Arizona Immigration Laws

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

Naturalization

Unless you were born in the United States, if you want to become a citizen, most ways would be through naturalization. So, you can naturalize after five years of permanent residency. There are a few exceptions where you are naturalized after three years: if you were married to a U.S. citizen, you got your permanent residency through a U.S. citizen, and you’ve been married to that U.S. citizen for three years. So, in a way we reward you for being consistent in your marriage. People that have served in the armed forces also get that grace to apply for citizenship in three years. But, the biggest hurdle people have in citizenship, is that some people don’t realize that when you have permanent residency in U.S., you’re actually on probation for five years. You can’t do anything. You can’t make any mistakes. You can’t commit crimes. So, when people commit crimes within those years, they run a risk of their permanent residency being taken away. If that doesn’t happen, when they come for citizenship, that is when all those things come out.

Preparing for Citizenship

We want to know who you are, how you’ve behaved, whether your moral character is good enough for us to make you a U.S. citizen. All these issues come up at the time of citizenship. There are questions to be answered. We prep people for that. When people pass my test, they always pass at the immigration level, because I’m very thorough. I want to make sure that you do well, while you’re in my office. I go with people to the interviews. Whether it is a permanent residency interview, or the citizenship interview, I always go with my clients, because I have a stake in what they are looking for. I want to make sure that they do well. I feel happy when they succeed. That way, the money they paid me has value for them, beyond just paying for a lawyer.

Receiving United States Citizenship

So, naturalization is one thing that gives people so much joy. When you look at the last words of our national anthem, it said that this is the land of the free, but is a home for the brave. If you’re going to live in this country, you’re going to have to become brave. That’s why I take people to citizenship interviews, to teach them how important it is to become naturalized citizens. Get to vote, get to be voted for, and do federal government work, live anywhere in the world without any fear of coming back to United States. It is such a glorious step to be a U.S. citizen.

By: Solomon Kanu

A lot of people see, whenever we do high profile cases, people say: “Oh, you’re just because they’re so famous. It’s easy.” or, “They’re so rich. It’s easy.” We also represented one of the richest man in Bolivia. You know the situation between Venezuela and Bolivia, the whole block of countries. We represent a lot of people from that part of the world. So it’s really fun and exciting, because when I was representing one of them, we heard the planes up there in the compound, because they all live in compounds. And I needed to get my client out of the country, and the planes were up there trying to arrest him. And I heard it, and it’s really scary. And I couldn’t be with my client, because I’m not there. And I couldn’t get into that soil, the foreign land. But these are all my cases that I really enjoyed, and it comes back and we have fun– now we can talk about it have fun with it. At that time it is scary. Or we have clients who got deported on the plane already. We have to stop the plane to get him out. Because once the plane leaves ground, you lose jurisdiction.

We recently have a client from a more communist-block country that, by the time his plane land into American soil at JFK, three officers from their country’s DC office embassy came to pick him up. And he didn’t have the American soil because he just landed from his country on land. He was picked up by them and luckily he had the smarts to pull the sleeve of the lady who works there, their air hostess, and the lady was smart enough to call the pilot, and the pilot came out and said, “What’s the problem?” So American immigration stopped him from being picked up by his own country national. By then the plane landed, and he was picked up and stopped in immigration jail. I had to fly to his jail and visit him and talk to his country embassy people who drove hours, and they were exhausted. It was midnight, and the American embassy people, to make sure he doesn’t get deported or excluded. So those are our fun cases. It’s scary at that time because, easily he could have been excluded from our soil and back to his home country. He’d probably be executed by now. So that case we won. It was really something. It was fun, yes. It’s great. It’s challenging.

By: Margaret Wong

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

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

About Solomon Kanu

I was born in Nigeria and I came to the United States in 1991. I became a US citizen in 2000 and I have been in Arizona since 2001. Immigration laws come very natural to me because I’ve been an immigrant but I don’t just do immigration law. I look at the immigrant holistically. They want to go from being a visitor to being a permanent resident to being a US citizen owning businesses. That part is very, very rough. I look at them as people that have to be taken care of from day one to the end.   Where you’re born doesn’t have to be where you live or where you die. The freedom that you get living in the United States is unbelievable. People want to be part of this because once they experience this people want to experience it for their grandchildren. And so I understand why they want to be here. This is such a blessing for me naturally because this is what I think I’ve been called to do.

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

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