Arizona Immigration Laws

By: Margaret Wong

E1 & E2 Visas

The E1, E2 visas are very popular visas for visitors from all around the world. There is a requirement that United States have a treaty with the country where you are applying from, but there are so many countries that United States has a treaty with. You can find that list from my website – www.kanulaw.com. We’ve done E1, E2 for people from Pakistan, from Australia, from Germany. We’ve done E1, E2 for people from Britain and we’ve done E1, E2 for people from so many countries.

Visa Popularity

It’s a very popular visa for people that have money to spend in United States. When they raise these funds, they’re able to create jobs for themselves and create jobs for United States citizens and permanent residents to the extent that their businesses flourish and are doing well. They can stay on that visa for a very long time. There’s actually no end time as long as the business is doing well. It’s a very good visa for people. Canada uses it a lot to come to the United States. Mexico also uses it to come to United States to invest and do their work. It allows people to go back and forth to their home country. It’s a very stable visa for middle income people that have some money to invest in U.S.

By: Solomon Kanu

601 Waiver

In the past, we had what we call a 601 waiver. Those are waivers for people that have overstayed in United States, for people that have done some little thing here and there. Those waivers require that the immigrant go back to their home country, apply there, wait for it to be done there before they can come back.

601A Waiver

In 2014, we had a different waiver, which is called the 601A. Very good waiver. It now allows for people to file for this pardon here in United States, get it approved before you go to Mexico or go to your home country. That way the families stay together before the immigrant goes for the visa in their home country. The problem with that waiver was that the hardship was only for people married to U.S. citizens. The new waiver has been– the executive action expanded that waiver such that it’s no longer just people married to United States citizens. People married to United States, family, residents can qualify. People that have children here can qualify. They can also their children to show hardship because this is a waiver that you can get when you can show that if you move back to your country that either your child, your spouse, or your parent will suffer.

Now this waiver that was only for spouses of U.S. citizens has been expanded to include the parents and the children. Again, it’s very welcome. It’s quite expansive. It allows people to kind of pay for the mistakes they’ve made, but have a second life, which is what this country’s all about.

By: Solomon Kanu

We have nationality traits. Like the Russians, the Ukrainians, they’re very different from the Philipinos because of the high and the different fraud level. The level of fraud is different. Nigerians is very different from Sudan, very different from South Africans, and it’s very different from Kenyans, Afghanistans, Pakistans. So it’s all different.  Like the fall of the Shah in the 80s and 70s. A lot of Iranians come to America. So with that, we did a lot of cases. But then the Marriage Fraud Act came in in 1984, and in ’86, IRCA came in. So all these are new changes, 1990 IMMACT 90, three strikes you’re out, by President Clinton that affected. So we have a lot of new things going in the past 35 years.  I’m also lucky because of the history I’ve been doing. Because once I started out in this practice, we used to have no secretary and one desk, and that’s me.

So I would run to Immigration, run back, because there’s no Xerox machine there. So I would run back to the office, make some Xerox, and run back. But now, immigration is growing. In those days, it’s a very small department of DOJ. In the olden, olden days, it’s with the Labor Department, then with DOJ. Now it’s with DHS, which is Homeland Security.  So some of the interesting cases we have done? We did Tony Pena, Jose Mesa. We did a lot of great tennis players. We did a lot of high-profile. But my pride and joy is really working with the everyday cases.

Each country– in the olden days, it’s quota. It’s priority-based. Now it’s still quota and priority-based– actually, in the olden, olden days, it’s hemisphere: eastern hemisphere, western hemisphere. But in ’94, the Civil Rights Act came in. ’95, the Quota Act came in, both by President Johnson. So people like us– I came in 1969. Actually, Taiwan kids came in ’66, ’65, ’67. And then Hong Kong kids came. And then the PRC came en masse in the past three or four years, because Hillary Clinton, before she resigned or retired from the State Department, really make more tourists and students come from overseas to enjoy our education system, to enjoy our touring, because our country– one of the increasing trade from our country should be from tourism and from education – foreign students – because foreign students pay three-times the school tuition than the in-state pay. Because foreign students have a F1 level, and then the general admission, and then the in-state tuition, which is lower than the general admission in all public schools.

