FALSELY claiming to be a US citizen can be a fatal mistake for non-citizens hoping to one day enter the US or obtain/maintain US resident status. Alongside fake marriages, drug…

ON Tuesday November 4, 2014, California Voters approved Proposition 47, which brings sweeping changes to California criminal law and procedure that will affect thousands of immigrants facing deportation due to…

ON February 24, 2015, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced that on May 26, 2015 it will accept applications to grant employment eligibility to certain H–4 spouses married to…

Obama to seek immediate stay of order ON Monday, February 16, 2015, US District Judge Andrew S. Hanen in Brownsville, TX, granted a temporary injunction temporarily halting Obama’s executive action…

REVERSING what has been over 5 years of illogical jurisprudence Immigration Judges (“IJs”) and the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), the US Supreme Court recently rejected the BIA’s decisions in…

THE USCIS has announced that it will begin accepting applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) under the expanded guidelines the President announced last November, on February 18, 2015. …

ALTHOUGH the Republican-dominated House of Representatives has passed a bill to reverse President Obama’s recently announced Executive Actions on immigration policy, it appears that the bill is already dead in…

AFTER months of speculation as to what President Obama’s Executive Action would bring for immigration reform, President Obama delivered a speech last night announcing executive action that provides immigration relief…

AFTER months of speculation as to what President Obama’s Executive Action would bring for immigration reform, President Obama delivered a speech last night announcing executive action that provides immigration relief…

SINCE the enactment of Section 204(l) in 2009, USCIS has issued official guidance to implement the provisions of the “Surviving Relatives Law.” USCIS has amended the USCIS’ Adjudicators’ Field Manual…

THE US Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act’s (DOMA) limitation of the definition of “marriage” as a union between male and female spouses in Windsor v. US…

THE USCIS Service Centers have recently received guidance and new instructions for their adjudicators relating to the timing of creating new jobs and explaining the meaning of “full-time” for positions…

THE debate over the United States economy and dearth of high-tech workers has spotlighted the H-1B professional working visa in the press.  Nonetheless, Congress has been slow to respond in…

THE US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit granted a joint motion to dismiss a case in which it had previously ruled that a person who entered the US…

ALTHOUGH the volume of newly-filed applications for benefits is down at the USCIS, the processing times for some applications pending at the US Citizenship & Immigration Services (“USCIS”) are longer…

ONE of the few positive developments Immigration legislation over the past twenty years has been relief for spouses and children of abusive petitioners provided by the Violence Against Women’s Act…

THE processing times for some applications pending at the US Citizenship & Immigration Services (“USCIS”) are longer than ever before.  The USCIS holds a monopoly over all immigrants applying for…

AS the US Congress continues to mire itself in a tiresome partisan war over every issue that crosses its path, States have begun to answer the call and do the…

LAST week, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Jeh Johnson announced that the USCIS is ready for the first round of applications for extensions of deferred action and…

WITH the USICE Prosecutorial Discretion program under way, thousands of cases pending before the US Immigration Courts and Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) are ripe for review to determine whether…

IN accordance with the US Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in Judulang v. Holder, the BIA issued a decision on February 28, 2014 that makes Section 212(c) relief available to thousands…

LAST week, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Jeh Johnson announced that the USCIS is ready for the first round of applications for extensions of deferred action and…

WITH House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s loss in a Virginia primary election last week to “Tea Party” challenger David Brat, the US House of Representatives looks even less likely to…

LAST week, President Obama urged Speaker of the House John Boehner to bring immigration reform to a vote this summer, or expect more administrative liberalization of Federal immigration policy. It…

“ Immigrants in these circumstances would be well-advised to consult with an attorney specializing in Immigration & Nationality law to explore their options and determine what course of action is best…

ON May 6, 2014, the Obama Administration announced two new measures to attract and retain the highly-skilled workers the US requires to sustain the economic recovery. The first will allow…

IN 2009, President Obama signed into law amendments to the Immigration & Nationality Act (INA) reversing the longstanding rule that a “visa petition dies with the petitioner.” The new law…

“The L-1 Visa category is available to individuals seeking to take up employment in the United States as “intra-company transferees” of multinational companies.  In order to qualify as an intra-company…

THE US House of Representatives has ignored a call to pass immigration reform over the past two years, opting to politicize the issue. As a result, the Boehner-led House has…

EVEN as the Obama Administration has espoused some more lenient policies toward persons who have violated their immigration status in the US, such as prosecutorial discretion, USCIS over the past…