Need another reason to apply for your citizenship? Sir Patrick Stewart eloquently explains why he finally decided to make the leap from Permanent Resident to U.S. Citizen:
“I’m not a citizen. However, there is, maybe it’s the only good thing as the result of this election: I am now applying for citizenship because I want to be an American too, because all of my friends in Washington said, ‘There is one thing you can do. Fight, fight, oppose, oppose.’ But I can’t do it because I’m not a citizen.”
Of course non-citizens can still indirectly participate in the political process by engaging in activities such as campaigning, marching and speaking about the issues. But only U.S. Citizens have the privilege to vote. So if you are a Permanent Resident and you are unhappy with the results of the 2016 election, apply for your citizenship today, so when 2020 rolls around you can be the first one in line to vote!
**Attorney Advertising** Please be advised that that all information provided above is general in nature and does not create an attorney-client relationship.**Attorney Advertising**
#India Fun Fact = “Magnetic Hill is a gravity hill located near Leh in Ladakh, India. The hill is alleged to have magnetic properties strong enough to pull cars uphill and force passing aircraft to increase their altitude in order to escape magnetic interference..” See morehere.
See you Friday for #ForeignFlagFriday #FlagNo53!
Happy Friday! Can you guess which country #FlagNo52 is from?
Answer to #FlagNo52 posted on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!
**The dedicated NYC immigration attorneys at The Shapiro Law Firm, LLC, have represented clients from over 100 countries across the globe. Click here to see for more countries that our clients come from or Contact Us to learn more.**
Asylum Clock Restarted – Work Permits Approved: Yesterday we received two more work permit approvals for a husband and wife who are natives and citizens of Indonesia, (hereinafter Clients “X” and “Y”). X and Y have never had a work permit before despite applying for asylum 10 years ago because they did not know they were eligible to apply. When X and Y applied for asylum, less than 150 days elapsed before their case was referred to the immigration court by the asylum office. An asylum applicant must wait 150 days to after submitting an asylum application before applying for a work permit. If your case is denied or the clock is stopped, you are not eligible for a work permit.
There are many different reasons that the 150 day clock can be stopped. In X and Y’s case, their asylum application was denied by the Immigration Judge before they reached 150 days (*today, it can take 3+ years to have your interview with the asylum officer so applicants are reaching 150 days well in advance of a potential denial. But keep in mind that there are other reasons your clock can be stopped, like missing your biometrics appointment).
After the Immigration Judge denied the case and entered an order of removal/ deportation against X and Y, the couple appealed the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). X and Y won the appeal and their removal/ deportation was remanded back to the Immigration Court where it was eventually administratively closed.
X and Y came to our office after unsuccessfully applying for a work permit to see if there was anything that we could do to help them. Upon review of their file, we noticed that the time between the appeal to the BIA and the remand back to the Immigration Judge exceeded 150 days and the BIA has ruled that the asylum clock restarts upon a successful remand from the BIA and includes all the days that the case was on appeal awaiting a decision.
So, we wrote a letter to USCIS explaining that the system was not updated to reflect the correct amount of days on the clock and sent it with the application for employment authorization. In just 3 weeks, X and Y’s applications for employment authorization were granted!
(*please note that all identification information has been removed in order to protect our clients’ privacy and in order to fully comply with attorney advertising rules and regulations*)
Transcript: Hi, I’m Attorney Shaffer. Today on “What You Really Want to Know,” We answer the question, “I am in the U.S. illegally and I am married to a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident, can I get a Green Card and will I have to leave the country to get one?”
The answer is, it depends. “Illegal” or “Unlawful Presence” can mean a few different things. Not all unlawful presence is treated alike under the immigration law. So, to answer this question, we must look to the facts surrounding your unlawful presence. Specifically, we need to look at how you entered the country and there are 3 categories that people fall into:
The first category is a person who has been inspected and admitted to the United States using either a visa in your own name, a lawful Visa Waiver or you were paroled into the country. If you fall into this category then you will not have to leave the country to get a Green Card based on an approved Marriage Petition. In fact, you can file for your Green Card as if you were in lawful status.
The next category is someone who has been inspected and admitted to the United States using either fake documents or pretending to be someone else. If you fall into this category then you also will be able to apply for a marriage-based Green Card without leaving the country, however your are going to also need a Waiver of Inadmissibility based on fraud and misrepresentation.
And the last category, is a person who has not been inspected or admitted to the United States. If you fall into this category then you will have to leave the country in order to get a marriage-based Green Card and you will also need a waiver of inadmissibility. This is known as “Entry without Inspection” or “EWI,” and the most common type of EWI is a person who crosses the border without permission.
