Together with the New Year come numerous immigration policy changes that happen to be not continually transparent for the immigrant population. This report will briefly highlight my recent observations of the Atlanta Immigration District Office, [hereinafter "Atlanta Office"] as it applies to permanent residence and citizenship applications.
The Atlanta Office may be the nearby workplace that administers interviews for a varied variety of immigration petitions. Applicants who reside in Georgia are essential to seem for their interviews at this workplace prior to their situation is adjudicated. In the course of an interview it is actually the Immigration Officer’s duty to verify the Applicant’s information and facts to weed out fraudulent applications. The Immigration Officer can also be charged with establishing Applicant’s eligibility for the distinct immigration benefit according to the latest immigration laws. It is actually also the Immigration Officer’s duty to identify those troubles that could disqualify an Applicant from receiving a distinct immigration benefit. The Immigration officer is an agent with the Usa Citizenship and Immigration Services, [hereinafter "USCIS]. As such, the Immigration Officer is bound by law to apply the law as prescribed by the Usa Government.
During my current client interviews for citizenship and permanent residence I have noticed some exciting developments inside the Atlanta Office’s approach to particular circumstances. My initially observation is specific to spousal petitions for permanent residence. Each and every year USCIS receives a big quantity of fraudulent marriage-based permanent residence petitions. As such, the Atlanta Office is on high alert for fraudulent instances. To that end the Atlanta Workplace is now predisposed to label an application as fraudulent if there is even a minute amount of discrepancy. Petitions in which the non-U.S citizen spouse was previously married prior to marrying his/her latest U.S. citizen spouse are often deemed to be suspect. Immigration has specific guidelines with regards to the authenticity of a divorce that was obtained inside a foreign nation. Applicants of foreign countries who have obtained customary divorces are at an increased threat of receiving a denial on their petitions for permanent residence.
My second observation concerning spousal petitions pertains to newlyweds. Immigration’s definition of a newlywed couple is any couple that continues to be married for less than two years. Historically, Immigration has always applied greater scrutiny to marriage-based permanent residence petitions for newlyweds. As such, newlyweds who submit their petitions are at a disadvantage for the reason that their evidentiary documents that document the validity of their relationship will be fewer in comparison to couples who’ve been married for numerous years. Even so, regardless of the inherent disadvantage, newlyweds are nevertheless in a position to get approvals if selected precautions are taken. 1 such precaution is always to present the documentation with the couple’s relationship prior their marriage. The other precaution is always to hire a competent immigration lawyer.
My third observation pertains for the citizenship, (naturalization) petitions. As previously discussed in my articles, some criminal convictions will disqualify an applicant from receiving citizenship or permanent residence. Some criminal convictions, for example aggravated felonies, will disqualify an Applicant and will trigger deportation proceedings. Historically non-arrest targeted traffic citations aren’t offenses that would trigger an Applicant’s disqualification or deportation. Nonetheless, a short while ago the Atlanta Workplace has taken the policy mandate to request that Applicants bring court certified copies of all targeted traffic citations to their interviews. As such, a failure to create these documents could outcome in a denial of an Applicant’s petition in spite of the reality that a traffic citation for speeding has no bearing on the Applicant’s petition. Some officers have argued that an unresolved site visitors citation in which the Applicant did not pay the ticket and/or appear for the court hearing could outcome in a warrant getting issued for the Applicant’s arrest. This argument is real. Nevertheless, before the Applicant’s interview USCIS has currently obtained the Applicant’s FBI report which would clearly show the existence of any exceptional warrants on the Applicant’s case. In spite of this fact, USCIS will deny an Applicant’s citizenship application for non-compliance if visitors citation documents are certainly not submitted in a timely manner. The most beneficial recourse is to retain documents of all your targeted traffic citations that occurred prior to applying for citizenship. That is in particular necessary simply because not all judicial jurisdictions will retain permanent records of minor targeted visitors offenses.
My final observation relates to Applicants who have received a “deferred judgment” sentence from any court. The term “deferred judgment” includes a plethora of definitions. In some instances pertaining to “deferred judgment”, the defendant have to enter a plea of guilty. The situation is continued for a time period subject to particular circumstances, normally including that the defendant not be convicted of yet another crime. If the defendant satisfies these situations, at the finish from the time period the guilty plea is viewed as withdrawn and no judgment of conviction or sentence is entered. In other situations, the defendant has no obtaining of guilt. The judgment is set-aside for a specified quantity of time and also the defendant will need to comply with any conditions provided to him or her. The case could be dismissed if the defendant completes all specifications. “Deferred judgment” could be a confusing idea for non-attorneys. Likewise, Immigration Officers are typically not attorneys and they generally have restricted exposure for the varied sentencing solutions that a criminal court could make use of inside a defendant’s situation. As such, Applicants who’ve any criminal historical past could be most effective advised to receive immigration guidance prior to applying for immigration advantages.
Disclaimer: This article can be a broad overview of Lawyer Byars’ observations. This write-up is provided as a public service and will not be intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on the details contained herein is taken at your own danger. The info supplied in this write-up will need to in no way replace informed counsel when distinct immigration-related guidance is needed.
