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Beach-Oswald is a full-service law firm, concentrating on immigration law. We have special expertise in work visas, family based visas, visa waivers, green cards through family and employment and asylum. We have staff members who speak many different languages to assist you.
We succeed when others don't!
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| A New Approach to Workplace Enforcement |
 The Obama administration is taking a starkly different approach to combating illegal immigrant labor than what has been the practice in recent years under the Bush administration-the new administration's strategy is to focus on the employers who hire illegal immigrants rather than on the workers themselves. Instead of conducting large-scale raids and arresting workers who are found to be illegal, the new approach will instead use fines and other civil sanctions to discourage employers from hiring illegal immigrants and from engaging in wage and labor violations.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has recently sent notices to hundreds of companies across the country informing them that they will be performing audits of their hiring records, and warning them that they will have to fire all unauthorized workers and possibly face civil fines if they are found to be in violation of the law.
To read the New York Times article on the subject, please click here http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/us/03immig.html?_r=1&hpw
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Special Immigrant Religious Workers Now Eligible to File Concurrent Green Card Applications |
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A recent district court decision has changed the way that I-360 Petitions for Special Immigrant Religious Workers will be processed. Previously the requirement was that religious workers must have an approved visa petition before they are able to file for adjustment of status. However, the court in Ruiz-Diaz v. USA held that this rule was invalid and unenforceable, and directed USCIS to:
- accept I-485 Applications for Permanent Residence and I-765 Applications for Employment Authorization that are filed concurrently with the I-360 petition, and
- adjudicate the religious worker applications in the same manner that USCIS handles non-religious worker applicants.
This means that anyone who has a pending I-360 religious worker petition is immediately eligible to file Form I-485 and/or Form I-765.
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| USCIS Has Eliminated the FBI Name Check Backlog for Green Card Applicants |
 After several years of waiting, USCIS has announced that the FBI National Name Check Program backlog has finally been eliminated. Previously, many green card applicants had been left waiting for months or even years for their permanent residence applications to be adjudicated due to the fact that the FBI was delayed in processing their name checks. The elimination of the backlog means that applications for permanent residence will now be processed in a timely fashion. To read more, click here |
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Premium Processing Service is Back for I-140 Petitions |
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As of June 29, 2009 USCIS will once again be providing premium processing service for I-140 Immigrant Petitions for Alien Worker for all employment based visa categories except the following two categories:
- EB-1 Multinational Executives and Managers and
- EB-2 Members of Professions with Advanced Degrees or Exceptional Ability seeking a National Interest Waiver
Premium processing gives applicants the option of paying an additional $1,000 processing fee, which guarantees that their I-140 Petition will be adjudicated within 15 calendar days.
To read the USCIS update, please click here: http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/premproc_22jun09.pdf | |
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| Happy Fourth of July from Beach-Oswald Immigration Law Associates! |
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| USCIS To Adjudicate U Visa Applications by Sept. 30, 2009 Deadline |
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USCIS has stated that the Vermont Service Center is working on adjudicating as many U Visa applications as possible before September 30, 2009.
USCIS is encouraging anyone who received a request for more evidence (RFE) to respond to the RFE as quickly as possible so that their application could be processed by September 30. | |
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