Example: If an alien submitted a medical examination report with their green card application (Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status), and then they withdrew their application or it was denied, then any future green card application must be accompanied by a newly completed medical examination report.

This recent policy update from USCIS highlights the need for close attention to documentation requirements. At our firm, we stay up to date with every policy change to ensure your application is accurate, complete, and compliant. Our experienced legal team is committed to guiding you through each step of the immigration process with clarity and confidence.

Are you certain your application meets the new USCIS requirements? Let us help you move forward with peace of mind. Contact us today.

This policy reverses the 2022 guidance that allowed SIJ recipients to be considered for deferred action and corresponding employment authorization while awaiting an available visa. USCIS now states that an approved SIJ petition and a state court’s best interest findings are not, by themselves, sufficient grounds to justify deferred action under current law.

Key highlights:

• No new deferred action will be granted solely based on SIJ status and visa backlog.

• Employment authorization under (c)(14) will no longer be issued for this category.

• Existing deferred action and EADs will generally remain valid through their current expiration dates but may be terminated at USCIS’s discretion.

If you or a loved one may be affected by this policy change, it’s more important than ever to have knowledgeable legal guidance. Our experienced immigration attorneys are here to help you understand your options, protect your rights, and plan your next steps.

Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Let us help you navigate these changes with confidence.

As with most legal matters relating to children in Virginia, the central question for the court will always be what is “in the best interest of the child?”

When preparing for a custody hearing, even the most well-intentioned petitioners may face some pushback from Virginia courts when faced against factors found in Virginia Code Section 20-124.3, which judges MUST carefully consider before awarding custody to any one parent or any other qualified individual with legitimate interests.

Chapter 6.1 of the Virginia Code defines legal terms, procedures, and factors that the Courts will use as a rubric to scrutinize the petitioning party’s request for custody. A petitioning parent must be prepared to convincingly demonstrate why the following factors fall in his or her favor:

• The age and physical and mental condition of the child including their changing developmental needs;
• the age and physical and mental condition of each parent;
• the relationship existing between each parent and each child, including each parent’s ability to accurately assess and meet the emotional, intellectual, and physical needs of the child;
• the needs of the child, giving due consideration to other important relationships of the child, including but not limited to siblings, peers, and extended family members;
• the role that each parent has played and will play in the future, in the upbringing and care of the child, which may include beyond attaining the age of majority;
• the propensity of each parent to actively support the child’s contact and relationship with the other parent, including whether a parent has unreasonably denied the other parent access to or visitation with the child;
• the parent’s willingness and cooperation in resolving matters affecting the child;
• any history of family abuse, sexual abuse, child abuse; or an act of violence, force, or threat that occurred no earlier than 10 years prior to the date a petition is filed; and
• any other such factors as the court deems necessary and proper to the determination.

Custody cases can be tricky, full of procedural hurdles, evidentiary dilemmas, and rife with emotion that an experienced attorney can help client to navigate. There is no one size fits all approach, so our attorneys can tailor fit the best arguments and mitigate any unfavorable factors in your quest to petition for custody.

If you or someone you know is looking to petition for child custody or child custody modification, don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you’re being deported for your criminal convictions, you may not feel like you have many options to defend against deportation. However, when deporting someone for criminal convictions, the Government can’t simply see that someone has criminal convictions and deport them. Instead, the person being deported may be able to argue that even serious-seeming criminal convictions don’t make them deportable.

First of all, only certain categories of crimes warrant deportation. Most of these are either Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude (CIMTs) or Aggravated Felonies. Figuring out what convictions constitute a CIMT or an Aggravated Felony, however, is no easy task. There is no list stating exactly what crimes are CIMTs or Aggravated Felonies. Instead, someone trying to claim that their criminal conviction doesn’t fall into these categories needs to perform a complicated legal analysis. For instance, some theft crimes often don’t qualify as CIMTs or Aggravated felonies.

Further, many state convictions that would otherwise make someone deportable, may not “count” in immigration law. Most people are convicted by a crime under a state criminal statute (such as the Commonwealth of Virginia or State of New York). However, a person can only be deported for that conviction if that conviction matches a similar federal criminal law. For instance, at one point, people convicted for “Possession of Heroin” in Colorado couldn’t be deported, because Colorado’s law was too different from the Federal “Possession of Heroin” law.