Although you do have to leave the country, the good news is, there was a law change a few years ago, you can now file this waiver before you leave the United States and you will not have to leave until you know the waiver is approved and your interview for your Green Card has been scheduled at the U.S. consulate or embassy abroad. This means you are only going to be out of the country for a few weeks.
In the past, you would have had to first leave the country, then file your waiver, then wait 6 months to upwards of a year for an approval before you would be scheduled for your interview to come back into the country. If your waiver was denied, then your stuck out of the country.
Of course, there are many more eligibility requirements that you must meet in order to get a Green Card and you cannot be subject to any grounds of inadmissibility. Figuring out if you are eligible for a Green Card and what steps you must take in order to get one is complicated. Contact an experienced immigration attorney before you begin to avoid headaches, delays and & denial!
That is all for this episode of, “What You Really Want to Know,” thanks for watching!
**Attorney Advertising** Please be advised that that all information provided above is general in nature and does not create an attorney-client relationship.**Attorney Advertising**
#HongKong Fun Fact = “It has the most skyscrapers in the world, with 8,000 buildings having more than 14 floors, almost double that of New York.” See morehere.
See you Friday for #ForeignFlagFriday #FlagNo52!
Happy Friday! Can you guess which country #FlagNo51 is from?
Answer to #FlagNo51 posted on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!
**The dedicated NYC immigration attorneys at The Shapiro Law Firm, LLC, have represented clients from over 100 countries across the globe. Click here to see for more countries that our clients come from or Contact Us to learn more.**
Settlement Reached in Child Support Enforcement Case: Last week after intense negotiations, Attorney Shaffer was able to reach a settlement agreement in a child support enforcement proceeding. Our Client, (hereinafter “X”), was sued by his ex-wife for allegedly failing to pay childcare and add-on expenses pursuant to the couple’s Divorce Decree. There were two main issues that were being contested:
(1) The percentage of childcare X should be responsible for, and;
(2) If the add-on expenses (namely, summer camp and extracurricular activities) that X’s ex-wife was seeking reimbursement for was reasonable, as she did not first seek X’s consent as was required under the agreement.
After going back and forth for hours with Petitioner’s attorney, Attorney Shaffer was able to cut the amount of arrears X owed in half by arguing that Petitioner was asking for more than she should be for the childcare (as she had a child with her new husband who was also using the nanny and her child was not yet school age) and that her failure to seek X’s consent for the add-on expenses was a violation of the Divorce Decree. Furthermore, by proving that there was a reasonable disagreement regarding the amount of arrears owed, X was not found in default of the divorce decree and thus X was not required to pay Petitioner’s attorney fees.
Work Permit Approved for Asylum Applicant: We also received a work permit approval for a client who is a native and citizen of Mali. (hereinafter, “Y”). Y received his work permit based on his status as an asylum applicant. Y is currently in Removal/ Deportation Proceedings and will go before the Immigration Judge for his first hearing in November.
(*please note that all identification information has been removed in order to protect our clients’ privacy and in order to fully comply with attorney advertising rules and regulations*)
#Chile Fun Fact = “Chile has the world’s largest outdoor swimming pool at the San Alfonso del Mar Resort. Set along the coastline, it is larger than 20 Olympic swimming pools and holds 66 million gallons of water. The pool is also in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the world’s deepest at 115 feet and costs £2 million pounds (US$3.25 million) to maintain.” See morehere.
See you Friday for #ForeignFlagFriday #FlagNo51!
Happy Friday! Can you guess which country #FlagNo50 is from?
Answer to #FlagNo50 posted on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!
**The dedicated NYC immigration attorneys at The Shapiro Law Firm, LLC, have represented clients from over 100 countries across the globe. Click here to see for more countries that our clients come from or Contact Us to learn more.**
Transcript: Hi, I am Attorney Shaffer, today on “What You Really Want to Know,” we answer the question, “Why is my immigration application taking so long?”
This is a question that we get asked every single day! The answer is, USCIS has a lot of applications to process! That being said, this is not what clients want to hear.
So what can we do?
Well, if you go to USCIS.gov and on the home screen click on “check your case status.” Then, you should have received in the mail a receipt notice that looks something like this:
This is called the Form I-797C and on the receipt notice, somewhere in this upper portion should be a receipt # and it is going to start with 3 different letters followed by a bunch of numbers, so in this case it is MSC- and then a bunch of #s.
