U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) sent its EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization proposal to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. The EB-5 modernization proposal has been under discussion since the Obama administration. The EB-5 green card program generally offers two investment options: One requires investors to actively manage the company in…
Tax Day—April 15—is fast approaching. Even if you’re not a U.S. citizen, you must file a tax return if you’re considered a “resident alien” for tax purposes. Like U.S. immigration law, U.S. tax law is complicated. We only practice U.S. immigration law, so this consists of a compilation of information from the Internal Revenue Service…
Legislation introduced in the House and Senate this month would eliminate the seven percent per-country limit on employment-based green cards. Called the “Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act,” the joint legislation also increases the per-country cap for family-sponsored green cards from seven to 15 percent. Rep. Zoe Lofgren and 113 other representatives from both parties sponsored…
When Rohan* filed for his green card, he and his American wife, Kristen*, had just returned from their honeymoon in Hawaii. They felt relaxed and blissful. Rohan decided to file his marriage-based green card petition on his own. Filling out the application and assembling the required documentation looked a bit time-consuming, but relatively simple. And,…
When Ji-hye* married her husband, she thought she found her happily ever after. Ji-hye came to the U.S. from South Korea to attend a university. She had dreamed of leaving her homeland to escape the sexual abuse she suffered for years at the hands of a family member. While in school, she began dating an…
That’s what Luca*, who has a green card and a fiancée living over overseas, asked us recently: What would be the quicker way for his fiancée Maja* to get a green card: If he married and sponsored her now as a green card holder or if he waited until he became a citizen and then…
Ricardo and his parents fled from El Salvador when Ricardo* was only a few months old. Fearing for their lives in their home country, Ricardo’s parents entered the U.S. unlawfully, living as undocumented immigrants in the Bay Area. Fast forward to 2017: Ricardo has been married for three years. He and his wife, an American-born citizen,…
Although we have seen a dramatic slowdown in the Administration’s processing of nonimmigrant petitions and green cards, our firm has still achieved a very high success rate for our clients. Because we do need to advise our clients about increasing processing times, we dug a little deeper to understand what’s been going on with USCIS.…
Despite threats to end the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to individuals born on U.S. soil, an executive order cannot eliminate birthright citizenship. Presidential orders or actions cannot change or revoke amendments to the Constitution. They can only be revoked or changed by a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Congress or by a…
Nearly two decades ago, Gabriel* moved to Silicon Valley from his native Paris to open and head up a new office for his French company. Gabriel applied for an E-2 Visa for Treaty Investors. Although an E-2 is a nonimmigrant—or temporary—visa, it can be extended indefinitely as long as the conditions under which it was…