Jacksonville Immigration Attorney Blog

While I have been expecting this news for some time now, the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria has officially announced that it will be suspending its operations as of February 06, 2012. The announcement also indicates that all U.S. personnel have already left Syria.

The reason is, of course, the escalating violence now in Syria. The announcement indicates that the U.S. Embassy personnel reached out to the Syrian government regarding their concerns for their safety, and that according to the announcement the Syrian government did not "respond adequately."

With the cases that I am handling for Syrian nationals, many of these cases are now being transferred to the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan for processing.

USCIS has recently announced that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) has been extended for nationals of El Salvador. The extended period is from March 10, 2012 until Sept. 09, 2013, which is an 18 month extension of time.

Current nationals of El Salvador that have TPS have only a 60 day window within which to extend their status. The deadline is through March 12, 2012. USCIS is NOW accepting applications, so please file as soon as possible if this applies to you. TPS applicants will also receive employment authorization as well that will be valid until September 09, 2013.

To re-register, applicants must file form I-821 and I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. Both forms must be filed together. People who are extending their status do not need to repay the filing fees for the I-821 form, but they must submit the biometrics fee or fee waiver form if they are over 14 years of age. They also must pay the employment authorization filing fee or a fee waiver form if they are eligible for that fee waiver. The fee waiver form is Form I-912.

All of these forms can be downloaded at www.uscis.gov.

The U.S. Embassy in Chennai, India has changed the types of cases that it handles. As of January 1, 2012, the U.S. Embassy in Chennai, India no longer handles any permanent immigrant visa applications. Instead, the U.S. Embassy in Chennai, India now will ONLY handle non-immigrant visas, such as B-1 / B-2's (i.e. visitor visas for business or pleasure), student visas, H-1B and other H-1 visas and H-4's for dependents, and other work visas.

The U.S. Embassy in Chennai, India has now become the ONLY U.S. Embassy in all of India that handles L-1 visas. L-1 visas are intra-company visas, which means that a foreign company has opened a branch in the U.S. and wants to transfer one of its main employees (executive or manager) or owner / President to the U.S. in order to expand the business. The foreign business MUST remain open and active in order to qualify for the L-1 visa.

The USCIS has indicated that it wishes to centralize applications so that fraud is reduced and so that Officers can become extremely efficient in one type of case. It seems that centralizing L-1 applications for all of India at only the U.S. Embassy in Chennai, India is a good step to increasing efficiency, as the Officers are or will soon become experts on L-1 visas. L-1 visas are extremely complicated visas, and so it is good for the Officers to become proficient in one type of visa to avoid incorrect applications of law or incorrect denials.

Applicants who had an immigrant visa appointment already at the U.S. Embassy in Chennai, India need not worry, as the U.S. Embassy has indicated that it intends to complete action on those pending cases by March 30, 2012.

At my law office, I have been receiving many calls since July of this year asking whether a new law has been passed that helps illegal immigrants. There has been a change, but it is not a new law per se. Basically, the Obama administration has issued a policy change in how they will treat OPEN deportation and removal cases by setting "low priority" and "high priority" case standards. Those individuals with what are considered low priority cases are eligible for prosecutorial discretion, which means that the Immigration Court can "administratively close" or even terminate removal proceedings.

The reason for this policy change is that there are more removal cases than the current immigration court system can handle. In other words, Obama wants to focus on criminal aliens more than the aliens that have no criminal record and the aliens that have a possible means to obtain immigration relief.

We have noticed an increase in the cooperation of the trial attorneys for cases where the individual has no criminal history, and we are thankful for this new policy change.
Although the above is helpful for people who are currently in removal proceedings and have no serious criminal history, individuals with existing deportation or removal orders against them do not directly benefit from this policy change, because their case with the Immigration Court has already been closed. These individuals may benefit if they qualify for a Motion to Reopen based on other grounds, and they can cite this policy change as a reason for the Judge or the BIA to have mercy on them and grant their request.

Also, as recently reported by CNN, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has stated on October 19, 2011 that the work raids where hundreds are arrested will stop, and focus of immigration officials will turn to prosecuting and removing criminal aliens.

