Visa Lawyer Blog

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The San Diego Union Tribune reports that San Diego County is set to participate in a new federal initiative that gives local law enforcement the ability to use fingerprints to check the immigration history and status of people who land in county jails. This is clearly a shift in the understanding that police officer are not immigration agents. But this will may well start to change.

The federally funded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program was announced this week by agency officials during the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference at the San Diego Convention Center.

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Today is Veterans day, and I wanted to send warm wards of support to our Veterans and the active duty men and women fighting for our country day and night.

As it relates to immigration, On July 3, 2002, President George W. Bush signed an Executive Order allowing certain noncitizens to become Naturalized citizens of the United States if they served an in an active-duty status during the war on terrorism. (See Expedited Naturalization of Aliens & Noncitizen Nationals Serving in an Active-Duty Status During the War on Terrorism, 67 Fed. Reg. 45287 (7/8/02), Executive Order (President). Download file

Additionally,as a Gulf War veteran, one may be eligible for expedited Naturalization under Immigration and Nationality Act section 329, Naturalization through Active-Duty Service in the Armed Forces during World War I, World War II, Korean Hostilities, Vietnam Hostilities, or in other Periods of Military Hostilities. For example, if one performed active duty military service during the Persian Gulf (August 2, 1990 – April 11, 1991) or on or after September 11, 2001, one may be eligible for expedited Naturalization.

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The American Immigration lawyers Association requested an update on USCIS plans to test and issue a combined EAD/Advance Parole (AP) document. AILA understands that USCIS believes a combined EAD/AP document may help further the agency’s goal of increased efficiency and workload reduction. The concern is that the use of such a document by certain individuals will make them subject to the three- and ten-year bars to inadmissibility under INA 212(a)(9)(B)(i)(I) and (II).

The current stand-alone AP document contains warnings on travel by those individuals who may trigger the bars upon departure from the United States. If USCIS moves forward with the issuance of a combined EAD/AP document we strongly urge USCIS to include such warnings on the new combined document. In addition to ensuring that the appropriate warnings are included on any combined EAD/AP document, please find the following additional questions from AILA:

Would an applicant be able to affirmatively request or to opt-out of a combined document and retain the ability to request a stand-alone EAD and AP?

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According to the San Diego Union Tribune, although economic concerns reduced immigration to nearly a nonissue by the time the presidential campaign drew to a close, political experts believe it was largely responsible for the record turnout of Latino voters Tuesday, 66 percent of whom supported Barack Obama.

According to national exit poll results analyzed by the Pew Hispanic Center, only 32 percent of Latinos voted for Republican candidate John McCain, in spite of the Arizona senator’s track record as a proponent of immigrant-friendly reforms. That total represents a significant drop from what George W. Bush amassed in 2004. Bush received between 40 percent and 44 percent of the Latino vote that year and 35 percent in 2000.

But the heated immigration debate that dominated headlines two years ago, when hundreds of thousands marched in San Diego and other cities demanding reforms, may have been the catalyst that sent Latinos to the polls.

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An excellent article by Patrick Thibodeau from ComputerWorld, touches the issue of possible H1B visa Green Card increase by President Obama. While his position on immigration is not entirely clear, Obama is smart enough to link the US prosperity with a major Immigration reform.

President-Elect Barack Obama has supported the H-1B visa program and wants to make changes to green cards that would help tech firms. There wasn’t much said about this issue during the presidential campaign, especially after Wall Street collapsed. It also never came up in the debates between Obama and Republican John McCain. Now we’re in a recession and unemployment is rising. Can Obama push ahead on tech-related immigration issues at this time? He might, and in this FAQ, here’s an explanation of how that might happen.

Some tech lobbyists believe that increases in H-1B visas and green cards won’t happen as long as U.S. companies are cutting jobs. But that will mean the debate will shift as well. “What do we need to do to ensure that we can grow our way out of this [downturn], innovate our way out this? You can’t have that discussion without talking about immigration,” said Robert Hoffman, vice president of congressional and legislative affairs at Oracle Corp., and co-chairman of Compete America, a lobbying group that supports raising the H-1B visa cap.

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This is a very important update for all our I- 601 waiver clients and readers of this Blog that follow this area of law. As noted in other postings regarding the move of the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez to its new facility this month, the USCIS overseas office in Juarez will also be moving.

The USCIS office will be located in the consular compound, rather than in an off-site location. Thus, November 5, 2008, is the last fully operational day for the office before the move. The office will be closed November 6 through November 11. There will be no communication via telephone, e-mail, or fax during the relocation from November 6 through November 12, and the office will be providing only emergency services.

The USCIS office will start accepting a limited number of 601 waiver applications again on November 12, 2008, as the consulate reopens. The schedule is to start with approximately 20 waiver cases on November 12, and then ramp up to the normal 100 per day on November 17.

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On 11/3/08 DHS announced that Secretary Chertoff signed a Visa Waiver Program (VWP) declaration with Romanian Ambassador Adrian Vierita. The declaration outlines security measures required for Romania’s possible designation as a VWP member.

Visa Waiver Program (VWP) is a program of the United States of America which allows citizens of specific countries to travel to the US for tourism or business for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa. All countries participating in the program are high-income economies with a high HDI and most are regarded as developed countries. This will be a big step for Romania if accepted into the program.

Read the press release

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Sen. Barack Obama didn’t know his aunt might be living illegally in the United States, as media outlets are reporting, and his campaign will return contributions she made, an aide said Saturday.

According to The Associated Press, a court refused four years ago to accept the asylum application of Zeituni Onyango, 56, the half-sister of Obama’s Kenyan father. However, she has continued to live in a public housing complex in South Boston, AP reported.

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The former CEO of Agriprocessors Inc., was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents Thursday and charged with criminal violations of immigration law. The charges were announced by U.S. Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth, Northern District of Iowa.

The complaint alleges that the week before a May 12, 2008, ICE enforcement operation at

Agriprocessors in Postville, Rubashkin – then the CEO of Agriprocessors – loaned $4,500 in $100

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