Boston Immigration & Nationality Law

Pensamentos vários

Eu gostaria de lembrar a communidade de algumas coisas importantes com respeito a várias áreas legais.

1. Tempo de esperança, de trabalho, mas também de cuidado

Nesse momento muita gente está falando das possibilidades de uma legalização. Lembre-se, até que as duas cãmaras do congresso não estejam de acordo em uma proposta de lei e esta não seja enviada ao presidente e aprovada, tudo é especulação. O mais importante agora é trabalhar por essa legalização participando nas manifestações em prol da reforma, falando com seus amigos e conhecidos que sejam residentes ou cidadãos e se envolvendo com grupos que estejam trabalhando para encontrar uma justa solução a esta situação tão séria. Então, vamos trabalhar juntos.

2. Use o seu direito de ficar em silêncio

Uma coisa que tenho visto recentemente, é pessoas dizendo para a polícia mais do que deveriam. Se voce é parado (a) pela polícia, voce tem que se identificar para o oficial com seu nome verdadeiro, mas lembre-se que eles não estão do seu lado, e para a polícia, voce é um criminoso até que o contrário seja provado (este não é o geito que deveria ser mas infelizmente é assim que a maioria dos policiais agem.) Tudo o que voce disser, poderá ser usado contra voce, por isso, quanto mais voce falar, mais um policial sem escrúpulos poderá virar o sentido das suas palavras. Por isso, fale o menos possível.

3. Um bom hábito.

Quando voce está trabalhando para alguém, voce deve guardar notas escritas à mão das horas que voce tem trabalhado, as datas, os lugares e o salário recebido. Isto é especialmente importante se voce não está recebendo tempo extra, ou se seu empregador está deixando de pagar voce por tempo trabalhado.

Open Forum on Immigration: What's Really at Stake?

I'll be facilitating a discussion on immigration, in light of the New Bedford raids, for the Mystic Valley Area Branch of the NAACP,  Monday, March 26th at 7:30 PM.

Location:
West Medford Baptist Church, corner of Boston Avenue and Harvard Street.
Meeting is downstairs. Use Harvard Street entrance. For more information, call Chapter Vice President Neil Osborne at 617.482.1160.

All are welcome!

This is a new thing for me: I'm used to giving presentations in Portuguese to the Brazilian community here in Massachusetts. I'm pleased that interest in immigration is rising in nonimmigrant communities. I hope to see some of you there!

Preference Categories for family immigration

When applying for people who are not the parents, spouses, or unmarried minor children of United States Citizens, the term "preference category" is bound to come up.  This refers to the quota system by which USCIS apportions visas. This being said, it's possible to have an APPROVED petition, and still have to wait for years before the green card application can begin.

The categories are divided as follows.

First : Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Citizens                           

Second : Spouses and Children, and Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents         

• A. Spouses and Children
• B. Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 years of age or older)                                                             

Third : Married Sons and Daughters of Citizens                              

Fourth : Brothers and Sisters of Adult Citizens

Looking at the preference categories from the visa bulletin for April, 2007 (see below), we see that USCIS is working on applications received on or prior to the dates listed.

For example, if the petition you filed is for a married (Brazilian) son of a U.S. Citizen, and it was filed on April 25, 2001 --  prior to the 245i date -- look at the current visa bulletin to see what date USCIS is working on. First, identify the category. In this case, that would be third preference. Next, as we're not talking about a Mexican, Indian, Philippine or Chinese person, we see that the date USCIS is working on is March 22, 1999. Assuming that cases continue to be processed at a constant rate, there should be a 2 year wait for the next phase of the process.

