Much digital ink has already been spilled reporting on the phantom tide of undocumented migrants supposedly breaching our Southern border. This article will address a different, but very-real immigration flood, and suggest ways U.S. employers, noncitizens, and their lawyers ought be emboldened to add to the deluge.
Ironically, it is about a dry subject – federal district court review of … Continue Reading
[Blogger’s Note: Today’s post originates from a discovery – a gem hidden in plain sight – first brought to my attention by Gabe Mozes, my immigration partner at Seyfarth Shaw, and co-author of this piece. Great immigration lawyer that he is, Gabe raised a particularly galling example of how U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) pursues extralegal, pretextual grounds, … Continue Reading
As hard to spot as a well-camouflaged Waldo or surreptitious Carmen San Diego, Francis Cissna, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), is almost nowhere to be found. The exception – aside from mandatory appearances at congressional oversight hearings and the occasional press interview – is among the pols he deigns to address who staunchly oppose a functioning and … Continue Reading
“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”
~ An unidentified U.S. major, referring to the February 7, 1968 bombing of the South Vietnamese town of Ben Tre that killed hundreds of noncombatants, as recounted by Associated Press reporter, Peter Arnett.
I’ll admit I foolishly allowed myself to be misled. Despite almost 40 years of practicing immigration … Continue Reading
Deciphering the workings of the bureaucratic mind is never easy. What seems settled practice is often anything but. Abrupt abandonment of longstanding policy can happen in a nanosecond — many times with nary a word of forewarning or explanation. Usually there’s an unstated backstory — one that can be divined by asking the forensic question first popularized by the Romans: … Continue Reading
The pattern by now is all too familiar. With the Trump Administration fully ensconced, the rollback of President Obama’s eight-year legacy continues. This time it involves the International Entrepreneur Regulation — an imperfect and burdensome rule that would have become effective last month had the Administration not imposed a delay. The Obama-era rule created a labyrinthine human steeplechase allowing a … Continue Reading
Memes, apocrypha, obfuscation, head feints, hand-wringing, and supposition: These are the misleading and unreliable stuff of the Interweb. To a great extent, alas, they also infect the EB-5 ecospace. This article will avoid conjecture and look at the few hard facts we know about Trump Administration appointees and the positions they will hold, while encouraging EB-5 stakeholders momentarily to suspend … Continue Reading
“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
~ Yogi Berra
The talk of the nation – at least that segment interested in U.S. green card benefits available to foreign investors – is about the welcome or feared changes likely to occur in the EB-5 employment-creation immigration investor visa program. Scuttlebutt and divination have yielded a wide range of … Continue Reading
As the Obama presidency nears its twilight, let me tell you about our leader’s eight-year, largely-disappointing record on immigration.
But first a bias alert: I voted for the President twice; I like and respect him; and I marvel at how glib, cool, incisive, studious, and otherwise mostly big-hearted he’s been. With favorability ratings nearing 60 percent, he’s seen by most … Continue Reading
The Department of Homeland Security, through its component agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), has issued a proposed regulation to allow a qualified foreign citizen to gain entry and be employed in the United States if he or she will engage in activities that are likely to “increase and enhance entrepreneurship, innovation, and job creation in the United States” … Continue Reading
[Blogger’s Note: This post is submitted as a necessarily-lengthy formal comment to the November 20, 2015 draft guidance of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, PM-602-0122, interpreting the phrase, “the same or [a] similar occupational classification” as used in the “increased job flexibility” provisions of Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) §§ 204(j) and 212(a)(5)(A)(iv). This comment incorporates by reference the … Continue Reading
Two hundred days ago President Obama stoked the hopes of immigration advocates with his announcement of wide-ranging executive actions to try — as far as his authority would carry him — to change America’s broken immigration system for the better.
