FacebookXYouTube

Green Cards

8 02, 2020

The New Public Charge Rule

By |2020-11-14T12:48:28-06:00February 8th, 2020|Categories: Conditional Permanent Residence Based on Marriage, DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Employment-Based Immigration Law, Family-Based Immigration Law, Green Cards, Immigrant Visas for Spouse / Fiancee / Child Visas, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., Non-Immigrant Visas for Temporary Workers / H-1B, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation|

Published February 8, 2020 By: Richard Hanus, Esq. With the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent green light, U.S. immigration authorities have announced it will start applying new “public charge” restrictions on February 24, 2020.  The new set of public charge rules expand the discretionary authority of agency officials to deny green card applications and allow for more factors to be considered in determining whether an applicant is likely to be become dependent on welfare benefits and thus have their application denied. The new set of restrictions were initially set to be implemented on October 15, 2019 but various lawsuits and federal court [...]

Read More
16 01, 2020

California Immigration Lawyer Goes to Prison

By |2020-11-14T12:49:12-06:00January 16th, 2020|Categories: DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., Family-Based Immigration Law, Green Cards, Immigration and Criminal Law / Detainees, Immigration and PERM / Labor Certification, Non-Immigrant Visas for Temporary Workers / H-1B|

Published January 16, 2020 By: Richard Hanus, Esq. A California immigration lawyer was recently sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay back taxes for her participation in an extensive and highly profitable visa fraud scheme. The scheme involved the preparation and filing of hundreds of fraudulent work visa applications and failure to pay income tax over a 17 year period.  Mihae Park, a 54 year old attorney practicing in Laguna Beach, is due to return to court in the coming month to learn the amount of restitution she will be required to pay. From 2000 to 2017, [...]

Read More
8 12, 2019

Trump Administration Seeking Massive Increases in Immigration Filing Fees

By |2020-05-01T13:56:14-05:00December 8th, 2019|Categories: Citizenship / Naturalization and the N-400 Application, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., Employment-Based Immigration Law, Family-Based Immigration Law, Green Cards, Immigrant Visas for Spouse / Fiancee / Child Visas, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S.|

Published December 8, 2019 Many prospective applicants for immigration related benefits are looking to stay a step ahead and submit their filings before a massive increase in application fees may be taking effect in coming months. More specifically, an increase in filing fees has been proposed for a wide array of applications submitted for consideration by U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services or “USCIS” (DHS’ immigration benefits division), including N-400 Application for Naturalization as well as for continued protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. According to Acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli, increases are required [...]

Read More
29 10, 2019

Federal Court Injunctions Put a Halt to New Public Charge Rules

By |2020-05-01T14:05:24-05:00October 29th, 2019|Categories: Conditional Permanent Residence Based on Marriage, DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Family-Based Immigration Law, Green Cards, Immigrant Visas for Spouse / Fiancee / Child Visas|

Published October 29, 2019 Conversations involving the hot topics of public benefits and immigration have turned scary these days.  That is because these are two of the biggest go-to issues for the Trump administration when it comes to political messaging and rousing up supporters.  However, in just the past week 5 federal judges, presiding over 5 separate legal challenges, have ruled against the Trump administration.  The rulings put a halt to the Administration’s initiative to greatly expand upon bases to deny green cards to prospective applicants due to suspicions they may become a public charge. To be sure, concerns about new [...]

Read More
22 09, 2019

Appeals Filing Fee May Skyrocket; Processing Times for Chicago Area Applicants

By |2020-05-01T14:13:41-05:00September 22nd, 2019|Categories: Citizenship / Naturalization and the N-400 Application, Conditional Permanent Residence Based on Marriage, DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., Employment-Based Immigration Law, Family-Based Immigration Law, Green Cards, Immigrant Visas for Spouse / Fiancee / Child Visas, Immigration and Criminal Law / Detainees, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings|

Published September 22, 2019   Administration Aims to Dramatically Increase Filing Fees for Appeals In an effort that will effectively deter appeals of certain immigration decisions within the deportation court system, the Trump administration is reportedly advancing a regulation to dramatically increase the filing fees associated with such appeals. The regulatory proposal being considered would increase the current filing fee of $110.00 by 900% to a total of $975.00 in most cases. If imposed, the new filing fee will create a severe financial obstacle for a significant portion of the impacted population, a mostly vulnerable population seeking to advance their right [...]

