Visa Lawyer Blog

by

When same-sex marriage became a reality in some countries, the state of Massachusetts, and for a short period of time in California, the big question for many was whether a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident who married a person of the same sex would be deemed to be legally married in the United States for federal immigration law purposes.

The question arose as to whether a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident would be able to marry in one of these jurisdictions and thereby petition the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to have his or her spouse immigrate as an alien relative. The answer to this question at present is “no”.

If federal courts are given the opportunity to rule on a challenge to a denial of an I-130 petition submitted by a same-sex couple, they may do little more than cite the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). DOMA provides in part, that a marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman for all federal law purposes. At present the U.S. government is under no legal obligation to give effect to a foreign marriage between persons of the same sex.

Continue reading

by

We had quite a few inquiries this past week about K visas. Clients often mix the different K categories. Here is a brief summary for our confused readers.

On December 21, 2000, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Legal Immigration Family Equity Act (LIFE Act). The Life Act made K status available to spouses and children who are the beneficiaries of pending or approved Form I-130 immigrant relative petitions.

Subsequently, the Life Act was amended, thereby expanding the K category to include spouses and spouses’ children of U.S. citizens who are waiting outside the United States after filing of an immigrant relative petition. The spouses of U.S. citizens under K status are now classified as “K-3”, and the children of such spouses as “K-4”. The K-3 and K-4 visas have specific requirements for filing due to the different nature of the petitions.

Continue reading

by

USCIS has updated the H1B cap count. As of September 25, 2009, the regular Cap count is 46,700. The advanced-degree cap remains at 20,000.

Since neither cap has been reached at the time of this writing, the USCIS will continue to accept FY2010 H1B cases under the advanced-degree and regular caps.

Hence, employers can still apply for H-1B petitions. However, we caution that even if the cap is open still getting an approval is a hard nut to crack. Please make sure following while applying for fresh H-1B Petitions:

Continue reading

by

The U.S. State Department has officially released information about this year’s DV-2011 green card lottery, which begins on October 2, 2009. Don’t wait too long and sign on the registration process by reading through this year’s instructions. For those of you who were curious, the DV-2011 list of ineligible countries remains the same as last year:

* Brazil

* Canada

Continue reading

by

From time to time we update our local readers about procedures affecting cases here in San Diego. This is from our local AILA liason meeting update. These procedures may apply in other states as well.

1. INFOPASS appointments for paying filing fees and fingerprint re-scheduling.

USCIS prefers that customers make INFOPASS appointments to visit USCIS offices to schedule re-fingerprinting or to pay fees and file applications. USCIS will accommodate someone without an appointment if there is an emergency such as a deadline for the filing of a motion to reopen or re-consider with the immigration court. A guard in Chula Vista will speak with a USCIS officer to allow you in the building to consider your emergency requet. USCIS points out that same-day INFOPASS appointments are usually available for the San Diego office to re-schedule biometrics. Biometrics can also be re-scheduled by mail. Note that filing fees can only be paid at the Chula Vista office.

Continue reading

by

The State Department has advised AILA liaison that due to the large number of approvals issued in the past few weeks, employment-based visa numbers are no longer available for this fiscal year that concludes on September 30, 2009. This affects all categories of employment based immigrant visas. Numbers will become available again on October 1, 2009, as stated in the October 2009 Department of State Visa (DOS) Bulletin.

USCIS will continue to accept I-485 applications in categories showing visa availability based on the September Visa Bulletin, USCIS will not able to approve pending I-485 applications unless a visa number was previously captured. Where a USCIS officer adjudicated or pre-adjudicated a case and it was in the DOS “pending” queue and DOS has sent the electronic notification allocating a number to the Service Center, USCIS should issue the approval.

For those consular processing, because visa numbers for scheduled cases have already been allocated as part of the scheduling process, scheduled immigrant visa appointments at consulates for September will continue and immigrant visas may be issued.

Continue reading

by

Ever since the President was elected, the hope for Immigration reform was on the rise. In fact, we were all hoping for something to happen by the end of this year. Now we know this is not going to happen.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. from the San Diego Union Tribune wrote an excellent piece today about this issue.

President Obama has placed the immigration reform community at the back of the bus.

Continue reading

by

The Cap seem to be moving slowly in the past few months, but something is different with the release of the new count this week.

As of September 18, 2009, approximately 46,000 H-1B cap-subject petitions and approximately 20,000 petitions qualifying for the advanced degree cap exemption had been filed. It seems that some employers are hiring again and willing to file for H1B visas for specialty workers. This is a good sign, but this also means that visas may run out sooner than expected.

USCIS will continue to accept both cap-subject petitions and advanced degree petitions until a sufficient number of H-1B petitions have been received to reach the statutory limits, taking into account the fact that some of these petitions may be denied, revoked, or withdrawn.

by

Since the last fee hike in 2007, it was only a question of time until discussion about more Immigration fee increase will be a hot topic. U.S. immigration officials are considering another possible round of fee increases and budget cuts next year, prompting concern among immigrant rights groups.

The agency is facing a $118-million revenue shortfall this year in part because applications for citizenship and skilled worker visas are below projections, according to officials. Citizenship applications plunged to 58,000 last year from 254,000 the previous year in the Southern California district. Most experts blame the decline on a fee increase of 69% to $675 in 2007.

Immigrant advocates said, that any additional fee increase would severely hamper legal immigrants from pursuing citizenship. “Right now the high cost of citizenship is putting the dream of naturalization out of reach of low- and moderate-income legal permanent residents, and any future increase will just make the situation worse,” said Rosalind Gold of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund in Los Angeles.

Continue reading

by

Most Immigration Lawyers that care for their work are tired of Mr. Dobbs. Mr. Leopold from AILA posted a valid statement about Dobbs’ campagin of Hate:

CNN has a journalistic obligation to dump Lou Dobbs and his campaign of hate against immigrants.

It is unthinkable that a major network would permit someone to build a career based on fear and hatred of human beings. Why the double standard when it comes to immigrants?

Continue reading