Arizona Immigration Laws

Family Immigration

Family immigration is one of my favorite areas because it brings families together. It deals with parents filing for children, children filing for parents, spouses filing for each other, siblings filing for fellow siblings. In some situations, even step-parents filing for their children. It does bring families together.

Kanu & Associates

We’re very knowledgeable this area of immigration and we do this very well. If you’re thinking of coming to United States or you’re already in United States, you were even born in United States, but you want to bring your parent or your brother, your sister to United States, we will help you. That’s what we love to do. That’s what we have passion for. We’ve been successful in the past and we’ll help to bring the families together.

By: Solomon Kanu

By: Margaret Wong

Executive Action

Well, the executive action that we have now is one that’s just been expanded. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was for children that came to United States when they were less than (16), and initially they couldn’t be more than (31) to qualify.

DACA Expansion

Now it’s been expanded to include their parents, people that came to United States, had children here, they’re stuck here. We know who they are, but we’ve refused to give them a transition to work, or refused to give them driver licenses. We haven’t allowed them to integrate. Even though they came here illegally, the country has benefited by all the work that they’ve done. So the president realized that and said, well why don’t we help these people to get their drivers license. That way we document who they are. That way if you get involved in an accident, you know who was driving the car, rather than someone that you didn’t know who wouldn’t even speak the language that you understood.

Temporary Relief

So the executive action has expanded the scope of what we can do to give people work authorization, driver license, and Social Security numbers. Now this is not amnesty. Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) does not lead to permanent residency. It’s a temporary relief. This is a country of second chances. We give people relief to be able to move them to the next level. So it’s not amnesty. It’s just something that helps them to identify with us, move around, and work legally, and pay taxes. So actually, we benefit by this executive action. This is going to start– for the first one in February, 2014. Then the second one starts in May, and that’s the bigger one for the parents. We have children here that their parents have been in the United States for (25) years, and they still can drive. They can move around. Not only are we helping those parents, We’re also helping their children. whom they cannot take to work, take to school, take the doctor, take to the grocery store. So it’s a very welcome development.

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

Hey, My name is Margaret Wong and I’m an immigration lawyer and I came to America in ’69. I was born and raised in Hong Kong. I went to an all girls, religious school since kindergarten. I came in ’69 with– right at the height of the Vietnam era with the kids in America against the Vietnam War, but never in my wildest dreams that I see what I’m doing now because in ’77 immigration work is not very hot. It’s very much like criminal work, very much like– it’s nothing compared to estate, tax, corporate where all lawyers want to work.

I turned out to be a great lawyer. That’s my passion. That’s my love.  But things really have changed. Years ago the same people don’t use the same lawyers like Middle East people they don’t like to go to Australian lawyer or Arabic lawyer because they their own people are not that people are not that powerful in America. But now things have changed. Because I speak fluent Chinese, we have a lot of Chinese clients coming to us because they just felt I’m one of them.

Also, because I speak the language of a foreign-born because I’m one. I came. I struggled. I was a chambermaid. I was a waitress. I was– you name it, I’ve done it. I cleaned toilets. I’ve done– I’m also the first one– normally the first one who comes into this office, turn on the light. I’m normally the last one to leave the office, turn off the light. It’s really a lot of fun.  Some highlights of this job. When we first started out– because in those day, there’s no 245-I. There’s no three or ten year bar. So people have no papers, they could still get the green card in America. But now they can’t. They have to go back to home country if they were not admitted or inspected or paroled.

To be a great lawyer you really have to know today’s world. You can’t always say, “yeah, but 30 years ago has happened.” Immigration law changes by the day, by the minute, by the hour. The Morton Memo who came out in November of year 2011, 2012. Now he retired and resigned. Homeland Security had mister– Miss Janet Napolitano also resigned. Now we’re working with a new head. These are things that we have to keep up, keep up, keep up.

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

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

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

By: Margaret Wong