This year the American Immigration Lawyers Association will be holding its annual conference in Las Vegas. This seems appropriate given the gamble that immigration law has become in the past year or two. Whereas adjudications used to be predictable, they are now sporadic, whereas in the past the foreign-national (or her employer) may have been given the benefit of the doubt – this is usually no longer the case.
As it is in Vegas, the immigration rules favor the House and the House usually wins. Immigration used to be a field in which those whose motivation to practice law was to “help” people navigate the system. The consensus among many immigration lawyers is that government agencies are now taking a hard-line approach and using any discretion to deny or aggressively question petitions and applications.
On the positive side, we have received some certifications for long-pending PERM applications that were audited about a year ago. Also June 8th will be the kick-off for a Comprehensive Immigration Reform push. Let’s see whether luck will be on our side this time or if we’ll just “bust” or “crap out” as they say in Vegas! I will resume writing for this blog next week.
