CASE: N-400 (Citizenship / Naturalization)
APPLICANT: Filipino
LOCATION: Ohio

Our client contacted us in February 2011.  He came to the United States from the Philippines and obtained his green card in 2005.  He retained our office for his naturalization application.

The application was filed on February 24, 2011 with all necessary supporting documents.   Our office prepared him before his interview, and also accompanied him on May 2, 2011 at the Cleveland CIS office.  Our client answered all questions correctly and passed his citizenship interview.   Eventually, his N-400 was approved. His oath taking is scheduled for June 3, 2011 in which he will be a U.S. Citizen.

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CASE: Marriage-Based Adjustment of Status
CLIENT: Filipino
LOCATION: Cleveland, OH

Our client came to the United States in January 2010 with an H-2B temporary work visa from the Philippines. She married a U.S. Citizen in January 2011 and retained our office in February of 2011 for her adjustment of status application.  Our firm prepared and filed the I-130 Petition and Adjustment of Status Application on February 15, 2011.  Everything went smoothly and the receipt notices, fingerprint appointment, and work permits all came on time. There was no Request for Evidence.  Prior to the interview, we thoroughly prepared our clients. On May 10, 2011, our client was interviewed at the Cleveland, Ohio USCIS.  We accompanied them at the interview as well.  On May 16, 2011, her green card application was approved, and our client obtained her green card.

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CASE: N-400 (Citizenship / Naturalization)
APPLICANT: Sri Lankan (Husband) / Filipino (Wife)
LOCATION: Dallas, Texas

Our clients contacted us in February 2011.  They married in Dubai, U.A.E., and came to the United States.  The husband is a citizen of Sri Lanka and the wife is a citizen of the Philippines. Our client’s family obtained their green card in 2006.  They retained our office to assist them in their naturalization applications.

The application was filed on February 21, 2011 with supporting documents.  Our office prepared them before the interview.  Our clients appeared at the USCIS office in Dallas, Texas on May 12, 2011 for their interviews, and they answered all questions correctly.  On the same day, their N-400s were approved. Their oath taking was on the same day as well. The family is now citizens of the United States.

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CASE: H-1B Visa Petition (Change of Employer)
PETITIONER:  Advertising Media Company
BENEFICIARY: Web / Graphic Designer

Our client is an advertising media company in California. They contacted our office in early March to seek legal assistance from our office for their foreign employee.  The beneficiary is from Kenya and obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Interactive Multimedia in the United States. The proffered position for the Beneficiary is a Web / Graphic Designer which qualifies as a specialty occupation.  This proffered position is clearly a “specialty occupation” because the minimum requirements for this position are a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design or its equivalent.  It almost has become a necessity and in order for companies to have these competent Graphic Designers, some with a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design or its equivalent is a must.  Our office has helped several foreign graphic designers’ H-1B petitions, so we clearly explained to the USCIS with numerous supporting documents that the proffered position is a specialty occupation.

The foreign beneficiary in this case already had his H-1B visa from his previous employer in a similar industry.  However, his H-1B visa was not expired yet, and he wanted to extend his H-1B status based on a change in employer.

Once retained, our office promptly filed the H-1B visa petition with various supporting documents on March 25, 2011 via regular processing service.  Since this petition was based on a change in employer, this petition was exempted from the annual H-1B cap.  Thus, we could file prior to April 1.  There were no Requests for Evidence during the processing of the H-1B.  Eventually, our client’s H-1B Petition was approved on May 10, 2011.  Now the Beneficiary can work for his Petitioner-Employer as an H-1B visa holder and he can work there for next three years.

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CASE: Marriage-Based Adjustment of Status
CLIENT: Kenyan
LOCATION: Cleveland, OH

Our client came to the United States in 2009 with an F-1 student visa from Kenya.  However, she later became out of status did not reinstate her F-1 status. She married a U.S. Citizen in August 2010 and retained our office in January of 2011 for her adjustment of status application.  Our firm prepared and filed the I-130 Petition and Adjustment of Status Application on January 24, 2010.  Everything went smoothly and the receipt notices, fingerprint appointment, and work permits all came on time. There was no Request for Evidence.  Prior to the interview, we thoroughly prepared our clients. On April 29, 2011, our client was interviewed at the Cleveland, Ohio USCIS.  We accompanied them at the interview as well.  On May 5, 2011, our client obtained her green card.

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CASE: H-1B Visa Petition
PETITIONER:  E-Book Publishing Company
BENEFICIARY: E-Book / Web Designer

Our client is a large E-Book publishing company in the United States. They contacted our office in early March to seek legal assistance from our office for their foreign employee.  The beneficiary obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in China and completed his Masters program in the United States. The proffered position for the Beneficiary is an E-Book / Web Designer which qualifies as a specialty occupation.  This proffered position is clearly a “specialty occupation” because the minimum requirements for this position are a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or its equivalent.  It has become a necessity and in order for companies to have these competent Web Designers, a Bachelor’s Degree is a must.  A Bachelor’s Degree in this field is affirmation that a candidate is well equipped with the skills needed to publish, design and maintain functional, attractive, practical, and useful E-Book Publication for E-Book publishing companies.

