Regardless of whether your record was expunged or sealed, you must disclose all criminal arrests and convictions to U.S CIS officers and on any Immigration application you submit. In order to properly disclose your record, you must provide certified copies of the arrest report as well as the disposition of the case.

In general, to become a United States citizen you must have been a permanent resident, which means have a green card for five years, and have lived in United States for most of that time, generally without any trips longer than six months in length. There are some exceptions where if you are married to a US citizen it could be after three years. If you serve in the military at a time of conflict it could be immediately. There are other circumstances such as military recruitment where you don’t even need to have residency or a green card in order to apply for naturalization, which is citizenship.

The L-1 visa for inter-company transfer we use for both managers and executives have specific definitions for a manager executive. For a manager, you are looking for someone who directs or develops a department in a company or a group of people, someone who has sufficient authority or control over either the entire organization or an important part of it.

An L-1 Visa is called an intercompany transfer visa, and it is a way that a foreign company can transfer an executive, manager or person of specialized knowledge from a foreign branch or affiliate or a parent company to their related U.S. company that is either an affiliate, parent or branch as well. The employee must have worked for the foreign company for at least a year full-time before being transferred to the U.s. company, and this has options for permanent residency as well.

Labor certification is a process whereby an employer proves that they can’t find a worker who has the minimum qualifications for a job who is ready, willing, and able to take it. It is a process that involves advertising sometimes in multiple sets of different media and recruitment through an HR manager, and eventual proof that the employer has been unable to find somebody who meets the minimum qualifications. After that, we can move on to a process whereby the alien, the foreign national applicant, is able to apply for that position.

One of the elements of the E-2 Treaty Investor visa is that the investment must be substantial. This is generally thought to be roughly $100,000, but this is not a hard and fast rule. It is certainly possible to get it for less, and it is certainly possible that if you invested more than $100,000, that the case is not approved. It’s really going to depend on the post that is reviewing the application and other circumstances such as the type of investment into a particular business that is being made.

Whether you get a visa at the U.S. Consulate abroad, or change status in the US, is going to depend on certain circumstances. For example, with an E-2 status, we much prefer to get the visa abroad because this will allow multiple entries for the applicant as opposed to only having this status while you’re in the United States. Another status such as an F-1, which is a student visa, can take a very long time to change status in the United States and is much preferable to get the visa at the U.S. Consulate abroad. There will be individual circumstances depending on the type of visa and the person’s needs to make that determination.

One of the methods through which you can invest in an EB-5 visa is through a regional center. So this means a project that has been pre-approved by US immigration. It doesn’t mean that it’s without risk, but the benefit is that the investment can be a half a million rather than a million dollars, plus you would have absolutely no responsibility towards running the business or complying with the rules as far as the number of employees that must be created. Your money’s at risk, you’re not earning from your money, but you don’t have these responsibilities.

E-2 visas are investor visas for investors from certain countries who have a trade agreement between their home country and the US. Foreign nationals who would wish to apply for an investor visa need to make sure that the amount that they want to invest is substantial, in terms of how much it takes to operate the business and start the business. They need to ensure that the business itself is not marginal, meaning that it’s going to return more than a living wage for the investor and his or her family, and they need to make sure that the amount that they are investing is in their possession, meaning that they have irrevocable control over those funds.

TN visas are for Canadian and Mexican citizens who are professionals within a list of certain occupations that are listed within the NAFTA Trade Agreement. In order to apply, Mexican nationals need to apply at the U.S. Consulate in Mexico, and Canadians have the option to apply at the border.

There is actually no time requirement that a person must have been working for an employer in H1 or L1 status, before their residency can be applied for. In fact, it can be done even if they’ve never been to the United States.

The E-2 visa does not necessarily lead to permanent residency or a green card by itself. However, you may find an employer to sponsor you while you’re here. You may fall in love and get married with a US citizen while you’re here or some other opportunity may present itself, for example, also simultaneously qualifying for an EB-5 immigrant investor Visa. It is possible, but it’s just going to be through a different route.

The EB-5 immigrant investor visa and the E-2 non-immigrant investor visa, require that the applicant make an investment of course. It is possible that the funds are inherited, they are gifted, or some other hybrid situation, but they do not have to have been earned particularly by the person that’s applying. However, in all circumstances it must be shown that the funds were obtained legally.

In immigration court, there are two types of proceedings. There’s master calendar hearings and individual hearings. The first type of hearing that you’ll go to is a master calendar hearing. It’s a preliminary hearing, and they’ll multiple other people in the courtroom. The judge will ask your name, your address, what country you’re from, what language you speak best, and if your attorney is authorized to speak for you. You’ll review the charging document, call the Notice to Appear, and the judge will then ask if you’re applying for any relief from deportation. If so, your case will then eventually be set for an individual hearing, where you’ll return to present your case, testimony, any witnesses, and you’ll be the only one in the courtroom.

