Immigration Legal Questions

I am not aware that there are any restrictions on a K-1 visa for an individual going from Chile to Argentina and back to Chile before coming to the US under that visa. The only restriction of which I am aware in that context is that the individual must enter the US before the ending date of the visa. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

The US citizen spouse would have to prove that she would suffer "extreme hardship" If USCIS denies her foreign national husband a green card. "Being in love" is not a valid reason to obtain a waiver. The US Citizen spouse should seek the opinion of a medical doctor to establish whether any mental or physical condition would render her reliant on her husband to the point that she would suffer the "extreme hardship" if the waiver was not granted. The waiver application should include opinions from several physicians to establish "extreme hardship", as well as affidavits from friends, family members and/or coworkers, to support the opinion of the physicians in layman terms.... Read More

Immigration is a Federal practice, but answering these questions can prove frustrating to some.  If you are married to a U.S. citizen and intend to immigrate, then it will be difficult to overcome the presumption of immigrant intent that is imposed when anyone applies for a non-immigrant F-1 student visa.  As a result, a consular official has a responsibility to deny the visa. If you misrepresent your intentions, and get caught, the bar on lawful immigration can be indefinite. If the consular official has subjective reason to believe that a person is inadmissible, then a non-immigrant F1 visa may be denied as a matter of discretion. As a result, I strongly recommend an appointment with a competent and experienced immigration attorney before there are any more complications. Good luck. The above is general information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney client relationship... Read More

H-1B generally requires that you enter a selection process with USCIS in March to see whether you are selected to be allowed to participate in the H-1B program if you are working for a private company. That is unlike E-3, which has no limitation on the number of individuals who can participate. The advantage of H-1B is that it is a dual intent visa under which you can intend to immigrate and at the same time be allowed to stay here on a nonimmigrant basis. The E-3 falls within a gray area, under which it can be denied if there is immigrant intent on your part, although it is treated in most cases more favorably than applications based upon visiting or studying. If you are selected, and if you decide to remain in the US, you can apply for a change of status which will allow you to remain in the US when the H-1B takes effect in October or later assuming that you are approved. After the H-1B takes effect, any trips that you wish to take outside the US except to Canada or Mexico for 30 days or less would involve obtaining a H-1B visa in the passport before being allowed to return to the US. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

If you have a single entry visa, you must have it renewed when taking a trip outside the US. While there is no guarantee that an American consulate or embassy will renew the visa, consular officers will usually allow the renewal unless there are circumstances that they believe need to be looked into. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

For a child to be registered as a citizen at a US consulate or embassy, the US citizen parent must be able to prove that he or she was physically in the US for five years, of which at least two had to be after attaining the age of 14 prior to the birth of the child. If you did not meet that requirement, you cannot make up for it at this time. You can alternatively file a petition for your child to enter the US as a permanent resident and if your child is then under 18 and a permanent resident and living in your legal and physical custody, he or she will automatically qualify to become a US citizen. At that point, you or the child can apply for his or her US passport or send an application to USCIS (Form N-600) to obtain a certificate of citizenship. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

Whether you can sponsor two persons at the same time depends upon your means, but also upon timing. If you are a fairly wealthy individual or making a good living, e.g. earn $100,000 annually, you would usually have no problems sponsoring multiple individuals. On the other hand, if you make much less and barely pass the levels required under federal guideline levels (see USCIS form I-864P), you may decide to sponsor only one instead of two if they are both in the category of cases that require an immediate affidavit of support. On the other hand, if the cases will require affidavits of support far apart from each other in time, you can probably sponsor both since you will not have put up the second affidavit of support by the time that the first case is completed. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

There are two things involved here for you to obtain the benefit from your mother. The first is the length of time and the second the TN status that requires nonimmigrant intent. If your mother sponsored you, it would be under the F-3 category for married sons and daughters of US citizens. For Mexican-born, only those who applied before June 15, 2001, are receiving final interviews. So that is a wait of over 20 years. The second issue is that TN is not a dual intent visa under which a person can intend to immigrate while at the same time receiving the TN visa. Luckily, most consular and CBP officers would take into account the length of time that the F-3 application would take, and would accordingly still allow you to enter the US with TN status even if you have a pending or approved immigrant visa petition under that category. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

An EPO-001 emergency order of protection in California apparently can be issued by a law enforcement officer if he or she believes that protection is immediately warranted. The length of time allowed is seven days given that it is not issued by a judge. Such would not appear to be capable of affecting your immigration status. However, any further altercations with your ex-girlfriend could lead to immigration consequences. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

