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Migration options to U.S. unclear for Ukranians

Just hours after Russian military forces invaded their homeland, members of the Ukrainian community in South Florida protested the incursion with a rally in Hallandale Beach and voiced hopes for the safety of friends and relatives who have taken shelter or fled the country.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that more than 100,000 people were believed to have left their homes in Ukraine and that up to 4 million may flee to other countries, the Associated Press reported.

But whether any of them can take refuge in the United States in the near future remained an open question on Friday.

The Biden Administration has yet to decide on whether to add to protections available to Ukrainians who seek to come here.

“I hope the U.S. administration will take some sort of action to help those people evacuate,” said Aleksey Shtivelman, a Ukrainian-American and international dispute resolution lawyer at the law firm of Shutts & Bowen in Miami. “The U.S. has issued previous emergency declarations regarding refugee admissions.”

Shtivelman, who has clients in both Ukraine and Russia, was born in the Black Sea port city of Odessa, the scene of intense fighting. He moved to New York via Israel in the 1990s, and has relatives in New York, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association is urging the administration to expedite cases of Ukrainians who are eligible to migrate to the U.S.

“AILA calls on the Biden Administration to immediately ensure that Ukrainian nationals who may be eligible to come to the United States may safely and expeditiously do so and to ensure that we do not send people back to danger,” said Allen Orr, president of the Washington, D.C.-based association in a statement.

William Gerstein, a Fort Lauderdale immigration lawyer with Gerstein & Gerstein P.A., said Ukrainians currently visiting the U.S. could be granted temporary protected status. The U.S. has granted the status to Venezuelans living in the country after they fled the authoritarian regime of strongman and disputed President Nicolás Maduro.

CBS News, citing unidentified sources, reported Friday that the Biden Administration is considering protecting some Ukrainians now in the U.S. from deportation. The protection would come either through TPS or so-called Deferred Enforced Departure orders.

“U.S. citizens with Ukrainian family have always had the ability to sponsor their family but may not have thought to act on it in the past,” Gerstein said. “For an individual to be brought to the U.S. that does not have a tourist visa or cannot get one, there is humanitarian parole available for situations such as these.”

Under humanitarian parole, refugees with “a compelling emergency” and an “urgent humanitarian reason” may be allowed to temporarily enter the United States, according to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.

Refugee status is granted indefinitely and has no expiration date. But refugees are required to apply for permanent residency or green card status a year after living in the U.S., according to the agency.

Refugees talk outside of a temporary refugee shelter in a cultural center run by the municipality of Zahony, Hungary, near the Ukrainian border on Friday, Most Ukrainian refugees arriving in Hungary have relatives to stay with, but some don’t have anywhere to go. It remains unclear whether or how many the United States might accept as the Russian invasion unfolds.

Refugees talk outside of a temporary refugee shelter in a cultural center run by the municipality of Zahony, Hungary, near the Ukrainian border on Friday, Most Ukrainian refugees arriving in Hungary have relatives to stay with, but some don’t have anywhere to go. It remains unclear whether or how many the United States might accept as the Russian invasion unfolds. (Anna Szilagyi/AP)

Gerstein said he has one client who lives close to the hotly contested Donbas region in the southeast of Ukraine.

“They are trying to hunker down and not be on the move,” he said.

Refugees seeking to stay in the U.S. “are a more complex lot” than those living here under temporary status, lawyers say.

Both take considerable time, said David Abraham, professor emeritus of law at the University of Miami School of Law who specializes in immigration and refugee law and the political economy of Europe.

“The normal route would require one or two things: an asylum application which would require getting to the U.S. and asking at the airport for asylum on the grounds of persecution back home,” Abraham said. “That process is one at a time and you have to get here to do it.”

The other route takes refugees through camps managed by the United Nations “and that process can take two years,” Abraham said.

Eligibility for refugee status is determined on a case-by-case basis through interviews with officers with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, according to the agency’s website.

During the interview, an officer examines “all relevant evidence, including testimony.” The agency considers “the conditions in the country of origin” and evaluates the person’s credibility.

“We also confirm that security checks have been completed and the results of the checks are reviewed and analyzed before approval,” the agency says.

But as the invasion and subsequent geo-political picture unfolds, it is unclear about where Ukrainians will want to end up if their country is overtaken.

Open arms from European Union

According to the Associated Press, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Italy are taking in people fleeing the conflict.

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Exacerbating the pain is the division of family members and a fierce loyalty to their country. Most refugees arriving in neighboring countries are women, children and the elderly, according to reports. That’s because men of military age are required to stay and help defend the country.

“If there is any chance to return, a lot of people will want to return to it,” Abraham said.

