Massachusetts Immigration Lawyer Blog

In years past, the problem with H-1B visas was scarcity--too many visa applicants going after too few H-1B visas. Congress capped the annual number of available H-1B visas at 65,000. Although exceptions to the H-1B cap exist, this general restriction had a devastating effect on companies that depend on recruiting talented, educated foreign professionals with advanced degrees.

With the H-1B visa limits in mind, during immigration consultations in my Boston office, I'd typically advise immigration clients that if they didn't submit their H-1B visa petition on the earliest possible moment--April 1--their prospects for success were subject to chance. I described the H-1B visa application as sort of like a lottery. An element of luck existed because even if your H-1B visa application was valid and deserved to be approved, who knew whether your petition would be fortunate enough to be selected? And in years past, H-1B visas were gone within days of becoming available.

But now that the economy has cratered and unemployment has shot up to nearly 10%, something astonishing has happened--H-1B visas are sitting on the shelf, there for the asking! As of May 18, 2009, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reported that 20,000 H-1B visas were still available. And today USCIS continues to accept H-1B visas petitions. USCIS will be posting updates periodically on visa availability. Who know when or even if the H-1B visas cap will be met?

So from these bad economic times comes some good news: H-1B visas appear to be still available. If you need a work visa either as an employer or an employee, give me a call in my Boston office at 617-722-0005. We can evaluate your immigration options and determine if an H-1B visa is appropriate for your case.

These days, it is not easy to get a job or housing benefits. And it is even tougher if you have a criminal record. To make things easier, criminal lawyers often recommend having your criminal record expunged or sealed. This can be great advice for people seeking work or housing benefits as you will effectively have no criminal record once your criminal record is expunged or sealed. Your Massachusetts CORI criminal history report will show "no adult criminal record," and you can honestly say you have no criminal record when applying for jobs and housing benefits.

But sealing or expunging your criminal record does not free you from immigration consequences resulting from a criminal record.  A conviction--even if it's been sealed or expunged--can still trigger your deportation.  And USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) can deny your green card or citizenship application because of a sealed or expunged criminal record.

And sealing or expunging also doesn't free you from your obligation to disclose your criminal record on immigration forms.  If you apply for adjustment of status, citizenship or a visa at a U.S. consulate abroad, you will have to disclose your criminal record, even if the case was sealed by a Massachusetts state court judge. Failure to disclose a sealed criminal record in an immigration interview could be considered false testimony, which would give USCIS grounds for denying your immigration case.

An even more complicated problem is that USCIS generally will not approve your green card or citizenship application unless you provide court-certified copies of the final disposition for each criminal appearance. But if your case is sealed, no record will exist in the court's file. So it is generally impossible to obtain a certified disposition of your case once it has been sealed. The only solution to this dilemma would be to go back to Massachusetts state court and ask the judge to unseal your case simply so that you can get a copy of the disposition--not a fun task.

If you're considering sealing or expunging your criminal record, and you don't have U.S. citizenship, think through your options carefully and consult with a competent, effective. immigration lawyer. If you have more questions about how a criminal case could affect your immigration options, call my Boston office today at (617) 722-0005 and schedule a consultation. I'd be happy to offer you my advice.

When people visit me in my Boston immigration law office, I encourage anyone who is eligible to apply for the Department of State's Diversity Visa lottery.  Yesterday, the Department of State' announced the winners of the 2010 Diversity Visa lottery. Those who already applied for the DV Lottery can check online here to see whether they were lucky enough to be selected to receive one of the 50,000 visas granted each year.

But being selected does not mean that you will automatically get a green card and become a permanent resident.  What it does mean is that you will be eligible to go through a complex immigration process on the basis of being selected for the DV Lottery. 

To obtain your permanent residency based on the DV Lottery, you must meet the following two conditions:

1.  You must have either a high school diploma or the equivalent.  Alternatively, you can show that within 5 years of applying, you have at least 2 years of work experience in a job requiring at least 2 years' of training or experience.

2.  You must complete the green card or immigration visa process within the fiscal year.  If you are selected after filing for the most recent DV Lottery, the fiscal year runs from October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2010.  After that time period, under no circumstances will you be able to receive an immigrant visa, even if you were selected.

In addition, here are two important consideration for those pursuing a green card through the DV Lottery:

1.  If you've been selected for the Diversity Visa lottery, you may include your spouse and children on your green card or immigrant visa application.  This is true even if your marriage took place after you submitted your DV Lottery entry.

2.  Adjustment of status or consular processing?  If you have been selected to receive a DV Lottery visa and are outside the United States, you must apply for an immigrant visa through the Department of State and a U.S. Consulate abroad.  If you are in the U.S., you  you have 2 options: (1) apply for adjustment of status by filing Form I-485 with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), or (2) follow the consular processing steps and obtain your green card at a U.S. Consulate abroad. Choosing the best option invovles juggling many factors.  An effective immigration attorney can help advise you on the best strategy.

If you've been selected to receive DV Lottery and need legal advice to overcome the hurdles that still stand between you and your green card, please call me in my Boston immigration law office at (617) 722-0005.

Since I'm an immigration attorney, I'm often asked for my opinion on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions and activities. Yesterday, a criminal defense attorney in Boston asked me whether, in Massachusetts, a non-citizen youth who breaks the law and who is found delinquent by a juvenile court could end up being deported as a result of the juvenile delinquency finding.

The short answer is no. According to the Board of Immigration Appeals, a juvenile adjudication isn't considered a criminal conviction for immigration purposes. The logic behind this rule is that juvenile proceedings are not criminal. So a delinquency finding on a deportable offense will not cause a juvenile to be deported.

But beware: juvenile adjudications can trigger other adverse immigration consequences. They can be used to bar a finding of "good moral character", which is a requirement for naturalization and other forms of relief from deportation such as cancellation of removal. Also, as a discretionary matter, Immigration Judges can view juvenile activities as a negative factor when considering any application for relief from deportation.

And some immigration provisions don't require the existence of a conviction and can be based on an admission of guilt or merely a perceived "reason to believe" that the person has been involved in criminal activity. For instance, a person can be denied adjustment of status to permanent residency or entry into the United States based on an Immigration Judge's "reason to believe" that the person has been involved in drug trafficking or money laundering. The "reason to believe" could be based on non-criminal juvenile proceedings.

To summarize my advice, a youthful offender conviction or a juvenile delinquency finding is not considered a "conviction" for immigration purposes and, therefore, can't be the basis for deportation. But such adjudications should be avoided because they could affect a person's immigration status in other ways.

Two final points:

1. Massachusetts Youthful Offender Law: This statute permits children between the ages of 14 and 17 to be prosecuted as adults when charged with serious felony crimes. It is possible that at some point, immigration authorities could make a legal argument that youthful offender convictions should carry the same immigration consequences as adult convictions. But from my research, no federal cases, published Board of Immigration Appeals decisions or other legal authority support this position.

2. Juvenile dispositions must be disclosed:  Appearances in juvenile court, although not criminal, must be disclosed on immigration forms such as applications for adjustment of status to permanent residency (I-485), and applications for naturalization (N-400).

If you have further questions about the deportation, juvenile proceedings, or possible immigration consequences, feel free to call me at (617) 722-0005. Schedule an consultation with me in my Boston immigration offices. I'd be happy to help you.