Visa Lawyer Blog

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Enforcement, Enforcement and more Enforcement is the message from the Government. Special agents executed federal criminal search warrants here yesterday at two area Chinese restaurants and two homes linked to the businesses’ owners as part of an ongoing ICE investigation into possible hiring and alien harboring violations.

The restaurants targeted during the operation were the King’s Buffet in Vacaville, Calif., and the

Empire Buffet in Vallejo, Calif. A second outlet of the Empire Buffet in San Pablo, Calif., is also under scrutiny in the probe, but it was not searched yesterday. In addition to executing four search warrants, agents conducted a consensual search at a fifth location, a home in Hercules, Calif.Besides gathering evidence related to the criminal case, ICE agents arrested 21 illegal alien workers on administrative immigration violations who were encountered at the search locations.

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In the few weeks before the October bulletin was issued, readers and clients were speculating that the EB3 category will become current in October. We now know this is not true, yet there are some positive changes in this bulletin. Section D addresses Mexican F-2A visa availability and Section E addresses October Employment cut-off dates, which are earlier than those which applied during FY-2008. Little forward movement is expected in EB priority dates until the backlog of old priority dates can be determined. We will keep you posted.

Click here for the most recent bulletin

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The Wall Street Journal reports today about a subject that often gets less exposure on the 2008 campaign trail: Immigration. What is interesting about this speech is that Obama finally talked about Immigration reform directly. This is interesting as the issue of comprehensive immigration reform seem to have lost momentum. He said:

“This election is about the 12 million people living in the shadows, the communities taking immigration enforcement into their own hand. They are counting on us to stop the hateful rhetoric filling our airwaves, and rise above the fear, and rise above the demagoguery, and finally enact comprehensive immigration reform.”

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I think it’s time for a president who won’t walk away from comprehensive immigration reform when it becomes politically unpopular

As we are moving closer to the election, the candidates must realize that Immigration is right up there with the economy and the war in Iraq. Did you get this Palin?

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The recent raids on employers all across the country, and mostly the fate of illegal workers and their families caught in between, got us all talking about illegal immigration. A recent posting on NPR caught my attention as well.

Gloria Hillard reported on “The New Sanctuary Movement”, a faith based coalition offering aid and at times sanctuary to illegal immigrants. Activists on both sides of the immigration debate including an anti-immigration organization called, “Save Our State”, have been drawn to a small of church north of Los Angeles where an illegal immigrant facing deportation has been sheltered for more than a year.

Read the full NPR report here, I have a feeling this debate will get more emotional in the next few months.

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From time to time we feature guest writers on this Blog. This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of the criminal justice schools. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com.

Every year, thousands of children are being adopted from other countries by citizens of the USA. The law of the land allows married couples and single individuals who are above the age of 25 and who can prove that they are able to support a child (through the home study) to adopt children from foreign nations. When you bring back your child to the United States, he/she needs a visa to be allowed into the country.

The Consular Office of the Department of State allocates a visa after conducting an I-604 investigation which verifies that the child you’re going to adopt is an orphan (as defined by the laws that govern US adoption) and that he/she does not suffer from a medical condition that you do not know about. Once the investigation is done, there are two kinds of visas that are offered for internationally adopted children:
• The IR-3 Visa: The Immediate Relative category 3 visa is given to children who are adopted by couples or individuals who have seen and interacted with the children before the adoption and if the adoption is completed according to the laws of the country the child belongs to. These children are made citizens of the United States as soon as they arrive on US soil. Parents do not have to register for citizenship and the necessary documents are sent to the child within 45 days of their arrival in the United States. While there is no need to perform a re-adoption process in the USA according to federal laws, some states do require that you carry out the procedure again on US soil.

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Why do we have such a major immigrant visa backlog? According to the Immigration policy center each year, the Department of Homeland Security fails to issue all of the “green cards” allocated for that year. Under current law, the visa numbers do not “roll over” to the next year and the unused visas are lost. Unused or lost visa numbers result in longer delays for US citizens or legal residents to reunite with a close family member or in a delay for a US business to get a needed worker.

H.R. 5882 is a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by House Immigration Subcommittee Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). This modest piece of legislation would simply permit the “recapture” or use of visas that have gone unused in past years due to bureaucratic delays. The visas would be issued to qualified family-based or employment-based legal immigrants.

Read more here

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Several months ago, I consulted with a prospect that got the round around from the LA passport office. They kept sending her application back because her birth certificate was not good enough for them. I thought it was an isolated matter, but today the Washington Post reported on the problem nationwide.

It seems that the State Department is denying passports to people born in southern Texas near the border with Mexico if they were delivered by midwives, citing a history of birth certificate forgeries there for Mexican-born children dating to the 1960s, according to U.S. officials.

The civil liberties group is seeking class-action status on behalf of tens of thousands of Mexican Americans of all ages delivered by midwives in border states, alleging violations of constitutional due process and equal protection guarantees.

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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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Most of our readers are aware that any adjustment of status in a family based petition can not be approved if the relationship is no longer viable. Yet there are certain exceptions from time to time. On August 12, 2008, in Choin v. Mukasey, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to consider Ms. Choin’s Form I-485 Application for Adjustment of Status based upon marriage, even though she was no longer married to her U.S.-citizen husband.

The Court found an exception to this for spouses who enter the U.S. on the K-1 fiancé/e visa. This interpretation is limited to a K-1 fiancé/e of a U.S. citizen. There is a specific section of law that addresses the adjustment of status of K-1s and it is the wording of that section that led to the conclusion reached by the Court.

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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!!!