For most people, your chances of being able to stay in the U.S. depends on whether you qualify for any relief. There’s different forms of relief you can apply for before the judge, including asylum, cancellation of removal for permanent residence, cancellation of removal for non-permanent residence. And different sorts of waivers, a 237(a)(1)(H) waiver, 212(i) waiver, 212(h) waiver. And your likelihood of being able to stay depends on whether you qualify for this relief, and whether you’ll have a strong case for this relief.

Yes, you can get a bond if you’re detained by ICE, which stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. You can apply directly with ICE, and they will have discretion to release you if you have a sponsoring U.S. citizen family, that you release would be in the public interest or there’s humanitarian reasons for your release. The other option is to apply for a bond directly with the judge, and the minimum bond the judge could grant is $1,500. The things that the judge considers in granting bond is whether you’re a flight risk, whether you’re a danger to the community, whether you’re a threat to national security, and the likelihood that you would win your case.

One of the elements of the E-2 Treaty Investor visa is that the investment must be substantial. This is generally thought to be roughly $100,000, but this is not a hard and fast rule. It is certainly possible to get it for less, and it is certainly possible that if you invested more than $100,000, that the case is not approved. It’s really going to depend on the post that is reviewing the application and other circumstances such as the type of investment into a particular business that is being made.

Yes, you can apply for asylum even if you’re in the U.S. illegally. You can apply if you entered illegally. You can apply even if you overstayed your visa. But you are supposed to apply for asylum within one year of your arrival in the US. If you don’t, then you will have to meet an expectation to this one-year bar, which makes it a more challenging case to win.

A fiancé visa, of course, is only meant for people that are not married. An immigrant visa is only meant for people that are married in this context. They take roughly about the same amount of time to bring the person to the United States. However, the fiancé visa has the additional step of adjustment of status, whereby after marriage, the foreign national must apply for their green card. It depends on the circumstances, but it would appear that the immigrant visa would be the faster route, as it has one less step.

At an immigration marriage interview the officer is going to make a determination that a couple is legitimately together, not just legally married with a marriage certificate, but they in fact live in good faith together. Evidence is presented, such as joint taxes, joint bills, bank statements, insurance, and the like, including photos and vacations taken together to be able to show to a stranger within about 30 minutes that the couple married for love and is really living together.

The removal of conditions process comes two years after a person is granted permanent residency through a marriage that was of less than two years at the time of the interview or the approval. In order to apply to remove the conditions, we make a petition on form I-751, generally with both spouses, and we include evidence of joint cohabitation as a married couple, such as tax returns, lease, deeds, bank statements, insurance, vacations, photos, children born of the marriage, and such.

Once you’ve applied for adjustment of status in the United States, as well as applying for a work permit and a travel permit, which is known as advanced parole, you will get receipts within roughly two weeks. In some states, such as Florida, you can apply for a driver’s license once you have those receipts. As far as the processing for the work and the travel permits, those take roughly three months. Sometimes it’s shorter, and sometimes it’s longer.

A U.S. citizen who is at least 20 years old can petition their parent, and in some circumstances their stepparent, to live in the United States. For a stepparent, the marriage between their parent and their stepparent must have occurred before the U.S. citizen was 18 years of age. In order to apply a separate petition would have to be made or each parent or stepparent, and then they would either be processed abroad in their country or through a process called adjustment of status in the United States if, in fact, they’re here.

A fiancé visa is only available to US citizens, so a US citizen must have met their foreign fiancé at least once in the past two years. They then make a petition with US immigration showing that there’s a legitimate relationship, it must be approved in the United States, and then there’s a second set of applications that’s made at the U.S. Consulate in the person’s home country whereby they would be interviewed, issued a visa to come to the United States. They have 90 days in which to marry and then apply for adjustment of status, which means their green card.

No, having your provisional unlawful presence waiver approved doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have your immigrant visa approved. The waiver only waives unlawful presence, so if you have any other reason to be denied a visa, such as a criminal conviction, fraud, a removal order, you could be denied when you’re at the consulate. You have to be certain before leaving the country that the only reason that you could be denied a visa is for unlawful presence.

You don’t need to leave the country in order to apply for the provisional unlawful presence waiver. You apply for it when you’re in the United States. Only if the waiver is approved, then you’ll have to finish counsel of processing abroad, which does require you to leave the U.S.