Immigration

Should You Litigate?

by Fred Abramson

Should You Litigate? Just because you may have a claim to start a law­suit does not mean you should.  Litigation can be expen­sive.  It is absolutely crit­i­cal to assess the eco­nom­ics in start­ing a law­suit before doing so. 

Dur­ing your ini­tial con­sul­ta­tion with an attor­ney, you have to con­sider the amount you are plan­ning to sue for, what relief you expect to be granted, and the expense involved in obtain­ing a judgment. If you are being sued, you must weigh the cost of defend­ing the law­suit against the price of set­tling the case.  Here are some fac­tors you should look at:

  • Cost of Lit­i­ga­tion.    You know that lit­i­ga­tion is expen­sive.  A case can cost any­where from $3,500.00 for a sim­ple mat­ter t0 hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars for c0mplex litigation.
  • What are your resources?   Does your adver­sary have deep pock­ets?  Do you have enough money to fund your case to trial?  If you don\‘t have the finan­cial means, lit­i­ga­tion is not for you.
  • What is your emo­tional makeup?  I hate to say it, but lit­i­ga­tion can take years.  If you want to change the sys­tem, con­tact your local assem­bly per­son and ask for more court funding. 

If you have the finan­cial abil­ity and you are able to delay grat­i­fi­ca­tion, con­trol your emo­tions and think ratio­nally, then you should litigate.

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Immigration Basics: Grounds for Exclusion

by Fred Abramson

The basis for exclu­sion and depor­ta­tion are grouped into sev­eral areas.  Here are the ten grounds for exclusion:

  1. Crim­i­nal basis;
  2. Health issues;
  3. Pub­lic charge;
  4. Employ­ment issues;
  5. Secu­rity and Related Grounds;
  6. Grounds based on ille­gal entry and immi­gra­tion violations;
  7. Improper doc­u­ments;
  8. You were sub­ject to removal previously;
  9. A ground based on inel­i­gi­bil­ity of the alien even­tu­ally to become a US citizen;
  10. Mis­cel­la­neous grounds.

If you have one of the grounds for exclu­sion, you may be sub­ject to removal.  How­ever, you may be able to receive a waiver and gain a green card.  Feel free to con­tact my office on more infor­ma­tion regard­ing your spe­cific case.

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Are you Inadmissable?

by Fred Abramson

If you have found a basis for your green card, such as you are a part of a com­pany that trades with the United States and you plan on arriv­ing to the US to work here for your com­pany, your appli­ca­tion could still be denied.  unfor­tu­nately, the USCIS is able to deny your appli­ca­tion if they decide that you are \“inadmissible.\”

Indamiss­able means that there is some­thing about  you that the gov­ern­ment believes is not desir­able. For exam­ple, if you com­mit­ted a crime, you could be denied a visa.  The USCIS main­tains a list that sums up the basis of inad­mis­abil­ity and whether there is a waiver avail­able.  A waiver is a legal excuse and it can over­come grounds of inad­miss­abil­ity.

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Are you Inadmissable?

How To Prepare for your Immigration Interview

by Fred Abramson

How To Prepare for your Immigration Interview After fill­ing your paper­work with the United States Cit­i­zen­ship and Immi­gra­tion Ser­vice, you may have to attend an inter­view at US Con­sulate or at Immi­gra­tion office, such as 26 Fed­eral Plaza in Man­hat­tan or the Gar­den City field office on Stew­art Avenue.  Often this is your first con­tact with  per­son from the Immi­gra­tion ser­vice. It could be intim­i­dat­ing.  It doesn\‘t need to.  Here\‘s a quick guide of how to pre­pare for the interview.

Why an interview?

  • The USCIS has your appli­ca­tion and wants to ask fol­low up questions.
  • If you applied to get your green card through mar­riage, the immi­gra­tion offi­cer wants to make sure that the mar­riage is in good faith or real.
  • They will also ask ques­tions on your appli­ca­tion and look for incon­sis­tent statements.

How to Pre­pare for the Questioning

  • Read your appli­ca­tion and make sure every­thing is accurate
  • Bring with you a copy of the full appli­ca­tion along with all sup­port­ing doc­u­ments.  If you sub­mit­ted you appli­ca­tion on the basis of mar­riage, make sure to bring your wed­ding alblum.
  • Make sure that you know all the answers to your pre­vi­ously sub­mit­ted ques­tions from your application.
  • If you sub­mit­ted your appli­ca­tion based on fam­ily ties, be aware of all the finan­cial infor­ma­tion of your spouse and your sponsor.

How to dress:

  • Sim­ply put, dress like you are going to church or a reli­gious occa­sion.  Remem­ber, the immi­gra­tion offi­cial will be judg­ing every­thing about you, includ­ing the way you look. Avoid wear­ing baggy pants, t-shirts and jeans.
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How To Prepare for your Immigration Interview

Transferring a Intracompany Employee from Overseas to the US

by Fred Abramson

If your com­pany is look­ing to trans­fer an employee to the United States on a tem­po­rary assign­ment, an L visa may be the way to go. Here are the impor­tant pro­vi­sions for obtain­ing an L visa:

  1. The worker must have worked abroad for your com­pany for at least one year within the pre­ced­ing three years;
  2. The for­eign and the US com­pany must be part of the same \“qual­i­fy­ing organization\’;
  3. The worker must have worked in either a man­age­ment capac­ity, exec­u­tive capac­ity or have spe­cial­ized knowledge;
  4. The worker must come to the United States for a tem­po­rary period.

The L cat­e­gory has two parts: L-1 for the employee who wishes to trans­fer and L-2 for the trans­feree.  Be aware that the fam­ily mem­ber accom­pa­ny­ing the employee  can­not get employ­ment autho­riza­tion through an L-2.

Here are the pro­ce­dures for obtain­ing an L-1visa:

  1. The US employer must file a peti­tion to clas­sify the employee has a tem­po­rary worker.  The peti­tion requires evi­dence that your com­pany is a \“qual­i­fy­ing orga­ni­za­tion\” and spe­cific infor­ma­tion about the worker.
  2. Addi­tional evi­dence is needed if the worker is needed to open a new office.
  3. Be aware that there are spe­cial rules under NAFTA.
Transferring a Intracompany Employee from Overseas to the US

Family Sponsored Immigration — Immediate Relatives

by Fred Abramson

Family Sponsored Immigration Immediate Relatives

Of of the main objec­tives of the Immi­gra­tion sys­tem is to bring fam­ily mem­bers together. High pri­or­ity is given to fam­ily mem­bers of US cit­i­zens and per­ma­nent res­i­dents in immi­grat­ing to the United States. In addi­tion, their are spe­cial removal relief that is only avail­able to close fam­ily mem­bers of US citizens.

The high­est pri­or­ity is placed on immi­gra­tion of imme­di­ate rel­a­tive of United States Cit­i­zens.  Their are an unlim­ited num­ber of visas allot­ted to imme­di­ate rel­a­tives.  They include:

  • Spouses and minor chil­dren of US citizens
  • Par­ents and adult US cit­i­zens when the cit­i­zen is at least 21 years of age
  • Cer­tain Wid­ows and wid­ow­ers of deceased cit­i­zens and their children

Imme­di­ate rel­a­tives have cer­tain advan­tages in the immi­gra­tion process:

  • They can avoid the long wait for a visa
  • They are not barred for obtain­ing a visa for work­ing ille­gally, a fail­ure to main­tain a legal non-immigration sta­tus or a vio­la­tion in the terms of a prior visa does not bar such a rel­a­tive from obtain­ing per­ma­nent res­i­dency status.

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Family Sponsored Immigration Immediate Relatives