ImmigrationAmerica.org

It's Getting Harder to be a Tourist in the USA: Always Carry Your Documents with you!

Being a tourist is a lot of fun! You get to go on vacation in a foreign country, see new sights, meet new people, and experience new things.  However, if you are a tourist in the United States, you need to be more careful.

Immigration is a tricky subject, most especially during election time. There is a consensus that the issue of illegal immigration has brought problems, although not everyone is one the same page when it comes to how to best address the issue. In a new twist on the topic of immigration, the discussion has shifted to legal immigration. Usually the focus is all on illegal immigration but now even legal immigration has come under fire.

Holiday Travel: How to Leave the United States on a Trip if you are an Immigrant

It is very important to assess the papers that you carry with you, especially if you are a foreign national living in the United States and wish to temporarily leave the United States on a trip. This is because your immigration status will determine the papers that you will be required to carry with you whenever you make such a trip.

One Idea for How to Fix the Broken US Immigration System

So many ideas are floating around for how best to address the broken US Immigration system. Even Newt Gingrich has proposed a middle-of-the-road attempt at compromise on the immigration issue.  How do we re-write the immigration laws so they will keep everyone happy? Is that even possible? Here is one theory on how we can fix the broken US immigration system in a way that everyone can agree on:

Highly Skilled May Wait Less for Visas

In what is considered to be a rare instance where Republicans and Democrats work together on the heated topic of immigration, the House of Representatives have recently passed legislation which introduces amendments to the visa system so that more Chinese and Indian immigrants who are highly skilled can attain legal permanent residency (LPR) status.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have advised that the amount of trafficking and crime victims applying for special visas has considerably increased. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, in excess of thirteen thousand (13,000) crime victims have applied for the visas in the first 3 quarters of this financial year, an increase of at least twenty eight percent (28%) from the previous year. These statistics also show that about eight hundred and sixty (860) trafficking victims have applied, which is a fifty one percent (51%) increase.

How to Remove the Conditions on Your Residency: From Conditional Residence to Permanent Residence

In case you had been married to a US citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) for less than 2 years at the time your application to become a Permanent Resident of the United States was approved, then that makes you a Conditional Resident of the Unites States. The reason why you hold a Conditional Resident status is that you will still need to prove that defrauding the United States immigration laws was not what motivated you to get married. You must prove you married for love, not just to get US residency.

EB-5 Visas: Green Card Immigration Laws for Investors in the United States

There is an immigration law that provides green cards to foreigners who invest $500,000 to $1 million in an enterprise that creates new jobs. There are private firms developing two major New Jersey state-sponsored projects, which are planning to take advantage of this law.

How to Get a Green Card for Your Parents

As a United States citizen you may help your parents in coming to the US by obtaining a green card. This will help them become permanent citizens. By doing this you will be “sponsoring” your parents.

Interviews with Immigration Officials: Information About How You Be Ready

There are a variety of different types of immigration interviews, which includes an interview at the American consulate, an immediate relative interview, a United States citizenship interview, or an asylum interview. Typically the United States government official carrying out the appointment will definitely ask many different kinds of things at each of these wide variety of immigration appointments and also you will need to deliver very different legal documents. Nevertheless, there are certainly a handful of basic instructions pertaining to easy methods to plan the best way to go to any kind of immigration interview. When you are aware of the way to get ready to go to just one immigration interview, you can expect to be successful in all kinds.

Arizona to Build a Border Fence

When it comes to border enforcement, Arizona is taking matters into its own hands yet again. Although the highly controversial and very anti-immigration law SB 1070 has faced harsh criticism and caused major damage to the state’s economy, it’s not stopping state politicians from continuing to maintain their strong anti-immigration stance. Now the state of Arizona has resolved to build a fence along its entire border.

Utah Joins Arizona and Alabama in its Anti-Immigration Policy – and Gets Sued for it by the Federal Government, too

Add Utah to the list of states least pleasant to visit if you’re an immigrant or an immigrant rights’ activist. HB 497 is based on Arizona’s SB 1070. It’s most controversial clause is the requirements that police and law enforcement officials check the immigration status of every person they legally encounter in the course of their jobs. Although that clause has an injunction, a restraining order, against it now, the US Federal Government is stepping because this law infringes on areas of federal jurisdiction.

Mercedes-Benz Executive Arrested Under Alabama’s Immigration Law

Alabama’s harsh new anti-immigration law has been hurting businesses ever since it was voted into law. However, this has been brought to a new level with last week’s arrest of a visiting German Mercedes-Benz executive.

The damage done to Arizona’s economy by its immigration laws, Senate Bill (SB) 1070 and the Legal Arizona Worker’s Act (LAWA) of 2007, is no secret.  We’ve previously addressed on ImmigrationAmerica.org just the kind of economic damage these laws can do.  Their goal is to force undocumented immigrants to leave the state by heavily punishing employers who hire them. If immigrants can’t get jobs, they can’t survive and must leave.  Thus, these laws have been effective in their aim of chasing immigrants from the state… but they haven’t been so kind to Arizona’s economic recovery.

Once upon a time, green cards didn't expire. Now, green cards are only valid for 10 years and must be renewed.  Even if you have one of the older green cards with no expiration date, you still must renew it immediately.

For all the information about how to renew your green card, click HERE!

What Will Happen All the Way Through the Green Card Experience

The whole system for receiving your green card is now exceedingly complicated and as a consequence as long as you are lacking familiarity with those procedures, the green card process actually is just a little intimidating. That will undoubtedly be true as long as American English just isn't one's main language. Usually the green card experience may differ to some degree depending on the category of green card you are receiving. A large proportion of people today are obtaining some type of green card via her/his business organization or being married, although there are really a couple of alternate methods, like through the green card lotto, financial investment, or perhaps filing for asylum.

Not long ago, at the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness in Pittsburgh, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas announced the introduction of a new program called “Entrepreneurs in Residence.”  This is a program designed to help foreign entrepreneurs by improving the way USCIS interacts with them.

 Bravo to the New Yorker magazine for its cover this week!  This just serves to remind us all that no matter how far back our roots go, unless every single one of our ancestors was a Native American, we are all descendents of immigrants.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has often spoken on the topic of the necessity of a humane and intelligent immigration reform process. He is an ardent supporter of a City Council bill which would put reasonable limits on the type of assistance New York City would provide to the Federal Government under its Secure Communities program to capture and deport undocumented aliens who are not a threat to the peace and order situation of the city.