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Beach-Oswald
is a full-service law firm, concentrating on immigration law. We have
special expertise in work visas, family based visas, visa waivers,
green cards through family and employment and asylum. We have staff
members who speak many different languages to assist you.
We succeed
when others don't!
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New TN Visa
Regulation
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 The New TN Visa Regulation
The new rule increases the maximum allowable period of admission for
TN nonimmigrants from one year to three years, and allows otherwise
eligible TN nonimmigrants to be granted an extension of stay in
increments of up to three years instead of the current maximum of one
year. TN visas petitions received on or after October 16, 2008 will
be granted for three years or for the period requested, whichever is
less. Any petitions received before October 16, 2008 however, will
comply with the previous rule, and will be issued for a maximum of
one year.
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DHS's New Rule on
"No Match" Letters Not Yet In Effect
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 The "no match" letter is a letter sent to
employers by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to advise an
employer that the information submitted by it regarding a newly hired
employee does not match SSA records. In order to avoid fines for
hiring undocumented workers, the employer is then required to comply
with certain procedures. Because there have been many instances
where authorized workers received unwarranted no match letters, there
has been a lot of controversy about the no match letter procedure, and
a federal lawsuit is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of California.
On October 23, 2008
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a supplemental final
rule listing the steps that employers are required to do in the event
that they receive a "no match" letter. The new rule is
almost identical to a rule that was issued in August 2007, and
essentially states that as long as the employer follows the
"safe harbor" procedures established in the rule, DHS will
not use the no match letter as evidence that the employer had
"constructive knowledge" that it hired an undocumented worker.If the employer does not follow the steps
proscribed by the rule, it will be deemed to have had constructive
knowledge of its employee's ineligibility and can face seriouis fines.
However, please
note that this rule is not
yet in effect. In October of 2007 the U.S. District Court, found that
the DHS rule may result in irreparable harm to innocent workers and
employers and granted a preliminary injunction that prohibits DHS
from implementing the final "no match" rule until the court
makes a final ruling. SSA has stated that it will not send no match
letters to employers until the lawsuit is settled. Therefore,
although a final rule has been issues, employers are not yet required
to comply with it. For more information, please visit the DHS
website.
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Trusted Traveler
Program Now Operating at Several Airports
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 The Global Entry
Trusted Traveler Program is the Customs and Border Protection
Agency's (CBP) newest program that will allow U.S. citizens and permanent residents
to expedite the process of returning to the U.S.
after traveling abroad. U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents
that are considered to be "low-risk international
travelers" can bypass the long lines at the border and instead
use the Global Entry kiosks, where they will be prompted to insert
their U.S. passport or permanent resident card into a document
reader, and then to provide digital fingerprints. Upon successful
completion of a few declaration questions, the travelers will be
issued a transaction receipt that they will need to present to a CPB
officer upon leaving the inspection area. The Global Entry Program is
currently available at the following airports: Los
Angeles (LAX), Miami, Chicago, Atlanta,
New York (JFK), Washington
DC (Dulles) and Houston. If you'd like to make your
international travels easier by taking advantage of the Global Entry
Program, you can fill out an application at www.globalentry.gov.
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7 New Countries Added
to the Visa Waiver Program
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 President Bush
announced on October 17, 2008 that the following seven countries will
now be participating in the Visa Waiver Program: The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia,
and South Korea.
By being admitted to participate in the Visa Waiver Program, citizens
of these countries will be allowed to travel to the United States
for business or tourism without having to obtain a visa.
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Notable Immigration Cases
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False Claim of
Citizenship on Employment Form Is Not a Bar to Finding Good
Moral Character
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A Mexican citizen's
cancellation of removal application was denied because the
Immigration Judge (IJ) found that she lacked the requisite good moral
character based on the fact that she had lied about being a U.S.
citizen in order to obtain employment. The IJ examined Section 101(f)
of the Immigration and Nationality Act and concluded that
although Section 101(f) does not list falsely claiming to be a
citizen as one of the bases on which a person would be deemed to lack
good moral character, the "catch all" provision at the
end of Section 101(f) necessarily precluded her from establishing
good moral character.
The Board of
Immigration Appeals (BIA) disagreed with the Immigration Judge's
findings. The BIA stated that although the "catch all"
provision of Section 101(f) may
lead to the conclusion that the alien is not a person of good moral
character, it does
not require such an outcome. Therefore, the BIA
found that the Respondent was in fact a person of moral
character and was eligible for cancellation of removal.
For more
information, see Matter
of Guadarrama,24
I&N Dec. 625 (BIA 2008).
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Supreme Court
Addresses The Complicated Issue of Filing a Motion to
Reopen After Voluntary Departure
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The Supreme Court
recently decided an issue that circuit courts have been split on.
Although four circuit courts had previously found that filing a
motion to reopen automatically tolls the voluntary departure period,
the Supreme Court has rejected this argument in Dada v. Mukasey, No. 06-1181 (June 16, 2008), ruling that
filing a motion to reopen will NOT toll the voluntary departure
period.
The Court also
addressed an interesting issue: if a person that has been granted
voluntary departure files a motion to reopen and remains in the United States,
he would likely overstay the voluntary departure order, which would
thus render him ineligible for the relief that he is trying to
achieve through reopening. If he files a motion to reopen and leaves
the country in compliance with the voluntary departure order, then
his motion to reopen would be deemed abandoned. The Court therefore
reasoned that the best solution is to allow an alien that has been
granted voluntary departure to withdraw his voluntary departure
request before the expiration of the voluntary departure period, so
that he can remain in the United States and pursue
a motion to reopen. By withdrawing a voluntary departure request and
pursuing a motion to reopen, the alien is put in the same position as
someone with a final order of removal, but in the Court's
view such an arrangement is the best solution available to
someone who finds himself in this predicament. The Court also noted
that the government has proposed a regulation that would provide for
automatic termination of the grant of voluntary departure if a motion
to reopen is filed during the voluntary departure period.
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The
information contained on this email is for informational purposes
only and does not constitute legal advice. The transmission of
information to or from this email does not create an attorney-client
relationship between the sender and receiver. We take our privacy
policy seriously and will never sell, rent or share our email list.
View our Privacy
Policy here. To schedule a consultation with one of our
immigration lawyers, please click
here.
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N-400 Application Form Expired on Oct. 31
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We would like to remind our clients that the prior
edition of the N-400 Application for Naturalization is set to expire
on October 31, 2008. A new application has not yet been
released, however, and according to the USCIS website, naturalization
applicants may continue to use the expired version of the form until
the new one is posted. We recommend that you check the
USCIS website (www.uscis.gov) for any updates prior to submitting the N-400
Application.
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