Category: Blog

In order to enter the United States legally as a foreign national, you must first obtain a visa. This can be for a temporary work visa, non-immigrant visa, or an immigrant visa that is designed as a pathway towards permanent residence. Temporary worker visas are non-immigrant visas for individuals who wish to enter the United States for employment lasting only a fixed time period. Individuals with temporary worker visas are not considered permanent or indefinite residents. If you wish to seek permanent U.S. residence via employment, then an employment-based immigrant visa is the way to go for you. Continue reading Types of Temporary Worker Visas

Advance parole is an option available for certain qualifying aliens to re-enter the United States without a visa after traveling outside of the country. Immigration lawyers regularly help foreign nationals obtain advance parole in order to re-enter the United States without a visa. To re-enter the United States, you must first be approved for advance parole before initially leaving the country. If you fail to do so, you cannot be permitted back into the U.S. legally without a valid visa. Call a Texas immigration lawyer to learn how they can help. Continue reading Who Is Eligible for Advance Parole?

Form I-485 is the Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. This form is meant for people inside the United States to apply for lawful permanent resident status with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This is only done so after the approval of a Form I-526 petition for an EB-5 visa. (For immigrant investors outside of the U.S. with approved I-526 petitions, you will need to fill out DS-260 to remove the conditional status of your permanent residence.) Family members can also file this Form I-485 while in the U.S. as a lawful immigrant when the primary investor’s I-526 is approved. Continue reading I-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status

J-1 Visa Program Requirements

The J-1 visa program can provide many professional and education-based visa opportunities for international visitors to the United States. There are currently 14 different programs within the J-1 visa program umbrella. These multifaceted education-based visa programs range from teaching to studying and conducting research. Foreign nations may also demonstrate special skills and can receive on the job training for a few weeks to up to several years under the J-1 visa program. Texas immigration lawyers regularly help foreign nationals obtain entry into the United States through the J-1 Visa program. Check out the requirements and regulations for each category of the J-1 visa program to determine which one is right for you. Continue reading J1 Visa for Teachers & Exchange Visitors

The green card lottery, which is formally known as the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV), is a program administered each year by the U.S. Department of State that allows certain individuals to immigrate to the U.S. if they meet certain strict eligibility requirements. The idea behind the DV program is to make visas, and eventually citizenship, available to individuals from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. over the prior five years. Continue reading How Does the Green Card Lottery Work?

As a nation founded on immigration and established by the workforce of millions of immigrants, it often takes us aback that the intolerance for people of other races, ethnicities, and nationalities has reached the level that presidential candidates are calling for self-deportation of illegal immigrants. How is this so? How does a nation that prides itself on freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness culturally and legally prosecute people who enter this country searching, sometimes in vain, for a better life? While the answer is still out there, we can examine if laws against immigrants, primarily illegal immigrants, are working to further spread intolerance or are they stemming the tide for American workers to find employment during hard times. Continue reading Are Anti-Immigration Laws Working?

Apples are rotting on the branches of trees and corn is dying in the vast fields of America because of a shortage of workers to harvest our crops, resulting in substantial losses for farmers and their communities. Worker shortages are raising a serious threat to bring in the harvest and this problem ties in with larger political issues. In an agricultural system built on exploitation, tough immigration laws are getting rid of one of the easiest groups of people to exploit: undocumented immigrants who have everything to lose if they attempt to report labor violations or assert their rights.

Continue reading A Hard’s Days Work: The Importance of Migrant Labor

When you have applied for U.S. citizenship, you must go through an interview with an officer from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The purpose of this interview is to verify your identity, provide information about your background and character, and ensure that you are willing to take an Oath of Allegiance to the United States. Going through the interview process is a requirement of becoming a citizen of the U.S. and if you do not have an interview with USCIS, your petition to become a citizen will be denied. Continue reading What to Expect at the Citizenship Interview

Generally, if you wish to enter the United States and to remain temporarily, you have to obtain a Non-Immigrant Visa in whatever category corresponds to the purpose of your visit. Under this heading, we’ll be dealing only with the categories B-1 (for those who wish to visit to conduct certain business or commercial activities) and B-2 (for tourists, social visitors, those coming to the US for certain medical treatments, or to take part in some cultural event). But we’ll first address the exception to the general rule, The Visa Waiver Program. Continue reading Visiting the United States

• If your aim is to move to the United States, to live here, work here, make this place your home, you’re an Immigrant in the making.
• You want a Green Card (so-called).
• How you accomplish your objective depends upon your own peculiar circumstances.
• Thus the various categories of Immigrant Visas.

Immigrants come to the United States legally via the following routes:

1. As Fiancée or Fiancé to a United States Citizen;
2. As an Immediate Relative to a United States Citizen;
3. As Employee of a US business;
4. As an Investor.

We’ll cover the first couple of these in detail here. Continue reading For Those Who Want to Immigrate to the United States