People with a large number of convictions can also defend against deportation. If someone can successfully argue that many convictions don’t make them deportable, for instance, they may be able to avoid deportation entirely and keep their legal status.

Even if a person’s arguments that their convictions don’t make them deportable aren’t successful, there may be other ways to obtain relief from removal. However, many forms of relief are completely up to the judge hearing the case and judges expect to see very specific packages of evidence and information to grant this discretionary relief.

If you or someone you know have been served with a Notice to Appear for removal proceedings due to criminal convictions, don’t give up hope. There may be some strong arguments to defend against your deportation and our experienced attorneys are prepared to help guide you through this process, so don’t hesitate to Contact Us!

An E-2 treaty investor visa is a NON-immigrant visa that available for foreign entrepreneurs of countries that have a treaty of trade and commerce with the United States. The E-2 investor visa allows an individual to enter and work in the U.S. based on an investment he or she will be controlling while residing in the U.S.

In this article, we are going to explain the basic E-2 visa requirement and qualifications.

E-2 visas are issued for the period of time permitted under the treaty with a particular country. The investor generally applies for a E-2 visa at a U.S. Consulate in the applicant’s country of residence. This visa must be renewed every two years, but there is no limit to how many times applicants can renew it.

If a potential investor legally entered the U.S. and has a valid status (not an E-2 visa), he/she may also apply for a change of status to an E-2 status with USCIS.  Note that this status will be lost if the potential investor-applicant travels outside the U.S.  In those cases, he/she has to apply for an E-2 visa at the U.S. Consulate again in order re-enter the United States.

An investor E-2 visa is available only to E-2 treaty countries, which include the following countries:

Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Grenada, Honduras, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Republic of Congo, Romania, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, and United Kingdom.  As can be seen, this list excludes Belarus, Brazil, Russia, India, Iran, and Uzbekistan.   Please make sure to check the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) website for an updated list of treaty countries.

It is also important to note that the investor must be a citizen of qualified countries listed above in order to satisfy the E-2 visa requirements.  At the same time, the current residency in the treaty country is not required as long as the investor has a citizenship from one of the treaty countries.

Benefits of E-2 Visa are as follows:

• No annual cup or quota on the number visas.
• Smaller investment amount than EB-5 immigrant visa ($50,000 to $100,000 as opposed to $500,000 to $1 million for an EB-5 visas, depending on location).
• The investor can open a new business or buy existing business, which can be any business.
• The investor can work legally in the established company while residing in the United States.
• This visa covers the spouse and all children under 21 years. The suppose can legally work in the U.S. While in the United States, all dependents of E-2 visa holder may attend schools, colleges, universities and they do not need to apply for a separate student visa.
• A spouse of the E-2 visa holder does not have to be a citizen of a treaty country in order to have his or her visa to be approved.
• The investor may hire employees for his U.S. business from a treaty country and the employee will have the same E-2 visa status.
• An E-2 Visa can be renewed an unlimited number of times as long as the business is in good standing.
• The investor, his dependents, and the employees holding E-2 visas can travel freely in and out of the United States.

Unfortunately, the E-2 visa also has some disadvantages, including the following:

• This visa is available only for citizens from treaty countries.
• The investor and his employees on an E-2 visa are restricted to working only for the business established as part of the E-2 visa application because this business acts as their E-2 visa sponsor.
• Employees must be citizens of the same treaty country that the principal investor is citizen of.

In order to obtain this visa, a potential investor must satisfy the following E-2 Investor Visa qualification requirements:

