Archive for category: Green Card

The 3 Most Common Misconceptions about Working with an Immigration Lawyer

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For most people who have not completed a law degree, the prospect of going through the immigration process is a daunting one. Getting a visa is no easy task, but there have been a number of misconceptions about the process which have sprung up over time. 

So what are the most common myths about working with an immigration lawyer? This week Kaushik is joined again by John Corcoran to highlight some of the most common misconceptions that Kaushik has come across in his experience. Listen in for some very good information which will help demystify what it is like to work with an immigration lawyer.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • [1:50] Misconception #1: Attorneys can speed up the process Immigration cases take longer than you think
  • [3:40] Being thorough when filing your case is the best way to ensure the fastest filing
  • [4:34] Misconception #2: All attorneys are the same
  • [7:16] Misconception #3: The current political climate makes immigration impossible
  • [8:21] Can the immigration process be done without representation?

Resources Mentioned on this episode

Sponsor for this episode

Ranchod Law Group has a mission to provide freedom and prosperity for immigrants and help more businesses to connect to top talent. The Ranchod Law Group believes that immigrants add tremendous value to the US economy seek to help companies grow with help from the immigrant talent that can contribute to their bottom line. 

They also help immigrants navigate the complicated immigration process today. Ranchod Law Group has been in business for nearly 20 years in Northern California and serves clients nationwide. Contact Ranchod Law Group today for details on how the firm can help you to solve your immigration challenges. You can visit Ranchod Law Group or call 916-613-3553 or email info@ranchodlaw.com.

Disclaimer

The contents of this post and podcast episode are intended to convey general information only and not to provide legal advice or opinions. The contents of this podcast and show notes, and the posting and listening of the information in this podcast and in these show notes, should not be construed as, and should not be relied upon for, legal or tax advice in any particular circumstance or fact situation.  The information presented on this podcast may not reflect the most current legal developments. No action should be taken in reliance on the information contained in this podcast and we disclaim all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on any or all of the contents of this site to the fullest extent permitted by law. An attorney should be contacted for advice on specific legal issues.

Exploring the E2 Entrepreneur Visa with Bobby Chung

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The immigration process can be a difficult one, but there are great opportunities for those who wish to seek opportunity in the United States. The E2 Entrepreneur Visa is perfect for those who have or are building a small business that can provide jobs and support the immigrant’s family.

It can be a difficult process, however, so how does one ensure the highest chance of success when applying? Bobby Chung has spent time as an entrepreneur, an immigrant, and he is an accomplished lawyer, giving him a unique set of knowledge which can be of great value to those seeking to move to America.

Join Kaushik Ranchod as he sits down with Bobby to discuss the E2 Visa process, his experiences which brought him to where he is, and even the craziest thing he has ever done.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • [0:54] Bobby Chung describes his background, and how 
  • [1:42] The time Bobby walked over burning coals, and how Bobby chose to work with entrepreneurs
  • [4:52] The major turning points for Bobby’s career
  • [7:32] Bobby’s personal experience with immigration and entrepreneurship gives him expertise for his clients
  • [10:25] The challenges Bobby has faced
  • [14:21] Finding talent is a big challenge for entrepreneurs and those growing a business
  • [15:08] Background info on the E2 Entrepreneur Visa and examples from
  • [19:50] How an immigrant can have employees before having a visa
  • [22:05] The challenges which new immigrants can face coming to America
  • [24:10] What happens when a visa is denied, and what options the applicant has
  • [27:05] How the experiences while working for a deportation judge gave him perspective for his clients now
  • [29:50] Bobby’s mentors in business and life
  • [34:01] How to reach out to Bobby Chung

Resources Mentioned on this episode

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How to Navigate the Permanent Labor Certification Green Card Process

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Permanent Labor Certification Green Card process is a great opportunity for immigrants to use their skills and experience to increase their chances of successfully immigrating to the United States. Candidates with qualifying educational and professional experience can be paired with employers who need to fill important positions in specialized fields such as medical, accounting and other skilled professions.

So where can the future citizens of America turn to for these important questions? Kaushik Ranchod is an immigration attorney for employers and families. He specializes in many processes of immigration including Labor Certification, Employment, and Family-Based Green Card Petitions, Health Care Visas, and many more.