For now, Poland, which borders Ukraine on the west, is a prime destination for those seeking immediate refuge. But Abraham, citing uneasy historical relations between the two countries, suggested Poland may be more of transition point for Ukrainians than a long-term landing spot.

“Depending on the reception of places like Poland, which may be initially warm out of anti-Russian feeling, there is still a lot of xenophobic sentiment in Poland,” he said. “The history of Polish-Ukrainian relations is not a happy one.”

He suggested Poland’s “primary value is its membership in the European Union which enables you to get to Berlin or Paris or a lot of more desirable places. I think the overwhelming majority will want to go home.”

David Lyons

David Lyons is a business writer for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He is a past editor-in-chief of ALM’s Daily Business Review in Miami and formerly worked for the Miami Herald, Miami News, Fort Lauderdale News, Albany (N.Y.) Times-Union and Schenectady Gazette. He holds a degree in political science from Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-ne-ukrainian-us-migration-options-20220226-boxtfetoajay3odycjqkc6q6za-story.html


Immigration: A look back at 2021 and ahead at 2022

Dear Clients, Friends, Colleagues and Family,

Gerstein & Gerstein Immigration Attorneys would like to extend belated warm wishes for a happy and healthy 2022! There were many changes in 2021 in our firm, in the country’s administration and with U.S. immigration laws. COVID still exists and has continued impacts on the world. 2022 will hopefully bring forth positive immigration reform and getting back to our “new normal”.

Our office staff is critical to our success. You can reach out to our office if we can help you with any of your legal needs. Glenda Soto is our office receptionist and is happy to take calls and make appointments. Liyi De Dios is our office administrator. She assists with calls, contracts, payments and office administrative duties. Mariella Vargas is our client relations manager. Her primary job is to go over contracts with clients, take payments and to help clients with payment plans to make it easier to afford our excellent services. Sebastian Szczepanski is our lead paralegal and oversees and distributes cases to our other paralegals, Luciano Garcia and Ricardo Nunez, to make our processes timely and efficient. Gina Marin assists Glenda, Lily and our paralegals with whatever tasks they may need. Gina will be replacing Luciano in July when Luciano leaves us to pursue a law degree! Hannah Ali and Dakota Alvarez are our law school interns who help us with research and other tasks necessary to move cases along quickly. Our two associates, Macarena Santos and Edsel Machado-Guerrero are bright, professional, seasoned attorneys. Edsel concentrates on business and family immigration law while Macarena focuses on immigration removal and family cases. Gerstein & Gerstein Immigration Attorneys is fortunate to have a staff that is as knowledgeable and hard-working as ours.

Looking back at 2021, our country was plagued with COVID. Nevertheless, Biden was inaugurated and restrictions in U.S. immigration began to ease. USCIS released an article in December 2021 discussing the challenges and accomplishments in immigration in FY 2021. Despite the delays caused by COVID, vaccines were developed and USCIS continued to address processing delays and policies to keep US Immigration moving.

Looking ahead at 2022 and considering the extreme political divide, it does not seem likely that new immigration legislation will be passed. However, this does not mean immigration will not progress. The executive branch has the power to act on certain issues. It is likely that immigration laws will continue to be reformed. USCIS stated in the December article referenced above, “In the upcoming year, we will continue to serve the public with compassion and reflect on America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibilities for all. As we administer our nation’s immigration system as an engine of American strength, we will adjudicate requests with fairness, efficiency and integrity.”

As always, please contact us if we can assist you with any of your legal needs. While our firm specializes in immigration law, we have a network of attorneys that we trust that we can refer you to if we cannot help.

All our best in 2022,
Bill and Dori Gerstein


US Immigration Advice for Venezuelans

Due to political turmoil and civil unrest, Venezuela has unfortunately become a difficult place to live. For Venezuelans who are fortunate enough to have qualifying family members, the US immigration process can allow them to safely relocate to the United States. However, those who don’t have such family ties have limited options.

Venezuelan businessmen and entrepreneurs who want to live in the US to invest and develop their own companies cannot readily do so due to the fact that the US and Venezuela do not have an existing treaty for an investor’s visa. The EB-5 immigrant investor program is only open to those who have at least $500,000 to spend and even then, the lengthy backlog means that applicants would have to wait at least two years before obtaining an immigrant visa. However, an island in the Caribbean now holds a shorter and easier path for wealthy Venezuelans to live and work in the US.

Since 2014, the government of Grenada has offered citizenship to wealthy foreigners in order to expand its economy and increase investment into real estate and tourism projects. For a mere $200,000 (excluding application fees), a family of four can obtain Grenadian citizenship in as little as three months without ever setting foot on the island. There is no requirement to buy a home or reside in the country and the investment is tax free.

