The new attention has turned a once-obscure alternative source of funds into a viable route toward development. Use of the 20-year-old program nearly doubled last year, to 1,995 investor applicants in the fiscal year ended last September from 1,031 in the prior year.

In 2006, when the economy was still roaring, there were just 486 applicants, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The program is named EB-5 because it represents a fifth category of employment-based immigration.

Read the rest of the story on WSJ

Related articles

• Green Card Process Steps (socyberty.com)
• How to Get Usa Visa Lottery (socyberty.com)

Source: Daily News 365

“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/

On the date of the interview, the couple has to demonstrate to the USCIS officer that they intent to establish their life together. To put it in another way, the couple has to convince the USCIS Officer that the intent of the marriage is not to circumvent the immigration laws of the United States. At the interview, the USCIS Officer makes a determination regarding the validity of the marriage as well as other issues pertaining to the good moral character of the beneficiary of the greencard. If the Immigration Officer is not convinced with the statements made by the couple at the interview, the Immigration Officer has the authority to schedule the couple for a second interview which is commonly known as the Stokes interview.

A stokes interview is a very difficult interview and it is a good idea for an individual to seek legal help in such situations. This is because if the couple fails the Stokes interview and if the immigration officer makes a determination that the intent of the couple was to circumvent the immigration laws in order to obtain a greencard, the beneficiary of the petition can be permanently barred from obtaining the greencard.

During the stokes interview, the couples are separated by the immigration officer and are separately questioned in detail about their relationship, relatives, employments, travels etc. If the answers of the couple properly match perfectly, then the officer will approve the I-130 petition. However, if the answers do not match and if the officer makes a determination that the marriage between the parties is fraudulent, the Immigration Officer has the power to arrest the parties and commence deportation proceedings against the beneficiary.

Very often, couples think that they are happily married and they have nothing to worry about their immigration interview. This statement may not hold true on all occasions. This is because the burden of proof in on the married couple to show by means of preponderance of evidence that they intend to establish their life together.

In essence, if you are confronted with a second interview (stokes interview) by immigration, it would be a good idea for you to be extremely well prepared in order to avoid serious consequences such as deportation.

About Author
The author of this article, N.M. Gehi, Esq. is a practicing immigration attorney in the state of New York and Connecticut. This article is based upon his practical experiences in handling stokes interviews since many years.

A: Immigrants filing applications to renew permanent resident cards, commonly known as “greencards,” need to file Form I-90 (which can be downloaded at www.uscis.gov) with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The form can be mailed or sent by courier to the addresses shown in the instructions. The submission also can be made on line; go to www.uscis.gov and follow the instructions for online filing of Form I-90.

Currently (as of November 2009) an application fee of $290 and a biometrics processing fee of $80 must be submitted with the application. Applicants filing paper forms should obtain money orders for the $370 total, made out to “U.S. Department of Homeland Security.” Applicants filing on line will pay the fees electronically.

All applicants will receive by mail a notice for a biometrics (fingerprint) processing appointment at a local USCIS Application Support Center and will submit any required initial evidence and documentation during that appointment.

IMPORTANT: Applicants are being instructed to take to their biometrics appointments the records of any arrests, convictions, or any other involvement in criminal matters since last being granted legal permanent resident status. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been attending these appointments and reviewing the documentation supplied by applicants. Some applicants have been detained because of the criminal records they submitted or because their names appeared as a result of an ICE investigation as having outstanding criminal warrants. Accordingly, it is IMPERATIVE that you obtain legal advice before filing your Form I-90 if you have ANY issues involving past or pending criminal proceedings anywhere in the world.

IIC can help you with the I-90 renewal filing process, as well as the application for getting a new greencard when the original has been lost, or when the card issued contains incorrect information.

NOTE: Holders of two-year conditional permanent resident cards based on marriage to a US citizen don’t file Form I-90 to remove the condition; they use Form I-751 instead.

By the way, anyone who has been a legal permanent resident long enough to be eligible for US citizenship really ought to consider applying for naturalization as soon as possible. IIC can help you with the all aspects of the naturalization application process.

For a free, confidential consultation on this or any other aspect of immigration law, visit one of our legal clinics advertised in The Emigrant.

[Source: Irish Imigrant]

Clutching a rolled-up American flag in one hand, Mahmoud Saad couldn’t stop grinning today as he sat beside 15 other immigrants in a jury box inside a Redding courtroom.

After all, the 26-year-old Egyptian Chico State University electrical engineering student had been waiting for much his life to recite the words that would make him a U.S. citizen.

But it was the special honor of leading the group in the Pledge of Allegiance earlier in the naturalization ceremony in U.S. Eastern District Court that had special meaning for Saad.

“They’re not just words, ‘With liberty and justice for all,’ ” he said prior to the ceremony in the courthouse parking lot, his four friends from Chico beside him. Each held an American flag.

The event was the first ceremony in recent memory offered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to be held in Redding, allowing Northern California immigrants to avoid a lengthy drive to Sacramento or San Francisco to take their citizenship oaths.

A Canadian, a Czech, two Indians, a Kenyan, seven Mexicans and three Filipinos joined Saad in taking their oath.

Each had been in the country for at least three years, living legally in the U.S. first as a permanent resident with a greencard.

“You can’t simply immigrate,” said Sharon Rummery, a spokeswoman for the USCIS.

For a nonresident to come to the country, someone — usually a parent or a spouse already in the country — must first petition for an immigrant’s greencard.

An employer can also petition for a greencard for an employee, but it’s unlikely that someone who doesn’t have at least a bachelor’s degree would be allowed in through that route, Rummery said.

Others can request asylum from their home. A judge can also grant a greencard during a deportation hearing, Rummery said.

