Our client is originally from Vietnam. Her father was in the military and stationed in Vietnam in the 1970s. Her mother was Vietnamese. Six months after our client's birth, the fall of Saigon occurred. Her mother, two brothers and her were evacuated on helicopters as part of Operation Frequent Wind, whereby 40,000 American civilians, military and South Vietnamese individuals escaped Vietnam.

Our client was designated a refugee and given lawful permanent resident status.

In the early 90s, our client moved to a central American country for 4 years. When she tried to return to the United States, she was told she had abandoned her permanent resident status and she was denied entry into the U.S. Two years later, she obtained a fiance visa and entered the country, but she never married her fiance.

She came to us several years later. Because she entered on a K-1 fiance visa, she could not adjust status through any other means. We decided to pursue citizenship claiming that because her father was a U.S. citizen she was a U.S. citizen at birth. The problem was that we did not have a birth certificate and we could not locate her father.

Years later, we finally tracked down her father. He agreed to do a DNA test and used that test to prove that our client's father was a U.S. citizen. We also tracked down the father's high school and elementary school records from over half a century ago to prove that he lived in the U.S. as a young man.

After over 40 years living in the United States, our client was deemed a U.S. citizen and provided with a certificate of citizenship last week.

If you have a complex immigration case, contact Nelson & Nunez to schedule a consultation. We will meet with you in person to determine if there is a path to legalize your immigration situation.

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is proposing a new rule, which would allow certain international entrepreneurs to be considered for parole (temporary permission to be in the United States) so that they may start or scale their businesses here in the United States.
Read the advance version of the notice of proposed rulemaking: International Entrepreneur Rule. Once the notice of proposed rulemaking is published in the Federal Register, the public will have 45 days from the date of publication to comment. To submit comments, follow the instructions in the notice.

“America’s economy has long benefited from the contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs, from Main Street to Silicon Valley,” said Director León Rodríguez. “This proposed rule, when finalized, will help our economy grow by expanding immigration options for foreign entrepreneurs who meet certain criteria for creating jobs, attracting investment and generating revenue in the U.S.”

The proposed rule would allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use its existing discretionary statutory parole authority for entrepreneurs of startup entities whose stay in the United States would provide a significant public benefit through the substantial and demonstrated potential for rapid business growth and job creation. Under this proposed rule, DHS may parole, on a case-by-case basis, eligible entrepreneurs of startup enterprises:

- Who have a significant ownership interest in the startup (at least 15 percent) and have an active and central role to its operations;
- Whose startup was formed in the United States within the past three years; and
- Whose startup has substantial and demonstrated potential for rapid business growth and job creation, as evidenced by:
           ->Receiving significant investment of capital (at least $345,000) from certain qualified U.S. investors with established records of successful investments;
           ->Receiving significant awards or grants (at least $100,000) from certain federal, state or local government entities; or
           ->Partially satisfying one or both of the above criteria in addition to other reliable and compelling evidence of the startup entity’s substantial potential for rapid growth and job creation.

Under the proposed rule, entrepreneurs may be granted an initial stay of up to two years to oversee and grow their startup entity in the United States. A subsequent request for re-parole (for up to three additional years) would be considered only if the entrepreneur and the startup entity continue to provide a significant public benefit as evidenced by substantial increases in capital investment, revenue or job creation.

We recently helped one of our Irvine clients in obtaining US Citizenship. Several years ago, her husband approached us about obtaining a green card for her. The couple had married a few years earlier and she was ready to pursue lawful permanent residency through adjustment of status. Everything went smoothly and she was approved for the green card.

After three years in lawful permanent resident status, she was eligible to naturalize as a US citizen. The general rule is that an alien must be a permanent resident for five years before becoming naturalization eligible, but the spouses of US citizens need only wait three years. (VAWA approved victims of domestic violence need only wait three years as well.)

We prepared and filed the naturalization and I attended the interview with her at the Santa Ana office of USCIS. Everything went smoothly and the case was approved on the spot. Now, we are waiting for the oath ceremony notice.

Once she takes the Oath, she will be a US citizen. She wants to petition for her elderly mother to become a lawful permanent resident, so we will likely file that within the next few months. The total processing time for a consular processing case is about 8-9 months.

An immigration judge recently granted our motion to dismiss so our client can process his green card through USCIS. Our client has been in immigration court in Los Angeles for almost 4 years now. In 2015 we helped his daughter naturalize to become a US citizen. Shortly thereafter we helped her file a visa petition for her father as the parent of a US citizen. Once the I-130 visa petition was approved, we filed a motion to dismiss the father’s deportation case. The judge agreed that it was in the best interest of the court and the father and granted the motion.

The next step will be for us to file an I-485 application for a green card with USCIS. The father entered the country legally on an L-1 visa almost two decades ago, so he is eligible to adjust status without leaving the United States or needing an I-601 waiver of any kind.

Now that his immigration court case is terminated, we anticipate no further hurdles in obtaining his green card so he can stay in the US with his family.