General

4 10, 2018

This Year’s Green Card Lottery (DV-2020) Begins

By |2020-05-01T16:08:13-05:00October 4th, 2018|Categories: DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), General, Green Cards, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., Visa Lottery and Diversity Visas to the U.S.|

Published October 4, 2018   Once again, millions of people from around the world will be vying for a chance to reside in the U.S. by way of an entry into the DV Visa Lottery.   For the upcoming fiscal year the DV-2020 Visa Lottery program makes available 50,000 “diversity” immigrant visas for certain qualified individuals from the vast majority of the world’s countries. Excluded from eligibility are natives of Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.  Persons born in Hong […]

23 08, 2018

Federal Court in Chicago Allows Pakistani Immigrant’s Involuntary Servitude Claim to Proceed

By |2018-08-23T09:30:15-05:00August 23rd, 2018|Categories: Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., General, Uncategorized, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

Published August 23, 2018   A U.S. District Court in Chicago ruled this week, in denying the defendant’s effort at dismissal, that an undocumented Pakistani’s involuntary servitude and forced labor lawsuit against his former employer, a gas station owner, can proceed.    The defendant’s former employer must now formally respond to and defend the lawsuit which alleges the gas station owner essentially enslaved the plaintiff worker, withheld his wages, kept his passport and issued regular threats of deportation. According to the lawsuit, in 2003 the plaintiff/worker, Munawar Ali, was offered employment at the defendant, Sohail Khan’s Illinois gas station, although Ali lacked […]

29 07, 2018

DHS Looks to Revoke U.S. Citizenship for Those Improperly Approved

By |2020-05-01T16:17:53-05:00July 29th, 2018|Categories: Citizenship / Naturalization and the N-400 Application, DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), General, Green Cards, Immigration and Criminal Law / Detainees, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings|

Published July 29, 2018   It is well known that a lawful permanent resident can be subjected to removal proceedings in the event they commit a deportable offense, or were improperly granted their residence in the first place due to some misrepresentation or fraud in their application.     Less well known or common are proceedings to revoke a foreign born individual’s naturalization as a U.S. citizen.   Examples of the rare cases of denaturalization that have gained wider attention over the years are those involving foreign nationals who concealed during U.S. immigration processing their involvement with Nazi war crimes during World War […]

17 05, 2018

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By |2018-05-17T11:07:19-05:00May 17th, 2018|Categories: General|

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7 05, 2018

Immigration Services That Seem Too Good To Be True

By |2020-05-01T16:40:43-05:00May 7th, 2018|Categories: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., General, Green Cards, immigration reform, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Uncategorized, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

Published May 7, 2018 The Office of the Illinois Attorney General recently filed civil lawsuits against 2 women representing themselves as providers of legitimate immigration services but who, according to the complaints, bilked victims out of thousands of dollars.  According to the lawsuits, the women made false promises to unsuspecting undocumented immigrants who thought they were paying for bona fide services that would lead to the legalization of their immigration status. In the first lawsuit, filed in Cook County, Illinois, the Illinois Attorney General charged Elizabeth Olvera, a volunteer and assistant life coach to members of the Chicago area’s Spanish-speaking community, […]

15 03, 2018

More DACA Drama

By |2020-05-01T16:54:21-05:00March 15th, 2018|Categories: Amnesty for Immigrants in the U.S., Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., General, immigration reform, Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation|

Published March 15, 2018 The processing of applications for employment authorization documents for hundreds of thousands of young adults under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama era executive initiative, was supposed to come to a halt by now.   But thanks to 2 separate, federal court rulings issued in recent weeks, the program has been given new life, albeit with a most uncertain future. DACA was put into action back in 2012, following Congress’ failure to agree on immigration reform legislation, including a law to establish a path to legalization for our nation’s 11 million undocumented individuals.   The […]

21 02, 2018

The Bad Lawyer and the Fake Lawyer

By |2020-05-01T16:57:14-05:00February 21st, 2018|Categories: DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), General, Immigration and Criminal Law / Detainees, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Uncategorized, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

Published February 21, 2018   In my 25+ years as an immigration lawyer, I have seen many versions of both the bad lawyer and the fake lawyer.    Each is poisonous in that they erode trust in the legal profession and in humankind in general – not to mention the brazen acts of robbery they commit as they carry out their scams.  In today’s political environment, where those vulnerable to deportation, or just having to access our immigration system, are more fearful than ever, the damage the bad or fake lawyer can do is immense.  Below are two recent examples, with one […]

7 02, 2018

The Forecast Calls For No Government Shut Down and No DACA

By |2018-02-07T12:09:00-06:00February 7th, 2018|Categories: Amnesty for Immigrants in the U.S., Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), General, immigration reform, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

Published February 7, 2018   As of Wednesday afternoon, the stars seem to have lined up for our nation to avert a government shutdown.   It appears a bipartisan consensus has been reached so that funding for our government operations can continue for the next two years.  The new budget features major increases in military and domestic spending, including for disaster relief programs for Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.     So far, the consensus is limited to the U.S. Senate.  However, the House of Representatives is also expected to join on, and if so, there is every reason to believe the President […]

9 01, 2018

The H-1B Visa Rush Is On – Start Preparing Now

By |2020-05-01T17:14:17-05:00January 9th, 2018|Categories: DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., Employment-Based Immigration Law, Foreign Exchange Student Visas to the U.S., General, Non-Immigrant Visas for Temporary Workers / H-1B, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Uncategorized|

Published January 9, 2018   Starting April 1, 2018, employers and their foreign worker employees will get a chance at one or more of the 85,000 H-1B visas available each fiscal year, with the new fiscal year starting on October 1, 2018.    The time to start preparing is now, as the supply of available visas is usually exhausted almost immediately, and with special attention and planning needed to combat the obstacles the Trump administration’s “Buy American, Hire American” initiative presents. For an employer or a prospective foreign worker to have a chance at one of these H-1B visas, the parties must […]

1 01, 2018

The Unknown Future of DACA

By |2020-05-01T17:17:45-05:00January 1st, 2018|Categories: Amnesty for Immigrants in the U.S., Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., General, immigration reform, Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

Published January 1, 2018   The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals measure implemented by President Obama has come to represent an issue bigger than just the undocumented young adults it protects and benefits.  Instead, it reflects on who we are as a nation and how we want to treat a population of individuals who arrived in the U.S. as children and through no choice of their own and who now have come to call the U.S. their home, their only home.  With President Trump’s decision to wind down DACA, confusion, panic and fear have set in for the 800,000 young adults […]

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