This week Kaushik sits down with John Corcoran to discuss this process, and how companies can find qualified immigrant talent.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • [1:41] How does the green card process work for immigrants with college-level education?
  • [2:58] The different tracks immigrants take depending on their level of education and experience
  • [4:15] The possible time frames which the process can take, and why having experienced help is necessary
  • [6:28] Visa processes for those in the medical professions, and the need for more medical professionals in rural areas of the USA
  • [9:05] The green card process for those with specialized knowledge 
  • [11:01] How employers turn to immigrants to fill much-needed positions

Resources Mentioned on this episode

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Marriage Green Card Interview Tips You need to Hear

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod from The Ranchod Law Group and I’m here with Brian. Today we are talking about marriage green card interviews part 2. So Brian, what kind of questions have we been getting? The question is how early should someone arrive to the interview? I know in the notice it says 30 minutes before but is it accurate right now? That’s a great question! Well a lot of things are changing you know very frequently with the Trump administration, so before you know 30 minutes were fine but I would recommend an hour because it’s taking so long right now as of June 2019 to go through security, so you should be there an hour ahead of time just to make sure that you have plenty of time for security – and at that security check what will they check?

So you want to make sure you have your government ID and your interview notice. You should also bring your passport to the interview as well. So you know it’s important then, in that situation, to speak with who’s in charge because with a lot of new trainings going on, you want to think of the security as like going to
the airport through that type of security – that’s what the security is like now.

Once you get to the appointment what kind of question will they ask in the marriage based interview?

For a marriage-based green card they can ask questions such as:

  • How did you meet?
  • What was the date of your marriage?

Those are a couple of common questions that they ask.

Is there any way they can ask something that you don’t know? Something crazy?

Uh yes they can! They can ask something that you don’t know and sometimes you know you’re not gonna know every single fact about your spouse so don’t worry
about that – it’s the majority of questions as long as you know the majority of questions it should be fine but if there’s a lot of questions that you don’t know then that’s gonna raise a red flag, but you’re not going to know every single thing about your spouse so if you all of a sudden can’t remember something don’t let that derail the rest of your interview.

Finally: why is so important to have an attorney present in that interview?

well now with the current President Trump administration I highly recommend that you have an attorney go with you to the interview because they can ask questions there which are inappropriate and you want to have the attorney there to intervene in that situation and if your case for whatever reason is denied, then you also have the attorney there who is a witness to what happened just in case the officer in the decision misconstrues the facts of what occurred: you have the attorney who was there as a witness to know exactly what happened and to clarify the actual testimony that occurred

All right well we want to thank you for joining today and we will see you next week – we want to wish you an awesome day.

Related Information on Green Cards

Who can file for a family petition?

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod from The Ranchod Law Group and I’m here with Brian for our weekly immigration update show and today we’re going to talk about who can file for an I-130 petition and why the USCIS processing times are taking so long. So first I’m gonna start off with the USCIS processing times: they have almost doubled in the last five years in the amount of time that it’s taking. You know every case is different but that’s the average – that’s just what’s happening you know right now with this agency and it’s unacceptable: you can contact your Congress person to let them know or look up the USCIS processing times crisis levels to take action because number of applications have gone down, but the times have gone up.

So for an application that was taking five months as of five years ago, now it’s taking ten months – you can call us if you have a question (916) 613-3553 or post your question below. This is very frustrating for everyone involved, for families, for businesses who need to hire key employees, it’s hurting a lot of employees businesses and families as a whole, but you can take action – you can contact your Congressman, you can contact your senator and you can also go to the aila.org website to find out what else you can do.

Alright so now we’re gonna move on to: who can file an I-130 family based petitions. United States citizens and permanent residents can file for different types of family members. So first we’ll start off with United States citizens:

  • they can file for their spouse;
  • they can file for their child both married and unmarried;
  • they can also file for their parents and also for their siblings.

Now depending upon each relationship, some of the processing times are going to take longer than others. Now lawful permanent residents, they can file for their spouse and they can also file for their children – that’s different than United States citizens because lawful permanent residents cannot file for their parents and they cannot file for their brothers or sisters. United States citizens and permanent residents cannot file for aunts and uncles or cousins or second cousins. So we get that question like “oh well I’m a U.S. citizen can I file for my cousin or my uncle?” Unfortunately you’re not able to, but you know there are those different options and then also look at the employment based options as well – that’s beyond the scope of this video but give us a call (916) 613-3553 – we are happy to answer questions, or post your question below and if you would like to have a topic discussed you could post it below and we may choose your topic for the next weekly show. I want to thank you for tuning in and have an awesome day.

