With a wedding date only a few weeks away, Charles Goldsmith was able to help a Russian client obtain a tourist visa to attend her daughter's wedding despite a previous denial by the consulate. By submitting affidavits, financial documents, proof of ties to the home country, and specifics regarding the wedding, the counsel was convinced of the bona fides of the B-2 visa application.
Brian Weiss has recently helped several clients obtain I-601 waivers of grounds of inadmissibility for both foreign nationals adjusting their status in the U.S. or for foreign nationals applying for immigrant visas at U.S. consulates abroad. These waivers are required for certain individuals who have a basis of ineligibility that restricts them from obtaining lawful permanent resident status in the U.S. under our immigration laws. These waivers are often based on "extreme" hardship to qualifying U.S. citizen relatives, usually a spouse or parent, and require a higher standard of proof of hardship beyond mere separation of families, economic hardship, etc.
After being rejected by a previous immigration attorney who said the case was too difficult, Matthew Goldsmith was able to help obtain an H-1B visa for a karaoke bar that wanted to hire an in-house attorney to handle their legal work. While on its face this seemed like a weak case, during the consultation Matthew spent a lot of time meeting with the owner of the business so he could fully understand the operation and discovered that the owner of the karaoke bar owned several other enterprises which also required the services of the attorney and thus helped justify the need for such a position.
Herb Weiss, after he was substituted as counsel two years ago, was able to obtain recently an I-140 approval involving a complicated successor in interest situation. The petition had been denied initially for several reasons, including issues involving ability to pay the proffered wage as well as the successor in interest problem. On appeal to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO), Herb was able to satisfy the AAO that an ability to pay existed. Regarding the successor in interest situation, the AAO remanded to the USCIS. After Herb submitted a very lengthy brief, the USCIS agreed that a bona fide successor in interest situation existed and decided to approve the petition. After waiting about ten years for his green card, the client, who should be receiving the card soon, is ecstatic.
Tara Goldsmith was successful in convincing the Department of Labor to overturn their denial of a PERM labor certification. The labor certification was denied because the Department of Labor initially held that the recruitment that was done did not comply with the regulations. Specifically, DOL held that the recruitment done by a private employment firm/recruiter was insufficient because the advertisements did not list the name of the employer. Tara argued that not only was this an incorrect interpretation of the requirements contained in the PERM regulations but also, it makes no sense for a private employment firm or placement agency to list the name of the employer or the employer's contact information as part of their recruitment efforts, as it is the placement agency's job to conduct searches on behalf of the employer, collect and analyze resumes, and assist the employer with placements. Eventually the Department of Labor agreed and the labor certification application filed by our client was approved.
Charles Goldsmith was able to help a Japanese company obtain an "L" visa for a company that had filed an individual "L" petition with the California Service Center and had received a Request for Evidence (RFE), which seemed almost impossible to satisfy. Although the petitioning subsidiary was not large enough to qualify in its own right for a blanket approval, Charles was able to have an affiliate company's already existing "L" blanket approval amended to include the petitioner. By filing the blanket amendment under "Premium Processing," the employee obtained a visa in less time than it would have taken to respond to the RFE. This also means that in the future, this company can bring to the US transferees without fear of extensive delays or even denials by the USCIS' California Service Center.
Brian Weiss recently assisted a client who had a very difficult 245(i) case obtain lawful permanent resident status in the U.S. The foreign national had a family-based petition filed in her behalf prior to April 30, 2001 but after January 14, 1998 and was not physically present in the U.S. on December 21, 2000. After filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for the foreign national's mother with the Immigration Service, Brian was able to determine that our client was a grandfathered alien of her mother's previously approved I-130 preference petition. Further, based on the filing date of her mother's petition, physical presence in the U.S. on December 21, 2000 was not required. This petition afforded our client the same 245(i) protection as her mother since she was considered a derivative beneficiary of that petition and thus eligible for adjustment of status.
Tara Goldsmith recently received an approval for a client to work as a Jewelry Designer at a high-end company. Because the equivalent of a US Bachelors degree is not usually a requirement for this type of position in the jewelry industry, this was a very difficult case to get approved. Tara argued that because of the nature of the job duties and the sophistication of clientele purchasing the jewelry from this particular company, the job could not be performed by someone without at least the equivalent of a US Bachelors degree.
After being advised by their previous attorney that their H-1B petition for one of the key employees would definitely be revoked, Charles Goldsmith was retained and able to convince the USCIS to not revoke the approved petition. He was able to prove the site inspector who recommended revocation reached his conclusion of fraud based solely on a conversation with an employee who was not authorized to speak on behalf of the company. Charles was also able to demonstrate the excellent reputation of the company and utilized its financial records to prove its good faith compliance with the terms and conditions of the employment as described in the I-129 petition.
A husband and wife, the parents of two teenage U.S. citizen children, came to the office about 16 months ago with a deportation order clouding their lives. Because of the ineffective assistance of prior counsel who had failed to obtain green card status for them despite their patent eligibility, they had been ordered to report for deportation in December 2009. Herb Weiss, with the assistance of his deportation team, was able to quash the outstanding deportation order. The Immigration Court agreed to remand the case back to the USCIS for consideration of the family's green card applications through the adjustment of status process. The family was recently interviewed by the USCIS on their adjustment applications and they are expected to be approved. All members of the family should be receiving their green cards very soon.
Matthew Goldsmith has recently successfully helped several retiring foreign officers and employees of international organizations, and their family members, to adjust their status from G-4 to lawful permanent resident although there were complex issues especially regarding the U.S. residency requirement.
Alicia Szyffer recently succeeded in obtaining an approval of an I-130 visa petition for a woman who is married to a U.S. citizen, despite a previous denial of the petition. In the first instance, the USCIS had scheduled the couple for what in New York is commonly known as a "Stokes" interview, to ascertain whether they entered into their marriage because they loved each other and not for the purpose of circumventing the immigration laws. They were interviewed separately and were required to answer numerous questions pertaining to their relationship before and following the marriage. After scrutinizing and comparing their answers to those questions, the Examiner denied the petition because of "discrepancies" between some of the answers given by the couple. What was particularly interesting in this case was the fact that most of those answers were not discrepancies at all, but a failure on the part of the husband to recall particular details. The examiner did not give the couple the benefit of the doubt and denied the visa petition. The wife was then placed in removal proceedings.
Alicia entertained the possibility that the husband might suffer from memory problems. Accordingly, she recommended that he see a specialist. It turned out that he indeed suffered from memory loss. She submitted a letter from his Neurologist confirming the diagnosis and stating that he had prescribed medication for the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. Alicia filed another visa petition and the USCIS scheduled a 2nd Stokes interview where, at the urging of Alicia, most questions were posed to the wife only. The visa petition was approved, the Immigration Judge cancelled removal proceedings and the woman was granted lawful permanent residence status in the U.S.