So in the past few years, you see a lot more different countries coming to America on F1s. But about in the ’60s and ’70s, because Nixon and Kissinger did not open up the Far East until ’72 visit, ’78 visit, so en masse, all the Chinese came after ’78. But the Koreans came a lot earlier, because of the Korean War – ’51-’53, the Korean War – so Korea and the Philippines of course. In the Second World War, Philippines is a strong ally of America. That’s why in order to be a great immigration lawyer, you really need to know the world. Read the newspapers. Know the history.

By: Margaret Wong

By: Margaret Wong

Temporary Relief

Executive action is the newest thing that the President has done to help people that are in the United States illegally who have been here since January 1, 2010, and happen to have children here, even one child that is either a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident. It allows them to get work authorization. It allows them to not be deported or be in process of being deported. It allows them to get driver’s licenses and social security number, so we can actually document what they do and how come they drive.So if an accident was to happen, you would know who the driver is and all that. It’s a welcome thing.

DACA vs. DAPA

Initially it was for only the children and we call that one DACA. Now it’s moved to DAPA, so we now have the children and their parents being able to get some relief from deportation. Again, this is not amnesty. It’s just a temporary relief for about three years to allow these people that have been stuck here that are hiding to actually come out and get the relief that the United States offers.

By: Solomon Kanu

Criminal Law for Immigrants

The reason we do criminal law in conjunction with immigration law is that we found that a lot of our clients get into big trouble without even knowing what they were doing. If a foreigner was to be involved in a DUI or in an accident and someone is hurt or something, not only would they suffer the crime of they committed, immigration will show up at their door when they are done.

The same crime that a U.S. citizen will do and pay the price at the criminal justice level doesn’t end for a permanent resident or even someone that doesn’t have papers at all. Therefore, we consul t people on how they should live here. This is a good country, but it’s a country of law. There are so many things you can do and we don’t give excuses for people that don’t know the law. We consult people on what crimes can put them in removal proceedings. If they’re in removal proceeding, how we can consult the removal proceedings and get them back. But more importantly we ensure that they don’t go in there.

Cultural Differences

You can’t beat up your wife or your husband. These are things that could’ve been done in their home country with no consequences, but you can’t do that here. We don’t have two wives in United States. These are things that could happen in some other places, but this is not happening in United States. There are so many thing you can’t do here, so we consul people about those crimes and ensure that their stay in United States is good and is productive and to the extent that they obey the laws they’ll be welcome here.

By: Solomon Kanu

Business Immigration

Immigrants that come to the United States are very varied people. Some of them have a lot of skill. Some of them, once they get their permanent residency or they get U.S. citizenship, the next thing they want to do is to start up a business. They want to own homes. They want to buy franchises. They want to be part of this big pie. United States is a wonderful country. People want to be here. People want to tell their story. People want to be part of this dream, and so we help them to start companies, advise them on the best structure that they can use, advise them of how to make sure that they keep the company running and running well, and help them actually to grow. Because one of the things that we find is that when immigrants come here and they get their permanent residency or their U.S. citizenship, the next thing is: I want to be like any other United States citizen. I want to be– I want to get to the top. And so we help them to set up businesses, buy franchises.

Setting Up Businesses

We just bought one for some Canadian resident that came to United States, and we did his immigration work, and we got him a (good) place. We’ve done that for so many other companies. And so, setting up businesses for immigrants is one of the things we do. Like I said, the difference between our law firm and other immigration law firms is that we are the immigrant’s lawyer. We are not the immigration lawyer. We are the lawyer for immigrants, taking care of their immigration needs, their criminal defense issues should the arise, their tax issues if they have tax problems, their business issues. So it’s a shop that helps the immigrants come into United States, stay in United States, succeed in United States, and make a difference in United States.

By: Solomon Kanu

Hi, I’m Scott Bratton, I’m a partner at Margaret Wong & Associates. I’ve practiced immigration law for the past 13 years representing immigrants throughout the United States. I specialize in federal litigation, removal defense, and other complex issues involving immigration law. I’m the head of the Removal Defense and Litigation departments at Margaret Wong & Associates. I also teach immigration law at Cleveland State University.

I handle complicated immigration matters ranging from removal defense to federal litigation and adjustment of status and naturalization cases. Our firm represents immigrants throughout the United States in all aspects of other immigration cases. We passionately represent individuals in trying to help them obtain their dream of citizenship, non-immigrant status or lawful permanent resident status. If you have any questions, please contact me, and I’ll be happy to talk to you about your case.

By: Scott Bratton