Related Information on I-130

What is Exactly a 245i?

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod here with Brian and today we’ll answer the question: what is a 245 i? That’s what we’re going to be talking about, then family based form I-130 petitions. 245 i is just an awesome powerful tool that can overcome entering the United States without inspection: entering without inspection means you didn’t come in with a visa and if you have questions you can call us at (916) 613-3553 . So 245 i, what the heck is it1? Well if you had a petition filed for you April 30th 2001 or earlier, that would be like an form I-130 petition also in some certain kinds of employment-based green card applications, depending upon what was filed, that may qualify as well. So in that kind of situation it can overcome entering without inspection which would allow you to apply for a green card in the United States instead of having to a file for a Waivers. So you might be asking well why do I care? Why do I want to file for 245 i instead of like just doing an I-601A Waivers? Well there’s a couple of benefits:

  1. You don’t need to show exceptional hardship
  2. You gotta stay in the United States
  3. The processing times for 245 i are faster than if you did exceptional hardship Waivers case

So I know you might be asking well I had a petition filed, I meet the requirements for the dates, but I’m getting married now and the petition was filed by my brother or my parent do I qualify for 245 i? Well I’m gonna answer that question in just a second. The great news is in that situation you would qualify for 245 i, so I don’t want you to worry and if you have questions you can call us at (916) 613-3553 to learn about your options. We do see mistakes that notarios sometimes make or people who are less experienced ignoring the physical presence requirements. I want to make sure you’re aware of the physical presence requirement, so if your application was filed on or after January 14, 1998, you need to have shown physical presence. But when do you need a shop physical presence? This is extremely important you need to show physical presence on December 21st 2000. Now this is where an attorney can really help you to explain and guide you through all the physical presence requirements we don’t have time for that today, but we’ll do a video on that sometime in the future. Just keep in mind that there is a physical presence requirement with that date that I talked about earlier. All right I want to thank you, if you have something you want to know about post it because we want to be there to help you. You can also throw your questions out now, you can call us at (916) 613-3553 . Thank you and have an awesome day.

[editorial note: Section 245(i) is a provision of the Legal Immigration Family Equity Act(LIFE Act). Section 245(i) allows certain persons, who have an immigrant visa immediately available but entered without inspection or otherwise violated their status and thus are ineligible to apply for adjustment of status in the United States, to apply if they pay a $1,000 penalty.] Back to blogpost

Related Information on Section 245(i)

Best Practices For Your Immigration Interview and Green Card Medical Examination

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod here from The Ranchod Law Group with Brian and you can call us at (916) 613-3553 . Today we’re going to talk about some green card updates and interview updates. So, one of the basic requirements for applying for green card is that you need a medical examination done by a United States CIS designated civil physician. Because the government has been slowing down so long with their applications, the issue that has been there for a lot of people who are applying for the green card is that their medical examination validity expires: so what do you do about this? So there’s some good news and there’s some bad news:

  • the good news is now United States CIS states that the medical will be valid for two years instead of one year which is great because they’re taking longer than a year at least in Sacramento and also in many other parts of the country to adjudicate a green card application;
  • the bad news is that normally it’s easier to just submit the medical examination documents with the green card application but the medical cannot have occurred more than 60 days before you submit the application otherwise United States CIS will consider it invalid

Moving on to a different topic, about the interviews specifically, the interviews here in Sacramento where you go in for a green card interview (but this could be anywhere as well), it’s really important to make sure that if you have an issue either during your immigration interview (or even getting in to the interview), that if you feel like you’re getting an erroneous decision by the person that’s letting you in to the interview (that they’re not letting you in and you have a valid ID), then bring it up and ask for a supervisor because, it’s important that you make sure that you maintain your rights and this is why it’s also important you have an attorney at the interview as well to represent you one so you have another witness there in case they deny a decision. We’ve had a client in this situation coming in for a parole in place interview and they didn’t want to let them in with the valid passport, which is a valid form of ID, and what was brought to their attention is that this is not something that should prevent from entering because, they didn’t want to let the person enter because they said they needed a driver’s license or some kind of United States ID which was incorrect.We’ve had situations where sometimes the officer may state something that never happened or misconstrue what happened and so by having an attorney there, that’s another witness to the actual events that happen and what that actual testimony that occurred and then second if the officer is asking inappropriate questions the attorney can step in and attempt to rectify that situation as well. Alright well we want to thank you for joining us live you can post your questions below and you can call us at (916) 613-3553 if you have questions thank you and have an awesome day.

