THE country’s economy may be rebounding but a lot of people are still feeling the effects of the last economic downturn. Many who have not been able to recover from the last recession are having difficulty paying their debts. Creditors have referred these defaulting debtors to collection agencies. Some of these collection agencies have become…
A STEPPARENT may file an immigrant petition for a stepchild even without the stepparent having to legally adopt the stepchild. However, before a stepparent may be able to file an immigrant petition for a stepchild, the stepparent – stepchild relationship should have been created before a stepchild turns 18 years old. This means that the…
THE spouse of a US citizen will be granted permanent resident status after the US citizen files a petition for the spouse. If the spouses have not yet been married for at least two years at the time the petition was filed, the spouse shall be only granted conditional resident status by the USCIS. The…
ON September 9, 2015, the government announced that it will now allow individuals who have been waiting for their priority dates to be current both in the family based and employment based category to start their immigrant visa applications or file their applications for adjustment of status earlier. In line with this new policy of…
ONE way of obtaining an immigrant visa here in the United States is through a petition filed by the US citizen or legal permanent resident spouse. The US citizen or legal permanent resident spouse must file an immigrant petition with the US Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS) to start the immigrant visa process. Depending on…
Often, many immigrants have kept pushing back their decision to apply for US citizenship. Many of them have also failed to keep track of the validity of their permanent resident cards such that when they are now ready to apply for naturalization, they discover that their permanent resident cards have either expired or are about…
If an individual is currently in status and has an employer who is willing to sponsor them, they might want to initiate the filing of an employment based immigrant petitions which involves three stages. Most employment based petitions fall under the 3rd preference employment based category. This category includes positions which require a bachelor’s degree…
The country’s economy may be rebounding but a lot of people are still feeling the effects of the last economic downturn. Many who have not been able to recover from the last recession are having difficulty paying their debts. Creditors have referred these defaulting debtors to collection agencies. Some of these collection agencies have become…
On November 20, 2014, President Obama announced that its administration will stop deporting certain undocumented parents of US citizens and parents of legal permanent residents. These individuals will also be allowed to get work permits to enable them to work and get a driver’s license. This program has been named as Deferred Action for Parental…
Even with the passage of immigration reform stalled in Congress, the State of California has been enacting laws benefitting the undocumented population of the State. Notable among these immigration related legislation was a bill allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. These licenses are expected to be made available no later than January 2015. However,…
