiding competitors that operate exclusively outside the United States – beyond the reach of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services adjudicators and U.S. consular officers. (The data in this report include only petitions at USCIS, not decisions made at consular posts.) Given the resources involved, employers are selective about who they sponsor. The high rate of denials (and Requests for Evidence) is from a pool of applicants selected by employers because they believe the foreign nationals meet the standard for approval, making the increase in denials difficult to defend. Denying employers the ability to transfer in key personnel or gain entry for a skilled professional or researcher harms innovation and job creation in the United States, encouraging employers to keep more resources outside the country to ensure predictability.

Among the findings contained in this NFAP analysis of official U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data:
– Denial rates for L-1B petitions filed with USCIS, which are used to transfer employees with “specialized knowledge” into the United States, rose from 7 percent in FY 2007 to 22 percent in FY 2008, despite no change in the law or relevant regulation. The denial rates stayed high for L-1B petitions at 26 percent in FY 2009, 22 percent in FY 2010 and 27 percent in FY 2011.1 In addition, 63 percent of L-1B petitions in FY 2011 were at least temporarily denied or delayed due to a Request for Evidence.

– Denial rates for H-1B petitions increased from 11 percent in FY 2007 to 29 percent in FY 2009, and remained higher than in the past for H-1Bs at 21 percent in FY 2010 and 17 percent in FY 2011.

– Denial rates for L-1A petitions increased from 8 percent in FY 2007 to 14 percent in FY 2011. L-1A visas are used to transfer executives and managers into the United States.

– The denial rates also increased for O-1A petitions, which are used for “individuals with an extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business, or athletics.”2 Denials for O-1A petitions rose from 4 percent in FY 2008, to 10 percent just one year later in FY 2009, increased again to 11 percent in FY 2010, and stood at 8 percent in FY 2011.

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The Pew Research Center survey and accompanying report says Asian-Americans now make up 5.8 percent of the nation’s population, up from less than 1 percent in 1965, when the modern immigration wave from Asia began.

Asians recently passed Hispanics as the largest group of new immigrants to the U.S. In 2010, 36 percent of new immigrants to the U.S. were Asian, up from 19 percent in 2000, according to Census figures.

The Pew report, titled “The Rise of Asian Americans,” finds that Asians are the highest-income and best-educated racial group in the U.S. Nearly half (49 percent) of Asian-American adults have a college degree, and they boast a median annual household income of $66,000 (versus the U.S. median of $49,800).

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