Related Information and videos you’ll find interesting

The Mistakes You Should Avoid When Applying for a K1 Fiance Visa

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod Kaushik Ranchod from Sacramento with Brian and we’re here with our weekly get your immigration questions answered with The Ranchod Law Group . We’re going to talk about mistakes that are made when filing for the Fiancée visa .

The Fiancée visa : some of the biggest mistakes

Mistake number one

On their statement that they are including, they don’t state that they’re gonna get married within 90 days.

Mistake number two

Then mistake number two is not providing evidence of meeting within the last two years, because that’s one of the requirements: you have had to met your Fiancée within the last two years. If you have questions you can post your question below or you can call us at (916) 613-3553 I’m going to move on to the third biggest mistake that I see when trying to reunite your Fiancée :

Mistake number three

The third mistake (that is this isn’t necessarily only with the Fiancée visa ) is trying to enter the United States on a visitor visa and then filing for a green card in the United States : that could be interpreted as Visa Fraud . In that situation the best thing to do would be the Fiancée visa , rather than to try to come into the United States on a visitor visa and marry your spouse and then try to get a green card with your spouse admission.I also have a question I received from Brian:

What happens if someone enters the United States with a tourist visa but didn’t have the intention to get married… something that just happened randomly?

Ok so that’s a really good question! If you enter with a tourist visa and you didn’t have the intent prior to entering, because what is looked at is the intent prior to entering the United States and then you get married after the fact – depending upon the timing of when you actually got married, you may be able to adjust status and get a green card : there’s something called the 90-day rule.

I advise you, if you’re in that situation, to contact an immigration attorney in order to get things right and if you have any questions you can contact us at (916) 613-3553 or you can post your question below.Alright so I want to thank you for tuning in for our weekly immigration show – get your questions answered by The Ranchod Law Group – and tune in next Thursday one o’clock we’ll have a new topic for you, keeping you updated on the latest of what’s going on right now.We’re going to talk about the mistakes of fiancée visa s and we’ll see what’s going on next week because we never know what we have in store with us with this current administration.Thank you and have an awesome day.

Related Information on K-1 and K-3 Visas

What You Really Need To Know About the USCIS Interview

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Hi this is Kaushik Ranchod from The Ranchod Law Group!So today what we’re going to talk about are some “nuts and bolts” of the USCIS interview.So first of all as I’m talking today on March the 12th. When you have the USCIS interview, before you would put the notice in the box and they would call you – now you put the notice in another room and then you’ll get transitioned to the main waiting room and then called for the interview.So that’s one of the “nuts and bolts”, so you’re prepared when you go in and you know what’s going on, so you feel a little bit more comfortable at the interview: give us a call at (916) 613-3553 or post your question below!Alright, and then what other questions are we getting? About having an interpreter – people want to know who can go, like if they can bring children or a sibling to the interview as an interpreter for the person that is going to be interviewed. Alright, so if you do not speak English fluently, you can bring an interpreter but it’s important to note that you can’t bring a family member like a brother or a sister a spouse a parent, so you have to have someone who won’t be biased at the interview to interpret for you.And even if you bring an interpreter and the officer speaks Spanish you may not need to bring that interpreter to the interview, the officer may state that they’ll go ahead and translate. And then, when you go to the interview, you want to make sure you’re there at least 30 minutes ahead of time because you never know how long the line could be and of course if you miss the interview your case could be denied, so it’s important, very important, to take the interview very seriously and also dress respectfully for the interview because you are before the USCIS and you want to show your respect.Alright so that the nuts and bolts that we wanted to share with you today’s recent happenings of what’s going on.I want to thank you for tuning in to our immigration update and we look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you and have an awesome day!

Other information related to USCIS Interviews