Today is the day. As of August 15th, 2012, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will begin accepting applications for deferred action. Thousands of undocumented youth will benefit from this new policy. I encourage all of those who are eligible to apply, but not before understanding what you are applying for. Deferred Action is not…
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has released the immigration form that will be required to apply for deferred action of childhood arrivals, or whome some of us have been calling “dreamers”. The form also comes with a detailed list of instructions which provides suggestion for supporting evidence. In order to apply for deferred action one must…
Western Washington residents, I would like to invite you all to attend the Annual Gala for ReWA on September 14th at 5PM at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at Seattle Center. There will be international food and entertainment. Ticket proceeds go to ReWA’s programs for Refugees. ReWA (formerly Refugee Women’s Alliance and Southeast Asian Women’s Alliance) was founded…
On August 15th, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services plans to release more information on Deferred Action for undocumented youth. This program will allow certain undocumented youth to obtain work authorization for two years which will be renewable after the two year period. USCIS has released some information about the program, though it is possible that…
Great News for some young undocumented immigrants. President Obama as implemented a new policy they are calling deferred action that will allow certain undocumented immigrants between the ages of 16 and 30 who have been in the country for at least 5 years from 6/15/12 (and meet other requirements) to obtain a temporary legal status and a work permit.…
There are students who have been in the US since they were children, and often don’t know that they are undocumented until they apply for a driver’s license or student loan. The DREAM Act was intended to address the disincentive these children face to remain in school and continue into higher education. A general sense…
The Olympic National Park and surrounding areas contain a plant called salal that was frequently harvested by Latinos and sold to floral arrangement companies. In May 2011, a couple was stopped by the Forest Service outside of Forks, WA and asked for their salal harvesting permits and drivers licenses. When a Border Patrol agent arrived…
Finally, US Citizenship and Immigration Service is entering the 21st century! USCIS has created a system to allow for online processing of certain USCIS forms. This will certainly help streamline the immigration process and hopefully cut down processing time and costs! I look forward to using this system but I am sure that it will have…
On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 17-15 to renew the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA, that protects abused women and which expired last year. The VAWA was intended, in part, to protect victims of domestic violence from the manipulation of their immigration status by their attackers. The threat of deportation kept many victims from…
One of the biggest concerns of those seeking an immigration lawyer is cost. I have seen the question posted online many times, how much does it cost to hire a lawyer? It is difficult to answer this question in generality as each case is different. Lawyers are service providers. Rather then sell a product we provide…