Once retained, our office promptly filed the H-1B visa petition with various supporting documents on April 1, 2011 via regular processing service. There were no Requests for Evidence during the processing of the H-1B.  Eventually, our client’s H-1B application was approved on May 3, 2011. The approval only took a month despite filing the Petition through regular processing.

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CASE: I-612 J-1 Hardship Waiver
APPLICANT: Kenyan
LOCATION: Missouri

Our client contacted us in March 2010 to inquire about applying for a J-1 hardship waiver. She intends to apply for adjustment of status afterwards.  She came to the United States from Kenya in July 1999 on a J-1 visa. She was subject to the two-year foreign residency requirement.

Her husband left her while she was pregnant. He son was born in 2004. She raised him by herself. Her son has suffered from multiple medical issues, from asthma to allergies to severe skin problems.

Our client retained our firm and on April 21, 2010, we filed the I-612 J-1 Waiver application based on exceptional hardship. Our firm drafted an extensive 10-page brief with over 20 exhibits and submitted these with the application.

In May 3, 2011, after over 5 follow up letters, the J-1 waiver based on exceptional hardship was approved.

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CASE: PERM Labor Certification
EMPLOYER: Professional Services Staffing Company
BENEFICIARY: Pakistani
LOCATION: Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Our client is a Computer Engineer who had a Professional Staffing Company willing to petition him for an second-preference petition. Second preference petitions for Pakistanis are current, which means that if a PERM Labor Certification for a second preference position gets approved, the I-140 and I-485 could be filed simultaneously. After talking to our client, our firm concluded that his potential employer can petition him as an operations research analyst, which is an EB2 position. We were retained in the last week of December.

Prior to filing PERM, our firm prepared the prevailing wage request, job order, advertisements, internal job posting, recruitment report, and all other steps which are important pre-PERM filing. Take note that PERM could be filed at least 60 days from the job posting date or 30 days from the last ad. Within a week from our retention, the prevailing wage request and the job order were both immediately filed. Thus the earliest we could file was around the first week of March. On March 7, 2011, we promptly filed PERM. On April 27, 2011, less than two months from filing, the PERM Labor Certification was approved – an EB2 position for the Pakistani beneficiary. Now were on to the next step which is filing the I-140, I-485, and I-765 simultaneously.

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CASE: Bond Hearing
APPLICANTS: Chinese
LOCATION: Florence, AZ

Our firm was contacted in early April regarding two Chinese individuals detained in Florence, Arizona.  They tried to enter the United States without valid documents and were incarcerated thereafter by immigration officers. They were then given credible fear interviews which they eventually passed.

Upon our retention, we immediately filed bond hearings for our two clients. Despite them being in jail in Florence, we communicated with them and tried to gather as much information regarding their relief, equities, criminal record, family, and financial ability to post bond. We contacted our clients’ several relatives and friends in New York and Alabama. We also gathered supporting documents from those relatives, from proofs of their status, residences, to bank statements and tax returns. We also obtained notarized affidavits from them.

On April 26 and 27, 2011, we represented our clients for the Florence Arizona Immigration Court bond hearings. We argued that our client was eligible for asylum relief, passed credible fear interviews, were not flight risks, had established their residence upon release, had established their financial ability to post bond, and that they had ample family ties in the United States who submitted proofs of their residence and copies of their immigration status. The Judge took our arguments into consideration and a bond was granted thereafter. Our clients’ relatives have thereafter posted bond and they are now out of detention to pursue their asylum claims.

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CASE: N-400 (Citizenship / Naturalization)
APPLICANT: German
LOCATION: Ohio
ISSUES: Out of Country Travels
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Our client contacted us in September 2010 to inquire about applying for naturalization.  She came to the United States from Germany in the eighties, married her U.S. citizen spouse, and obtained her green card through this. Their marriage was bona fide at inception but it ended in 2009. But the divorce had no adverse effect on her naturalization because she has maintained the marital relationship more than 20 years. The main reason why she never applied for naturalization was because she had a lot of trips abroad, mainly due to her ex-husband’s work which had her travelling with him to Saudi Arabia. She had over 20 trips abroad since she obtained permanent residency.

Under immigration law, an applicant for naturalization must demonstrate continuous residence and physical presence in the United States.  The applicant must have been physically present in the United States for at least one-half of the past five years. Also, the applicant must not be out of the United States for a continuous period of more than one year during the period for which continuous residence is required. Please note that for both continuous residence and physical presence, the requirements are cumulative and not continuous.  A permanent resident can leave and come back to the United States as much as she or he wants as long as the continuity of residence is not broken and the physical presence requirement is met prior to applying for citizenship.

For the past 5 years, our client had four trips abroad.  Nonetheless, she was in the United States more than 2.5 years was thus eligible to file for naturalization.  The application was filed on November 18, 2010 with supporting documents.  We also accompanied her on February 18, 2011 at the Cleveland CIS office.  Our client promptly and clearly answered all questions by the CIS officer and passed her citizenship interview.  However, the officer asked the applicant to submit a notarized affidavit regarding her past travel history, even though a copy of her passport and a listing of her trips were provided in the application. We went back to the office on the same day to comply with this request by the CIS and immediately sent back the notarized affidavit of her trips. On April 19, 2011 her N-400 was finally approved. Her oath taking is scheduled for May 6, 2011 in which she will be a U.S. Citizen.

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