Can adopted children petition biological family members?
DEAR Atty. Gurfinkel: Before I was 16 years old, I was adopted and petitioned by my aunt, and got my green card through her petition. I am now a US…
Kindly men called doctors
Everyone pretty much agrees that if you exercise and eat right and don’t smoke or drink or annoy a cop, you’ll never die. I have been told that by my…
Christ’s presence within us
“ The words of Jesus at the end of Matthew’s Gospel are the promise of Christ’s abiding love for us through His Spirit present in the world. “And behold, I…
Lourdes, Aida and Gisele: The three faces of ‘A Beautiful Life’
Living ‘beautiful lives’ means living with passion, dedication and sacrifice. And these four amazing women of the Filipino-American community tell us how they do it. Meet the Queen of Queens…
Clients seek Chapter 7 and Chapter 20 bankruptcy relief
FIRST client is 45 and single. His gross income last year was $98K, which is good. It reached $98K because of bonus. Without bonus, his gross income is $72K. This…
Protecting employee rights and guarding against employer retaliation
CYNTHIA Begazo, then 53 years old, was hired in March 2015, as the Human Resources Director at Passages Malibu, an addiction treatment center in Malibu, CA. Shortly after starting work,…
Returning to the US after months of being outside
QUESTION: I have been outside the United States for eight months and have friends who went back to the country and were forced to give up their green cards and…
Individual tax changes under Trump tax plan
HERE are proposed tax changes that could affect individuals like you and me. Individual Tax Rates: President Trump plans to simplify the tax code by condensing the current seven rates…
Here are 4 ways to get out of debt
ARE you seriously in debt and don’t know what to do about your situation? Are you afraid that unless you do something about it, thing will just continue to get…
Felisa Nillo Sansait aspires to live beyond being a centenarian
Living life to its fullest is one exceptional privilege denied to many while being surrounded and cared by loved ones upon achieving a full-cycled existence is, undeniably, a rewardingly gratifying…
Infrastructure boom… or bust?
The usual skeptics have dismissed as pie-in-the-sky the recent announcement concerning the “infrastructure boom” that the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte plans to undertake. According to them, it is wishful…
Interview tips at the US Embassy
There are no hard and fast rules to follow during interviews to obtain a visa from any U.S. embassy amongst the almost 294 around the world. The basic creed to…
Sexually transmitted diseases
IT is quite alarming that 45 to 50 percent of men and women in the United States have an HPV—genital Human Papillomavirus (HPV)—infection. This information was recently reported by the…
The language of laughter
“Neither of us would ever die of love, we will grieve, part and separate. For we were not meant to be tragedians. We were meant to be comedians.” – Graham Green,…
Regional lunches: Showcasing the diversity of Filipino cuisine
FOR a couple of hours, congress attendees and guests take a break to eat a carefully curated themed ad festive lunch showcasing the diversity of Filipino cuisine and the sustainability…
Consumer alert tips: The IRS at your door
HOW do you determine if the person visiting you either at your business or at home or calling you are not an IRS imposter? Look for two forms of credentials….
A table for one
THE operating room could be likened to a theater — cupboards held tanks of oxygen, refrigerators filled with bags of blood, and a table for one. Beside it lay steel…
The humble Fr. Michalenko, an apostle of the Divine Mercy
LAST Thursday night was quite a treat for me. I had dinner with Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, the former Rector of the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge,…
Clients seek Chapter 7 and Chapter 20 bankruptcy relief
FIRST client is 45 and single. His gross income last year was $98K, which is good. It reached $98K because of bonus. Without bonus, his gross income is $72K. This…
The O’Reilly Factor: Sexual harassment allegations at Fox News
“ Courts have recognized two types of sexual harassment. One is called quid pro quo harassment, which exists when to a sexual conduct is made a condition of employment benefits,…
ICE coming to courts: What can you do?
QUESTION: I have a roommate who left an abusive relationship. She actually filed a temporary restraining order (TRO) against this person. Court was yesterday. She went to court to testify…
Why we need President Trump to overhaul our tax code
Estate Tax: AMERICANS pay taxes throughout their lives, then pay again after death. This is wrong. The death tax itself should be terminated. Yes, there are two things we can’t…
Defusing the threat of nuclear war
THE current deadly “game of chicken” being undertaken by the U.S., under President Donald Trump, and by North Korea, under its Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, isn’t the first time that…
The May 2017 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…
The new silent killer
THE silent killer of the 1970s, high blood pressure, is now replaced by metabolic syndrome, a cluster of three or more risk factors like abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high…
The arms of war
They consist in running bits of metal through the flesh of men — large, small, pointed, square, round splintered — that tear and kill. It is not metal in its…
Divorce issue and tax tips part 2
1. What is New? Same sex marriages are considered the same as couples of opposite sex marriages for Federal tax purposes. On the other hand, other relationships that are not…
If Duterte can’t be expected to change, perhaps media should
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has accused media, specifically the Philippine Daily Inquirer and ABS-CBN, of being bastos and unfair and, in the process, he sounded just as foul as the objects…
