Visa Lawyer Blog

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I can’t remember so much controversy and anger over an immigration measure like the Arizona law passed in the past few days. The measure — set to take effect in late July or early August — would make it a crime under state law to be in the U.S. illegally. It directs state and local police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are illegal.

The anger over Arizona’s new law cracking down on illegal immigrants grew stronger today as opponents used refried beans to smear swastikas on the state Capitol, civil rights leaders demanded a boycott of the state, and the Obama administration weighed a possible legal challenge. Immigration lawyers in Arizona are also gearing up to defend clients and take on some new kind of cases.

Under the new Arizona law, immigrants unable to produce documents showing they are allowed to be in the U.S. could be arrested, jailed for up to six months and fined $2,500. That is a significant escalation of the typical federal punishment for being here illegally.

People arrested by Arizona police would be turned over to federal immigration officers. Opponents said the federal government could thwart the law by refusing to accept them.

Activists are planning a challenge of their own, hoping to block the law from taking effect by arguing that it encroaches on the federal government’s authority to regulate immigration and violates people’s constitutional rights by giving police too much power.

The White House would not rule out the possibility that the administration would take legal action against Arizona. President Barack Obama, who warned last week that the measure could lead to police abuses, asked the Justice Department to complete a review of the law’s implications before deciding how to proceed.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon said the law is discriminatory and warned that trade and political ties with Arizona will be seriously strained by the crackdown.

Yet Arizona Governor is living in her own bubble. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer today deflected concerns that the state’s new immigration law will hurt economic development, saying many businesses have long wanted tougher action.

“I believe it’s not going to have the kind of economic impact that some people think that it might,” Brewer, a Republican, said.

Not all Arizona residents are siding with this. Mr. Gordon, Phoenix’s mayor and a Democrat, said his office hopes the City Council will authorize the city to file a lawsuit Tuesday. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera urged policymakers in the city to stop dealing with Arizona and Arizona businesses. Leaders in Mexico and California also demanded a boycott, as did civil rights leader Al Sharpton. More opposition is expected both from inside and outside Arizona.

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As of April 15, 2010, approximately 13,600 H-1B cap-subject petitions had been filed. USCIS has approved 5,800 H-1B petitions for aliens with advanced degrees.

Many immigration lawyers are seeing a sharp decline in the interest in the H1B visa this year by potential employers and workers. Some are saying that the downturn in H1B applications this year could be as much as 60%. As a result of this decline, there are predictions that the quota will not be reached within the first few months of this year. Rather, many suspect that the bachelor’s quota won’t be reached until the middle of July, and that the master’s quota won’t be reached until later this June.

We shall see how the number will play out in the next few months.

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As many of our readers know, overstaying a visa can have a serious implications on ones ability to return to the US. The USCIS can record timely departure of a visitor by collecting the I-94 card upon exit.

An I-94 is a form denoting the Arrival-Departure Record of particular foreigners used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) uses Form I-94 also. Form I-94 must be completed at the time of entry to the United States by foreign citizens that are being admitted into the United States in a non-immigrant visa status.

But what if you did not turn in I-94 when you left the U.S., what should you do? US Customs provided some useful tips:

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We are posting the recent list of petitioners who received an approval in FY09 of Form I-129, requesting initial H-1B status for the beneficiary employee. Approximately 3,000 initial H-1B petitions are not accounted for on this list due to missing petitioner tax ID numbers.

While the full official final list of biggest H1B visa employers for FY2010 for the season has not been released, this preliminary list has been released for the Top employers this past US immigration year.

An H1B visa is a temporary working visa for professional positions, which allows foreign nationals to live and work in the U.S. for up to six years. This visa is an important tool for any employer to get the highly qualified technical expertise it needs to operate and grow its business.

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The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) strongly urges Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to veto a bill moving rapidly through the state legislature that would make it a crime to be an undocumented immigrant in the state.

In addition to the absurdity of aligning undocumented status with state trespassing, the law also validates racial profiling as a legitimate law enforcement tool which is precisely the reason why individuals and businesses around the country are beginning to seriously question whether Arizona is a safe place to visit, live, or do business.

The bill also creates a private right of action for any person to sue a city, town, or county for not enforcing immigration laws to the full extent of federal law and it establishes civil penalties for the city, town, or county. This subjects local governments to unreasonable and potentially frivolous litigation by private citizens with an anti-immigrant agenda. Even if a municipality is vindicated in court, it will still have to incur the costs of defense.

