Source: http://www.breakthroughusa.com/uscis-in-the-trump-era-part-2/
Timestamp: 2018-01-18 21:35:31
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USCIS in the Trump Era – Part 2 |
USCIS in the Trump Era – Part 2
by Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram on October 8, 2017
Under Trump, US Immigration has gotten harder and as lawyers we’ve had to step up our game accordingly.
USCIS in the Trump Era – Part 2 – EB1 Green Cards
Due to the surprise success of my last article on USCIS in the Trump Era, I’ve been persuaded to write a Part 2. Who knows, I may have to write a Part 3. Our clients and our prospective clients are clamoring to ask questions about their future. Is your future in President Trump’s hands or that of Congress? Will there be changes to US Immigration that could affect your family? Ok, so let’s dive in.
Trump seems to be all about making it harder for people to relocate to the USCIS. We are even more determined to bring our clients in and we’re winning.
The Latest Travel Ban 3.0
President Trump has and can change the lives of any of our clients emigrating from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. There will of course be legal challenges to this. The latest Travel Ban is set to take affect from October 18th 2017, subject to any federal injunctions if granted under a legal action. For further details on this latest Travel Ban, please click [here]
In this article, I’d like to focus on how EB1 Green Cards for Aliens of Extraordinary Ability have been affected this year in the Trump Era.
Our law firm specializes in preparing and processing EB1 Green Cards for Aliens of Extraordinary Ability. Indeed, at any given time we are handling about 100 of these EB1 petitions. Each month we take on new cases and each month we submit completed cases for adjudication. We certainly have our finger on the pulse of USCIS, and we monitor closely how these cases are being adjudicated.
As much as I have my challenges with USCIS – racism is not one of them.
Is There Racism in USCIS?
We submit EB1 cases for adjudication for clients from all over the world and as they are adjudicated we are looking for any kind of adjudication patterns, including whether we can detect any indication of racism in USCIS. We are happy to report that we can find no demonstrable evidence of racism or ethnicity bias, and with the volume of cases we submit through USCIS, if there were a noticeable trend of rejection based on ethnicity, we’d be able to detect it very quickly.
Is USCIS Tougher on Approving Cases Under Trump?
The answer here is, absolutely. This year, USCIS has really taken a particularly hard line against approving EB1 cases. We have definitely seen trends in what USCIS will be more aggressive on. For example, for a while and completely out of the blue, USCIS made it very difficult to get the EB1 High Salary category approved.
Could someone remind President Trump that his grandfather, Frederick Trump, emigrated from Germany and did quite well. Also, President Obama’s father, Barak Sr., came from Kenya, Africa and his son also did well. Yesterday’s immigrants have become tomorrow’s US Presidents.
So, what we had to do is go back to the drawing board and really try to work out what USCIS’ issue was, and then figure out how best to overcome the issue. Sadly, USCIS does not announce if they have an internal policy change in adjudicating a particular category, they just move the goal post and we have to find out through trial and error what the new protocol is.
Because we’re relentless, we figured what USCIS now needs and we made the adjustments, and subsequently, USCIS routinely accepted this category.
USCIS, has also clamped down on other EB1 categories like Critical Role and we have to go through the same process of discovering precisely what the new issues are and then re-formatting our cases to meet what we perceive to be the new USCIS standard.
As a law firm that specializes in this field and with the volume of cases we have, we are able to overcome almost any challenge USCIS puts our way, but truth is, EB1 Green Card cases are much harder than before. Expertise, in this field can make all the difference.
Improving Your Chances of EB1 Success
USCIS in the Trump Era has definitely raised the bar – and so must we.
We are now educating all of our clients and prospective clients that although we continue to win a very wide variety of EB1 cases, from Project Managers, to SAP Architects, and STEM professionals, the bar for approval has definitely been raised.
Winning EB1 Green Card cases was never easy; these cases certainly required a lot of work. It’s just that now in this USCIS Trump Era, everyone has to be prepared to work much harder to gather the very best evidence and for us to do our very best work in order to win these cases.
In order to win an EB1 petition you have to satisfy three categories from a list of ten: –
Find your EB1 categories. Our youngest EB1 success was just 23 years old.
“Initial evidence: – A petition for an alien of extraordinary ability must be accompanied by evidence that the alien has sustained national or international acclaim and that his or her achievements have been recognized in the field of expertise.
(x) Commercial Success – Evidence of commercial successes in the performing arts, as shown by box office receipts or record, cassette, compact disk, or video sales.” [More Info]
After working with the client, and we’ve submitted to USCIS our three EB1 categories, our cases would almost routinely be approved. Sometimes, USCIS would request additional evidence and providing we responded with the evidence they requested, we’d typically get an approval. We still do. However, as USCIS cherry picks on pushing back on one or more of our arguments, they can actually drag out the process and incur more costs for our clients as we will go back and forth with USCIS until we win. We never back down!
Going for a Fourth EB1 Category
To try and minimize the USCIS ‘back and forth’ situation, we are now talking to our clients to try and work up a fourth EB1 Green Card category. We can still win with three EB1 categories, but if we can go for a fourth category from the start, why not? The down side is that it does cost more in attorney fees, but on the up side it could really improve your chances of getting to a “yes” (an approval) faster.
US Immigration Success in the Trump Era
For sure, President Trump has made getting Green Cards harder, but we’re not afraid of working harder for our client’s American Dream. The allure of America has not dimmed, we are still living in the land of the free, home of the brave. It’s just that today, we have to work harder to experience it. I’m writing this article not to scare anyone off, but to encourage all our clients and perspective clients that they have hired or will hire a law firm with a winning mind set. As the late Tom Petty said in his famous song “Well, I won’t back down”. Will you?
Important Notice: Please note that all videos created by the Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram are intended as general information only and not specific legal advice pertaining your case. If you would like specific legal advice on any immigration matter please do not hesitate to contact this law office accordingly. All pictorial images used in these videos and the website in general are licensed stocked images and not portraits, or otherwise, of anyone from the Law Offices of Chris M. Ingram, nor of its clients unless otherwise indicated by name. All images are used solely for illustrative purposes only. Copyright 2010-2015 All Rights Reserved. ECI 10/8/17.
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