Not too many people are aware, but under probate law in connection with wills and estates, the executor of the will assigned by the deceased person must be a U.S. citizen in many states in the U.S.

A new Memo dated October 3, 2011 issued by the Probate Court in Alabama, states that now proof of citizenship is required as well as a copy of the driver's license. This requirement is same as the requirement in many other states.

Just a small reminder of one of the many benefits of becoming a U.S. citizen.

CNN has reported that over a span of 7 days, ICE has arrested 2,900 immigrants who had criminal convictions. ICE arrested 2,900 people from all over the 50 states. The Obama Administration has consistently upheld its policy against criminal aliens, and this is one example of their policy being placed in action. Of those 2,900 people, more than 1,200 people had multiple convictions. Also, 1,600 of those people had felony convictions ranging from manslaughter to sexual crimes against minors. A few were even gang members or convicted sex offenders.

ICE has estimated that there remain at large over 1 million convicted immigrants in the U.S. Most of the people arrested, about 2,600 of them, were men.

I know from the calls I am receiving in my office that enforcement of criminal aliens is definitely on the rise, because at least 50 percent of the calls I have been receiving lately are calls from family members seeking assistance in getting their loved one out of immigration custody. Many of the detained aliens have had some previous criminal conviction(s) in their past.

USCIS recently released a news alert that changes the filing procedures for U.S. petitioners residing abroad who wish to file for their immediate relatives. As of August 15, 2011, U.S. citizen petitioners who want to file a Petition for Alien Relative for their spouses or other family members MUST file their forms with the Chicago Lockbox Facility. In the past and until August 15, 2011, some petitioners residing abroad were able to file their immediate relative petitions directly with their U.S. Embassy via the Department of State at that U.S. Embassy. Filing directly with U.S. Embassies has generally been a faster way to approve visa petitions.

As of August 15, 2011, USCIS has centralized the filing location of the Immediate Relative Petitions to the Chicago Lockbox address, which can be found on the USCIS website.

There is an exception to this change, which is that if there is an international USCIS office having jurisdiction over the area where a petitioner lives, then those petitioners can continue to file their Immediate Relative Petitions with the international USCIS office.

As of May 16, 2011, USCIS local office in Tampa, Florida has instituted a new notice to appear policy for denials of I-751 cases. Once the I-751 case is denied, now USCIS will issue a notice to appear without waiting the required 30 day period within which applicants can file their motion for reconsideration.

A notice to appear is the charging document USCIS uses to place someone in removal proceedings. The notice to appear, also called NTA, should state all the allegations against the intending immigrant, and should also state a date or "soon to be announced" annotation for when and where the applicant must appear for immigration court. It is extremely important that the address for the applicant is correct on the Notice to Appear, and if it is not, then the applicant must take all precautions necessary to make sure the address gets corrected. Otherwise, applicants can fail to receive a hearing date and then be ordered deported in absentia. Once the case is filed with the immigration court, applicants can change their address with an immigration court by filing form EOIR-33/IC.

During the immigration court process, the applicant must explain to the Judge through filing certain application(s) for immigration relief as to why they should not be deported from the U.S.

This new policy of immediately issuing NTA's upon denial has been confirmed as taking place by the USCIS office in Tampa, Florida. Although Jacksonville denies that they have accepted this procedure as their official policy, I know from a new client coming to my office that this procedure has taken place in the USCIS office in Jacksonville, FL, although certainly not consistently and only on a case by case basis.

This information is being provided because many applicants filing form I-751 believe that the process is simple, but unfortunately if the USCIS denies the case for any reason, this could now result in the applicants being placed in removal proceedings and possibly getting deported if the matter is not resolved favorably.

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ericka Bennett with Action News Jacksonville on November 16, 2010 regarding the issue of how much control police have in arresting undocumented individuals. I thank Ericka Bennett for the opportunity.

To read the article, please go to this link:

http://www.actionnewsjax.com/content/actionlocal/story/JSO-officer-finds-undocumented-aliens/GrIiuTgcXkGyv4OYg_mfWw.cspx