Your question of how to change from a visitors visa to a working one depends upon an evaluation of your qualifications, particular job opportunities, and the applicable law. You should consult an immigration lawyer to go over your legal ability to take on the particular job along with any and all viable options. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

I will assume that you are sponsoring your parents for the green card, and not for US citizenship. In such case, your marrying during the petition process will generally have no effect on your parents’ eligibility to immigrate. That being said, you are still liable to provide I-864 affidavits of support for each parent under which you will have to meet government financial guidelines. Your wife would count as one of your dependents. If she makes money, you could add her income to yours to bolster the support for your parents. If she is not working, the amount of earnings and assets that you have would have to be enough to cover one more person, your wife. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

Your brother-in-law taking financial assistance from the government for an emergency appendectomy will have no effect upon an application for political asylum. While an individual or individuals giving an I-134 affidavit of support have agreed to cover expenses by the parolee, there is currently very little enforcement to recoup monies back from an I-134 sponsor given the time and money required to pursue the affiants along with the political unpopularity of doing so. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

Generally speaking conditional green card is given to you for 2-years if married less than two years and prior to it expiring you and your spouse will need to apply to remove the condition. As you already have an approved conditional green card not sure why you will want to worry about TPS. Seek representation from an immigration attorney to strategically go over this with you.... Read More

Question 23 on part 12, page 14 of theN-400 naturalization application asks whether you have ever been arrested, cited, or detained by any law enforcement officer (including any immigration official or any official of the US Armed Forces) for any reason? That would seemingly include your traffic accident with alcohol. Although the naturalization officer may look at the offense again – if your immigrant file shows the fact that you received the immigrant visa despite your disclosure of the offense previously, that likely means that he or she will not look at it that closely in terms of inadmissibility as a crime or other ground of inadmissibility. More of a concern may be whether you have made a misrepresentation in your naturalization application which could lead to a finding of ineligibility for not having good moral character. Such may depend upon the officer’s perception of your forthrightness at the interview and whether the officer gave you a chance to correct your account, and whether you were forthright in doing so. If you continually denied that you had any incident with the law and the officer had to in effect drag it out of you, the officer may consider whether a misrepresentation was made. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

In the month of October 2023, the final action date chart of the visa bulletin shows that the availability date under which individuals can obtain their permanent residence is backlogged to February 8, 2019. Please note that dates in this category can change radically, but assuming that the situation remains stable, a person with a priority date in April 2021 can expect to wait approximately two years for final immigration. I note that the US is currently beginning a program to allow nationals of certain countries – El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Cuba and Haiti – who have approved I-130 petitions but are caught in the backlog to apply for parole, which is given, will allow the individual to remain in the US for a period of up to three years with work eligibility. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

As the NVC has informed you, the petition that you filed does not include derivative status for family members. That is because you are filing in the immediate relative category for spouses, parents, and unmarried children under 21 of US citizens, and the law does not provide for derivative applicants. You can submit a new petition for your 17-year-old brother under the F-4 category for siblings of US citizens. His processing time will be approximately 13-15 years under current projections. Alternatively, your parents can immigrate and petition for him under the F-2A category for unmarried children under the age of 21 of green card holders. This category is currently projected to take around 2-4 years to complete. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

A J-1 medical residency automatically invokes a two-year foreign residence requirement which is usually difficult to waive in a situation like yours. If your wife can obtain the position under H-1B, that would probably be a better choice. Unless your wife has a waiver or has served out the two-year home residence requirement, she is not eligible for permanent residence. Under a two-year residence requirement, an individual cannot assume a H category visa status. Waiver would only be available where extreme hardship would occur to a US citizen or permanent resident spouse or child if the waiver is not approved, or your wife would face persecution in the home country, or your wife obtains an interested US governmental agency waiver, or qualifies for a Conrad-30 state medical waiver. Assuming that you receive your permanent residence in 2-3 years, you can begin to sponsor your wife, but she would not be eligible for permanent residence finalization unless she has obtained a waiver or fulfilled the two-year residence requirement. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

For entries and exits since 2013, you can generally go to the CBP I-94 website to obtain the information even if the entry or exit is not stamped by the US or foreign country. An officer should not deny a naturalization application for lack of a passport stamp if he or she believes the applicant or the date is largely irrelevant to the application. Usually, a date is only relevant where there is question as to the qualifying time for physical residence or continuous residence in the country. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More