John Valdez’s Legal Blog

On September 27, 2008, the House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 3606, which cleared the Senate on September 26, 2008.  This Bill extends the Special Immigrant Nonminister Religious Worker Program, which provides a pathway to U.S. permanent residence to nonminister religious workers.  The program was due to expire on October 1, 2008.  The President is expected to […]

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For the time being, there is considerable uncertainty for many religious workers seeking green cards.  The Immigration and Nationality Act, under Section 203(b)(4), permits professional religious workers and other religious workers in a religious vocation or occupation to apply for an immigrant visa.  Unfortunately, this law is due to expire (also known as “sunset”) on […]

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Come November, we will know who our new President will be.  Will the new President push through immigration reform? I believe there will be a breakthrough, regardless of whether McCain or Obama wins the election. 
McCain has championed immigration reform in the past, and will again in the future.  He was the co-author of a comprehensive immigration bill […]

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There is no doubt that the largest immigration law firm in the nation and the Department of Labor (”DOL”) are at war.  Ever since the DOL announced that it was auditing all labor certification applications prepared by the law firm of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP (”Fragomen”) because of alleged improper acts by […]

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On a scale of 1-10, I give the government a score of 2 for its current immigration processing times.  Last year the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (”USCIS”) dramatically increased its fees for immigration petitions and applications.  Many fees went up hundreds of dollars, and some of the increases resulted in new fees that were more than twice the amount of previous […]

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