President Obama announced tonight in very broad terms that he would expand "deferred action" to millions of undocumented immigrants beyond the DACA program of 2012 (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). The new program, to begin in 2015, will benefit the following groups of people who choose to step forward out of the shadows for a less than perfect immigration status. Deferred action is NOT a green card/permanent residence, a visa, citizenship, amnesty nor legalization. It just defers or … [Read more...]

President Obama is scheduled to announce his plan for Executive Action on immigration tonight at 5pm PST. Most of the networks will NOT be carrying his speech. However, CNN, MSNBC, Telemundo and Univision among others will, although this could change later today. If you miss it, the White House will have a recording here. Most of the controversy between the Democrats and Republicans is over what to do with the millions of people living in the US without legal papers. However, Executive Action … [Read more...]

I previously posted two articles about the American immigration Lawyers Association's (AILA) letter to President Obama recommending administrative or Executive Action to fix the nation's immigration laws due to inaction by Congress. Here, I want to add some more ideas that could be accomplished by Executive Action that do not require an Act of Congress. By way of review, in my prior post, Executive Action - Business Immigration Fixes Needed, I discussed the recommendations made by AILA … [Read more...]

This blog posts follows up to an earlier post, Executive Action - Business Immigration Fixes Needed, discussing the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) letter to President Obama of August 6, 2014 requesting Executive Action. AILA recommended additional fixes to family immigration, prosecutorial discretion and enforcement related issues that could be achieved administratively in the face of Congressional inaction on statutory changes. AILA states that "the guiding principle for … [Read more...]

On August 6, 2014, the American Immigration Lawyers Association sent a letter to President Obama recommending administrative fixes or executive action to tweak the business immigration system in light of Congressional failure to pass an immigration reform bill. The list of recommended actions are within the realm of administrative law and existing statutes. Only Congress can change or amend statutes, including underlying visa categories, requirements and numbers. However, within the confines … [Read more...]

On March 13, 2014, President Obama called for a review of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) enforcement practices. However, this week he announced that he would delay this effort until summer's end if Congress does not pass legislation in the remaining few legislative sessions before then. Hoping to extend an olive branch to the more restrictionist GOP House members, the President is hoping to give them a window of opportunity to take up immigration reform legislation in the coming … [Read more...]

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is soliciting public feedback about the EB-5 immigrant investor program until May 8, 2014. USCIS established an "Idea Community" several months ago to broaden its outreach to stakeholders on a variety of topics. In a recent EB-5 stakeholder's meeting held April 23, 2014, USCIS said it would solicit more input about the program overall as it contemplates forthcoming regulatory changes designed to address these issues: a) combating fraud, b) … [Read more...]

The H-1B cap situation is even worse than last year, which means employers are continuing to hire. USCIS announced today that it received 172,500 H-1B petitions for 85,000 available visas, compared to 124,000 last year. These were received at USCIS during the first week of April for the FY2015 filing season for specialty occupations with selected employees scheduled to begin work on October 1, 2014 (unless employees already have some underlying work authorization). Because the number of … [Read more...]

Immigration lawyers from around the U.S. are in Washington, D.C. today to visit their legislators asking them to vote on immigration reform proposals. Regardless of political persuasion, most people agree the current immigration system is dysfunctional and the laws need to be brought into the 21st century to meet the needs of families, businesses and the country as a whole. Immigration advocates argue that a common sense, balanced reform proposal should include: Safeguarding the borders … [Read more...]

Here at the Seattle immigration Law Office of Bonnie Stern Wasser, we enjoy working with entrepreneurs. Whether owned by Americans who seek to hire global foreign talent, or foreign nationals seeking to open or expand a business in the U.S., it is important for entrepreneurs to understand the range of business immigration options and startup visas for employees, executives and investor entrepreneurs as well as the impact they have on the local and national economy. The Kauffman Foundation just … [Read more...]