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Some 63,000 flights had been canceled in Europe by the end of Sunday, in the four days since the air space of northern Europe was shut down by an enormous ash cloud from an erupting volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland.

Passengers are scrambling to find alternative travel routes. German tourists are being bussed home from Spain, while the Royal Navy is sending military ships to Spain to bring home stranded Brits. Thousand of Europeans are also stuck in the US with no option to leave at this time. Many visitors are worried about the implications of not being able to leave before their current status expires.

Foreign nationals stranded in the U.S. because of the airport closures in Europe due to the Icelandic volcano eruption and who are about to exceed their authorized stay in the U.S. have two avenues for relief. If at an airport and traveling under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), they should contact the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office at the airport. They may also contact the local U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office. Both Department of Homeland Security agencies have provided their staff and offices with guidance on the applicable legal authorities under the VWP in circumstances such as this.

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The American Immigration Lawyers Association is a great organization, and I am proud to be an active member. We know that this is also important to our clients and future clients.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) will celebrate its 4th Annual Citizenship Day on Saturday, April 17 by helping more than 2,000 legal permanent residents apply to become US citizens. In partnership with the “ya es hora ¡Ciudadanía!” campaign, AILA will hold 43 naturalization clinics in 30 states serving more than 2000 immigrants who are preparing to become citizens.

s a single-day, nationwide event, AILA Citizenship Day provides free or low-cost assistance to eligible legal permanent residents who wish to apply for U.S. citizenship, utilizing partnerships between AILA chapters across the country and grassroots organizations such as the “ya es hora ¡Ciudadanía!” campaign. In 2010, AILA Citizenship Day will celebrate its 4th anniversary on a national scale and its second year with the campaign.

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This Update is from AILA Rome Chapter, very important information for HIV infected immigrants and family members.

This Post will attempt to lend clarity to the dynamic process by which HIV infection is being removed as a ground of inadmissibility under INA 212(a)(1). Although the date for final removal of HIV infection from the list of communicable diseases of public health significance is just a few weeks away, DHS and DOS are at very different stages in their attempts to align their respective regulations to this welcome new reality.

On July 2, 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register, announcing its intent to remove HIV infection from its list of communicable diseases of public health significance and inviting public comment on the issue. The Final Rule implementing this change was published on November 2, 2009; following a 60-day waiting period, the rule will become effective on January 4, 2010.

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American Immigration Lawyers Association on March 25, 2010 held their National Day of Action in an effort to bring about comprehensive immigration reform. The AILA National Day of Action is an annual event in which immigration lawyers from across the country meet in Washington DC for the purpose of speaking with members of Congress and their staff, gathering information about the legislative schedule, and urging that a comprehensive immigration bill be voted on before the November elections.

Congress was deeply divided and Democrats wanted to now focus their efforts on an issue with which they could find bipartisan support before the upcoming midterm elections. In this climate, the prospects of comprehensive immigration reform being brought before Congress in the near future looked slim. However, Congress was also feeling pressure from the other side. In addition to the health care protesters, 2000 members of the immigrant community had gathered that weekend to urge Congress to move forward with comprehensive immigration reform. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had announced that they would soon be proposing a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate but no firm details as to the specifics of the bill were known. Conventional wisdom is that Rep. Graham’s support for such legislation is conditioned on his ability to convince at least one other Republican in the Senate to sign on.

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A United States Permanent Resident Card, known informally as a green card (due to the color of some earlier variants), is an identification card attesting to the permanent resident status of an alien in the United States of America. Green card also refers to an immigration process of becoming a permanent resident.

The green card serves as proof that its holder, a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR), has been officially granted immigration benefits, which include permission to reside and take employment in the USA. The holder must maintain permanent resident status, and can be removed from the United States if certain conditions of this status are not met.

The DHS Office of Immigration Statistics issued its Annual Flow Report on U.S. Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) for FY 2009. In 2009, a total of 1,130,818 persons became LPRs of the U.S and obtained Green Cards. The majority of new LPRs (59 percent) already lived in the United States when they were granted lawful permanent residence. Nearly two-thirds were granted permanent resident status based on a family relationship with a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident of the United States. The leading countries of birth of new LPRs were Mexico (15 percent), China (6 percent), and the Philippines (5 percent).

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