OC Immigration Attorney

We just received the excellent news that an I-601 Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility (commonly referred to as an Extreme Hardship Waiver) was granted for a client in Mexico. He entered the United States when he was 3 years old, when his parents came across illegally. He attended school here and never had any criminal trouble. When he was 21 years old, he decided to return to Mexico, because he felt like he was breaking the law by even being in the United States.

He worked for a Church doing missionary work in Mexico and helping at-risk teenagers and adolescents avoid gangs and the drug cartel culture. He met his wife (a US citizen) and the couple married a few years ago. They both live in Mexico and work for a Christian Missionary Service. They are two of the sweetest people you could meet. The couple lived together in Mexico for several years.

In Summer 2010, the couple learned that they were pregnant with their first child. At that time, they decided they needed to leave Mexico. They had seen too much violence including murders, burglaries and gunfights to raise their child in Mexico. They hired The Nunez Firm to help them consular process and prepare an I-601 waiver that would allow the husband to return to the United States despite his many years of unlawful presence.

All I-601 cases are different, but we decided to focus on the husband’s exceptional moral character and his voluntary departure from the United States without any INS/USICE involvement. We emphasized that he had been in Mexico for many years already, and he never chose to enter the US illegally. His parents did. We pointed out that his US citizen wife was of Asian descent, and the couple’s child would clearly have some Asian features. We provided evidence that foreigners are often targets of violence, kidnappings and ransoms by the drug cartels in Mexico. We provided evidence that the couple had had their home burglarized already once and multiple people had been killed by gunfire just down the street from the husband’s Church. We hired a psychologist to provide a psych evaluation regarding the stress the pregnant wife was experiencing due to the uncertainty of where her child would be raised.

The husband attended his interview earlier this month and the extreme hardship waiver was approved on the spot. The couple is now in the United States, and the wife is scheduled to give birth in the next few weeks. We at The Nunez Firm are overjoyed for this young family and so happy that they obtained the result they desired. They can look forward to a future of safety and certainty and most of all being together. Congratulations again.

If you are considering consular processing and an I-601 waiver, contact The Nunez Firm to discuss your situation and the chances of success. Managing attorney Jay Nunez will personally meet with you for a free consultation to review and explain your options.

A marriage based green card was approved for an Aliso Viejo client recently. She is originally from the Philippines, and she met her husband in the Philippines in 2006, while he was visiting. They stayed in contact for several years and he visited her on several occasions over a two year period. The couple visited Thailand and Vietnam together as well. He proposed to her in 2008.

He filed for a fiance visa using another law firm, and although the fiance visa was approved eventually, he was not satisfied with his previous attorney’s communication and attention.

She entered the United States on the fiance visa in 2009, and the couple married within a couple months of her arrival. At that time, the husband was overwhelmed with business obligations, selling his house and other time commitments, and the couple did not file for the adjustment of status until 2010. (Although an alien admitted to the United States on a K-1 fiance visa MUST marry the visa petitioner within 90 days of admission, there is no requirement that the couple apply for adjustment of status within the first 90 days.)

After one year living in the US, the couple decided to proceed with the adjustment of status process. We filed the I-485 and all necessary evidence in late 2010.

The interview went smoothly and the conditional green card was approved for a two year period. 1 year and 9 months after approval, the couple will be expected to file the I-751 joint petition to remove the conditions on permanent residency.

If you are considering a marriage based adjustment of status, contact The Nunez Firm to schedule a free consultation. Managing attorney Jay Nunez will help you understand the process and answer all your questions. The Nunez Firm has handled countless marriage based adjustments over the last few years, and we can help make the process as uneventful and unstressful as possible.

We just received great news that a joint I-751 petition to remove the conditions on permanent residence was approved for a married couple in Buena Park. The couple has been together for years. The husband is a US citizen and the wife is originally from Mexico. They married three years ago, and she received her conditional green card through the adjustment of status process in late 2008.

We filed the petition to remove conditions in September 2010. We included a substantial amount of evidence to prove that the marriage was entered in good faith including photos, bills, evidence that the couple lived together and shared assets.

Although there was a criminal conviction issue involved, we included a detailed cover letter explaining why the conviction was not a removable/deportable offense and was not a bar to having the conditions removed.

Although the couple does not have any children together, the I-751 was approved without an interview (which is generally uncommon). The couple was very pleased with the outcome, and they look forward to having the wife naturalize to become a US citizen in the future.

If you are scheduled to file an I-751 and would like to speak to an immigration attorney about the process, contact The Nunez Firm to schedule a free consultation. Managing attorney Jay Nunez will personally meet with you during a confidential consultation and advise you about your options and how The Nunez Firm might be able to help.

Topeka — A legislator said Monday it might be a good idea to control illegal immigration the way the feral hog population has been controlled: with gunmen shooting from helicopters.

Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, said he was just joking, but that his comment did reflect frustration with the problem of illegal immigration. After one of the committee members talked about a program that uses hunters in helicopters to shoot wild swine, Peck suggested that may be a way to control illegal immigration.

Appropriations Chairman Marc Rhoades, R-Newton, said Peck’s comment was inappropriate. Asked about his comment, Peck was unapologetic. “I was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person,” he said.

He said most of his constituents are upset with illegal immigration and the state and federal government response. He said he didn’t expect any further controversy over his comment. “I think it’s over,” he said.

Last month, another state legislator, Rep. Connie O’Brien, R-Tonganoxie, apologized after referring to a college student as an illegal immigrant because of her “olive complexion.”

