US Immigration News & Commentary

As you learn very early on, immigration law is federal, the states aren’t generally allowed to try to enforce it. Law after law enacted by states and local governments have been shot down when challenged in court.

The most recent example is SB1070 in AZ. The provisions dealing with immigration enforcement were prevented from going into effect by a federal court judge.

A review of many right-wing sites on the internet shows that these “strict constitutionalists” aren’t happy that the judge upheld the Constitution. Once again showing that what they really are is anti-immigrant. What a shock!

The order can be found here.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offers immigration services and resources specifically for members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families who are stationed in the United States and abroad. USCIS established a military assistance team to ensure that the military community receives quick and secure access to accurate information. Below is a list of answers to frequently asked questions received by our military assistance team.

Adjustments

Q. What is the fee for the Application for Naturalization (Form N-400) filed by spouses of military members?
A. The filing fee for the Application for Naturalization (Form N-400) is $675 ($595 plus a biometrics fee of $80). Individuals who submit FD-258 Fingerprint Cards directly to USCIS with their applications are not required to pay the biometrics fee. Applicants filing from within the United States should submit a single check or money order of $675 made payable to Department of Homeland Security or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Q. I am a military member stationed abroad with my dependents. Can my dependents have their naturalization interviews conducted overseas?
A. Yes. Certain spouses or children of service members residing abroad with that service member (as authorized by official orders) may be eligible to become naturalized citizens without having to travel to the United States for any part of the naturalization process. Please see “Fact Sheet: Requirements for Naturalization Abroad by Spouses of Members of the U.S. Armed Forces” and “Overseas Naturalization Eligibility for Certain Children of U.S. Armed Forces Members” on www.uscis.gov/military for more information.

If you have an appointment for a naturalization interview and you have transferred overseas, contact USCIS by calling the Military Help Line by telephone: 1-877-CIS-4MIL (1-877-247-4645) or email: militaryinfo.nsc@dhs.gov and request to have your case transferred to your nearest USCIS overseas office.

Submitting Biometrics

Q. I am an active duty military member and am required to submit biometrics at a USCIS Application Support Center (ASC). Do I need an appointment?
A. No. Active duty military members do not need an appointment and will be accepted on a walk-in basis at any ASC in the United States. You should bring your military ID with you to the ASC.

Q. Can I submit fingerprints before I file the Application for Naturalization (Form N-400)?
A. Yes. You may submit fingerprints even if you have not yet submitted an Application for Naturalization.

Q. Where can military members or dependents that are living abroad go to have the fingerprints taken?
A. Military members and dependents stationed abroad can submit 2 properly completed FD-258 Fingerprint Cards taken by the Military Police, Department of Homeland Security officials or U.S. Embassy or Consulate officials.

Q. If my military installation does not use FD-258, can I submit another type of fingerprint document instead?
A. FD-258 is the preferred document used to submit fingerprint, however USCIS may be able to accept a comparable document, such as the Department of Defense SF-87, in place of the FD-258. Please contact the USCIS Military Help Line at 1-877-CIS-4MIL (1-877-247-4645) for more information.

General Information

Q. What are the criteria to have an application or petition expedited for military personnel?
A. USCIS reviews all expedite requests on a case-by-case basis. Some examples of situations that may qualify for expedited processing include:

• Pending military deployment
• Extreme emergent situation
• Humanitarian situation

Please contact your local USCIS office or the USCIS Military Help Line at 1 877 CIS 4MIL (1-877-247-4645) for more information.

Q. I am an active duty military member stationed abroad. How do I check the status of my application?
A. You can check their status of any application by clicking on the “Check My Case Status” link on the right-hand side of this page. Note: when checking the status of an I-751, you must use the receipt number from the ASC appointment notice. You may also call the USCIS Military Help Line at 1-877-CIS-4MIL (1-877-247-4645).

Find here

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records to out “illegal immigrants” which included posting due dates of pregnant women.

“Two employees with the Department of Workforce Services have been put on leave after an investigation revealed that they apparently accessed records on hundreds of Utah residents to compile a list of 1,300 names of people purportedly in the country illegally.

A handful of other DWS workers also may have been part of the effort and are the subject of an ongoing probe.”

Deplorable xenophobia that could only be worse if violence occurred. Which isn’t too hard to imagine these days.

Via the USCIS

“WASHINGTON— U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced an extension to the registration period for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for eligible nationals of Haiti. Initially, the 180-day registration period for nationals of Haiti was from Jan. 21 through July 20, 2010. This registration period is now being extended through Jan. 18, 2011.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) previously published a Federal Register Notice on Jan. 21, 2010, announcing the TPS designation of Haiti for 18 months, from Jan. 21, 2010 through July 22, 2011. The designation applies only to Haitians who have continuously resided in the United States since Jan. 12, 2010; TPS will not be granted to Haitian nationals who first entered the United States after Jan. 12, 2010.

Haitian nationals eligible for TPS are strongly encouraged to register as soon as possible within the registration period that now ends on Jan. 18, 2011.

TPS applicants must submit both the Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status, and Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, to register. Applicants must pay the Form I-821 fee. Applicants age 14 and older must also submit the biometric service fee. “

Visa Bulletin

About a month in to the FY2011 H1B season only about a 1/5 of available regular cap visas have been applied for. Master’s cap cases are going a bit faster with almost a 1/3 of the available visas being applied for.

The USCIS H1B Numbers can be found here.

In many instances immigrants charged with a crime are not warned of the immigration consequences of either a guilty plea or a finding of guilt. This can result in some devastating consequences when that immigrant takes a plea deal which on the surface seems harmless – a small theft offense rather than a larger one for example – and does so without any counsel regarding any possible impact with regards to immigration or, in even more egregious cases, being told that there will be no consequence at all.

Unfortunately in many instances there are consequences. For example, one small theft offense may not render a permanent resident removable from the United States but that same offense might render that permanent resident inadmissible. That means if they leave the US they might be put into removal proceedings even if they wouldn’t have been otherwise.

The courts have long recognized that deportation is a very serious consequence and that immigrants deserve due process when faced with banishment from the United States.

Today the Supreme Court of the United States took another step in protecting the due process rights of immigrants. They ruled that criminal defense counsel for immigrants must advise their clients of the potential immigration consequences of a sentence. If a plea carries a risk of deportation the defense attorney must advise their client of that fact. If the defense attorney does not do so they have rendered ineffective assistance and if the client can prove their case was prejudiced because of the bad or nonexistent advice they may potentially have their case reopened.

The case is Padilla v. Kentucky

April 2010 Visa Bulletin is posted. EB3 still way backed up. EB2 backed up for India and China.

The icert system isn’t great to say the least but to file for an H1B visa you must have an approved LCA. Many employers are not in the system and it can take up to or over a week to find that out, a week to fix it, and a week to get an LCA approved. So that potentially adds 21 days to the that didn’t used to exist before.

So what to do? Since it’s unlikely that the H1B cap will be hit on April 1 (the day that H1B visas can first be filed) it probably won’t be an issue.

But if one is worried about the cap being reached quickly it’s possible to file the LCA before April 1 using a date before October 1 (the first day new visa numbers become available) as the start date. You can do this even if you put the earliest date (10/1) on the I-129 petition. Only drawback is that the end of the I-129 will be the end of the LCA and that will be three years from the date you applied at the latest. That means the H1B visa might get shorted a little bit but better that than no H1B visa right?

Cap exempt petitioners don’t have to worry about all this silliness of course.