Arizona Immigration Laws

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

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

By: Solomon Kanu

Asylum vs. Withholding

Asylum is for people that are running away from their country, coming into United States. And we have a lot of them all the time. Withholding is usually a situation where if the person does not qualify for asylum – and there are so many reasons why they may not qualify for asylum – then we give them withholding of removal, which in our matter was it.

Safety First

We will not send you back to your country until things improve or until we are sure that you will be safe if you went back to your country. We’ve done that many times. One of my favorite cases is for a young man from Guatemala who had been persecuted because of his religion. When he came back to United States, he was detained for months. Eventually we went to court, we were able to persuade the judge that people in his country stopping him from practicing his religion was enough reason for us to keep him here. Even though the government fought very vehemently to send him back, we were able to prevail and he’s still in United States now.

While he was detained, his wife had a baby. The wife, because of her own status, couldn’t even go to see him in jail. We fought very hard until he was released and he went home, reunited with the family. They are very happy now, they are doing very well.

Kanu & Associates

So we do asylum for people. If you are running away, if you are being persecuted because of your sexual orientation, because of your religion, because of your race, because of your political opinion, we are here to help you. We are here to make sure that those your fears, United States actually does understand those fears. I will give you the protection that you deserve.

By: Solomon Kanu

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

I want to talk to you about the EB-11 or Extraordinary Abilities Visa. The EB-11 Visa is available to any immigrant who can demonstrate that they are at the top of the field of endeavor, and have extraordinary abilities in almost any profession or career. There are two ways to prove that you have extraordinary ability.

The first is to demonstrate that you have received a major internationally recognized award in the field such as the Nobel Prize. The second is to provide evidence that meet at least three out of ten criteria set forth by immigration regulations such as having judged the work of others in the field, authored scholarly publications, or produced an original contribution of major significance to the field.  An immigration officer will then conduct a Final Merits Determination where they consider the entire petition and determine whether or not you have achieved national or international acclaim, and that your achievements are recognized in the field.

There are many benefits to this type of immigration Visa classification. For example, EB-11s have the ability to self-petition. Meaning they do not need an employer to sponsor them. They can also bypass the burdensome labor certification process. If you think you might qualify as an individual with extraordinary ability, you should contact an experienced immigration attorney to help with this complex case. The passion of our staff can’t be beat. We share your joy and we share your tears. We understand that immigration practice is more about winning or losing cases. It’s about changing lives.

By: Marisela Marquez

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

Religious Visas

Religious visas are visas that are carved out exclusively for people that are engaged in religious work. So they could be pastors. They could be rabbis. They could be imams coming from outside of the United States to do religious work here.

Religious Visas for Pastors

We’ve been very successful in doing that for people in the Catholic and Anglican church. We bring pastors and religious workers from all over the place. We insure when they come here and do what they say they’re going to do. It gives me a lot of joy each time I’m able to help a pastor concentrate on their pastoral work, because it’s very very difficult to come in and not know what to do. So we help all these churches. We help some of the dioceses in United States to bring pastors from all over the world, put them where they’re supposed to be. Ensure that the transition from being a religious worker to permanent residence because you do need to stay two years before you can apply for permanent residency when you come in on a religious visa. So we moved in from religious visa to permanent residency and eventually to U.S. citizenship. So it gives me so much joy when we do that.

Religious Visa Lawyer

It is one of the areas that I do sometimes do for less than my normal price because I have a some kind of special interest in helping religious workers, pastors, and other people that do religious work. I would never forget one of the people we helped from Romania that does his chanting in the Orthodox church– in the Romanian Orthodox church. By the time we were done to when my office with flowers just to thank me for what I did. But I said, “Well I charged you money. Why are you paying me?” They said, “You don’t know what you did for us.” Our church would have fallen apart but for this man. So it gives me joy when this churches can stay together because the pastors or the rabbis are there.

By: Solomon Kanu