Published: January 13, 2011 On October 28, 2009, President Obama signed into law important immigration provisions to address the unjust consequences of slow Citizenship and Immigration Services processing, particularly relating to widows and widowers of U.S. citizens. The law also includes ameliorative provisions relating to other types of family... Read more →
Published: December 20, 2010 As most people have come to learn by now, the DREAM Act – the legislative initiative to allow for the legalization of 1 million or so undocumented individuals who came to the U.S. as children – has been shot down by Congress. The very same Republican force that gave birth to [...] Read more →
Published: December 1, 2010 If past experience is any guide to the future, the new and “improved” DREAM Act proposal now up for congressional consideration has little or no chance at passage. As the post 9/11 era has taught us, legislative proposals to excuse, in any way, immigration law violations generally face the bleakest of [...] Read more →
Published:November 17, 2010 Effective November 23, 2010, filing fees for most immigration applications and petitions are set to increase, on average, some 10-15%. On the other hand, filing fees for 6 categories of applications are actually set to be reduced, including for I-129F/Petition for Fiance, I-539/Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant... Read more →
Published: October 27, 2010 As of this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Citizenship and Immigration Services began issuing a new version of the Certificate of Naturalization for newly naturalized immigrants. The new document resembles the previous version, except that certain high tech security features have been added. Prospective... Read more →
Careful, Homeland Security May Want to “Friend” You Published: October 20, 2010 In recent years, government officials have increasingly been turning to high technology to gather information to assess marital relationships that are the basis of immigration filings, such as for green cards or expedited citizenship. From credit reports to utility... Read more →
Litigation and the Undocumented Published: October 14, 2010 An important question that gets asked from time to time: Can an individual residing in the U.S. without legal immigration status access a federal or state civil court to recover damages for a contract breach, personal injury, or to facilitate a divorce? To the surprise of many, [...] Read more →
The Green Card Lottery (DV-2012) Published: October 5, 2010 As in years past, millions of people from all over world will submit entries to have a chance at one of 50,000 diversity immigrant visas and obtain “green card” status in the US. Like last year, excluded from eligibility are natives of Brazil, Canada, China (mainland [...] Read more →
The Strange World of Politics and the Killing of the “Dream Act” Published: September 22, 2010 For about the past 10 years a legislative proposal known as the DREAM Act – standing for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors – has been under consideration at various times by lawmakers in Washington. Essentially, the bill... Read more →