If, say, a U.S. Citizen filed for his Mexican brother on June 1, 1994, then that person would be in the fourth preference category -- and as the priority date for Mexicans in that category is June 8, 1994, the beneficiary could be eligible for consular processing if outside the U.S., or to adjust status, if here.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Family	All Charge- ability Areas Except Those Listed	CHINA-mainland born	INDIA	MEXICO	PHILIPPINES
1st	08MAY01	08MAY01	08MAY01	01JAN94	22FEB92
2A	01APR02	01APR02	01APR02	01DEC00	01APR02
2B	15AUG97	15AUG97	15AUG97	01MAR92	01OCT96
3rd	22MAR99	22MAR99	22MAR99	08FEB88	01JAN85
4th	01MAY96	15OCT95	01JAN96	08JUN94	01NOV84

Why you should apply for Citizenship as soon as you're eligible

I was in immigration court today for a detained Master Calendar hearing, and while I was waiting for my client's case to be called, watched as a polite, well-spoken young man was ordered deported (or "removed," in immigration court parlance). He had been convicted of a nonviolent drug crime. The surprising thing was that he had been a green card holder for 19 years! He was ordered to return to a country he could likely barely remember, and where he would have an uncertain future.

Realistically, laws can change.  You don't have to fall afoul of the drug laws to get in trouble with immigration... it can be a fight, or a domestic dispute, or something else that could be easily resolved... IF you were  a U.S. Citizen. U.S. Citizens can't be deported... so, think about naturalizing as soon as you're eligible!

How to get a green card when the beneficiary is outside of the U.S.

Today's question: how do I apply for a green card for a family member who is outside of the United States?

A United States Citizen can apply for a spouse, parent, child or sibling. A permanent resident can apply for a spouse or an unmarried child.

As always, check with an immigration attorney to make sure that all procedures are followed carefully, and to ensure eligibility for permanent residence of the beneficiary. In some cases, the beneficiary may be ineligible due to previous immigration violations or crimes committed, and in others, a waiver may be available.

First, the form I-130 with filing fee and appropriate supporting documentation is filed to the USCIS Service Center with jurisdiction over the petitioner's place of residence. If all papers are in order, USCIS will approve the case and forward it to the National Visa Center, or "NVC". Once the NVC receives it, if a visa number is available,  it will send out bills for additional fees to be paid, and, when these are received, sends out the application for the visa and the affidavit of support to be completed. When these forms are received, NVC forwards the file to the appropriate consulate or embassy for further action.

The consular office schedules a visa interview, and sends out a list of evidence the beneficiary will need to bring. If all goes well at the interview, a visa is affixed into the passport, and the beneficiary enters the United States as a permanent resident -- and hopefully, receives the green card in the mail soon afterwards.

The process can be slow -- from a year to several years, depending on preference category.

It should go without saying, but this is a general outline, and each case is different. If you want to file for a relative, feel free to call my office to schedule an appointment.

Visa Bulletin, 4/07

Department of State's Visa Bulletin for April.

Bond Hearings

I see that I haven't written much about EOIR (the Executive Office for Immigration Review,  or Immigration Court) proceedings, so today I want to write about bond hearings. I've been to the Boston Immigration Court more that usual this last week, and I have a matter pending before an Immigration Judge (IJ) in York, Pennsylvania, as well, so this seems like a natural topic.

In some cases, when a foreign national is arrested and detained by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), he or she has a right to a bond determination or re-determination before the Immigration Court. (Re-determination, because ICE can set a bond). When eligible, the client can, through his or her attorney, request a bond hearing. When the court receives the motion, a hearing will be set; at that point, it's my job to show that the client (Respondent, in immigration parlance) is:

1. not a danger to the community, and
2. will likely appear at future hearings.

The ICE District Counsel will generally seek to show the opposite; also, if the client is ineligible for bond due to past convictions or due to being an arriving alien,  that will surely come up at the hearing!

The IJ will then set bond, whether it's to set an initial bond, change or make no change to the bond set by ICE, or raise it to no bond, depending on the results of the hearing. In many cases, the bond hearing is the first opportunity the Respondent has to appear before an IJ, so it is an important step. This is especially true as some people won't have merits hearings for several months, so bond is necessary to avoid waiting in jail in the interim.