Resources

  • Married to US Citizen?

    If you are married to a US citizen, the citizen can file a relative petition for you, as long as you have a valid marriage. The problem is that if you entered the US without papers, in most cases you will not be able to stay in the US to apply for green card based on this marriage. You will have to leave the US to file an application for a green card in your home country. If you were in the US for 6 months or longer without immigration status, you will be barred from coming back to the US for th…

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  • ITIN Expiration

    Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers will expire if not used on a federal income tax return for any year during a period of five consecutive years, the Internal Revenue Service announced today. That is, the IRS will not deactivate an ITIN that has been used on at least one tax return in the past five years. To give all interested parties time to adjust and allow the IRS to reprogram its systems, the IRS will not begin deactivating ITINs until 2016. Further details here.…

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  • I-94 Arrival/Departure History Online

    May 1, 2014: Arrival and departure records are now available online. Travelers may now access records of their arrivals and departures from the US for the past five years. This information is often required on immigration applications. Records that are accessible online can save immigration applicants time. In the past, if immigration applicants did not have this information, they had to file a request for records with CBP. It could take weeks or even months to receive the records. For more info…

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  • I-9 Information for Employers

    April 30, 2014: The Department of Homeland Security has begun issuing electronic arrival/departure cards to travelers entering the US. This means that non-immigrants entering the US will no longer receive paper I-94 cards. The foreign national may access and print out the electronic I-94, but it will look different than the former I-94 card. This is important to employers because employers are required to document that each new employee is authorized to work in the US by maintaining a completed …

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  • I am an undocumented immigrant. What can I do now to prepare for possible changes in the law?

    April 18, 2014: If you are in the US without immigration papers, or if your immigration papers have expired, you may be an undocumented (sometimes called “illegal”) immigrant. You may not be able to file any immigration papers now, but it is possible that the law may change in the future to provide a path to legalization for those who are undocumented. To learn more about what kinds of papers you should start saving, click here.…

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