The court’s ruling comes from the matter of Colmenares Carpio v. Holder which concluded that the applicant “must be under twenty-one when he or she seeks to enter the United States, not when his or her subsequent application adjustment of status is finally adjudicated.”

This result contravenes several decisions of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service or USCIS denying applications for adjustment of status based on a K-2 visa because the applicant was twenty-one years of age or older at the time of adjudication of the adjustment of status.

To recap, the K-2 visa holder must be under twenty-one at the time he or she “seeks to enter” the US when applying for adjustment of status.

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• U.S. Immigration Law Presentation (slideshare.net)

“I am not going anywhere,” Laschenova told IG.

In January, Laschenova’s employer, Integrity Gymnastics in Plain City, Ohio, received a notice from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that her petition for an employment-based immigrant visa was denied, reopened and denied again.

“For how many years we’ve been here and what we’ve done, it’s so stressful right now,” Laschenova said Saturday. “It’s not right. Everyone knows it’s not right.”

Laschenova said she is hopeful that Gus Shihab, the immigration attorney who last week offered to handle her case pro bono, can succeed in appealing it. An Atlanta law firm handled Laschenova’s original case.

“Basically, we’re lucky at least once in these 10 years,” Laschenova said of her new association with Shihab, of Shihab & Associates in Columbus, Ohio. “He started working very, very quickly.”

Read the full story on intlgymnast.com/

• The first is through the annual “green card diversity lottery,” held each year by the Department of Homeland Security, for citizens of countries that have “low rates of immigration” to the United States. Millions of people from specified countries around the world apply to take part in the lottery, but only 50,000 green cards are made available through the process. Each participant in the lottery is issued a number, the government draws about 150,000 numbers, and the people with those numbers then are allowed to apply for one of the 50,000 slots.

• The second way to gain legal entry is to be a spouse, sibling, child or parent of an American citizen or the spouse or minor child of someone who holds a green card and is willing to sponsor your entrance into the United States.

• The third is through an employer, who must complete a lengthy application process that requires proof that the has a unique skill necessary to the business.

THERE ARE other provisions of immigration law that allow people who are seeking asylum to gain legal entry into the country, but being granted asylum is an extraordinarily difficult process.

An additional number of other immigrants are admitted each year under temporary work permits and student visas, however those visas generally do not permit conversion to immigrant status, and they require the holder to leave after a specified length of stay.

And then there is the “S” visa. Essentially a free pass, the visa is awarded only to those who work for law enforcement and must be applied for by law-enforcement officials. The Mayas say immigration officials promised them the “S” visa, but then reneged.

According to immigration officials, only 250 “S” visas are available each year, and fewer than 60 were awarded in 2009.

CONGRESS last year set immigration visa limits at 700,000 for employment and family preferences, excluding refugees and those entering the country on temporary work or student visas.

In 2008, the total number of immigrants admitted to the country (excluding refugees and those on temporary non-tourist visas) tallied just under 750,000.

Source: Daily Free Man

Matt, originally from Corning and now living in Rochester, is a U.S. citizen. Heather, who met her husband in 2005 when both were students at the Elim Bible Institute in Lima, is from Hamilton, Ontario, and a Canadian citizen. They thought that once they were married, it would be simple for Heather to get her “green card” and live and work legally here with Matt until they have enough money to finish their degrees and start the family they both want.
For more than a year, they had traveled back and forth to Canada without incident until June 26 (the day before the wedding at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington) when Matt told the Canadian border guards that marriage was the reason for his visit.

“I was turned away at the border,” Matt says. “I had to prove I had a means of departing and that I would return.” He hurried back to Rochester, got a letter from his boss indicating that he has a job, made a copy of his apartment lease, and purchased a return airplane ticket (even though he planned to drive home). He stayed in Canada as a visitor for several weeks before coming home to Rochester, but that’s when the couple realized living together would not be as simple as they hoped.

The U.S. and Canadian governments want to be certain that a marriage between citizens of their countries is legitimate, that the citizen spouse can support the non-citizen, and that the newcomer will not need public assistance, says Rochester lawyer Margaret Catillaz, an expert in immigration law.

Since Heather and Matt were married, both their passports have been flagged and when they visit, they are always detained for questioning. Even though she’s done nothing wrong, Heather said during a recent visit, she always feels as if she’s in trouble.

Matt and Heather just want to be together.

And money is the only thing standing in their way. It costs up to $2,000 to apply for legal resident status and complete the required procedures. And right now, neither Matt and Heather, nor their families, have the money. Heather is unemployed and Matt washes windows and cleans gutters. Rent, car payments, food — that’s all they can afford.

Read the full story on Democrat and Chronicle

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Congratulations on getting married!

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The 2010 report declared 2007 was the year China caught up to the US in the number of researchers and doctoral degrees it handed out in natural sciences and engineering. The US awarded 22,500 doctorates in natural sciences and engineering in 2007, but more than half of them were awarded to foreign nationals from countries like India, China and Russia.

Past experience suggests that most new Ph.D.s will stay in the US. Despite the long wait to get a Greencard, sluggish US economy and hype about reverse brain drain, the report shows that 60 per cent of temporary visa holders who earned doctorates in science in engineering in 1997 were still working in the US — and had no intention of leaving.

“While the US is the largest R&D performing nation — representing one-third of total world investment — Asia has narrowed the gap due to the sustained annual increases by China,” said Jose-Marie Griffiths, a member of the National Science Board.

