Law Publications And Articles

Free Legal Updates Sign Up

Children As Dependents For Immigration Purposes

Author: New York Immigration Lawyer Alena Shautsova Earlier, I wrote a blog about who qualifies as a child for Immigration purposes. Here, I would like to discuss some situations when it is important not only to originally qualify as a child, but to retain such a qualification at the time of the adjudication of certain applications. When it come ...

Eb-4 Cap Is Reached For El Salvador, Honduras And Guatemala

Author: Green Card attorney Alena Shautsova USCIS reached its EB-4 Visa limit for Special Immigrants from the countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Essentially the cap has been backdated for applicants who have filed on or after January 1, 2010. Those who have filed after this date must wait for new visas to become available. The Fisca ...

How To File For Marriage Based Green Card

Author: Marriage Immigration Attorney Alena Shautsova New York Immigration lawyer Alena Shautsova helps immigrants to apply for the marriage-based immigration benefits in the United States. One of the most common types of Immigration cases every practitioner encounters is an application for an immigration status based on marriage. These applicati ...

Parole In Place: Why To Use It And Where To Submit It

Author: New York Immigration lawyer Alena Shautsova Parole in place is a discretionary action by the U.S. government that allows an individual who is in the United States without being properly inspected and admitted to be “admitted” into the country without leaving it. Parole in place can be applied for by members of the military families, as we ...

H1B Lottery: To Play Or Not To Play

Author: Work visas lawyer Alena Shautsova On April 7, 2016 USCIS announced that the cap for H1B petitions for the next fiscal year has been reached. It means that no new petitions subject to cap would be accepted. USCIS also announced that it received more petitions that the allocated quota and all received petitions subject to cap will be partici ...

What Happens If Asylum Case Is Denied After The Interview?

Author: Asylum lawyer Alena Shautsova Under the Immigration laws, an asylum applicant has to first submit his/her application for asylum with the administrative body or Asylum office of USCIS. The form i-589 and supporting documents are being sent to the address specified in the instructions to the form, and then an applicant has to wait for an in ...

Change Of Status V. Adjustment Of Status

Author: New York Immigration attorney Alena Shautsova Change of status occurs one an individual who already is in the United States in a lawful status wishes to change it to a different non-immigrant status. A person is admitted into the U.S. according to the intentions he/she has and depending on activities he/she will be engaging in the U.S. Fo ...

Fighting Allegations Of Marriage Fraud

Author: Green Card Lawyer Alena Shautsova A government’s allegation that a person committed marriage fraud for the purposes of avoiding Immigration laws in the United States, permanently bars the non-citizen from any and all Immigration benefits in the United States. Consider a case, where a non-citizen first tries to obtain a green card through f ...

ESTA Travel Changes

Author: US visa attorney Alena Shautsova Electronic System for Travel Authorization or ESTA allows citizens of certain countries to enter the United States without the need of a formal visa application. Recently, CBP updated its ESTA form to reflect changes to the Visa Waiver Program occurred in connection with the Terrorist Travel Prevention Act ...

240 Day Rule For Work Visas

Author: New York visa attorney Alena Shautsova One is authorized to work in the United States if his status permits him to do so (for example, an Asylee does not need a work authorization to accept employment or to be self-employed), or if he has an approved I-765 application (for example, L2 visa/status holders). A person whose status is pending ...