April 27, 2011
United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) released the following Q& A guidance. USCIS – Questions about Same or Similar Occupational Classifications Under the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 (AC21)
March 02, 2011
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) in Matter of GUEVARA ALFARO, 25 I&N Dec. 417 (BIA 2011) held: (1) Any intentional sexual conduct by an adult with a child involves moral turpitude, as long as the perpetrator knew or should have known that the victim was under the age of 16. Matter of Silva-Trevino, 24 I&N Dec. 687 (A.G. 2008), followed. Quintero-Salazar […]
March 01, 2011
United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) issued an interim memo (in effect now) to address scenarios when a foreign national is in removal (deportation ) proceedings before the Immigration Courts (part of the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review) but an application for a benefit is pending before USCIS (part of the Department of Homeland Security). Those Immigration Court litigators […]
February 28, 2011
It sounds like a mouthful. One of the divisions of the U.S. Government that represents the U.S. Department of Homeland Security before the Federal Courts (mainly the various Courts of Appeal) is the Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL). Periodically, OIL publishes their Immigration Litigation Bulletin which was previously unavailable to the public until the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was […]
February 27, 2011
United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) published a memo earlier this year indicating detailing when a Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) self petition can be revoked: “If an officer in the field receives new information that was not available to the VSC at the time of the approval of a VAWA self-petition, and that new information leads the officer […]
February 26, 2011
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it is now issuing employment and travel authorization on a single card for certain applicants filing an Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, Form I-485. This new card represents a significant improvement from the current practice of issuing paper Advance Parole documents. The card looks similar to the current Employment Authorization […]
February 25, 2011
H1 BFAQ021711
February 24, 2011
The Board of Immigration Appeals held in Matter of Nelson 25 I&N Dec. 410 (BIA 2011): “Once an alien has been convicted of an offense that stops the accrual of the 7-year period of continuous residence required for cancellation of removal under section 240A(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a) (2006), section 240A(d)(1) of the Act does […]
February 23, 2011
The Department of State has released the Visa Bulletin for March 2011. Petitioning for foreign born employees and family members can be a far more complicated process without the assistance of a good attorney. If you have family members you would like to invite to the United States or if you wish to petition for employees, contact the Law Offices […]
February 22, 2011
In a refreshing decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded an MS-13 El Salvador gang case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals after determining that the respondent did fit within a particular social group for his kinship (family) ties to his uncle who testified against the criminal gang MS-13. Both the uncle and the respondent received threats in El […]
