Helping You Turn Your American Dream Into A Reality
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…
By Grace Alano ******UPDATES*********Please see my Twitter feed for updates on comprehensive immigration reform. This week, the Senate is likely to introduce the comprehensive immigration reform bill. This post focuses on probationary legal status and visas for low-skilled workers, as those are two of the areas of comprehensive immigration reform that are the most fleshed-out so far. A discussion of…
By Grace Alano The Supreme Court has struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which barred the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage. The law was seen as a violation of the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution. The decision does not change any laws regarding whether same-sex couples can marry, but rather determines whether they can receive…
By Grace Alano Clients often ask me why I became an immigration attorney. I had always wanted to do something in international law, which is different from immigration and nationality law. I stumbled upon immigration law by chance when I got my first job out of law school. It was fate, it gave me the international feel that I…
“Congress came together today and put partisan politics aside to protect victims of violence,” said Meghan Rhoad, women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. The VAWA reauthorization bill passed by the House of Representatives, S.47, includes some “additional protections for immigrant victims of violence.” They include adding stalking to the list of serious crimes covered by the U visa. The…
USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas and Ed Ramatowsky from Department of State were on the USCIS Teleconference on unlawful presence provisional waivers today. I have taken some notes from the call and will provide a link to information from USCIS’s website The final rule will be published tomorrow and the unlawful presence waiver process will be effective March 4, 2013. The rules can…
By Grace Alano Musical genius, British national treasure, humanitarian and peace activist John Lennon’s green card from July 1976. He fought deportation for four years because he believed in the American dream. He believed his deportation charges to be an abuse of the law and stemmed from his outspoken stance against the Vietnam War and Nixon administration. For more on…
The following scenario has come up a few times in online discussions with my fellow immigration lawyers: a couple walks in to meet with the immigration attorney. One spouse is a U.S. citizen and the other is an undocumented immigrant who has come in from or through Mexico without inspection. That is, came in without a visa or border crossing…