Month: October 2008

According to an article on mercurynews.com:  “A U.S. citizen held at a border immigration center for 15 days has been released after an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer showed a birth certificate to federal authorities.”

Please visit our law firm’s new website, www.immigrantconnect.com.

The DOL has released some information regarding PERM processing, the most interesting of which is that the agency is currently processing audited cases with a filing date of July 2007.  The rate of approval for PERM cases filed so far in 2008 is around 79%.

The new form ETA 9089 (PERM Form) that was supposed to be used effective January 1, 2009, is not expected to be released until Spring 2009.

Please visit our law firm’s new website, www.immigrantconnect.com.

Finally, on November 7, 2008, there will be a planned system outage for the PERM on-line system, so applications may not be filed electronically that day between 7 AM and 5 PM EST.

According to an article on mexidata.info:  “Secretary Chertoff announced the issuance of the No-Match Supplemental Final Rule, which provides guidance to help businesses comply with legal requirements intended to reduce illegal employment of unauthorized workers, in his quarterly State of the Border address.”

Please visit our law firm’s new website, www.immigrantconnect.com.

According to an article on nytimes.com:  “[S]urveys show that Latinos see immigration as a tool useful in identifying who is friend and who is foe. That may have complicated Mr. McCain’s task: despite his sponsorship of the immigration overhaul legislation, he is burdened by nativist elements within the Republican Party.”

Please visit our law firm’s new website, www.immigrantconnect.com.

According to a DHS Press Release:  “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today issued a Supplemental Final Rule that provides additional background and analysis for the department’s No-Match Rule. The DHS regulation, which was originally proposed in June 2006 and issued in August 2007 as a Final Rule, clarifies what steps responsible employers can take to resolve discrepancies identified in “no-match” letters issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA). It also provides guidance to help businesses comply with legal requirements intended to reduce the illegal employment of unauthorized workers.”

Please visit our law firm’s new website, www.immigrantconnect.com.

According to an article on washingtonpost.com:  “The Supreme Court accepted a case yesterday that could impact the government’s crackdown on illegal immigration, agreeing to review whether prosecutors must prove that defendants in aggravated identity-theft cases knew they were victimizing real people.”

Should be an interesting case.  As this nation is rightly focused on the economic woes we face, immigration has become a back-burner issue.  When there are noteworthy articles or events relating to immigration, I will be sure to post them.    

Please visit our law firm’s new website, www.immigrantconnect.com.

The awards keep coming!  After being named an Up and Coming Lawyer for 2008 by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly publication, we are pleased to announce that Kristina Rost, founding partner of Maged Rost has also been selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers–Rising Stars Edition 2008. 

Of course, I join many of Kristina’s clients in their belief that she is already a star, not only as a committed immigration attorney but as a compassionate, intelligent and beautiful human being.  Congratulations Kristina! 

Please visit our law firm’s new website, www.immigrantconnect.com.

According to the Associated Press:  “Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and South Korea will be added to the U.S. visa waiver program in about a month. Each of those countries allows U.S. citizens to visit without obtaining a visa.”

Please visit our law firm’s new website, www.immigrantconnect.com.

According to an article on npr.com:  “When McCain co-sponsored the bill with Kennedy, he alienated fellow Republicans. After the bill failed to pass in the House and he flip-flopped back into a more conservative stance, McCain alienated Hispanics. Obama enjoys a wide advantage among Hispanic voters. McCain can’t afford to alienate anyone else by substantively talking about illegal immigration.”

Early in the campaigns, when immigration was the hot issue du jour, I wrote several blog entries in which I pointed out that from a strategic and political point of view, the candidates should avoid discussing the immigration issue.  It seems that both campaigns have figured out that this is a lose-lose subject on which to focus.  Avoiding the topic is made all the easier by the economic issues we face. 

Will comprehensive immigration reform become a reality within the next 36 months?  It is hard to predict.  Although both Obama and McCain support CIR, unless the economy improves and U.S. job losses subside, it will be a hard sell.  On the other hand, if Obama wins the presidency and Democrats gain a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate (at least 60 seats) and increase their presence in the House, when the immigration issue does arise, it will be a great deal easier for Comgress to pass CIR and have it signed into law.        

Please visit our law firm’s new website, www.immigrantconnect.com.

According to a USCIS Press Release:  “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that prospective adoptive parents already in the process of adopting a child from a country that has implemented the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention) who filed a Form I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, prior to April 1, 2008, and who have received the one time no-charge extension, may file one additional Form I-600A, and continue to proceed with their intercountry adoption through the “orphan” process.  The new Form I-600A must be filed before the current approval expires, and only if the prospective adoptive parents have not yet filed the corresponding Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative.”

Please visit our law firm’s new website, www.immigrantconnect.com.