• A person must be a citizen of a country having a qualifying investment treaty with the United States (see a list above).
• The investment must be “substantial” and must be made with personal funds (or with the loan secured by property belonging to the investor). The investment must be sufficient to establish a profitable business and must be large enough to start and operate the business in a future. There is no requirement of a specific minimum investment amount, which varies based on the type of business. Generally, the investment will not be considered substantial if it is not large enough to capitalize the venture. The USCIS uses a special scale to figure out whether the investment is substantial in proportion to the overall cost of the business.
• The investment funds must be from legitimate sources and these funds need to be irrevocably committed. This means once the investor invests the funds, he/she cannot take away the money away from the venture after the investor receives his E-2 visa. The U.S. government wants to make sure that the investor is fully committed to the business and not actually trying to get an E-2 visa to circumvent the U.S. law.
• The future business has to contribute to the local economy of the United States, which means the investor cannot invest solely for the purpose of earning a living for himself/herself and his family. Beyond paying the investor a salary, the business has to create and employ U.S. workers and produce profit.  Thus, an E-2 visa may be denied if it appears that the business investment was only created to support the investor and his family.
• The investment must be in a real operating enterprise. This means stock, bonds, other securities, undeveloped lands, and real estate cannot qualify as an investment for purposes of an E-2 visa. The investor’s business should offer some tangible goods or services. Good examples of a real operating enterprise are restaurants, barbershops, spa salons, retail stores, consulting and accounting services, construction services, etc.

While prepping application for an E-2 visa, it’s not necessary to show that the business is fully operational. However, the investor must show some operational progress toward the readiness of the business.  For example, the investor can show that he/she registered the company, opened a U.S. business bank account and transferred some funds there, made a purchase agreement with the seller of the business, if preexisting business, signed a lease agreement for the business space, prepared a business organizational chart, business plan, and obtained business licenses and certifications, if required.

In cases where the investor uses loans or financing for his business, the investor’s personal investment has to exceed the amount that he finances.  For example, where the business the investor is purchasing costs $100,000.00, but the investor paid only $30,000 to the seller as a down payment with the remaining $70,000.00 being financed by the seller, the investor will most likely not get the E-2 visa approval because the loan or financed amount is greater than the amount the investor is actually personally investing.   In order to have the E-2 visa approved, the investor has to make a down payment, which is much greater than the amount financed.

Also, although initially it is not required for the investor’s business to create jobs, after the business begins operating, the investor is expected to create new jobs and must include this goal in his business plan.

While applying for an E-2 visa, the investor and/or his employees have to show that he has enough qualification and experience to run and manage the type of business he is investing in.  This, in turn, means that the investor or his employees have to show that they play an essential role in the business.

Please contact us if you have any questions about the E-2 visa application process and to discuss your particular situation with one of our attorneys.

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) is an immigration classification that allows minor children to obtain lawful permanent immigration status through the state juvenile system who meet certain criteria.  The specific requirements include that the applicant be under 21 years old, unmarried, declared dependent in a juvenile court, that reunification with one or both minor’s parents is no longer viable because of abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similarly situated state law, and it is not in the best interest of the minor to return to their native country.

There are a number of benefits and reasons why one should consider obtaining Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.  As an immigration remedy, SIJS requires the involvement of a state juvenile court, rather than solely proceeding before federal immigration authorities. Obtaining an SIJS predicate order provides the basis for a minor child to apply for adjustment of their status to lawful permanent resident (LPR). LPR status allows a person to live and work permanently in the United States, travel outside of the United States, become eligible for certain public benefits, and apply for U.S. citizenship.

SIJS also waives several types of statutory bars that would otherwise prevent an immigrant from becoming a lawful permanent resident. This includes, but is not limited to, working without authorization, unlawful entry, undocumented status as a public charge, as well as other immigration violations. SIJS allows minors to circumvent these barriers to entry, and begin a pathway to citizenship that they otherwise may not be eligible for.

Furthermore, once an SIJS predicate order has been received and the applicant has filed for lawful permanent residence, the minor who may not be eligible for a work permit due to their age, may be eligible for a work authorization card. This is beneficial because a work authorization card can serve as a valid form of identification. As the minor ages, this will also allow them to be eligible to work and earn wages.

Additionally, filing for an SIJS application before the age of 21 prevents “aging out,” if the process were to continue beyond the strict age requirement. A child who files prior to the age of 21 may not later be denied solely on the basis of age. For custody of the minor to be considered, it is prudent to ensure that SIJS filings and petitions are resolved before the minor child reaches the age of 18.

Every SIJS case is different and are often complicated fact patterns. Navigating this process can be difficult and present challenges that require specialized expertise. If you have questions regarding this process, or if you or a loved one is eligible for SIJS, please contact us and ask to arrange a consultation.