Being with your family is probably the most important thing to you and your spouse.  It is for me.  Maybe we kid about needing to get away from our children and spouses, but imagine having to spend many months or even years away from your spouse, who is waiting to reunite with you and the rest of the family back in another country, say Mexico.  You would lose half (or maybe even all) of your household income, his emotional support and his all-important role as the father of your children.

As many of you know, the new provisional waiver law has been announced on January 2, 2013. This new law makes it possible for certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to apply and be approved for provisional unlawful presence waiver before departing the United States to attend their immigration visa interview. The law does not go into effect until March 4^th, 2013, so DO NOT send your applications before then! However, if your I-130 petition has recently been approved and you would like to take advantage of the new law in March, there are a few things you should do to avoid being scheduled for an interview at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad.

Immigrant families have long made vital contributions towards the U.S. economic and social prosperity as productive workers, entrepreneurs, and community members. Thus, it is not surprising that the concept of family unity is one of the fundamental tenets of the U.S. immigration system.

Over the last few months, we had the pleasure of working with some remarkable young men and women who were brought to the United States as children. These young people have spent their formative years here, got their education in our public school system, formed important social relationships, and think of the United States as their one and only home. In other words, American culture, customs, and way of life have been woven into these young individuals’ fabric of life.

In the last post, we discussed how to adjust status to that of a legal permanent resident based on your marriage to a U.S. citizen. If you adjusted your status based on a marriage to a U.S. citizen before your two-year anniversary, then your green card came with conditions. Those conditions mean that your card expires in two years after its issuance and that you have to remove the conditions within 90 days of that expiration date by filing Form I-751 jointly with your U.S. citizen spouse in order to receive the unconditional permanent resident card.

Alumna, immigration lawyer teaches international students about post-graduation options