Virtual Office Attorney

Dear Mr. President,

via www.huffingtonpost.com

All I can say is WOW!. Brought to the states at age 3. Later deported, even though a green card was available. This family is really suffering.

Please call or write your Member of Congress (US representative) or Senator to support a path to legalization for undocumented aliens who are in college or serving in the military.

Folk who think you've fooled the USCIS with a fake marriage pay attention to the following paragraph from the article below:

But authorities aren't done with their investigation. They are now trying to track down the scores of immigrants who used sham marriages to obtain permanent residency.

USCIS is looking for the immigrants so that they can remove their green card status.  Worst case scenario, I'm seeing deportation in some immigrants future.

Why....so much time has passed?  The immigrants have their green cards.  Can't we let bygones be bygones?

The law says anyone who fraudulent receives some immigration benefit (green card, citizenship, etc.) can have it taken away.  For example, if you marry someone to get a green card and later on divorce them.  Later you re-marry and help that person get a green card.  All could lose their status. 

Best course of action if you are tempted to marry to get a green card -- Just don't do it! 

Feds: Texas green card scam was all in the family | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.

According to the New York Times, the Centers for Disease Control has stopped requiring females applying for legal permanent resident status get the vaccine for the HPV.    See more below.

National Briefing - Immigration - Vaccine Requirement to Be Ended - NYTimes.com.

CDC link

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dq/laws_regs/fed_reg/vaccine/revised-vaccination-immigration-faq.htm

On June 9th, Secretary Department of Homeland gave a state of immigration address.   Among the highlights, Secretary Chertoff announced the Department of Homeland Security will be extending the validity period of the employment authorization documents (EAD) for individuals who are waiting to adjust status (AOS) to become lawful permanent residents (LPR) aka "green card" recipients.   

Previously, AOS applicants were issued EADs for one year.  Beginning June 30, Department of Homeland Security USCIS will issue EADs with a two-year validity period for individuals who are AOS if their application is expected to be pending for more than a year.

This will save many people additional fees for work authorization documents.  Further, this will reduce the stress individuals have to endure while waiting for processing that can seem to take a lifetime.  Thank you to the Department of Homeland Security for making some improvements in the system!

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently entered into a settlement agreement in a national class action, Kaplan, et al. v. Chertoff, et al., CV 06-5304. The suit was brought by non-U.S. citizens who had lost or who were about to lose their eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) based on a statutory seven-year limit, and who were unable to become naturalized U.S. citizens before the loss of SSI benefits. Under the settlement agreement USCIS will expedite I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status) – commonly referred to as ‘green card’ applications – and N-400 (Application for Naturalization) of current or former Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries if the application has been pending with USCIS for more than six months.

According to the New York Times, due to an unprecedented surge in immigration applications last summer, legal immigrants will have to wait much longer during the next two years to receive visas or naturalization papers.

Emilio T. Gonzalez, the director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that from now until 2010 the agency would take an average of 18 months to process petitions from legal immigrants for citizenship, up from 7 months or less last year. Visas for permanent residents sponsored by relatives in the United States will take one year, up from the current average of six months or less, he said.

In January 2007, when he announced a midyear fee increase of 66 percent for handling immigration documents, Mr. Gonzalez pledged to use the money to “prevent future backlogs,” to reduce the waiting time for naturalization to five months and for permanent resident visas to four months by the end of 2008.

However, before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Mr. Gonzalez said the prospect of higher fees had helped prompt a crush of more than three million applications of all types in June, July and spilling into August, a surge that he called “unprecedented in the history of immigration services of our nation.”

First-time applicants for a Michigan driver's license or identification card must prove that they have established a permanent legal presence in the United States, under a requirement taking effect Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008.

As of Tuesday, applicants for an original driver's license or state-issued ID card must meet four standards in addition to Michigan's driving and physical health requirements by providing documentation of:

A valid Social Security number or ineligibility for one.
Legal and permanent presence in the United States.
Their identity (legal name and date of birth).
Michigan residency.

Currently, the following states do not require drivers to prove legal permanent residency to obtain a license: Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington.