NEWS

The Department of State (DOS) posted the Visa Bulletin for October 2019, which provides the visa number availability for family-sponsored and employment-sponsored preference categories, as well as for the diversity visa lottery cut-offs. USCIS will accept adjustment of status applications based on the filing dates charts for family-based and employment-based cases, except that it will READ MORE

In the wake of another terrorist attack, I highly recommend David Brooks’ editorial “The Ideology of Hate and How to Fight It” in August 7th’s NY Times. It is one of the best explanations of the strength of pluralism and inspires me to continue to promote diversity through my immigration law practice.  He writes:   READ MORE

The US Supreme Court declined the Trump Administration’s request to halt a trial in Manhattan in one of the six lawsuits challenging the Trump Administration’s inclusion of a question on citizenship status on the 2020 census. Federal courts in California, Maryland, and New York have allowed five of the six challenges to the Trump Administration’s READ MORE

US Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS) issued a policy memo for adjudicators reviewing applications and petitions for immigration benefits that provides them with broader discretion to deny them outright without first sending a Request for Evidence (RFE) or a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID).  Such a policy shift is disproportionately punitive and may lead READ MORE

In today’s NYT’s editorial section (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/opinion/sunday/networking-connections-business.html?ref=opinion) Adam Grant writes, “Networking is overrated. Achievement is a magnet to mentors and a beacon to backers.” He notes that networking alone leads to “empty transactions” and not “rich relationships,” which bring the real rewards. He notes that it is important to first have an impressive track record and READ MORE

On March 15, 2017, a federal district court in Hawaii temporarily blocked Trump’s second travel ban finding that it violated the US Constitution’s Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and that the Trump administration failed to provide sufficient evidence of a threat to national security. In particular, Judge Watson held that a reasonable objective observer READ MORE

President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on March 6, 2017, that will temporarily bar certain people from six Muslim majority countries and refugees from entering the US as of March 16, 2017. His first travel ban order was suspended in the Federal courts. The essential points of the travel ban are the following: READ MORE