Blogs

At Valverde Law, we believe a U.S. citizen is no less a U.S. citizen and entitled to all rights and benefits under the law, even if married to an undocumented spouse. An estimated 16.7 million people live in mixed immigration-status households, meaning they have a spouse or a dependent who is an undocumented immigrant. None of those households were able to receive the $1,200 stimulus check given by the federal government after the CARES Act was passed.

To deal with its financial shortfall, USCIS is proposing a 10% surcharge on application fees.

Members and veterans of our armed forces deserve recognition of the sacrifices they make for our country and fortunately the government has made a recent change to facilitate their naturalization.   

Six non-citizen members of the United States Military have sued the Department of Defense for obstructing their path to citizenship – promised under the Immigration and Nationality Act for those who honorably serve in the U.S Military. The lawsuit was filed in federal court for the District of ...

A divided Supreme Court recently issued a decision that will make it harder for green card holders to remain in the U.S. after having been convicted of criminal offenses.

{Para mirar el comentario del Abogado Valverde acerca del “executive order” de President Trump haga clic aquí} The language surrounding executive orders and emergency proclamations is often written in “legalese” and appears very complicated. What's more confusing right now is that these sorts ...

In many of the green card applications we handle, clients often require an additional sponsor to meet the financial requirements to be eligible to obtain lawful permanent residents. Not long ago, USCIS published a proposed rule change affecting this process.

Ordinarily, students on F-1 visas are very limited in their employment opportunities. Typically international students are only allowed to work on their college campuses. Under 8 CFR 214.2(f)(9), however, USCIS has discretion to allow students on F-1 visas to request employment authorization to work off-campus due to severe economic hardship because of unforeseen circumstances beyond your control.

DACA recipients (Dreamers) are on the front lines fighting the Coronavirus pandemic to keep our nation safe. Dreamers deserve Congressional action, allowing them to obtain lawful permanent residence, placing them on the path to become American citizens.

U.S. citizens and non-citizens have lost their jobs in the economic fallout caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.  Applications for unemployment benefits have skyrocketed across the country. A record 3.3 million people in the United States applied for unemployment benefits during the week of Marc...

As more places are put into quarantine in the United States because of the Coronavirus COVID-19, universities are scrambling as they attempt to have solid plans in place for the more than one million international students who attend American universities.  In the last two weeks universities a...

In this uncertain time it is hard to keep up with all the announcements being made as to the Coronavirus COVID-19 and travel, coming to and leaving the United States.  The Center for Disease Control is even warning people about travel within the United States and the effect it may have on trav...

A federal judge in Washington D.C. has ruled that former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cucinelli's appointment by President Trump as head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) last year was done unlawfully.  Cuccinelli, who was Attorney General of Virginia from January 2010 to...

USCIS recently released a policy announcement which seeks to clarify when taking an extended trip abroad could affect a lawful permanent resident's ability to apply for naturalization.   After obtaining a green card (lawful permanent residence), persons applying for naturalization generally ...

Starting February 24, 2020, most green card applications for lawful permanent residence filed in the United States will require a Form I-944 Declaration of Self Sufficiency.  Since 2019 something known as the public charge rule has been in and out of the courts- a rule put in place to ensure th...

A federal judge in Maryland just ruled that “federal immigration officials cannot detain immigrants for the purpose of deportation if they are currently involved in legal proceedings to acquire legal status via a marriage to a U.S. citizen.”

Under a new proposed regulation the government wants to increase the waiting period that an asylum applicant has to wait to obtain employment authorization from 150 days to 365 days.   America – the land of unlimited economic opportunity, right? Not exactly, if the government gets its way.  Th...

 On January 27, 2020 the Supreme Court made a ruling allowing the government to begin enforcing limits on immigration for people considered likely to become overly dependent on government benefit programs.  For those of you wondering what this means, a brief review: Back in 2018, USCIS and th...

Beginning January 24, 2020, the United States began imposing restrictions on women suspected of coming to the country for “birth tourism.” I suspect this new restriction is meant to address what the Trump administration has touted as a very large and serious problem, although the government ...

If you’ve been involved in any kind of immigration work or applied to adjust your immigration status you know that the term “good moral character” often brings more questions than answers.

The 2019 national average for green card processing times for family-based adjustment applications is 11.1 months, as of September 2019. That doesn't sound too bad, right? Well, the national average is just that, a compilation that doesn't fully communicate what all areas of the country go thr...

Who is a Conditional Permanent Resident? A Conditional Permanent Resident (CPR) is someone who has received a marriage based green card that is valid only for two years because at the time the government granted their green card their marriage to a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident i...

Under a proposal from the current administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is proposing to increase the government fees for several popular immigration applications, including naturalization, DACA renewals, green card, and asylum applications.   The cost of applying fo...

Immigrants all over the country are feeling anxious as news continues of people being arrested at USCIS interviews- specifically marriage interviews for green cards.  Reports of these arrests have come from Florida, Maryland, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Illinois, and Calif...