Atty. Daniel Hanlon

Green cards for crime victims

Wednesday, 12 August 2009 10:17 Atty. Daniel Hanlon

THE USCIS recently issued a rule allowing holders of "T" and "U" visa status to apply for "adjustment of status" to green card. Based on the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act Congress passed in 2000, the new rule will work to further protect the humanitarian interests of victims of trafficking and serious crimes, as well as provide assistance to law enforcement in investigating crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The T visa provides immigration status and protection to people who have been victims of severe forms of human trafficking. The U visa is available to crime victims who have suffered physical or mental abuse and are willing to help police and government officials in the investigation of crimes, including domestic violence, sexual assault, and alien trafficking.

Mandamus actions to compel USCIS’ action

Wednesday, 05 August 2009 00:03 Atty. Daniel Hanlon

THE processing times for some applications pending at the US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) are longer than ever before. The USCIS holds a monopoly over all immigrants applying for green cards, citizenship and other applications, since the USCIS is the only agency authorized to adjudicate requests for immigration benefits. The USCIS cannot, however, force applicants to suffer through "unreasonable delays" for their applications to be completed. Individuals who have had enough waiting may safely seek the intervention of the United States District Court to put an end to the delays.

In order to obtain a green card, become a United States Citizen or seek any other benefit available under US immigration Law, individuals must file applications or petitions with the USCIS. The USCIS has been criticized for the long delays in processing cases, which can cause people hardship in restricting their ability to travel and seek new employment opportunities.

20,000 H-1B’s still available for FY 2010

Sunday, 26 July 2009 20:54 Atty. Daniel Hanlon

THE H-1B visa quota for FY 2010 opened up on April 1, 2009, making 65,000 new H-1B visa numbers available for new employment beginning on October 1, 2009. As of July 3, 2009 the USCIS announced that only 45,000 regular "cap-subject" H-1B visa petitions had been received, leaving approximately 20,000 visas available.

Since the sunset of the provisions of the American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act (AC-21) in 2002, which had raised the annual number of H-1B visas to 195,000, the "H-1B cap" has been reached in each of the several years leaving thousands of professional workers and employers seeking to hire them out of business. The annual cap of 65,000 is grossly inadequate to accommodate businesses, as has been made obvious over the past few years, with the cap reached within a few days of April 1, 2008, despite the US economy experiencing a deep recession.

Asylum for domestic violence and sexual abuse victims

Tuesday, 21 July 2009 21:56 Atty. Daniel Hanlon

IN a reversal of the Bush administration’s policy, the Obama administration submitted a brief in a Federal Court of Appeals case to support a grant of asylum to a woman subjected to extreme sexual abuse in her home country. Over the past eight years, pleas from attorneys and immigration advocacy groups to expand the rigid bases for asylum eligibility to include sexual abuse victims had fallen on deaf ears in Washington. With the filing of its brief in the Court of Appeals case, "Matter of L.R," however, the administration has sent a clear signal that such abuses should not be tolerated in any society and the US asylum law will offer the victims relief.

Generally, US immigration law allows any person in the US who has been "persecuted" or fears persecution in his home country to file for asylum. If asylum is granted, the "asylee" is allowed to remain in the US indefinitely and apply for lawful permanent resident status ("green card") after one year. In order to qualify for asylum, however, the applicant must establish that their persecutor is motivated to do them harm, at least in part, "on account of" one of the "five protected grounds," which include (1) political opinion, (2) race, (3) religion, (4) nationality, or (5) membership in a particular social group. The successful asylum applicant must also establish that the persecutor is either the Government in their home country, or a group or individual that the Government is unable or unwilling to control.

Concurrent filing of I-360 and I-485 for special religious workers

Sunday, 19 July 2009 20:20 Atty. Daniel Hanlon

AS OF June 25, 2009, the USCIS will accept concurrent filings for I-360, Special Religious Worker Petitions and I-485, Applications to Adjust Status, pursuant to an official memorandum of the "Acting" District Director, Donald Neufeld. The memorandum came about in response to the decision of the US District Court in Ruiz-Diaz v. US., No. C07-1881 RSL (W.D. Wash, June 11, 2009) wherein the District Court granted Plaintiffs relief in a class action lawsuit that challenged USCIS regulations that excluded Special Religious workers from the concurrent filing process allowed for most workers. The memorandum outlines how USCIS will implement the new policy as to new filers and those whose cases were pending as of June 25, 2009.

Generally, an I-360 Visa Petition may be filed by a bona fide, non-profit religious organization in the US on behalf of a Minister, Professional Religious Worker or traditional religious worker, who has been performing the same religious work in the same religious denomination for at least two-years preceding the date of filing. Beneficiaries of I-360 Visa Petitions may have acquired the two years experience overseas prior to entering the US, or in the US while in R-1 Temporary Religious Worker status. The USCIS has recently been taking many months to approve I-360 Petitions, due to internal backlogs and their policy of subjecting such applications to "compliance review," which involved lengthy delays and interviews of religious workers at the USCIS District Office; ostensibly to ferret out fraud.

Concurrent filing of I-360 and I-485 for special religious workers

Tuesday, 14 July 2009 23:38 Atty. Daniel Hanlon

Concurrent filing of I-360 and I-485 for special religious workers

Tuesday, 14 July 2009 23:38 Atty. Daniel Hanlon

(1 vote, average: 5.00 out of 5)

H-1B Still available for FY 2010

Friday, 29 May 2009 23:57 Atty. Daniel Hanlon

(Editor’s note/Erratum: In the May 23 weekend issue of the Los Angeles Asian Journal, Atty. Joel Bander’s article, "H1-B Visas Still Available," was erroneously placed in Atty. Daniel Hanlon’s column. The Asian Journal deeply regrets this error and apologizes for any inconvenience that this unintended mistake has caused Atty. Bander and Atty. Hanlon. To make up for the misprint and correct the error, we are publishing Atty. Daniel Hanlon’s column for the first time in this issue.)
The H-1B visa quota for FY 2010 opened up on April 1, 2009, making 65,000 new H-1B visa numbers available for new employment beginning on October 1, 2009. As of May 4, 2009, the USCIS announced that only 45,000 regular H-1B visa petitions had been received, leaving 20,000 visas available. The rate of H-1B use this year dictates that approximately 9000 visas have been exhausted each week since the quota opened, such that remaining visas will likely be exhausted within two to three weeks!

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H-1B Visas Still Available!

Friday, 22 May 2009 22:01 Atty. Daniel Hanlon

The US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on May 18, 2009 that it will continue to accept H-1B petitions for the fiscal year 2010. USCIS has only received approximately 45,500 petitions counting toward the general 65,000 cap and approximately 20,000 petitions for the 20,000 cap for aliens with advanced degrees.
This turnout contrasts with our experience in 2007 and 2008, when USCIS was immediately swamped with more petitions than visa numbers available on the first two days of the filing season beginning April 1. During those years, USCIS conducted lottery and rejected thousands of applications that were not fortunate enough to be selected in the lottery. While many still expect USCIS to reach its ceiling this year, the question is whether USCIS will still conduct lottery once the ceiling has been reached.
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