Carl Shusterman Immigration Lawyer Blog

Immigration Blog

Former INS Attorney Carl Shusterman has been writing an immigration blog on a regular basis since 1996.

Chaos 75 Miles from the Border

On arriving at my office on Monday, December 28, 2009, I was informed that one of my clients and her family were being detained by CBP Officers at an inland checkpoint. I immediately called her on her cell phone, and spent the rest of the day in an effort to explain to the CBP that both my client […]

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Comprehensive Immigration Reform
2010 Outlook

On December 15, Representative Gutierrez (D-Ill.) introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform ASAP Act of 2009 (H.R. 4321) in the House of Representatives. To date, the bill has 92 co-sponsors, all of them Democrats. We link to the 644-page bill and to summaries of the bill from our “Immigration Legislation” page at: https://www.shusterman.com/legislationusimmigration/#3 The bill provides […]

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Immigration Bill Would Change Family-Based Immigration

A new bill to change family-based immigration has been introduced in the House of Representatives. Our current immigration system, which forces parents to be separated from their children and husbands to be separated from their wives for years at a time, is both cruel to immigrant families and unworthy of our country’s proud tradition as a nation […]

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How the New Immigration Bill Would Revamp
the EB Preference System

The Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill introduced in the House of Representatives would revamp the existing employment-based (EB) preference system in a number of important ways. Proposed Changes to the EB Preference System 1)  Increase in EB Numbers – The number of employment-based green     cards would increase from 140,000 to 290,000 per year. 2)   Recapture – Currently, […]

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EB Immigrants: How Long Before I Get My Green Card? (Part 2)

In our December 2009 newsletter, we explained how the employment-based immigration (EB immigrants) priority date system works.  See: https://www.shusterman.com/newsletterusimmigrationdecember2009/#4 In this article, we provide you with materials which may make it easier for you to estimate when you will be able to adjust your status (AOS) and become a permanent resident. First of all, how many […]

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Why USCIS is Still Accepting H-1B Petitions

On November 27, the USCIS announced that they had received 58,900 H-1B petitions toward the 65,000 cap. So there are 6,100 numbers remaining, correct? (Update: By December 4, the USCIS had received 61,100 H-1B petitions toward the 65,000 cap.) Not exactly. We have Free Trade Agreements with both Singapore and Chile which set aside 6,800 “H-1B1” numbers […]

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Presidents Clinton, Bush & Obama, Your Visas Are Denied!

Have you and your friends ever smoked marijuana?   If you wish to immigrate, your visas are denied! Immigration attorneys are all too aware that U.S. immigration laws are so overly strict that our last three Presidents would all be ineligible to even visit our country, much less to qualify for green cards. Think I’m exaggerating? […]

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EB Immigrants – How Long Before I Get My Green Card?

The most common question we get from EB immigrants is “How long before I get my green card?” Currently, only persons with EB-3 priority dates before June 1, 2002 may apply for adjustment of status, a 7 1/2 year wait.  If you were born in India, the wait is 8 1/2 years.  See our “Visa […]

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Universal Healthcare Without Physicians?

As we prepare to extend healthcare insurance to another 40 million people in the U.S., do we have enough physicians to care for them?    According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over 25% of our population live in medically-underserved areas where there is less than one primary-care physician for every 3,500 […]

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USCIS Errors: Who Should Bear the Burden?

Is a person who was deported almost 30 years ago, and returned to the U.S. without inspection a year later subject to the permanent bar under the 1996 immigration law? The 1996 law created the permanent bar to immigrating to the U.S.  Section 212(a)(9)(C)(i)(II) provides as follows: “(C) Aliens unlawfully present after previous immigration violations.- (i) […]

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