(One more reason I’m glad I don’t live in Kansas.)

California reached a milestone late last month when federal immigration officials quietly announced that all 58 counties in the state are now participating in Secure Communities, a controversial program created to track and deport dangerous criminals.

Unveiled in late 2008, Secure Communities is billed as a showpiece of immigration enforcement. Under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program, state and local police must check the immigration status of people who have been arrested and booked into local jails by matching fingerprints against federal databases for criminal convictions and deportation orders.

But today, Secure Communities is mired in problems. About 60% of the 87,534 immigrants deported under the program had minor or no criminal convictions, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s statistics, even though the program was aimed at dangerous criminals.

Moreover, state and local law enforcement agencies are growing increasingly uneasy about participating in a program that they say thwarts their ability to work with communities with large immigrant populations. Police are concerned that taking on the role of enforcer makes it more difficult to build trust in immigrant communities that are already fearful of reporting crimes or providing crucial information. A report released last week by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based research group, found that police chiefs across the nation worry that checking suspects’ backgrounds against databases that include immigration warrants is blurring the lines between public safety and immigration enforcement.

We just attended an adjustment of status interview in the Orange County office of USCIS (in Santa Ana). My clients are a married couple. The husband is a US citizen, and the wife is from the Philippines. They recently moved from Ladera Ranch to Costa Mesa.

The interview went well and we were well prepared for the officer’s questions. The officer approved the conditional lawful permanent resident status for a two year period, which is standard for marriages under two years.

The wife came over from the Philippines in late summer on a K-1 visa that we helped prepare. The couple married within the first 90 days as they are required to do for a fiance visa. After their marriage in Las Vegas, we filed the I-485 application to adjust status with USCIS. Several months later (today), we attended the adjustment interview.

At the interview we brought photos, the lease agreement and a 2 inch stack of documents evidencing that their marriage was entered into in good faith.

The couple was very happy to be done with the immigration process for now. In two years, the couple will be required to file an I-751 petition to remove the conditions on the wife’s permanent residence.

If you are married to a US citizen and would like a free consultation regarding your immigration options, please contact The Nunez Firm. Managing attorney Jay Nunez will personally meet with you for a free and confidential consultation.

Forty-four-year-old Ramdeo Chankar Singh was honorably discharged from the Army nine years ago. He believes he is fully qualified to become a U.S. citizen, and has been trying to become one for almost a decade. But immigration officials are telling him he doesn’t meet the eligibility requirements.

Not only that, Singh, married to a Trinidadian native like himself, and with two U.S.-born children ages 10 and 5, is now facing deportation.

“I’ve been paying my taxes for years, have never got into trouble with the law and served in the military for nine years. I don’t need to buy my citizenship; I believe I have earned it.”

What is making him more confused and frustrated is that after passing his naturalization test back in September 2004, he was initially told by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that his citizenship application “has been recommended for approval.”

DOJ informed him, “At this time it appears you have established your eligibility for naturalization. If final approval is granted, you will be notified when and where to report for the Oath Ceremony.”

That notification never came, and on Dec. 1, 2004, Singh was told that his petition was denied because he did not “meet the requirements” of the provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, under which he had filed.

Since then, Singh and his wife, Savitri, have spent countless hours researching U.S. immigration laws and presidential executive orders relating to citizenship eligibility for immigrants who served in the military around the time Singh did.

So far Singh has spent nearly $60,000 in lawyers’ fees in his citizenship fight. He has written pleas for help to lawmakers, especially congressional representatives from New York, such as Rep. Gregory Meeks and Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, who is now Secretary of State.

Singh said some responded, saying they would contact immigration officials, but nothing has come of those promises to date.

His case reflects the complex relationship between the federal government and immigrants in the armed forces. Undocumented immigrants aren’t allowed to join, but if they find a way to get in, immigration laws sometimes provide them a path to citizenship.

Singh knows that the one crucial thing he needs for securing U.S. citizenship is a green card, or permanent residency. But he is convinced that his years of service in the military overrides that requirement–a conviction reinforced by Edward M. Daniels II, a New York-based Veterans Affairs advocate, who has joined forces with Singh in his fight for U.S. citizenship.

“The Immigration and Nationality Act [INA] is all that’s needed to prove that he is entitled to becoming a citizen,” Daniels asserted.

In 1981, at age 15, Singh came to the United States from his native Trinidad via Canada without legal documents. He soon began earning a living.

Ten years later, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, soon after obtaining a work permit through a class action lawsuit filed by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) on behalf of immigrants of any nationality, who were wrongfully told they were ineligible for amnesty under a special federal program. At the time of getting the work permit, Singh said he was led to believe that it would automatically lead to permanent residency.

But as it turned out, “the LULAC lawsuit kept dragging on and on, ” said Crystal Williams, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Eventually, some who had applied for amnesty got it. But not Singh.

Have you or someone you know recently received an e-mail claiming you’ve won the Green Card lottery and asking you to send or wire money?

Don’t fall for it – the sender is trying to steal your money!

Fraudsters will frequently e-mail potential victims posing as State Department or other government officials with requests to wire or transfer money online as part of a “processing fee.” You should never transfer money to anyone who e-mails you claiming that you have won the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery or been selected for a Green Card.

These e-mails are designed to steal money from unsuspecting victims. The senders often use phony e-mail addresses and logos designed to make them look more like official government correspondence. One easy way to tell they are a fraud is that the e-mail address does not end with a “.gov”.