Houston Immigration Attorney
Houston Immigration Attorney
The decision is, as always, primarily motivated and held aloft by fears of terrorism. USCIS simply can't conceive of a well-motivated decision to leave the US for a period of more than six months. The unspoken assumption is that any permanent resident spending more than six months out of country is clearly bent on doing evil. Fingerprinting before reentry is a measure designed to prevent permanent residents from leaving the country for terrorist training. It's also designed to prevent an "identity switch" on a legal green card, which would allow known or suspected terrorists to utilize the clean records of their countrymen to slip stealthily under US radar as they "re" enter the country on someone else's green card.
Critics allege that the new policy is at root ineffective, and-worse-appears to be a simple grab for money, with the fee for fingerprinting and reentry application sitting pretty at $80.00. Further, it requires permanent residents to be almost prescient in order to handle the mountain of paperwork with any efficiency-and it's simply impossible for them to know in advance when relatives overseas will fall ill, or jobs will transfer, or universities will accept them.
Of course, the most obvious criticism of this measure, and all measures that attempt to combat crime with paperwork, is the simple fact that criminals are, well, so criminal. Those who are bent on violence, destruction, and damage certainly aren't concerned with filing proper paperwork to stay out of trouble, which means that the only permanent residents inconvenienced by this new measure are the ones we should be actively recruiting-the type that actually care about doing things right.
With the U.S. economy mouldering away at the moment, a problem has emerged among the ranks of America's workforce. It's no secret that the economic boom many portions of America enjoyed in the last decade came on the backs of skilled immigrant workers, from IT to construction. The problem with is simple: as jobs are lost to economic slowdowns and higher gas prices, many workers holding B and H-1B visas are forced to return to their Houston immigration lawyers to find a way to remain in the country legally.
B1 visas allow the holder to enter the US for business purposes for terms of up to six months. These visas are valid for periods of up to ten years, and are not linked to specific business ventures, being regarded as basically interchangeable with B2 visas for tourism purposes. The real problem lies in the laps of holders of H-1B visas.
H-1B visas are, in effect, permission for a foreign national to enter the United States for the purposes of performing a specific job. The applicant must be highly qualified for the job in questions, holding at least a bachelor's degree or its equivalent. The problem faced by many foreign workers lies in the fact that these visas are tied to the specific job and employer for which they enter the country.
According to United States Immigration and Naturalization Services, holders of H-1B visas are effectively illegal the moment their jobs are lost. These unfortunate individuals are granted 30 days under the current law to either return to their homeland or find an immigration lawyer in Houston able to keep them in the country legally.
Techniques used to circumvent deportation range from enrolling a spouse in college to applying for "tourist" status with Immigration and Naturalization Services. Although there are many ways around this problem, only a qualified Houston immigration lawyer should be entrusted with the responsibility of handling immigration red tape quickly, legally, and efficiently.
For many outside the US, employment holds the key to success inside American borders. Although dissatisfied Americans may complain about the current economic slowdown, what appears to lifelong American citizens as a recession strikes many potential immigrants as rare economic opportunity. As a result, individuals from the world over compete for relatively few slots available for legal residency based on permanent employment in the US.
In order to qualify for this employment-based immigration, foreign nationals must already be eligible for one of the existing methods of lawful residency under current US Immigration Law. If that is the case, the employer must file a request with the US Department of Labor before the process can proceed further. If the Department of Labor approves this request, the employer is then able to file an immigrant visa petition. Under this arrangement, the employer is, in effect, acting as the sponsor of the foreign national, vouching for his employment and suitability for US residency
If things proceed smoothly, the foreign applicant will then receive an immigrant visa number (even if they are already in the US on a temporary visa). Once this number becomes available and is assigned to the applicant, the only remaining step is to enter the US (if he is outside) or apply to convert the immigrant visa into a permanent residency (if he's already inside).
Typically, permanent residency based on employment requires that the applicant demonstrate extraordinary giftedness, achievement, or creativity. However, one program does exist to allow foreign medical professionals to enter the US in order to set up practices in areas of the US that are underserved by the existing medical infrastructure of America.