Immigration

Adjustment of status is the process that you can use to apply for lawful permanent resident status (also known as applying for a Green Card) when you are present in the United States. This means that you may get a Green Card without having to return to your home country to complete visa processing.

If you are from a country where you have undergone persecution, or you have a well-founded fear of being persecuted if you return to that country, you may decide to seek either refugee protection from the U.S. (if you are currently overseas) or asylum (if you are currently in the United States).

• B1 – Short term business visa
• E-1 – Treaty trader visa
• L-1 – Intercompany transfer visa
• H-1B – Specialized labor visa
• O-1 – Extraordinary Ability visa
• TN – NAFTA temporary work visa

Cancellation of removal or termination of removal, formerly known as suspension of deportation, under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of the United States is a legal remedy available to all qualified people who have been placed in removal proceedings.

The Diversity Visa was established by the Immigration Act of 1990 as a way to increase the diversity among immigrants to the United States. There have always been a handful of countries from which the majority of immigrants to the United States come, and Congress established the Diversity Visa program to increase the number of immigrants from smaller countries and countries that don’t send many immigrants to the United States. The Diversity Visa is administered primarily by the U.S. State Department. The State Department runs the lottery and selects and notifies the winners. Over 95 percent of immigrants who win the green card lottery go through the State Department to get their green cards, as most of them are living outside the United States when they win the Diversity Visa lottery.

An alien may apply for a green card in EB2 category and seek a waiver of the offer of employment and waiver of labor certification by establishing that his/her admission to permanent residence in the U.S. will be in the national interest. Such applications are considered National Interest Waiver or NIW in short. An individual may qualify for a green card if his/her extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics has been demonstrated by:

1. Sustained national or international acclaim as evidenced through extensive documentation;
2. The individual seeks to enter the United States to continue work in the area of extraordinary ability; and
3. His/her entry will substantially benefit prospectively the United States.

Family immigration is the primary basis for legal immigration to the United States. Under current immigration law, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) can sponsor certain family members for a visa that provides permanent residence, also known as a “green card.”

The K-1 fiancé visa is available to fiancés of U.S. citizens who are living outside of the United States and intend to get married within 90 days of arriving in the United States.

The H-1B visa is a highly desired non-immigrant visa which permits foreign workers in specialty occupations to enter the country.

The J-1 exchange visitor visa is meant to promote educational and cultural exchanges between the U.S. and other countries around the world. This visa is primarily available to people who have signed up with an approved program that focuses on teaching, receiving training, or conducting research. The J-1 visa is also used by U.S. employers that want to hire workers to either receive on-the-job training or to take part in an internship. And for college and university students outside the U.S., J-1 summer work/travel programs are available, allowing you to spend a summer working in the United States, typically at low-skill, seasonal jobs.

Naturalization is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen in a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the individual, or it may involve an application or a motion and approval by legal authorities.

The PERM Certification process is intended to take a nonimmigrant employee and turn them into a permanent employee. To do so, they will need to secure a green card to become a permanent resident. This is beneficial to your company and to the employee, who will have more benefits as a green card holder. It is vital that you and your employee are aware that only you as the employer can initiate the PERM Certification process.

If you or a loved one has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, you have some important decisions to make very quickly! When someone is in an immigration detention facility, the most important thing to you may be to get the person out. Make sure this is the wise thing to do, however—immigration court proceedings will move much more quickly if the person is detained, and there may be good reasons for getting to see a judge sooner rather than later. Most of the time, however, it’s better to get out of the detention facility and have an immigration judge hear the case later. An immigration lawyer will be able to help with your decision.

Removal defense involves representing and advocating for immigrants facing deportation from the United States. For many immigrants facing removal from the United States, the process involves appearing before an immigration judge in immigration court.
Some of the types of relief from removal that may be available to an undocumented immigrant who is in immigration court are:

1. Adjustment of status.
2. Asylum.
3. Withholding of removal.
4. Protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT).
5. Cancellation of removal for persons who are not lawful permanent residents.
6. Cancellation under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
7. Voluntary Departure.

There may be other defenses and forms of relief that apply to your particular case. It therefore makes a lot of sense to hire a licensed, competent, and experienced attorney if you are in removal proceedings and wish to avoid deportation.

The U visa is a United States nonimmigrant visa which is set aside for victims of crimes (and their immediate family members) who have suffered substantial mental or physical abuse while in the U.S. and who are willing to assist law enforcement and government officials in the investigation or prosecution of the criminal activity. It permits such victims to enter or remain in the US when they might not otherwise be able to do so. If approved, the U visa provides the victim with:

• temporary immigration status including work authorization;
• temporary immigration status for qualifying family members of the victim; and
• the possibility of lawful permanent resident status.

As a battered spouse, child or parent, you may file an immigrant visa petition under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The VAWA provisions in the INA allow certain spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens and certain spouses and children of permanent residents (Green Card holders) to file a petition for themselves, without the abuser’s knowledge. This allows victims to seek both safety and independence from their abuser, who is not notified about the filing.

If you are an employer who has an active office in the U.S. or wants to establish one, the L-1 visa may have the benefits you need to send experienced high-level employees to the U.S. to grow your business. The L-1 visa requires a person to be a manager, executive, or specialized employee in a multinational company in order to be qualified. This opens up the door for many people that are otherwise ineligible for other work visas.

The R1 visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows religious workers (ministers and persons working in the religious vocation or occupation) to work in the U.S. for a period up to 5 years and eventually apply for a green card for permanent residence. R visas are a type of short-term work visas available to people who have been offered jobs as religious workers in the United States.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act section 212 there are many enumerated reasons a person can be found to be inadmissible to the United States. Grounds of inadmissibility prevent a person from obtaining lawful permanent residence and from obtaining non-immigrant visas. A person may be inadmissible for various health, financial, criminal, security, or other grounds. A finding or likelihood of being found inadmissible to the U.S. may not be the end of your hopes for a U.S. visa or green card. Many grounds of inadmissibility allow applicants to apply for a waiver; in other words, “forgiveness” of the ground by the U.S. government. Different grounds of inadmissibility have different waiver requirements, however, so make sure you meet the basic criteria to submit an application. The application itself will need to be carefully prepared and documented.