By Cyrus D. Mehta I am most honored to be the recipient of the American Immigration Lawyers Association 2011 Michael Maggio Pro Bono Award. Thank you very much. The news of the award came to me as an utter surprise and my instant response was that I did not deserve it. I immediately recalled the […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta and Myriam Jaidi The “B-1 in lieu of H-1B” visa has been an important and legitimate source of flexibility facilitating the needs of global businesses and business travelers, with significant benefit to the United States economy. The April 14, 2011 letter from Senator Charles E. Grassley to Secretary of State Hilary […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta From an immigration lawyer’s perspective, the fall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, who has been charged with attempted rape and other serious sex offenses against an immigrant hotel worker from Guinea in a posh New York hotel, resonates with important immigration themes. Most important, the […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta I was pleased to see the announcement below. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, (ICE) of all agencies, expands immigration benefits to students who have graduated in science, technology, engineering and math degree programs (STEM) fields. ICE, which has been deporting non-citizens in high numbers in recent times, ironically acknowledges that this is […]
One cannot help reflect on how Osama bin Laden so radically changed immigration policy for the worse After the 9/11 attacks, masterminded by bin Laden, everything concerning immigration was viewed through the prism of national security. Even a garden variety bona fide marriage case between a US citizen and foreign national spouse will only be […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta On April 6, 2011, The Commissioner of the Social Security Administration announced that SSA would resume sending “no-match” letters, https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/public/reference.nsf/links/04052011011437PM. Two I-9 compliance mavens, John Fay, http://www.electronici9.com/enforcement/the-return-of-the-social-security-no-match-letter/ and Kevin Lashus, http://www.immigrationcomplianceblog.com/ice/social-security-administration-resumes-sending-no-match-letters/, have adequately commented on this new development, and I will not go into the technicalities of the specifics of such […]
In El Badrawi v. USA, 07-cv-1074 (D. Conn. Dec. April 11, 2011), the United States District Court in Connecticut ruled that an H-1B worker who had timely sought an extension of that visa status, and who was authorized to continue working under 8 CFR § 274a.12(b)(20), could not be arrested or subjected to removal. Although […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta This week, while we have all been stunned at the way Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) sent a four year old US citizen child packing out of the country to Guatemala, http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/03/23/navarrette.child.deported/?hpt=Sbin, even though her parents lived in the US, we can take some comfort that the State Department scrupulously adheres […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta It is not uncommon for a permanent resident to receive a plum posting for an American corporation overseas or for its subsidiary. This is a frequent occurrence these days in a globalized world, and especially when jobs have become more scarce in the US since the economic downturn. While such an […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta Does anyone remember EAWA, the Employ American Workers Act and its effect on H-1B petitions, http://bit.ly/hDQnHd? This legislation was passed on February 17, 2007 and was set to sunset in two years. Congress has not extended this provision even though the second anniversary passed on February 16, 2011. The law created […]
