Field of law

Immigration & Naturalization

Admission and inspection at the border, the clocks that run on status and presence, entry restrictions and vetting, work authorization documents, loss of nationality, and the review that follows a decision.

Automatic Revalidation for Short Trips to Canada and Mexico

Regulation permits an expired nonimmigrant visa to be treated as automatically extended to the date of application for readmission where the holder departed only to contiguous territory for thirty days or less, holds an unexpired admission record, has maintained status, and returns within the period. Students and exchange visitors may also use adjacent islands. Applying for a new visa while abroad ends the benefit, and nationals of designated state sponsors of terrorism cannot use it.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

The Ninety-Day Rule on Misrepresented Intent

Consular guidance directs officers to presume willful misrepresentation where a nonimmigrant engages in conduct inconsistent with the status held, within ninety days of entry. The presumption reaches unauthorized employment, unauthorized study, and marriage to a citizen or resident coupled with taking up residence. It is rebuttable, it binds consular officers rather than the benefits agency, and it does not create a safe harbor once the ninety days pass.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

Notarial Services at an American Consulate

Consular officers may administer oaths, take depositions and perform notarial acts having the same force and effect as acts performed by a notary public within the United States. Posts execute acknowledgments and affidavits, certify copies against originals presented to them, and authenticate the seal and signature of a foreign official on a public document. They will not draft or advise on documents, certify the accuracy of a translation, act on an incomplete instrument, or perform marriages.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

The Petty Offense Exception and Its Narrow Arithmetic

An applicant otherwise inadmissible for a crime involving moral turpitude falls outside the ground where only one crime was committed, the maximum penalty possible did not exceed imprisonment for one year, and any sentence imposed did not exceed six months regardless of how much was served. It is confined to that ground: it does not reach controlled substance offenses, the multiple conviction ground, or any ground of deportability, and it operates automatically rather than by discretion.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

Status and Unlawful Presence Are Two Different Clocks

Lawful status describes a classification a person holds under the immigration laws. Unlawful presence is a counted quantity that triggers a three-year or ten-year bar on admission once the person departs. A person can lose status without accruing unlawful presence, most obviously where admission was for the duration of status, and can accrue no unlawful presence while holding no status at all, as with a properly filed adjustment application or a grant of parole.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

Reading the Category Code on a Work Permit

Every work permit carries a category code citing a subparagraph of the regulation that lists the classes authorized to accept employment. Codes in the (a) family denote authorization incident to a status; the (b) family denotes authorization tied to one employer; the (c) family denotes classes that must apply and hold authorization only while the underlying case lasts. The code, not the date, governs renewal and what survives.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

Losing Citizenship by an Expatriating Act

Section 349(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act lists the acts by which a national may lose United States nationality, including foreign naturalization, an oath of allegiance to a foreign state, service in a foreign military, accepting foreign government employment, and formal renunciation. Loss occurs only where the act was performed voluntarily and with the intention of relinquishing nationality. The party asserting loss carries the burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

In Absentia Removal Orders and Getting One Rescinded

An immigration judge may order removal in absence where the government establishes by clear, unequivocal and convincing evidence that written notice was given and that the person is removable. The order is rescinded on a motion filed within one hundred eighty days showing that the failure to appear was because of exceptional circumstances, or on a motion filed at any time showing that notice was not received or that the person was in custody through no fault of their own.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

Proclamations That Restrict Entry and the Exceptions in Them

The immigration statute authorizes the President, on finding that the entry of any class of aliens would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, to suspend that entry by proclamation for such period as is considered necessary. A proclamation issued under it restricts entry rather than altering eligibility, and its practical reach is set by its exception clauses, its treatment of visas already issued, and any case-by-case waiver standard written into the text.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

Site Visits by the Fraud Detection Unit

The immigration agency's fraud detection directorate conducts unannounced compliance reviews at employer premises and worksites to verify that a petitioner exists, that the beneficiary performs the work described, and that the terms of the petition are observed. Findings are recorded in a report placed in the file. The report is not a decision, but it supports requests for evidence, notices of intent to deny, and revocation, and refusal to cooperate carries its own consequences.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

Visa Sanctions Against Countries That Will Not Take Nationals Back

The immigration statute directs the Secretary of State to order consular officers in a country to discontinue granting visas to its nationals once the immigration authorities certify that the country denies or unreasonably delays accepting a national ordered removed. The discontinuation may reach immigrant visas, nonimmigrant visas, or both, and may be narrowed to categories of applicants. It runs until the country accepts the person, and it falls on applicants with no connection to the dispute.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

Reviewing a Naturalization Denial in District Court

An applicant whose naturalization application is denied may request an administrative hearing before an officer, and afterward may seek review in the district court where the applicant resides. That review is de novo: the court makes its own findings of fact and conclusions of law and, at the applicant's request, holds its own hearing on the application. A separate provision allows a court to take the case when the agency fails to decide within a set period after the examination.

6 min readFederal law

Fields of law

This journal

Immigration & Naturalization

Automatic Revalidation for Short Trips to Canada and Mexico

The Ninety-Day Rule on Misrepresented Intent

Notarial Services at an American Consulate

The Petty Offense Exception and Its Narrow Arithmetic

Status and Unlawful Presence Are Two Different Clocks

Reading the Category Code on a Work Permit

Losing Citizenship by an Expatriating Act

In Absentia Removal Orders and Getting One Rescinded

Proclamations That Restrict Entry and the Exceptions in Them

Site Visits by the Fraud Detection Unit

Visa Sanctions Against Countries That Will Not Take Nationals Back

Reviewing a Naturalization Denial in District Court