Last week, Department of Homeland Security announced several proposed reforms to “attract and retain highly skilled workers.” These reforms include employment authorization of certain H-4 spouses and other concrete incentives.
DHS released a press release describing these administrative reforms, which would impact the benefits and the adjudications process in several different ways, ultimately benefiting employers, universities, scholars and workers (and their spouses):
The issue of same-sex marriage is an important issue. Romben Law, APC gets questions all the time at our offices in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, and throughout the nation from US citizens who wish to immigrate a same-sex spouse. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, California will release its decision regarding the constitutionality of Marriage Equality and Proposition 8 on Tuesday, 7 February 2012 at 10:00 a.m. (PST).
at Romben Law, APC, we are counseling our clients that whether the decision is a positive one or not, couples should not submit I-130 Family Petitions and I-485 Applications for Adjustment of Status based on a same-sex marriage without first consulting with an immigration attorney experienced in working with non-traditional families. –jcf
The 2012 Republican presidential candidates have done nothing to speak clearly about immigration law and reform. Instead of speaking in clear, grown-up terms about immigration policy, they are using volatile language, demonizing immigrants. This does not advance any discussion; it is just pandering and solves nothing. This cheap talk from the Republican field is causing concern, dismay, and even panic for some of the clients of Romben Law, APC, in our offices in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and elsewhere.
In a recent article in the New York Times, candidate Mitt Romney has reportedly abandoned his usually anti-immigrant rhetoric. Why? Because he’s campaigning in Florida, where over 22% of the population is of Hispanic origin! So, what is his true position? And can he be relied on to stick to it?
Candidate Newt Gingrich is not much better, because although Gingrich has rightfully observed that the USA cannot simply deport all undocumented immigrants, he has proposed few concrete solutions.
Fiscal year 2012 began on October 1, 2011 and as expected, we saw some movement in the visa bulletin. Here is a brief summary of what the US Visa Office reports seeing in terms of usage in the first 3 months of the FY 2012.
Employment-based usage has been quite slow, but we can still expect to see some advances in the EB bulletin. There are still some EB-2 cases from 2007 in the USCIS pipeline, so we will probably see EB-2 hover around that date until cases are cleared out before forward movement is consistent.
There has been a severe slowdown in the usage of EB-1 numbers, with some speculation that recent USCIS interpretation and clarification with regard to the standard for extraordinary ability cases has created a stricter standard and perhaps has dissuaded some applicants from filing cases.
It’s H-1B season again. The beginning of a new year and less than 3 months from the first date that USCIS will accept new H-1B petitions on April 1, 2012. It’s time to prepare your H-1B.
The immigration attorneys at Romben Law, APC have been receiving many phone calls from potential H-1B employers and H-1B job seekers in preparation of filing H-1B petitions in April and early summer. Let’s review some of the H-1B basics:
For 2012, the attorneys at the law offices of Romben Law, APC, have decided to make use of Twitter to notify interested followers of immigration news. Whether you are in the fast-lane of Los Angeles business or the laid-back Desert life in Palm Springs, rapid access to news in this field is important.
Getting “breaking news” on the complex, fast-moving issues surrounding immigration is vital, whether you are a family member who wants to sponsor a relative, an employer who hires immigrants, a spouse being sponsored by an American, an investor wanting an E-2 visa to open a business in the USA, an O-1 extraordinary ability actor who is seeking a big break in the Industry, or any other visa hopeful.
To be sure, immigration laws and regulations do not always change daily, so we will not be Tweeting daily. However, whenever there is an interesting development, we will raise the issue on on Twitter, as well as point you to blogs or articles for more information.
Immigration law clients of Romben Law, APC have been calling us at both our Los Angeles and Palm Springs offices to inquire whether they can travel in and out of the USA using documents scanned onto their iPads, iPhones, and other smart devices.
In the first week of January, articles appeared on NBC, ABCNews, and DigitalJournal, and other sites about a Canadian man who was attempting to cross the land border to deliver Christmas gifts to family and friends in Vermont, USA. He had apparently forgotten his passport at his home in Montréal, Québec. When he got to the US Port of Entry (POE), so goes the story, he pulled out his iPad and showed the border guard his scanned Canadian Passport. (The man carries scanned documents, in case he should lose his documents while traveling.) According to the story, the border guard considered the matter and finally let the man cross the border.
It would be nice to think that border crossing cards, passports, visas, and other paperwork can now be scanned and put on our smart devices in lieu of carrying them. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Obama Administration has proposed a change in immigration regulations which would potentially change the lives of undocumented immigrants in the USA.
Maybe the most common problem we see as immigration lawyers is the person who entered the USA with no documentation, or who had a visa but overstayed — the so-called “undocumented alien.” This problem is enormous and affects our clients throughout the nation, not only those at our Romben Law, APC offices in Los Angeles or Palm Springs.
This is very complicated, so please read carefully:
The recent Los Angeles arson situation brings to mind many people who have consulted the attorneys at Romben Law, APC in our Los Angeles and Palm Springs offices. They have a valid visa or legal permanent residence (green card), and they have been convicted of a crime. Sometimes it is a serious crime; sometimes it is something minor. In some of these cases, the conviction has virtually unfixable immigration consequences.
In 1990, Congress created the concept of “aggravated felonies,” crimes that are considered so bad that an alien might not even qualify for the typical defenses to deportation (removal), such as asylum, cancellation of removal, or withholding of removal. In other words, the Congress has simply decided that someone who has committed an “aggravated felony” should just be deported (removed) regardless of the defenses s/he might try to use.
The name “aggrevated felony” is misleading. “Aggravated felony” includes such obviously serious crimes as murder, rape, or arson; we can all agree that these crimes are quite serious. However, “aggravated felony” can also include some less- obviously terrible crimes, such as attempted possession of stolen property, attempted robbery, petty theft, trespass, unauthorized use of a vehicle. Even if a crime was charged as a misdemeanor in the legal system, it can still be considered an “aggravated felony” for immigration purposes.
Today, the USCIS Service Center Operations released a statement that all properly filed H-1Bs applications received on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 will be accepted under the FY 2012 H-1B cap. USCIS SCOPS also confirmed that there will be no lottery for petitions properly filed and received on November 22.
Those who are awaiting receipt notices for H-1B petitions received on November 22, should be able to rest easy knowing that their cases made it under the cap on the last day of the quota. However, be aware that until you receive a receipt notice, nothing is official. Many petitions get returned due to these typical errors: the filing fees are given in the wrong amounts, boxes on the I-129 Data Collection page are not checked correctly, and for missing signatures. If a petition is returned for an error, it may well take a few weeks for it be mailed back to you. —ecf
Immigration Visa Attorney Blog