World Journal Weekly Q & A - January 1, 2012USC Wants to Apply K-1 Fiancée Visa for First CousinYong reader asks: I have just been naturalized and want to apply K2 visa for my cousin, who is my mother’s sister’s daughter, to come to U.S.. She is Chinese and was born on 9/2/1990. My maternal grandmother did apply F3 for my aunt’s family (my mother’s sister) on 2/5/2003. I don’t know if California law will allow intermarriage. Will my K2 application affect or conflict with my grandmother’s F3 case? What was the financial sponsor qualification? Any other issues I need to be aware of? Dear reader: You undoubtedly mean K-1 instead of K-2. K-2 is the category for children of fiancée’s of U.S. citizens. Our slight looking into California law indicates that marriages between first cousins is legal. If your first cousin is thinking of immigrating under her mother's petition, the fact of marriage would disqualify her from the dependent category. Financial sponsor qualifications are found in the poverty guidelines which accompany the affidavit of support form, I-864. You must use the 125% column to determine whether you have met the support guidelines. Other issues that you should be aware of are that relationships between relatives for Chinese as well as most nationalities are considered highly suspect and that your first cousin will have a heavy burden to prove the bonafides of your relationship before she is issued a K-1 or immigrant visa.Extraordinary Artist is Presenting Second Employment Letter from Same Source for I-485 Application to U.S.C.I.S. $35,000 Less Than the First Letter - Will He Be Denied?An extraordinary artist asks: I am an artist who self-sponsored myself under the EB-1A category and have had my Dear reader: To have your case approved under the EB-1A category as an artist, you had to show on the I-140 petition papers that you were extraordinary to self-sponsor yourself. In an employment based case with a labor certification, the difference in offered wage may certainly be a legitimate cause of concern. These are difficult economic times in this country, and many companies have had to reduce wages or even let people go. I believe that the difference between the two letters (if seen at all by a U.S.C.I.S. examiner) would be of minimal concern if even a concern at all. Reader Had Exclusion Proceedings, Section 245 (i) Protection, and Fake U.S. Passport to Falsely Claim U.S. Citizenship, and Wants to Know If He Can Adjust Status to Permanent Residence.A reader asks: I came into the United States in 1994 and was stopped at the airport. After being released by Immigration, I was scheduled for a hearing that I did not attend. I understand that I was excluded in December 1994. My sister applied for me in 2001 since she was a U.S. citizen, and the time will soon become current. We plan to adjust my status to permanent residence since my lawyer says that I have 245(i) protection. I am worried about the fact that I used a fake U.S. passport when I came in in 1994. I hear that this is very bad. Is there anything that I can do at this time to help myself? Dear reader: Because your use of the U.S. passport was prior to September 30, 1996, you fall under the old law under which a waiver is available if you have a U.S. citizen or permanent resident parent or spouse and your departure from the United States would cause them extreme hardship. This waiver is not available to those entering the U.S. on or after September 30, 1996, and misrepresenting yourself as a U.S. citizen constitutes an unwaivable bar to admission. Otherwise I agree with your attorney that you are eligible for adjustment even though you have had an exclusion order if you have Section 245(i) protection. That provision allows most persons who are illegal in the States to adjust status to permanent residence upon payment of a fine amount of $1,000. As your sister applied for you in 2001, the conditions of Section 245(i) are that the application was made by April 30, 2001, and that you prove physical presence in the U.S. on December 21, 2000. EB-5 Potential Investor Wants to Buy Existing Business From Friend Who is Retiring or Go Through a Regional Investment Center Project - What are the Factors in Making Choice?A reader asks: I am interested in doing investor immigration under the EB-5 category. I can do either an individual or a regional center case. I have a friend who has a company which he began over 30 years ago who wishes to retire and sell me his business. But I do not know whether that is a good idea or whether I should just do a regional center case. After being approved, I plan to stay here at least half of the time and run my own business in the United States. Dear reader: Whether you decide on an individual case or regional center case is your decision. Generally speaking, most individual investment cases are based on an investment of $1 million (exceptions being where the area of investment has at least 150% of the national unemployment rate or where the area of investment is outside a metropolitan statistical zone or outside of a city or town having 20,000 people in which case the investment amount is $500,000), while most regional center cases are based on $500,000 investment. For individual cases, you could essentially run your own business while for regional center cases, you would be a limited partner and not have much input into the operations of the regional center project. Regional center cases also present a confusing array of over 173 approved regional centers with differing projects and the possibilities of financial problems/green card denial although recent U.S.C.I.S. high percentages of approvals have been encouraging. Since your friend's company is over 30 years old, it would not be considered a "new" enterprise (one created after November 29, 1990), and would only qualify as an EB-5 enterprise if it was reorganized or restructured or the business expands by either 40% of employees or net assets. There is unfortunately not much guidance on what constitutes effective reorganization or restructuring although a case was approved involving a horse farm which added a horse training element to breeding and selling. Whether some other changes such as adding a deli section to a market or pedicure section to a hair salon are effective would be questionable. I note that even if you restructure or reorganize your friend's business in such a way as to make it an EB-5 eligible enterprise, you would still have to add 10 U.S. workers or more (see above on 40% expansion) unless your friend has a troubled business (an enterprise which has been in business for two years and during the past 24 or 12 month period of time has experienced a 20% loss in net worth) in which keeping all the present employees for 2 years would count towards the job creation requirement.
|
Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee,
Esq. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|