All posts by Harun Kazmi

Due to the current situation in Syria, the U.S. Embassy in Damascus no longer accept I-130 petitions for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens (which fall into the IR category). Please contact the Immigrant Visa (IV) Unit at Embassy Amman, the designated processing post for Syrian visa cases, at Amman-IV@state.gov to schedule an appointment to submit …Read More

As a part of comprehensive immigration reform, the President supports legislative measures that would attract and retain immigrants who create jobs and boost competitiveness here in the U.S., including creating a “Startup Visa,” strengthening the H-1B program, and “stapling” green cards to the diplomas of certain foreign-born graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) …Read More

The President announced that the Departments of State and Homeland Security are working together to improve and speed up the visa process for certain categories of travelers. Since 9/11, the United States has developed an intensive, multi-layered visa screening process, including multiple biographic and biometric checks, all supported by a sophisticated global information technology network. …Read More

The U.S. Consulate General in Chennai, Inda will no longer process Immigrant Visa petitions as of January 1, 2012. The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and U.S. Consulate in Mumbai will become the only acceptance centers in India for Immigrant Visas. The Immigrant Visa allows an individual to live and work in the United States …Read More

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has changed the filing locations for Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative. Domestic Petitioners will mail their stand-alone I-130 applications to either the Chicago Lockbox or the Phoenix Lockbox, depending on where they reside in the United States. The new filing locations will be updated with the corresponding addresses …Read More

Our firm enjoys giving back to our community through Pro Bono work. Cliff is a Board Member with the San Diego Yokohama Sister City Society and is heavily involved with a youth exchange program between Kanazawa High School in Yokohama, Japan and High Tech High in San Diego, California. This is a picture him, Mayor …Read More

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigration Act (HR 3012), eliminating per-country caps on employment-based visa. This may allow more highly skilled immigrants from India and China to obtain green cards faster. Currently, immigration law limits employment-based green cards allowing permanent residence for citizens from any one country to …Read More

Two Senators have come up with a plan to boost the moribund U.S. housing market: Give residence visas to foreigners who spend at least $500,000 to buy a home in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal says Sens. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah) are preparing to introduce the idea as part …Read More

The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State. This law provides for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants“, with visas made available to persons from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. For fiscal year 2013, 50,000 diversity visas …Read More

On August 19, 2011 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that they are taking concrete steps to implement existing guidelines on prosecutorial discretion across the agency in an attempt to provide relief for low priority immigration cases. DHS also announced the creation of a committee which will review 300,000 immigration cases currently in removal …Read More