New York Lawyer's Legal Updates
BIA: DOMA Can No Longer Be Used Against Same Sex Couples
19 July 2013Author: New York Immigration Attorney Alena Shautsova DOMA can no longer be used against same sex couples held Board Of Immigration Appeals in its recent decision Matter of Oleg B. ZELENIAK, Beneficiary of a visa petition filed by Serge V. Polajenko, Petitioner 26 I&N Dec. 158 (BIA 2013). It is probably the first BIA decision issued after the ...
Asylum Status: Matter of V-X-, 26 I & N Dec. 147 (BIA 2013)
15 July 2013Author:US Asylum Attorney Alena Shautsova In its recent decision, BIA affirmatively stated that grant of asylum is not an admission under the INA. Matter of V-X-, 26 I&N Dec. 147 (BIA 2013). What significance does this decision have for asylum status holders? Admission for immigration purposes is a term of art and it implies certain immigrat ...
What is Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)?
03 July 2013Author: US Immigration Attorney Alena Shautsova Pursuant to INA § 101(a)(27)(J), under the classification of “Special Immigrant Juvenile”, certain undocumented individuals, who have been declared dependant on a juvenile court or placed in foster care, and whose reunification with one or both parents is not possible due to abuse, abandonment or neg ...
What does “Immigration Reform” actually entail?
03 July 2013Author: US Immigration Lawyer Alena Shautsova For the past few months there has been a lot of talk about “Immigration Reform”. On Thursday, June 27, 2013, the current bipartisan immigration reform bill passed the Senate with a vote of 68-32. So what is all this talk about immigration reform really about? For the approximately eleven million und ...
Immigration Consequences of DOMA Being Struck Down
01 July 2013Author: US Immigration Attorney Alena Shautsova On June 26, 2013 the Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion in United States v. Windsor that caused rainbow flags to fly high all across the country. In Windsor, the Supreme Court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act enacted by Congress violated the Fifth Amendment of the ...
Asylum Claim Based on Domestic Violence in Home Country
30 June 2013Author: Asylum Attorney Alena Shautsova An applicant for asylum must establish that he or she is a refugee within the meaning of INA § 101(a)(42). To qualify for asylum, an individual must demonstrate that he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or politi ...
U.S. Supreme Court Struck Down Section 3 Of The DOMA
27 June 2013Author: US Immigration Lawyer Alena Shautsova Dear Friends, We are happy to share the recent news that on June 26, 2013, Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor, struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, noting that “DOMA’s principal effect is to iden ...
What relief is available under the Convention Against Torture (CAT)?
25 June 2013Author: Asylum Attorney Alena Shautsova In some instances, an individual who does not qualify for asylum may meet the threshold requirements to qualify for relief under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). As declared in Article 3 of CAT, countries do not want to remove an individual t ...
Age Discrimination: When to Complain?
01 June 2013Author: Discrimination Attorney Alena Shautsova New York State and City laws, as well as Federal ADEA (“Age Discrimination Employment Act”) protect workers from age discrimination: it is illegal to subject employees to harassment, disparate treatment and retaliation. Different laws provide different frames of protections, with the New York City l ...
Immigration 800 Number
01 June 2013Author: US Immigration Lawyer Alena Shautsova Immigration 800 Number: 1-800-898-7180 Immigration 800 number is an automotive system that provides updates on alien’s case processing dates such as next hearing date; status of the case; immigration clock… To use it, the person must know the A number of the subject of the call. There is no name dir ...