But a few lucky ones like Saad are drawn in what’s known colloquially as the GreenCard Lottery, which is officially called the USCIS Diversity Visa Program.

Hundreds of thousands apply from all over the world, but only 55,000 immigrant visas are granted each year.

Most at Redding’s ceremony had family in the United States that allowed them into the country in the first place. Others married in.

The latter was the case for Norma Muzzall, a 37-year-old Mexican immigrant who married a Chico delivery driver named Mark Muzzall, 42.

The two now live in Corning with their two children.

“Hey, you get to vote now,” Mark Muzzall said after the ceremony.

“I know!” she said.

But first, she said, she gets to pick a political party.

“He’s a Republican and his mom’s a Democrat,” Norma Muzzall said. “They’re both trying to convince me to pick their party.”

It was America’s political process that brought Rodolfo G. Lagoc, a 73-year-old retired lawyer from the Philippines who lives in Redding down the path to U.S. citizenship.

“The freedom from want, the freedom from fear, you have peace and order,” Lagoc said.

For Saad, becoming a citizen means he at last belongs.

“I used to feel like I was a part from this place,” Saad said. “Now I feel like I am officially a part of this country.”

Reporter Ryan Sabalow can be reached at 225-8344 or at rsabalow@redding.com.

[Source: Redding]

Applicants should bring their green card, Social Security card and driver’s license or state ID, a money order payable to USCIS for $675, two passport photos and the personal information detailed on the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights page at icirr.org.

Future workshops will be held on the third Saturday of every month at various locations in Chicago. For more information, call Caitlin Elsaesser at (773) 772-7170 ext. 3022.

How is the visa pie dived up?

A quick review of the congressional allocation of employment visa numbers will be helpful for the analysis of these I-485 inventory numbers. Section 201(d)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allocates an annual minimum of 140,000 visa numbers for employment-based immigrant visas. Although there are 140,000 employment visas available for worldwide usage, each country may not take more than 7% or 25,620 of the annual visa quota.2 Furthermore, each of the five employment visa preference category is subject to the following limits:3

First (Priority Worker): 28.6% of the worldwide quota, or 40,040, plus unused numbers from the fourth and fifth preferences.

Second (Advanced degree professionals or exceptional ability aliens): 28.6% of the worldwide quota, or 40,040, plus unused numbers from first preference.

Third (Skill Workers, Professionals and Other Workers): 28.6% of the worldwide quota, or 40,040, plus any numbers not used by the first and second preferences. “Other Workers” may only receive up to 10,000 of the visa numbers.4

Fourth (Certain Special Immigrants): 7.1% of the worldwide quota or 9,940.

Fifth (Employment Creation): 7.1% of the worldwide quota.

What is the big picture like?

Generally speaking, there are no big surprises regarding the big picture. There are altogether 233,816 I-485 adjustment applications as of August 25, 2009 pending adjudication before the USCIS, of which 4,050 belong to Eb-1, 74,932 to Eb-2, and151,231 to Eb-3. In terms of geographical distribution, 26,170 cases come from China, 111,296 from India, 12,481 from the Philippines, 8,415 from Mexico, and 74,914 from the rest of the world. Visa numbers remind very tight for the most popular preference categories including Eb-2 second preference and Eb-3 third preference. As expected, the countries which have triggered the per-country cap in recent years are suffering a multi-year backlog of visa numbers. These countries – China (Mainland), India, Mexico, and the Philippines – all have their own I-485 inventory tables. While all countries are struggling in the Eb-3 preference category, China and India are also having a huge backlog in the second preference category. The “other countries” are also looking at a multi-year wait in the third preference category, with a dismal priority date of June 1, 2002 in the October 2009 Visa Bulletin.5 The Eb-1 Priority Worker category remains current for all countries.

Putting the numbers in perspective

There are different ways that these inventory numbers can be useful and analyzed. The following are some interesting observations:

These I-485 inventory numbers represent only the immigrant cases that are filed within the U.S. only. The USCIS indicates that about 15% of the immigrant visas are processed through overseas consular processing. Hence, the actual numbers of applicants for an immigrant visa are actually higher.
There are still 6,170 I-485 applications pending from April 2001, plus another 500+ cases from 2000 and the first three months of 2001. Many of these cases were likely filed under or in anticipation of the INA Section 245(i)6 provision. However, the impact of these cases has dissipated over the years. The most current Visa Bulletin shows that only India’s Eb-3 category has a cutoff date in April of 2001.
The notion that Eb-2 cases are faster than their Eb-3 counterparts still holds true for now but may begin to change soon. While all countries are backlogged under Eb-3, all but two countries are current in Eb-2. China and India have respectively 18,365 and 39,972 I-485 applications pending in the Eb-2 category due to visa backlog. (See Illustration 1 below) In fact, China has three times more Eb-2 cases than Eb-3 cases. The worldwide I-485 inventory table with all pending cases7 shows the number of pending Eb-2 cases was trailing Eb-3 until 2008; the year 2008 has 4,235 pending Eb-2 cases vs. 540 pending Eb-3 cases. Similar trend is also present in the India table, where the number of pending Eb-2 cases first surpassed Eb-3 in the year 2005.8
The number of pending “other workers” cases is proportionately low, with only 1,520 pending I-485s worldwide. One can draw the conclusion that the majority of intending (employment-based) immigrants are skilled workers and professionals.

[read the full story at ilw]

About The Author

Paul Szeto, Esq. is a former INS assistant district counsel in New York City. A winner of the AILF’s Edward L. Dubroff Memorial Award for outstanding writing in the field of Immigration and Nationality Law in 1994, Paul is now in private practice in Edison, New Jersey, focusing on Immigration and Nationality Law. Paul Szeto can be reached at info@szetolaw.com.