Generating most of the media fanfare and Republican outrage were his plans to expand eligibility for the DACA program and … Continue Reading
Social media flamed with expressions of outrage, relief and tepid optimism ever since President Obama announced on March 23, 2015 the release of long-awaited policy guidance on a key temporary worker visa category:
Today, I’m pleased to announce a new action I’m also taking to make it easier for global companies who are present here today to launch and invest … Continue Reading
Terabytes of text have already been generated in the course of extolling or excoriating President Obama for his November 20 Executive Actions on Immigration. The prolific foaming of bloviating mouths has mostly been prompted by the promise of deferred action and work permits for undocumented immigrants under the DACA and DAPA programs. Surprisingly, however, his equally profound measures to improve … Continue Reading
[Blogger’s note; Probably the most gratifying element of practicing immigration law is watching clients flourish. Obtaining immigration benefits, especially lawful permanent residency, often unleashes a wave of innovation and creativity. Less often, it produces a humanitarian “pay it forward” moment. This is the story of today’s guest blogger, Protima Pandey. Many years ago, I represented a technology company that … Continue Reading
“Politics at bottom is not all that complicated. It’s all about timing.”
Facing a recalcitrant House of Representatives controlled by Republicans, President Obama made an historic announcement on November 20th outlining an array of executive actions he would take to fix as much as he could of our broken immigration system.
Understandably, public and media attention since then … Continue Reading
Since 2008 American employers have been burning mad about how U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has gone from fairly reasonable to highly restrictive in its interpretation of the L-1B “specialized knowledge” visa category. This statutory visa category allows certain “intracompany transferees” to enter and work in the U.S. for a qualifying employer if he or she “has a special … Continue Reading
[Blogger’s note: An anonymous immigration lawyer offers this lament on the woeful quality of adjudications at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). For related wailing, see: “ ‘I Hate [Bleep]ing Immigration Law’ — Whenever I Get an Unjust Request for Evidence,” “End the Tyranny of Immigration Insubordination,” and “Immigration Indifference – The Adjudicator’s Curse.”]… Continue Reading
[Blogger’s note: For EB-5 stakeholders interested in learning more about the USCIS Listening Session, you can register for “EB-5 Immigrant Investor Update,” a webinar presented by members of Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s EB-5 Immigrant Investment Team on May 13, 2014. Topics include:
• The April 23, 2014 USCIS’s stakeholders listening session
• FINRA’s recent notices and how to spot … Continue Reading
The dysfunctional immigration world continues to spin dangerously out of control.
Do-nothing House Republicans (and five pusillanimous Democrats) commit political seppuku with the passage of the ENFORCE Act — a going-nowhere bill which would authorize civil suits against the President to dissuade him from doing something to husband scarce prosecutorial resources and ameliorate the harsh consequences of deportation for noncriminal … Continue Reading
[Bloggers Note: Today’s guest column comes from noted Atlanta-based business immigration lawyer, Eileen M.G. Scofield, who addresses a subject covered often before on NationOfImmigrators, the business-critical L-1 Intracompany Transferee visa category. (See, e.g., “The L-1 Intracompany Transferee Visa Facing Attack — from All Branches of the Federal Government, Part I and Part II. Eileen and I, together with Miami … Continue Reading
Hindsight, the armchair pundits say, is 20-20. The year 2013 has proven them wrong.
The end-of-year’s rear-view mirror onto the world of U.S. immigration shows impenetrable fog. Unsurprisingly, as filmgoers know, vapory views of the recent past tend to diminish the apparent significance of events occurring early in the year (“never has a film released in July won an … Continue Reading
The dictionary defines the adjective, “passive-aggressive,” as “a type of behavior or personality characterized by indirect resistance to the demands of others and an avoidance of direct confrontation.” That is an apt characterization describing how federal bureaucrats work their will in the immigration ecosphere. The passive-aggressive behaviors show up in efforts by federal immigration officials to enlist and “deputize” third … Continue Reading
The last few weeks have witnessed severe shocks to the health care system known as Obamacare. The President has issued mea culpas for the not-ready-for-prime-time web site, Health.gov, and for his campaign promise to Americans that if they liked their health insurance plan, they could “keep it. Period.” Americans who’ve lost their preferred health plan have also experienced shocks, … Continue Reading