Read More
31 08, 2019

The New, Sharper Teeth of Existing Public Charge Provisions

By |2020-05-01T14:18:49-05:00August 31st, 2019|Categories: DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Family-Based Immigration Law, Green Cards, Immigrant Visas for Spouse / Fiancee / Child Visas, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S., United States Embassies Abroad|

Published August 31, 2019 Concerns about new immigrants becoming a “public charge” and dependent on U.S. government resources, have pretty much always been a part of our immigration related legal landscape.  Form I-864 Affidavit of Support – a document required for the final stages of nearly all family based immigration filings - is the most well known representation of this concern.  Typically U.S. based petitioning family members are required to personally guarantee that their incoming immigrant family member will not become dependent on government aid.  Notwithstanding the extent to which immigrants becoming burdens on U.S. society is an actual problem, the [...]

Read More
11 07, 2019

DACA’s Future Hangs in the Balance At the U.S. Supreme Court

By |2020-05-01T14:31:00-05:00July 11th, 2019|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., Green Cards, immigration reform, 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 July 11, 2019 In recent weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it has accepted several consolidated DACA related cases for consideration and in October will hear arguments about DACA’s future. Obama Giveth, Trump Seeks to Taketh Away: To review, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was instituted in 2012 by way of then President Obama’s Executive Order.  Through the DACA program, individuals who arrived in the U.S. while under the age of 16, completed high school here (or equivalent), are without any serious criminal convictions and met other requirements, became eligible to obtain a version of legal [...]

Read More
30 05, 2019

Social Security Administration Issues More Than 500,000 “No Match” Letters To Employers

By |2020-05-01T14:54:17-05:00May 30th, 2019|Categories: General, Amnesty for Immigrants in the U.S., DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., Employment-Based Immigration Law, Green Cards, Immigrant Health Care Workers in the U.S., immigration reform, Non-Immigrant Visas for Temporary Workers / H-1B, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Uncategorized, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Published May 30, 2019   When a company lists an employee on their payroll, pays payroll taxes and issues them a Form W-2, the federal government is officially notified of that individual's status as a U.S. worker.    For an estimated 8 million workers though, this process is an avenue through which the federal government is UNofficially notified of the employment of undocumented workers.  That is because many of these workers are either providing fake names, fake social security numbers or another person’s identification – all necessary means for the employer to offer them a job and for the worker to take [...]

Read More
19 05, 2019

Making U.S. Immigration Great Again

By |2020-05-01T15:02:45-05:00May 19th, 2019|Categories: Amnesty for Immigrants in the U.S., Asylum in the United States, Citizenship / Naturalization and the N-400 Application, Conditional Permanent Residence Based on Marriage, Customs and Border Patrol / Travel to and from the U.S., Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., Employment-Based Immigration Law, Family-Based Immigration Law, Green Cards, immigration reform, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., Non-Immigrant Visas for Temporary Workers / H-1B, Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Published May 19, 2019   I started practicing immigration law in the decade that followed the Reagan era’s 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, the last large scale immigration amnesty in the U.S. Through this legislation, roughly 3 million undocumented, but otherwise law abiding, individuals were able to come out of the shadows and officially start their lives as U.S. lawful permanent residents. Eventually, the vast majority eventually went on to become U.S. citizens. Existing statutory avenues toward U.S. residence have allowed for approximately 1 million new permanent residents to the U.S. per year. In addition to these avenues to legal [...]

Read More
10 05, 2019

A Timeline of Green Card Marriage in 2019

By |2020-05-01T15:24:03-05:00May 10th, 2019|Categories: Green Cards|

Every year, couples fall in love and get married. For some couples, that means that one spouse is starting the road towards American citizenship. It's not as simple as just getting a marriage certificate, but the process of becoming a permanent resident (green card holder), and then a U.S. citizen, through marriage is relatively straightforward so long as you follow the steps correctly. Here's what you need to know about green card marriage (permanent resident status via marriage) and the timeline you're dealing with, from getting engaged to getting married to becoming a resident, and then citizen for good. Requirements to [...]

Read More
Toggle Sliding Bar Area
Go to Top