Arizona Visa Laws

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

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

The American History really controls the inflow, the immigrants of our people. But in the past 20 or 30 years, that’s where I lucked out because I came right at the height of the economic boom off of America. But now it’s difficult because now with the– because H1B law is only 65 number. In my days I was H1B. That’s unlimited numbers. The filing fee in my days is like $25. Now it’s just a filing fee of H1B is $1500. Anybody who hires more than 25 people, the $500 anti-fraud, $320 for the H1. If you have family and married, that’s another $300 including wife and kids. So if you have five kids and one husband, you still– it’s under the one filing fee of $340 so H1B.

So things have really changed. If you have Masters, if you have a net of $20,000– so by April first all these numbers that you stop. So both as an immigration lawyer and as clients, we are very in tuned to the timing of the year. The H2s are the Mexicans. On H2s they come to America by February, March, or April because that’s when all the seasonal work is coming, and they leave because Christmas is a big holiday in South America and Central America. So they normally go home at that time and come back.   Then a lot of foreign students now because they all economically more powerful than we were when I came.  When I came just a one-way airfare from the Far East is three, four thousand U.S. The exchange rate in those days is eight to one. Now it’s still eight to one. In China now six to one, 6.4 to 1. So in my days it cost like thousands of dollars to fly over on 90 day, 30 day boat ride. So we’d never go home. Even for New Years we’d pay– even though you’re willing to pay to stand in line in the dormitories to make a long distance call. One long distance call for one year. But we write letters. Of course in those days there’s no Google. The phone is still circular phone. It’s not a punch phone.

So I look back and I’m so glad of this program because it really makes me think how times have changed. But the work remains the same.   To be a great anything, Minister, lawyer, doctor, cook, dry cleaner, you really have to be the best of the best. If not you won’t survive in America. It’s not like 30, 40 years ago. All of us expected a job. The unemployment rate was about one or two percent. Now it’s like– they say 7%. I think it’s like 15% now unemployment. You’re not good you’re not going to get a job. If you get a job you won’t be happy. So why work when you’re not happy and you really are not accomplishing your dreams.

By: Margaret Wong

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

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