Musings on Immigration

Being an immigration attorney is a joy.  I absolutely love what I do.  Helping people navigate the nightmare that is our current immigration system, deal with an entrenched bureaucracy, and advocate for my client's legal and human rights are all part of a day's work.  Being part of changing people's lives for the better and helping make the American Dream begin is the ultimate reward.   But, not everyone likes what an immigration attorney does.  In fact, it appears that the USCIS is at the forefront of not liking immigration attorneys very much! As the result of recent litigation by the American Immigration Council , seeking through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) copies of USCIS training materials, a little gem was produced which goes a long way toward explaining USCIS hostility toward immigration attorneys.  In a PowerPoint presentation entitled "USCIS Adjudicator Interaction with Private Attorneys and Representatives" USCIS takes ...

Interview with the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce discussing the new version of Form I-9. On March 8, 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that effective immediately, all NEW hires by U.S. employers should fill out the new version of Form I-9 , which is identified in the lower, left-hand corner of the form with the label “Form I-9 03/08/13 N”.   Starting May 8, 2013 , use of the new version of the form is mandatory. [We previously reported that employers must start using the new form on May 7, 2013.  However, USCIS has now clarified that the correct date is May 8, 2013.  On March 20, 2013, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) reported the following:  The AILA Verification and Documentation Committee took note of the conflicting information contained in the March 13, 2013 Federal Register notice introducing the revised I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification Form and contacted the USCIS Verification Division to...

Escrito por: Abogada Hiba Ghalib, Asociada, de Kuck Immigration Partners Las predicciones de una importante reforma a nuestras leyes de inmigración se anuncian ahora que los líderes del Congreso de ambos partidos se reúnen en Washington para enfrentar a los cambios comprensivos del sistema de inmigración actual, creído ha suceder en 2013. Y, como los vientos de cambio soplan, las familias que esperan solucionar sus problemas de inmigración han comenzado a salir a preguntar que es lo que ellos pueden hacer. Durante las últimas semanas, los abogados de Kuck Immigration Partners han tenido la suerte de viajar a varios lugares locales para hablar con la comunidad sobre inmigración, permitiendo a las familias e individuos con asuntos de inmigración, la oportunidad de preguntar cualquier cosa con respecto a inmigración. Después de hablar con miles de personas, se empieza a ver el ciclo de las mismas preguntas. No podemos adivinar lo que la reforma va a hacer, pero antes...

SB 160 fixes the problems caused by HB 87 Section 1 makes the reporting requirements easier and more efficient for public employers. Section 2 makes compliance by businesses subject to HB 87’s E-Verify requirements easier and more efficient Section 3 makes compliance reporting under HB 87’s license renewal requirements easier and more efficient Section 4 allows for electronic maintenance of the records required under HB 87, thus ease the burden on public employers Section 5 properly updates the definition of Public Benefit s under state law to make it date specific. Section 6 wisely exempts all lawful presence verification requirements from any contract with a public entity with a worth under $10,000. Section 7 aids the Secretary of State and other public entities by exempting from in-person, original document verification for licenses and public benefits after the initial demonstration of such documents.  Section 8 makes reporting requirem...

HB 125 is Bad for Business, Bad for the Economy, Bad for Immigrants and Bad for Georgia. Section 1 expands HB 87 (Georgia’s Anti-Immigration law) by modifying its “Definitions” of “contractor” and to which entities HB 87 applies Section 2 extends HB 87’s E-Verify Requirement and Future IMAGE requirement to every employer in Georgia Section 2 expands the scope of the mandate of the un-oversighted Immigration Enforcement Review Board Section 3 modifies and increases the mandatory application of E-Verify to Georgia Employers Section 3 increases compliance costs for State Agencies, Counties and Municipalities Section 4, while limiting HB 87’s compliance requirement to NEW licenses, requires additional compliance efforts by businesses and state agencies, counties and municipalities Section 5 substantially modifies the penalties imposable by the Immigration Enforcement Review Board Section 6 eliminates the Federal and Attorney General definitio...

by Rebecca Rojas, Associate At our office, we get phone calls every day from DACA applicants who want to know why they have not yet received their work permit when their friend/sibling/cousin/classmate who filed after them has already received theirs.  There are many reasons why a DACA (or any other immigration) case can be delayed. These are the top five that we see most frequently:   1. USCIS Processing Procedures - Without a doubt this is the main reason why petitions are not approved in the order they are received.  First , once the petition is submitted, it is routed to one of two service centers.  The processing   times of the service centers vary.  You cannot control which service center your application is sent to. Second , within each service center, the petitions are assigned to different officers.  Some officers work faster than others.  Some officers approve more petitions each day than others.  U...

On March 8, 2013, USCIS announced that all U.S. employers should begin using Form I-9 [with a revision date of “(Rev. 03/08/13)N”)] to comply with their employment eligibility verification responsibilities for NEW employees.   The revision date is located in the bottom left-hand corner of the form.    Here is a  PDF version of the new Form I-9 .   After May 7, 2013, all prior versions of Form I-9 can no longer be used and  employers who fail to use the new Form I-9 will be subject to all penalties, as enforced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).    The key revisions to the Form I-9 include: Adding data fields, including the employee’s foreign passport information (if applicable) and telephone and e-mail addresses. Improving the form’s instructions. Revising the layout of the form, expanding the form from one to two pages (not including the form instructions and the List...

Two months, at the start of the legislative session, Representative Hightower sought community support for a bill to “fix” a key problem with the poorly written and nightmarishly shortsighted HB 87, specifically as it applied to the Secretary of State, and to counties and municipalities.  Many community organizations told Representative Hightower that they would be happy to publicly support what became HB 32.  HB 32 was intended to be a bill which reinstated the ability of the Secretary of State to renew licenses of all types in a much more efficient manner than dictated by the terms of HB 87.  There was no talk of, nor apparent desire to further enhance the anti-immigration reputation that Georgia had burnished for itself in HB 87.  However, a substitute bill, HB 125, has replaced HB 32, and has been hijacked, by whom it is unclear, and now is another anti-immigration vehicle destined to careen Georgia off the path of normalcy restored by the federal court decisio...