EACH month, the Visa Office of the State Department publishes, in the Visa Bulletin, the priority dates for that particular month, for the various family and employment based categories. A priority date is a person’s “place in line” for a visa, meaning immigrant visas (or green cards) would be available for persons whose priority date…
AS you may be aware, an alien seeking permanent residency status in the US must be “admissible” to the US. Admissibility means the ability of an alien to receive a visa to enter the US or adjust status while in the US to obtain a permanent resident status under the US relevant laws and regulations….
ORDINARILY, when a person commits fraud or makes a misrepresentation in connection with applying for an immigration benefit, the person is required to file a fraud waiver (Form I – 601). However, in some cases, even when a person does make a misrepresentation, a fraud waiver may not necessarily be required. In one of our…
VICTIMS of domestic violence or certain crimes are granted immigration benefits so they can remain in the United States to reside and work here. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994 was enacted by Congress to allow immigrant victims of domestic violence to file a self-petition to become lawful permanent residents (LPR) without having…
THERE are situations in both Divorce and Child Support cases where the Summons and Petition resulted to a default against one party for failing to respond on time. In certain situations, the defaulted party failed to respond on time because he or she did not even know that he or she was served with a…
CONSIDER the common divorce scenario where the divorce judgment provides primary custody of the children to one spouse while the other spouse only gets visitation. The parties begin to file separate tax returns. What are the tax consequences of the non custodial parents with regards to claiming the children in his or her return? A…
BY Approval Notice dated October 30, 2015, the USCIS granted Form I-601A Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver to a Filipino crewman, who is married to a US citizen spouse. Roman P. Mosqueda, a Super Lawyer in Southern California for 2014, 2015, and 2016 in business immigration, filed Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, of the US…
THANKSGIVING is when people take a step back and reflect on all of the wonderful things and events to be grateful for, and to give thanks to those people who played such a key role in helping us achieve them. At this Thanksgiving, I would like to once again give thanks to all of the…
THE Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 was enacted with the avowed purpose to protect and keep children safe from sex offenders; prevent child abuse and pornography; promote internet safety; and honor the memory of Adam Walsh and other child crime victims. The Adam Walsh Act amended Section 204(a)(1)(i) of the Immigration…
When a serious crime has been committed, justice can only be served when the perpetrator of the crime is successfully prosecuted and jailed. Unfortunately, justice is often not served when the victim of the crime is an undocumented immigrant. This has been the case as many fear that may suffer because of their unlawful immigration…
An alien seeking permanent residency status in the US must be “admissible” to the US. Admissibility means the ability of an alien to receive a visa to enter the US or adjust status while in the US to obtain a permanent resident status under the US relevant laws and regulations. Section 212 (a) of the…
James, a noncitizen foreign national, is married to Lesly, a United States citizen, and by virtue of this marriage was accorded a lawful conditional permanent resident status. However, not even a full year into the marriage the newlyweds find themselves extremely unhappy with each other and are fighting incessantly. Lesly files for divorce and the…
In October 2015, the State Department and Department of Homeland Security announced a new format for the monthly priority dates. The monthly Visa Bulletin would now have TWO charts: the Dates for Filing Visa Applications chart; and the Final Action Dates chart. (The Final Action Date chart is the old priority date chart from previous…
IN my last article, I discussed a type of restraining order i.e. a stay-away order. This restraining order is a judicial order (granted by a judge or commissioner) preventing a person from doing certain things to a “protected person.” Usually, this means that the person must stay away 100 yards from the protected person. In…
EACH month, the Visa Office of the State Department publishes, in the Visa Bulletin, the priority dates for that particular month, for the various family and employment based categories. A priority date is a person’s “place in line” for a visa, meaning immigrant visas (or green cards) would be available for persons whose priority date…
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…
AN alien who seeks to be classified as a “child” or as a derivative beneficiary under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and who is under 21 years of age as determined under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) is required to seek lawful permanent residence within one (1) year of the visa becoming available…
DIVORCED parties are sometimes ordered to pay child support and spousal support in the divorce judgment. The support orders are generally based on the parties’ financial situation and custody arrangements at the time of the settlement or trial. However, what if your income decreases after the divorce or what if your spouse’s income increases after…
IF a person marries a US citizen before their child’s 18th birthday, the US citizen can also directly petition the person’s child (as the US citizen’s stepchild). There is no need for the US citizen to adopt the person’s child to establish a “petitionable relationship.” I’ve come across many situations where a person married a…
IF you are adopting a child from a foreign country and wish to bring the child to the United States, you must comply with the adoption laws of the child’s country of origin, the laws of the United States and the laws of your state of residence (“home state”). In addition, you must comply…
CHANGES in the economy and in the employment lanscape has made it more difficult to pursue certain traditional paths to obtaining permanent residency in the United States such as employment based. H1-b visas has been affected by the visa annual visa cap and does not lead to a green card. In addition, it is a…
ONE of the most important requirements for naturalization is that an applicant must maintain residency in the US for the five years before filing a naturalization application. The person should have been physically present in the US for at least half of the 5 years prior to filing, and should not have been outside the…
IN many professions, bonus is a material part of a professional’s compensation. It is often a challenge characterizing bonuses in the context of a divorce case especially if the bonus has not yet been received by the employee spouse as of the date of separation. Marriage of Finby involved a wife who worked as a…
AS you may be aware, the USCIS, in coordination of the Department of State (DOS), announced last September 2015, announced revisions as to the procedures for determining visa availability for applicants waiting to file for employment-based or family-sponsored preference adjustment of status. This is part of the implementation of the November 2014 executive actions on…
IN many professions, bonus is a material part of a professional’s compensation. It is often a challenge characterizing bonuses in the context of a divorce case especially if the bonus has not yet been received by the employee spouse as of the date of separation. Marriage of Finby involved a wife who worked as a…
IF a person commits certain immigration violations (such as fraud, or overstaying in the US for over six months and then departing, etc.), the person may not be eligible to receive a green card, unless the person applies for, and is granted, a “waiver of inadmissibility” on a Form I – 601. To be eligible…
UNDER current immigration laws, there is a bar to admissibility to the United States for foreign nationals who are “unlawfully present” in the United States. An unlawfully present foreign national is a person who was inspected at the border and admitted into the United States but who remained in the United States beyond the date…
ON October 2, 2015, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) formally announced the upcoming implementation of a parole program that will help reunite certain family members of Filipino WWII Veterans. Given the great sacrifices that Filipino WWII Veterans have endured, the program is significant in assisting them and their families deal with the hardships that…
DIVORCES do not have to get costly and lengthy. Divorce can carry its own set of stresses that couples do not need. An alternative to a costly and lengthy divorce is mediation. Mediation provides an option to divorcing families or families embroiled in a custody dispute to have these issues mediated and resolved as quickly…
What’s new and what’s next ON October 7, 2015 USCIS released draft policy guidance regarding the “extreme hardship” threshold that Waiver of Inadmissibility applicants must reach. The draft guidance is now in its comments period, which closes on November 23, after which time USCIS will formalize its new policy. The new policy will clarify and…
