2015 Old Blog

In what could be a game-changing precedent, the California Supreme Court has just ruled that undocumented immigrant Sergio Garcia must be allowed to practice law in the state.

This week we’re talking about H visas, some of the most popular (and most difficult to obtain) of the U.S. work vises. The different types of H visas currently being issued by the U.S. government vary greatly, but the unifying quality of H visas is they grant temporary, specific, prearranged employment to a foreign national in the U.S. The burden is also on the U.S. employer to prove that these services are absolutely necessary and unable to be fulfilled by a U.S. resident applicant.

In case you weren't keeping up with U.S. immigration news this week, here were the big topics:

Throughout 2013 we have seen a surge in immigrants requesting special visas to protect them from threats within their home country as well as within the U.S. Last week, several House Republicans voiced their concerns about the exponential growth of asylum requests from undocumented immigrants. From 2012 to 2013, requests for asylum citing “credible fear” of harm in returning to their home country nearly tripled. One lawmaker went so far as to ask, "The world is not twice as dangerous as it was in 2012, so what explains the spike?"

Looking to come to the U.S. by applying for a G visa? You’ll have to be a diplomat or other government official working as an employee of an international organization. First, a consular officer determines if you are eligible for an Employee of an International Organization (G) visa. They must find your intended purpose of travel to be in pursuit of carrying out official duties.

The U.S. State Department just released the January 2014 visa bulletin and there is minor advancement in most categories. Fortunately, this month’s edition does not indicate major retrogression like the December 2013 visa bulletin.

This afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case of thousands of potential young immigrants and their U.S. family members in the class action lawsuit Mayorkas v. Cuellar de Osorio. The Supreme Court will then determine the true interpretation of The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) and whether or not it should accommodate young immigrants who age out of the U.S. visa process because of the broken U.S. immigration system and its ridiculously long visa backlog.

The United States is experiencing a record number of international students enrolling in its educational institutions, During the 2012 - 2013 school year, there were over 800,000 foreign nationals studying in American universities alone. And every single one of them had to go through the U.S. immigration process in order to get a student visa – in most cases, they apply for an F-1 visa, the most common type of U.S. student visa.

Since super typhoon Haiyan touched down in the Philippines a month ago, millions of Filipinos have been displaced from their homes, including tens of thousands now living temporarily in Manila with no physical homes to return to. The unprecedented damage to infrastructure and serious loss of life has caused some U.S. lawmakers to take up the cause of providing Temporary Protected Status to Filipino nationals living the U.S. who may otherwise be forced to return home.

With the legislative calendar days in the single digits for 2013, activists and politicians are positioning themselves for getting immigration done in 2014.