Employment and Family Based Petitions in Immigration Law

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Immigration law defines a 'petition' as the situation when one party petitions for another party. That is, one individual files a petition on behalf of another individual or individuals with the express purpose of bringing the alien to the United States. Immigration law further defines petitions into two distinct categories: family based petitions and employment based petitions.

Now, some may wonder why certain individuals are allowed to file petitions for themselves. Well, that is a complete misnomer. Individuals who apply for immigrant status for them do not file petitions. They file applications. Furthermore, applicants cannot apply for a permanent immigration status unless they are applying for refugee or asylum status. Most applicants, as defined by immigration law, are temporary visas such as "Visitor for Pleasure," "Student," or "Visitor for Business" among others. These applications entail a fairly simple process to file.

However, immigration law petitions involve a fairly more complex process that can vary from situation to situation in terms of how much information is needed to process and how much criteria needs to be met in order for approval. This is understandable as they result in a permanent status which is a significant benefit the United States bestows upon citizens of foreign countries.

Under immigration law, in order to file a family based petition, the petitioner must be either a lawful permanent resident or a US citizen or national. Immigration law also limits the specific relatives that may be petitioned for. Those relatives include spouses, children (biological, step and adoptive), parents, and brothers and sisters. Certain relatives such as aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc may not be petitioned for as they are excluded under immigration law. Furthermore, even those who can be petitioned for may be required to follow certain additional criteria. For example, an adoptive child may only be petitioned for in the adoption was processed and completed prior to the child turning sixteen years of age.

Under employment based petitions, an employer will petition to bring an employee into the United States for purposes of working for the employer. This is a fairly tricky category even by the complex standards of immigration law as the person being petitioned for is theoretically taking an American citizen's job, so the employer must so extenuating circumstances as to why an alien is required for the job. An example of this would be "Alien of Extraordinary Ability" which would be the manner that a sports team would petition for a professional athlete or an educational institution for a renowned professor.

Immigration law is some of the most complex forms of modern law. Our lawyers have years of experience in guiding people throughout all the stages of an immigration case, and we will handle your case with the delicacy and compassion it deserves. Contact us today.
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The Immigration Law News Firestorm Regarding Guest Workers

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Immigration reform has been a mainstay in immigration news in the recent months. Actually, immigration reform has been a talking point for decades, but only recently has the media cranked up the volume as to the problems on the current immigration landscape. At the center of this reform is the current controversy regarding the temporary guest worker program that has been all the rage in the immigration news reports.

So what exactly is the temporary guest worker program that has been at the center of controversy in the immigration news firestorm? In a nutshell, the temporary guest worker program mentioned in immigration news reports refers to a method of providing legal status to the eleven million undocumented, illegal aliens currently residing and working in the United States. The rational behind the guest worker program is that it is economically impractical to deport these undocumented aliens as there is no way such a massive deportation could ever be logistically undertaken. Furthermore, the removal of these aliens from the United States would hurt the United States economy as it would create huge voids in the workforce. Considering that most illegal aliens are law abiding citizens, it would not make sense to deport them.

So where does the controversy that surrounds the immigration news reports of the temporary guest worker program derive from? Opponents take issue with the possibility of making the temporary workers US citizens as they feel that it is an amnesty program regardless of the steps required to achieve citizenship. Furthermore, there are issues involved with these aliens, after being granted citizenship, petitioning for relatives resulting in a huge immigration boom that the US cannot support. (Although immigration news reports fail to mention this could be circumvented merely by limiting the number of visas as immigration benefits are not a constitutional right) As one can see, there are credible arguments on both sides of the coin.

Part of the reason that there is such controversy surrounding immigration news reports on the temporary guest worker program is because the media loves controversy. It makes for great TV and great TV makes for solid ratings. (Or at least in theory it does) While it would be a wonderful world if all immigration news reports were devoid of stirring up controversy, that just is never going to happen.

Immigration Law Statistics Regarding Applicants

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Those who are fans of spy novels and tales of espionage and political intrigue have probably heard the term "shadow government." A shadow government refers to a "government within a government" where corrupt officials skirt the law and do whatever it is they feel like doing while serving special interests. Sorry to disappoint, but those looking for clandestine activity in the immigration wings of the United States government will be disappointed as immigration law statistics are routinely made public record. As a matter of fact, immigration law statistics are made public record in the form of an immigration yearbook!

Immigration law statistics in the immigration yearbook are broken down into the following categories: Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs), Refugees and Asylees, and Citizenship Naturalizations. In short, the numbers of all the people from foreign lands who are accorded some form of permanent status in the United States are public record that can be accessed for free on the internet. Now, to most people, these types of immigration law statistics make for boring reading, but every subject has its fanatics who revel in such info. And, of course, there are college students who need information for term papers and they'll keep the immigration law statistics yearbook in business for many years to come.

According to the 2005 Immigration Law Statistics Yearbook, 1.1 million people became Lawful Permanent Residents, who are defined by the government in the following way "[Lawful Permanent Residents] are those individuals who have been granted lawful permanent resident status." Only the US government could come up with such a obvious description. In terms of Naturalized American Citizens, there were 600,000+ naturalized American citizens. In terms of Asylum and Refugee status applicants, immigration law statistics reflect a number of 50,000+ individuals granted refugee status and 25,000+ individuals granted asylum status.

Asylum and refugee applications are a fairly tricky process. The low numbers of those granted these statuses reflect immigration law statistics of a high denial rate to applicants. In order to apply for these two forms of immigration status, the applicant must show he or she has faced persecution in one's country of origin and requires safe haven in the United States. The reason immigration law statistics reflect such a high denial rate is that many individuals fraudulently claim asylum or refugee status in a desperation gambit to receive legal residency status in the United States.