The U Visa: Assistance to victims of certain crimes
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…
Category: Immigration
Covering the week’s most noteworthy immigration news impacting the Filipino-American and Global Filipino community.
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Waivers for criminal grounds of inadmissibility
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…
Marriage and Immigration Laws
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…
Are you ready to be confused over the December 2015 priority dates?
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…
Restraining orders on conduct
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…
The December 2015 priority dates
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…
Petitioning children of your spouse from a previous marriage
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…
CSPA late filings and extraordinary circumstances
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…
Modifying child and spousal support obligation after a divorce
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…
Petitioning a stepchild: No adoption required
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…
Classifying your adopted child as immediate relative under the Hague Convention
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…
Permanent residency through marriage to US citizen spouse
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…
Naturalization disaster: Misrepresenting absences from the US
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…
Is contingent bonus community property in a divorce?
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…
Revised procedures in determining visa availability
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…
Is a financial advisor spouse’s contingent bonus, based on bringing a book of business, community property in a divorce?
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…
USCIS publishes draft policy manual on ‘extreme hardship’
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…
Provisional unlawful presence waiver
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…
Filipino WWII Veterans: Family reunification on the horizon
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. …
Mediation on divorces
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…
Extreme hardship waiver guidance to be revised by USCIS
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…
The November 2015 priority dates
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…
Separated before conditional resident status expires
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…
Do you need to be living in separate residences to be considered ‘Separated’ from your spouse under the California family law?
FAMILY Code 760 provides that all property acquired by the spouse during the marriage is community property. That means each spouse has a half interest on any assets that are…
President Obama’s ‘modernizing and streamlining our legal immigration system for the 21st century’
AS part of President Obama’s continuing executive actions on immigration, the White House issued last July 2015 a report called “Modernizing and Streamlining Our Legal Immigration System for the 21st…
The immigration consequences of marriage fraud
As required by law, US Citizenship and Immigration Services will deny immigration petitions and applications for adjustment of status where they believe that fraud is involved. Marriage-Based Green Card interviews…
Enter the US ASAP with your immigrant visa
DEAR Attorney Gurfinkel: I was petitioned by my US citizen father, and after waiting for over 15 years, I was finally interviewed and just received my immigrant visa, which was…
‘Just a misdemeanor’ and the threat of deportation
IT was a crisp October evening and Gilbert went out with his friends for a Halloween pub crawl. They drank, ate candy and cookies, and had an amazing time. The…
Can a conditional greencard holder file an immigrant petition?
BENEFICIARY spouse of marriage based immigrant petition’s where the marriage was less than 2 years old at the time of the immigrant visa or status was approved are issued a…
Child custody —working parents
MANY parents believe that if you are a working parent, then the other non-working parent will get physical custody of the minor children automatically. This is a misperception of the…