Category: Immigration News

United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) issued an interim memo (in effect now) to address scenarios when a foreign national is in removal (deportation ) proceedings before the Immigration Courts (part of the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review) but an application for a benefit is pending before USCIS (part of the Department of Homeland Security). Those Immigration Court litigators […]

It sounds like a mouthful.  One of the divisions of the U.S. Government that represents the U.S. Department of Homeland Security before the Federal Courts (mainly the various Courts of Appeal) is the Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL).  Periodically, OIL publishes their Immigration Litigation Bulletin which was previously unavailable to the public until the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was […]

United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) published a memo earlier this year indicating detailing when a Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) self petition can be revoked:  “If an officer in the field receives new information that was not available to the VSC at the time of the approval of a VAWA self-petition, and that new information leads the officer […]

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it is now issuing employment and travel authorization on a single card for certain applicants filing an Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, Form I-485. This new card represents a significant improvement from the current practice of issuing paper Advance Parole documents. The card looks similar to the current Employment Authorization […]

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The Board of Immigration Appeals held in Matter of Nelson 25 I&N Dec. 410 (BIA 2011): “Once an alien has been convicted of an offense that stops the accrual of the 7-year period of continuous residence required for cancellation of removal under section 240A(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a) (2006), section 240A(d)(1) of the Act does […]

The Department of State has released the Visa Bulletin for March 2011. Petitioning for foreign born employees and family members can be a far more complicated process without the assistance of a good attorney.  If you have family members you would like to invite to the United States or if you wish to petition for employees, contact the Law Offices […]

In a refreshing decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded an MS-13 El Salvador gang case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals after determining that the respondent did fit within a particular social group for his kinship (family) ties to his uncle who testified against the criminal gang MS-13.  Both the uncle and the respondent received threats in El […]

Headnote: “In general, an alien’s conviction for a crime involving moral turpitude triggers removability under section 237(a)(2)(A)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(i) (2006), only if the alien committed the crime within 5 years after the date of the admission by virtue of which he or she was then present in the United States. Matter of Shanu, […]

In a case argued and briefed by Attorney Ricky Malik, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a published decision on January 19, 2011 denying the asylum, withholding and Convention against Torture (CAT) claims of one of our clients.  Our client was seeking asylum and related protection in the United States based on his fear of returning to El […]