Helping You Turn Your American Dream Into A Reality
With my colleagues and Jose Antonio Vargas at the premiere of Documented. Last month, I attended a screening of the film, Documented, by Jose Antonio Vargas. Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and undocumented immigrant who is leading the conversation about what it means to be an American, and the struggle undocumented immigrants face trying to become “legal.” The screening…
I work with a lot of couples who are going through the fiancee visa process. I actually only take cases where I help the couple from beginning to end – from filing to obtaining conditional residence – to make sure that they will be ok. Knock on wood, as far as I know, all of the fiancee visa couples I…
Last month, USCIS released new processing time reports for various visa petitions, including Form I-130 petitions for immediate relatives. Immediate relatives are spouses, parents, and children under 21 of U.S. citizens and are the most favored category. There is no wait for a visa number in this category. Contrast it to someone who is a sibling of a U.S. citizen…
In the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, the immigration law community has been discussing the possibility of temporary protected status (TPS) designation for the Philippines. “The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may designate a country, or portions of a country, for TPS when conditions exist such as an ongoing armed conflict or an environmental disaster in the country…
1) My about.me page views randomly exploded when I uploaded one of my new headshots by Portraits to the People. I am, for the time being, a staff pick. It’s a nice social media barometer in a way and am glad to see that people like the new picture, bio, and feel a connection to me somehow; 2) I’ve always…
As a person of Venezuelan heritage, I share this post with sorrow. The world needs to know about what is happening there. Warning – there are some graphic photos. “Venezolanos somos todo.” By Grace Alano. Grace Alano is an immigration attorney at The Law Offices of Grace R. Alano in San Francisco, CA. Find Grace Alano on Google+
An article in the New York Times this week brings up “The Heartache of the Immigrant Family.” It discusses the painful decision some parents make to leave their children behind in their country of origin so that they can make a better life and send money to their families. Sometimes, they are able to send for their children later after…
USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas gave a moving keynote speech at the AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) annual conference and was met with thunderous applause after his response to being asked to comment on the Supreme Court decision on DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act, which forbid federal recognition of gay marriage) yesterday: “Since February 2011, when both the President…
The new provisional waiver, also called the “stateside waiver,” allows certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to apply for a waiver of inadmissibility within the U.S. rather than have to wait out the pendency of the waiver outside of the country. The applicant will still have to leave the U.S. to apply for an immigrant visa, but will not have…
by Grace Alano I grew up in Los Angeles and went to Disneyland often, so this video brings back fond memories. I also plan to take my daughter there for the first time this summer. This video is 14 minutes long, so play it on your downtime or as background music while you surf the web. But it does go…