Just yesterday, The New Jersey Supreme Court just handed down a decision in the consolidated cases of Gaitan and Gouldbourne. In a very simple nutshell, the court decided that Padilla vs. Kentucky announced a new constitutional rule of law that does not apply...
Experience, Accessibility And Excellence For Over 25 Years
Month: February 2012
Reminder: Do Not Use the Old I-693 Medicals
Our office recently blogged about the new medical forms I-693. It is extremely important that applicants for adjustment of status remember to remind their doctors to use the new form. USCIS has already in some cases issued a Request for More Evidence because...
New Rule for I-601 Waivers Not Yet In Effect
USCIS recently came out with a bulletin warning the public that the "stateside waiver" it proposed as a new regulation last month is not yet in effect. If the provisional waiver regulations do go into effect, they will of course dramatically affect the status of...
Family Sponsor Immigration Act reunites family in New Jersey
Last week, one of our clients in India secured an immigrant visa through successful application of Humanitarian Reinstatement of an I-130 that had been previously denied due to the original petitioner's death. In general, an I-130 is automatically denied or cancelled...
USCIS Director Testifies Before Subcommittee
USCIS Director Alejandro N. Mayorkas testified two days ago before the House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement on "safeguarding the integrity of the immigration benefits adjudication process." While many believe that we...
Visa Bulletin for March 2012
The new visa bulletin for March 2012 was recently released. While the numbers never move as quickly as we would like, there has been some general progress. In the family categories, category F-1 moved ahead approximately by 2 months in the general country category;...
Stalking considered a Crime of Violence
An interesting decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals came out last month. In Matter of U. Singh, 25 I & N Dec. 670 (BIA 2012), the Board held that a stalking offense for harassing conduct in a violation of a California law did constitute a crime of...
DWI, Deportation, and Immigration in NJ
As a member of AILA (the American Immigration Lawyers Association), I have been hearing some horror stories of undocumented aliens being apprehended by ICE in municipal court after appearing for a DWI case. These incidents are not anecdotal rumors by any means: they...
Current processing times for Vermont Service Center
Clients as well as prospective clients frequently call the office to learn the processing times for certain applications. Most of our New Jersey clients have cases pending at the Vermont Service Center. As of January 25, 2012, according to USCIS, here are some current...