You are going to take that number and you are going to type it into the screen and click enter, when you click enter what you should get is the most recent update regarding the processing status of your application. The information presented on the screen should represent where in the process your application is. If there is anything surprising on the return screen, like it says something was denied or they sent a notice out that you never got, then I highly recommend that you immediately call an experienced immigration attorney.
As long as everything looks good, you just have to wait and be patient. If your application has been pending for longer than the normal processing time, which varies by application, then either yourself or your attorney can submit an inquiry to USCIS to check on the status.
When it has been a REALLY long time, like double the time of the normal processing time, we will often schedule clients for an Infopass appointment so that they can meet face-to-face with an immigration officer to find out what is going on with their application and what, if anything, we can do to speed up the process.
If you feel that your application has been taking too long or you find a surprise on your case status return screen, give us a call today and we will get to the bottom of it today!
That is all for this episode of, “What You Really Want to Know,” thanks for watching!
**Attorney Advertising** Please be advised that that all information provided above is general in nature and does not create an attorney-client relationship.**Attorney Advertising**
Marriage-Based Green Card Approved: Today Attorney Shaffer attended a marriage interview at USCIS with a client. (hereinafter, “X”), who is a native and citizen of the United Kingdom, and his U.S. Citizen wife. X entered the United States on an L-1 Visa and met his wife at work. They got married a little over a year ago and X’s wife filed a marriage petition on his behalf. X concurrently file his Green Card application. After a short interview with USCIS, the Immigration Officer informed X and his wife that the petition and application is approved! This means that X is no officially a Conditional Green Card holder! X and his wife live together with their dog in Manhattan.
Work Permit & Travel Document Approved: Today we received approval notices for a work permit and travel document for our client who is a native and citizen of Mali, (hereinafter “Y”). Y received his EAD and travel document as an adjustment applicant. Y’s Green Card application is based on the marriage petition filed by his USC Wife. While Y waits for the approval notice, he can work legally in the United States with the Work Permit and leave and re-enter the country with the travel document as if he was a Green Card holder. Y and his wife should be scheduled for a Marriage Interview shortly.
Work Permit Approved for Asylum Applicant: We also received a work permit approval for two clients who are husband and wife and are natives and citizens of Nigeria, (hereinafter, “Z” & “A”). Z and A are both Asylum Applicants. Z, A and their son are awaiting their interview wit the Asylum Office.
(*please note that all identification information has been removed in order to protect our clients’ privacy and in order to fully comply with attorney advertising rules and regulations*)
Conditions on Permanent Residence Removed, 10-Year Green Card Approved: Today we received another approval on a petition to remove conditions on permanent residence (Form I-751)! Our client. (hereinafter “X”), is a native and citizen of Myanmar. X entered the United States in 2002 as a minor on aV-2 nonimmigrant visa. X subsequently married a naturalized U.S. Citizen who was born in Burma. X’s wife filed a marriage petition on his behalf, and in February of 2014, he received his Green Card based on the marriage. Because the couple was married for less than 2 years at the time of the green card interview, X only received a 2-Year Green Card. So, X and his wife had to file a joint petition to remove conditions on his residency within 3 months of the expiration date of his Green Card. X and his wife timely filed the petition in December of 2015. X and his wife were waiting for the past year to be called in for an interview, but their marriage evidence was so strong that their case got approved last week without being called in for another marriage interview! X and his wife are happily living together in their newly purchased home in New Jersey, and because of how long the I-751 process took, X can already apply for his Citizenship!
Work Permit & Travel Document Approved: Today we received approval notices for a work permit and travel document for our client who is a native and citizen of Germany, (hereinafter “Y”). Y receive his EAD and travel document as an adjustment applicant. Y’s Green Card application is based on the marriage petition filed by his USC Wife. While Y waits for the approval notice, he can work legally in the United States with the Work Permit and leave and re-enter the country with the travel document as if he was a Green Card holder. Y and his wife should be scheduled for a Marriage Interview shortly.
Work Permit Approved for Asylum Applicant: We also received a work permit approval for our client who is a native and citizen of Nigeria, (hereinafter, “Z”). Z entered the United States less than a year ago and is the rider on her father’s timely filed Asylum Application. As a rider, Z is entitled to apply for a work permit as if she was the lead Applicant. Z and her family are awaiting their interview wit the Asylum Office.
(*please note that all identification information has been removed in order to protect our clients’ privacy and in order to fully comply with attorney advertising rules and regulations*)
The Shapiro Law Firm, LLC | New York Attorneys 