Immigration News & Updates
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eNewsletter POSTING DATE: MARCH 27, 2017
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Immigration News & Updates eNewsletter © 2011 - 2017
For questions about U.S. Residency, Green Cards and Immigration Visas, Visit our Website at: www.ImmigrateToday.com or call our office at: (954) 382-5378
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Immigration
Questions & Answers
Question: Good Morning!!! I live in the Davie Area and I would like to know the bookstores/ Location's that offer the Saturdays Citizenship classes that are near my address or where or how I could look for the information. Thank you.
This Week's Immigration News
Immigration Enforcement Targets Schools, Courts
And Even Churches
Justice Department Assigns Additional Immigration Judges To Speed Up Deportation Efforts
Answer: You can find U.S. Citizenship exam and literacy classes near you by visiting www.broward.org . Nationally, you can visit the USCIS website at: https://my.uscis.gov/findaclass.
Helpful Immigration Tips You Can Use
With the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) widespread raids and arrests of Immigrants with criminal charges and convictions, reports increasing show that enforcement officials are stalking Immigrants at schools, courthouses, churches, hospitals, public demonstrations, rallies and other locations where individuals should be safe.
The recent arrest of a father dropping off his child at school and of a domestic violence victim at a courthouse by enforcement officials have brought attention to the issue and caused local officials to demand that this new practice stop, to ensure the safety and security of all members of the community in such sensitive locations.
Immigration How To:
How Do I Get My Travel History ?
As the Trump Administration ramps up its enforcement measures against Immigrants according to new enhanced enforcement priorities, it’s also moving quickly to speed up deportations in major cities nationwide. As a result, the U.S. Justice Department plans to reassign hundreds of immigration judges from around the country to twelve cities in order to expedite the deportation process.
Under the plan, a massive influx of Immigration Judges will be sent to cities with large Immigrant populations, including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, San Francisco, Baltimore, Bloomington, Minnesota, Texas, California, Omaha, Nebraska and Arizona. Good to know.
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Several recent such enforcement tactics against local Immigrants in California has even prompted the Chief Justice of California to call on the Justice Department to cease Immigration enforcement measures at all California Courthouses. The DHS has responded to criticism by noting that prior policies regarding enforcement at “sensitive locations,” has not changed, however this is in direct contradiction to the facts. Stay tuned…
Read more about government policy on enforcement at sensitive locations:
CBP Facts on enforcement at sensitive locations
Question: I recently married my US citizen husband and have a question about my daughter from a previous marriage who is 20 yrs old. Will my husband be able to file for my daughter and myself together?
Answer: Your Husband can sponsor you, but unfortunately not your daughter. Immigration regulations require that the marriage between the foreign national spouse and U.S. Citizen or Resident spouse takes place before the stepchild reaches age 18, in order for the child to be sponsored. However, once you obtain your residency, you can sponsor your daughter, but the waiting line is about 7-8 years. You might consider having your daughter get an F-1 student visa and study in the U.S. so she can be with you.
For your case, if you do not have a U.S. Tourist visa and will process for your U.S. Residency abroad, it will take about 8-12 months for you to be able to immigrate to the U.S.. However, if you have a Tourist visa or other U.S. visa and are in the U.S., the process is about 6 -8 months to receive your Green Card.
Question: I got my permanent green card through marriege to my wife, who is a U.S.Citizen. I recently applied for my early Citizenship and went to my Citizenship interview. The officer questioned me a lot about my marriage and asked me to give him lots of documents about me and my wife living together, but I didn’t have them. At the end, the officer scheduled me for another immigration interview and said I have to bring my wife with me. The thing is that me and my wife don’t live together anymore, but we are still married, have not divorced yet. I thought that the law was that if I’m married to an American I can apply, even if we don’t live together anymore. Can you please clear that up for me. Thanks
Answer: Most U.S. Residents must wait for 4 years and 9 months from the date of first obtaining their Green Cards before being eligible to apply for U.S. Citizen through Naturalization. However, the law allows U.S. Residents who are married to and living with their U.S. Citizen spouse in a bona-fide (real) marriage to apply for Early Naturalization in 2 years and 9 months after obtaining their Green Card. The law is generally known as the 3/3/3 rule: 1) The U.S. Citizen Spouse must have been a U.S. Citizen for at least 3 yrs; 2) The couple must have been married for at least 3 yrs and finally 3) The U.S. Resident must have held status as a Green Card holder for at least 3 yrs (really only 2 yrs & 9 mos).
Since you are no longer living with your U.S. Citizen husband, you are no longer eligible to apply for expedited naturalization based upon your marriage. A good option is to have your Naturalization application “withdrawn” in order to try and avoid any issues arising about whether or not you were eligible for your Permanent Green Card. Another option is to allow the case to be denied without pursuing the matter further.
You can find out more about important Early Naturalization issues by calling our office at: 954-382-5378
Tips On Using The Child Status Protection Act
To Keep Children From “Aging Out”
The age of the child is particularly important for children whose parents are sponsored by U.S. Parents and Siblings, where the waiting line for a visa can be 10 -12 years or more, since it is much more likely that the child will turn age 21 and age out.
The Child Status Protection Act ("CSPA") was enacted into law in 2002 to assist children who turn age 21 and would normally “age-out”, meaning become ineligible to immigrate as a minor (under age 21). The CSPA changed the process for determining whether a child has "aged out" (i.e. turned 21 years of age before being issued an immigrant visa or adjusting status) for the purpose of the issuance of visas and the adjustment of status of applicants in most immigrant categories. Under CSPA, the age of a child can be reduced by the time that the I-130 petition was “pending” with the USCIS, in some cases bringing the child’s age down under age 21 for immigration purposes.
Under Immigration regulations, a “minor child” is defined as a child under age 21 who is not single. Qualifying as a minor child is particularly important because of long immigration waiting lines. Minor children of U.S. Citizens are considered as “Immediate Relatives” which allow them to immigrate to the U.S. nearly immediately.
Minor children of U.S. Residents can immigrate to the U.S. in as little as 1 ½ to 2 years. Whereas children of Citizens and Residents who turn age 21 are forced to wait for 7-8 years to immigrate! Similarly, immigrant children who are dependents of parents who have been sponsored by a relative in the U.S. are only eligible to immigrate to the U.S. along with their family if they are under age 21 when the family immigrates.
Call Our Office at: 954-382-5378 To Find Out More About Preserving
Your Child’s “Minor” Age Status
There is a specific formula for determining whether a child's age is protected by the CSPA and there are required dates that must be plugged into the formula. When an immigrant visa first becomes available to the child and the child is age 21 or older, the amount of years which the I-130 petition was being processed by the USCIS can then be subtracted from the child’s current age, to determine whether they are technically still under age 21. If so, the child can still immigrate as a minor child.
For example, if an I-130 has been pending for 1095 days (3 years) and a child is age and a child is 22 years old about to turn age 23, we can deduct 1095 days from the child’s age to bring the child under age 21.
U.S. Government Website Provides I-94 Printout
And U.S. Travel History
To access U.S. travel history for the past five years, click on “Get Travel History” and print out the report.
Visitors to the U.S. no longer receive an I-94 card upon entry, which is necessary to change or extend status in the U.S. when making an application with the USCIS. To access and download an I-94 card and view past travel history, visitors can access the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Website which gives Non-immigrant foreign nationals travelers access to printout their I-94 record, as well as a U.S. travel history going back five years from the request date.
Visitors to the Website must enter their name, date of birth, and passport information. To access the current I-94 record, click on “Get Most Recent I-94”. The record can then be printed out and used for all required immigration-related purposes.