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Question #1 – Criminal Convictions Will a criminal conviction impair my ability to receive a temporary visa?

Answer #1 It depends upon the type of criminal conviction. Depending upon the seriousness of the criminal conviction, it is possible to be inadmissible and/or deportable for certain criminal convictions – crimes of moral turpitude, crimes involving domestic violence. You should speak with an Immigration Attorney to further discuss your situation.

On Saturday, June 25, 2016, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), their local Nevada Chapter and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), will offer free immigration law services. The event is AILA’s sixth annual Pro Bono Clinic which is being held in conjunction with AILA’s 2016 Annual Conference on Immigration Law! This Free Legal Clinic will take place at the Linq Hotel and Casino, supported by Caesars Entertainment’s Diversity & Inclusion Department. There will be dozens of Immigration Attorneys from around the country available to answer questions and assess each participant case as it pertains to Immigration Law.

AILA Executive Director Benjamin Johnson, Esq. stated, “Las Vegas is a vibrant, growing city where immigrants have built their lives and have had huge positive impacts on the community, the economy, and society as a whole. AILA members are very proud to help those seeking assistance with the naturalization process and to help them to take one step closer to becoming a United States citizen”.

All interested individuals are encouraged to attend this event, including members of the press. Immigrants interested in speaking with an attorney are encouraged to call PLAN at (702) 970-3001 in advance.

The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) recently overturned the decision of a Certifying Officer (CO) to deny labor certification for the position of “Medical & Clinical Laboratory Technologist”

After receiving & reviewing an Employer’s Application for Permanent Labor Certification, the CO issued an Audit notification demanding the employee’s work credentials. The Employer sent the worker’s qualifications including prior work experience from his former employer to the CO for review.

Upon review of the Audit response, the CO denied the Labor Certification Application. The CO believed the credentials recorded on the application did not match the position’s minimum job requirements. The Employer sent a reconsideration request to the CO. In the argument, the Employer stated that the employee had the required two years of previous work experience, and included again for the record, documentation of the beneficiary’s previous work experience. Additionally, since the company opened in 1998, they had not hired anyone with less than two years’ experience for this position.

We wanted to find a new way to engage our reader base. Every other Friday, we will post the ten (10) best/most frequently asked questions received during the week from our h1bvisalawyerblog, Facebook, and Twitter readers. We will answer those questions and provide the Q&A on our H-1B Visa Lawyer Blog.

If you have a burning question, are seeking assistance with a difficult immigration related case, wish to discuss your views on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, DREAMers, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, priority dates, the monthly visa bulletin, adjustment applications, etc., please contact us by submitting your question/comment/viewpoint in our comment box provided on our H-1B Visa Lawyer Blog.

Our next “Q & A Forum” will take place this Friday, June 24, 2016. Act now and submit your questions!

Processing Time reports for all of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) Service Centers were released on 6/14/16 with processing dates as of 4/30/16.

If you filed a petition with one of the Service Centers, please review the links below to determine the applicable processing time associated with your particular case.

California Service Center (CSC)

Immigration Policy Center Releases Updated State-by-State Fact Sheets (2015)

The Immigration Policy Center (IPC) has released all fifty states, the District of Columbia and the United States (Overall), for a total of fifty-two updated fact sheets with accompanying info graphics and other details. These fact sheets highlight the demographic and economic impact of Immigrants, Asians and Latinos in each state. The Immigration Policy Center (IPC) is the research and policy division of the American Immigration Council (AIC).

As Washington D.C. continues the discussion of Comprehensive Immigration Reform, we thought that it would be a good time to provide some statistics on the Immigrant population in the United States as provided by this IPC research. Once a week we will be posting a blog with information on three states at a time. This week we will highlight; Nevada, New Hampshire & New Jersey.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be holding a teleconference on Wednesday, June 29, 2016 between 2:00 to 3:30pm (Eastern). The subject of the event will be “H-2A and H-2B nonimmigrant visa classifications”. The first half will focus on the H-2A classification (temporary agricultural workers) and the second half will focus on the H-2B classification (temporary non-agricultural workers).

The teleconference will include a brief overview of each program and summary of recent updates. USCIS officials will answer the non-case specific questions submitted in advance and if time permits, a live Q&A session. If you would like to submit questions before the teleconference, please email USCISIGAOutreach@uscis.dhs.gov by Friday, June 10, at 5pm (Eastern). Please put “H-2 Teleconference” in the subject line, and specify if your question is related to H-2A or H-2B.

Event Information:

The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) recently overturned the decision of a Certifying Officer (CO) to deny labor certification for the position of “Home Health Care Aide”

After receiving & reviewing an Employer’s Application for Permanent Labor Certification, the CO issued an Audit notification. He asked the employer to provide more information about their print advertising for the job.

The CO denied the application declaring that the Employer failed to deliver sufficient documentation for the mandatory print advertisements. The Employer did not provide copies of the advertisement that contained both the name of the newspaper as well as the date of publication, He cited the Employer was in violation of PERM regulation 20 C.F.R. 656.17(e)(1)(i)(B)(3) and 656.17(e)(2)(ii)(C).

The Department of State has released its latest Visa Bulletin.

Click here to view the July 2016 Visa Bulletin

The monthly Visa Bulletin has changed. The bulletin now summarizes the availability of immigrant numbers during the reported month for: “Application Final Action Dates” (consistent with prior Visa Bulletins) and “Dates for Filing Applications,” indicating when immigrant visa applicants should be notified to assemble and submit required documentation to the National Visa Center using Consular Processing (outside of the US) or file on their own with USCIS Form I-485 (within the US).

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