Read the full story on DNA India

One concern focuses on whether illegal immigrants would be allowed to buy health insurance on private markets, called exchanges, which are envisioned in the legislation. The House bill would let them, the Senate bill would not.

The other concern is that both versions of the legislation maintain a five-year waiting period for legal permanent residents to participate in Medicaid for the poor. Advocates contend that these greencard holders should be allowed in Medicaid immediately, as Congress agreed last year for a program for pregnant women and children.

Read this entire story in the Monday, January 18, 2010 print edition of The Baxter Bulletin.

According to court documents, immigration agents placed the couple’s Blacklick house under surveillance, interviewed their next-door neighbors and sorted through trash bags taken from their curbside refuse container.

The agents collected enough evidence to establish that Kwadwo Asante and Lilian Asante were living as husband and wife but had entered sham marriages with others in hopes of gaining permanent residency in the United States.

Both pleaded guilty and were sentenced yesterday to two years on probation. An immigration judge is expected to deport them.

The tactics used by agents in the case aren’t typical, said a Columbus immigration lawyer, but they illustrate the extremes to which officials will go to investigate the validity of marriages between citizen and noncitizens.

“The truth is, if the government suspects that a marriage isn’t bona fide, they’ll investigate mightily,” said Kenneth J. Robinson.

Federal law is clear: Any individual who “knowingly enters into a marriage for the purpose of evading any immigration law” faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The notion that marriage to a citizen is a simple path to a green card granting permanent residency is a common misconception, said Dennis Muchnicki, a Dublin-based immigration lawyer. “People think the process is easy, but it’s no walk in the park,” he said.

The couple must file forms with immigration officials asking the government to formally recognize the relationship and grant the noncitizen permanent residency.

The process can take five to seven months, requires exhaustive documentation and includes an interview with an immigration official who separates the couple and asks personal questions, such as where they put their dirty clothes and which side of the bed each sleeps on.

The filing fees for a greencard cost $1,365. Couples who hire a lawyer to assist them with the process can expect to pay an additional $1,000 to $2,000, Robinson said.

The process isn’t open to all noncitizens. Those who scramble across the border without passing through inspection checkpoints aren’t eligible to gain residency through marriage.

Those who enter the U.S. through customs with fraudulent documents can seek residency through marriage, but the bureaucratic hurdles are significant.

“The majority of those who gain residency benefits through marriage entered the country lawfully,” Robinson said.

Most often, they came to the United States with temporary work or student visas. That was the path taken by the Asantes. Lilian Asante came to attend law school at Ohio State University. Kwadwo Asante was attending Case Western Reserve University’s MBA program.

“When people come here legally from the proverbial Third World countries with a student visa and realize everything this country has to offer, a lot of them don’t want to go back,” said Daniel A. Brown, an assistant U.S. attorney in Columbus.

And some are willing to pay to find a fraudulent spouse, he said.

In December, 11 central Ohio residents were indicted for their involvement in sham marriages arranged for about $17,000 each. Federal prosecutors determined that none of the couples lived together after they were married.

Brown said sham-marriage prosecutions are rare in central Ohio, but he suspects that many escape the scrutiny of investigators.

When couples approach Robinson about helping them with the greencard process, he puts them through the same kind of questioning they’ll get from an immigration official.

“For every 10 I take, I probably turn away two,” he said.

But he assumes that most find another lawyer willing to help them. “I don’t envy the government’s job.”

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

The co-sponsors are a mix of mostly left-wing groups, and the bill is a hodgepodge of different ideas and political compromises all too common in today’s Washington. Consequently, few are enthusiastic about it, and many will be outraged.

Republican opposition leaders state that it would exacerbate the unemployment problem during a recession. That economic fallacy, and the readiness with which it is believed, could kill the good in this bill.

Besides a genuine desire to overhaul our flawed immigration system, there are other motivations to introduce CIR ASAP at this time. The health care bill is in serious trouble, and Democrats need a distraction. They also are worried about the midterm election. Throwing a bone to the pro-immigration camp, particularly Hispanics, could help increase turnout and shift votes to Democrats. Regardless, CIR ASAP is the beginning of another long political battle that will stretch long into next year.

Many of today’s highly skilled immigrants come in on H-1B visas. Rules and caps on the number of these visas issued each year hamper economic growth and entrepreneurship. H-1Bs and former H-1Bs have been in on the ground floor of new firms. As of 2008, one-third of all companies founded in Silicon Valley had Indian or Chinese immigrants as co-founders.

Moreover, expanding enterprises rely on H-1B workers to fill needed slots. According to the nonpartisan National Foundation for American Policy, each H-1B visa requested increases employment by five workers. Foreign skilled workers need support and management, so they typically do not substitute, but complement American labor. A firm willing to employ H-1B foreign workers employs Americans alongside them.

The CIR ASAP should just eliminate the cap for H-1B visas or, as has been suggested, recycle unused H-1B visas from the past. Instead, it creates a government agency to suggest “market” changes to the system. Markets do a much better job as markets.

…

Immigrants come and will continue to come because of economic opportunity. Yet typically it takes 15 to 20 years for a low-skilled laborer to get a greencard – if he’s lucky. Highly skilled workers and H-1B visa applicants fare hardly better. Anyone ambitious enough to seek a better life in a new country isn’t going to wait for a labyrinthine bureaucracy.

Without a legal path to entry, many will continue to break the law and the economy will continue to suffer. CIR ASAP offers some positive reforms, but the politically motivated E-Verify program would be a disaster.

Read the full story on Washington Times.