Although Grenada is not the only country that offers a citizenship by investment program, it certainly presents the best deal as one of the most affordable options and one of the few that can lead to a US investor’s visa. The US has a treaty with Grenada for an E-2 investor’s visa, which grants the qualifying applicant up to five years to live and work in the United States. Additional criteria for the E-2 visa include: at least 50% ownership of the US investment enterprise; the applicant must seek to enter the United States solely to develop and direct the business enterprise; and the applicant must have invested, or be actively in the process of investing, a substantial amount of capital into the US enterprise. A substantial amount of investment can be as little as $100,000 for a business enterprise and a potential investor can either purchase an existing business or develop his or her own.

For affluent Venezuelan citizens who want to relocate to the US with an E-2 investor’s visa, Grenada’s Citizenship by Investment program provides a possible alternative to the backlogged EB-5 program. While wait times for EB-5 visas exceed two years, an E-2 visa can be obtained in only a few months. Once in the US, the investor can then work in his business, obtain employment authorization for his or her spouse and enroll their children in US schools. As long as the business operates and continues to fulfill the qualifying criteria, the E-2 investor’s visa can be renewed indefinitely.

With the deteriorating state of affairs in Venezuela, affluent Venezuelans should look to Grenadian citizenship as an attractive opportunity to live and work in the US.

The consequences for treating your green card like a tourist visa

Once you receive your green card, you should familiarize yourself with the requirements for obtaining U.S. citizenship.  One of these requirements is establishing continuous residence.  If you spend too much time out of the U.S., you will hurt your chances of becoming a U.S. citizen.  You must establish 5 years of continuous residence (or 3 years if you are the spouse of a U.S. citizen), and absences of longer than 6 months may disrupt your residence.
 
If you are planning on being absent for more than 1 year, you should apply for a reentry permit before departing.  But understand that a departure from the U.S. for this length of time is a disruption of continuous residence and will delay your eligibility for U.S. citizenship.
 
There are even more severe consequences for staying outside of the U.S. for lengthy periods of time.  The government could charge you with abandonment of your residency and initiate removal proceedings.  This often arises when someone is seeking re-entry after a long trip abroad.  It may also come up when you apply for U.S. citizenship.  If the government charges you with abandonment, you will be scheduled for a hearing with an immigration judge.  Be aware that having a re-entry permit does not prevent a finding of abandonment.
 
In short, plan your trips abroad wisely.  If you have a green card, you should be residing in the U.S.  If you don’t want to live in the U.S., you can submit an I-407 to abandon your residency and then apply for a tourist visa.        

By Patricia Cooper Esq. 

After nineteen years of looking for answers, we ask the right question

We recently had a case which illustrates the rather obscure
way an immigration attorney can be of help. 
We received a young lady who had been to many attorneys asking the same
questions.  She had entered the country
illegally when she was a very young girl. 
Now, nineteen years later, with a husband (a United States Citizen) and their
young child (also a U.S. Citizen), she was being told repeatedly that she had
no recourse.  Conventional wisdom from
the sources she was consulting was that once section 245(i) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act expired on April 30, 2001, she was out of luck.  Immediately upon telling these people that
she had entered illegally, she was essentially ushered out the door; no visa,
no hope.

The Long Hand of the Grandfathering Law

But our heroine had one more stop to make.  As she entered our offices, she was understandably
crestfallen, and, to be fair, we initially felt her case was not eligible for
adjustment.  Her entry had been illegal
(what is called Entered Without Inspection—or EWI) and the law that allowed an
illegal entrant to adjust had ended.  It
is then that we asked a routine question regarding the procedural history of
her case:

“Has anyone in your family, other than your husband, ever file
a petition on your behalf?”

Her answer was as nonchalant as it was staggeringly
important:

“Sure.  My mom, but
that was a very long time ago, that doesn’t count anymore.”

And yet it did. 
According to USCIS policy documents, upon expiration of the LIFE Act enacted
at the end of 2000, any person who had a pending immigrant petition or labor
certification would be able to use the part of the law that allowed illegal entrants
to adjust their status–even after it was gone.  In short, that
petition filed by her mother many, many years ago proved to be the link that
would allow her to be grandfathered and use INA 245(i) to legalize her status.

Although skeptical at first, we convinced her that she
needed only to file an Adjustment Application with the special evidence
required by the LIFE Act and she would be adjusted.  After several months of administrative
processing, she received her Green Card two weeks before the New Year.  She also received her Social Security card
and put a down payment on a home.  With
her new credentials, she is now in school and studying while working—the promise
of the American Dream written on her smile.

What We Learned

No matter what people tell you, make sure you always seek
the advice of competent counsel, and DON’T be afraid to ask for a second
opinion; or a third, or a twenty-third. 
Although this person’s case had many unique elements, only a thorough,
honest and exacting history of your case can ensure that your lawyer has the
best chance to pull a residence out of a hat.