San Diego Immigration Lawyer News

California Division of Motor Vehicles is preparing for roughly 1.4 million new driver’s license applicants after Jan. 1.

That’s when Assembly Bill 60, or the Safe and Responsible Drivers Act, goes into effect.

It’s the best thing that could have happened to illegal immigrants in California. We all have been waiting for it for many, many years.

To prepare for all of the new applicants, the Department of Motor Vehicles has hired about 900 new employees and opened several temporary offices across the state.

The DMV is encouraging all eligible applicants to start preparing for their drivers tests early.

When Nevada adopted a similar law, about 90 percent of undocumented immigrants failed the written exam.

Undocumented immigrants will go through the same steps everyone else does to get a license.

They’ll take a written and vision test, if they pass they’ll get their permit then they’ll take a behind-the-wheel test and if they pass that, they will get a license but theirs will look a little bit different than everyone else’s.

On the front, it will say ?Federal Limits Apply.? On the back it reads: ?This card is not acceptable for official federal purposes? and that it can only be used as a license to drive.

The requirements are: proof of California residency, fingerprints and proper identification.

The challenge facing DMV has been to identify documents that are produced by other countries that are secure enough. That means that they verify that the person who is getting them is actually the person who is applying for them.

The DMV believes a licensed driver equals a safer driver.

President Obama unveiled Thursday a major executive action on immigration policy, offering temporary legal status to millions of illegal immigrants, along with an indefinite reprieve from deportation.

There are roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, and political leaders of both parties agree the current system is broken and needs fixing. Yet Obama?s action has outraged Republicans in Congress, who say the president doesn?t have the authority to delay deportations for such a large class of people without legislation.

What will Obama?s executive action do?

The executive action will have two key components:

It would offer a legal reprieve to the undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who?ve resided in the country for at least five years. This would remove the constant threat of deportation. Many could also receive work permits.
It would expand the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allowed young immigrants, under 30 years old, who arrived as children to apply for a deportation deferral and who are now here illegally. Immigrants older than 30 now qualify, as do more recent arrivals.

People in both groups will have to reapply every three years. The executive action will also include:

A program to facilitate visas for people who invest in the United States and those who pursue science, technology, engineering and math degrees;
Modifying federal immigrant detention procedures;
Adding resources to strengthen security at the border

But notably, the action will not:

Extend protections to hundreds of thousands of parents of young immigrants who participated in the DACA program ? a group totaling 671,000 people.

Expand visas for migrant farm workers. According to The Times, ?farm workers, for example, will not be singled out for protections because of concerns that it was difficult to justify legally treating them differently from undocumented workers in other jobs, like hotel clerks, day laborers and construction workers.?

Expand the existing H-1B visa program for highly skilled foreigners;

Offer access to the Affordable Care Act for newly protected immigrants.

U.S. citizenship gives a person as many rights as the U.S. has to offer; for example, the right to vote, petition for family members to immigrate, and live abroad without losing the right to return. For these reasons, citizenship is not easily obtained.
To become a U.S. citizen through the process known as naturalization, you must first have a green card (permanent residence) and then meet other requirements, listed below. There are only a few rare exceptions in which a person goes straight from having no U.S. status to getting U.S. citizenship;

The Eligibility Criteria
If you are interested in applying for U.S. citizenship, first make sure that all of the following apply to you:

You have lived in the United States as a lawful permanent resident for at least five years (with exceptions for refugees, people who get their green card through asylum, spouses of U.S. citizens, and U.S. military personnel);
You have been physically present in the United States for at least half of the last five years;
You have lived in the district or state where you are filing your application for at least three months;
You have not spent more than a year outside the United States;
You have not made your primary home in another country;
You are at least 18 years old;
You have good moral character;
You are able to speak, read, and write in English;
You are able to pass a test covering U.S. history and government (based on questions provided by USCIS); and
You are willing to swear that you believe in the principles of the U.S. Constitution and will be loyal to the United States.

Please be advised that applying for citizenship opens your whole immigration history to review. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will carefully investigate your background. If it discovers something wrong ? for example, that you used fraud to get your green card or abandoned your residency by making your home outside the United States, it can strip you of your green card and send you out of the country.

In this article, I will review pluses, minuses, and issues surrounding the E-2 visa:

The treaty investor can work legally in the U.S. for a U.S. business in which a substantial cash investment has been made by the visa holder or other citizens of the country of origin, so long as this country has a treaty with the U.S.
While in the U.S., the treaty investor or employee is restricted to working only for the employer or self-owned business that acted as the E-2 visa sponsor.

Initial visas may last for up to five years, with unlimited extensions. The length of the visa depends upon the visa ?reciprocity? agreement between the U.S. and the foreign country and upon the viability of the business (new companies receive shorter validity periods).

Each time E visa holders (workers or family members) enter the U.S., they receive a period of stay of up to two years. They also may extend their stay while remaining in the U.S.

Visas are available for an accompanying spouse and minor, unmarried children.
The spouse, but not children, may apply for a work permit once physically present in the U.S.

Like the E-1 visa, some people call the E-2 the next best thing to U.S. permanent residence, because it is possible to obtain via self-employment, and it comes with an unlimited number of extensions. Also, there are no annual limits on the number of E-2 visas that can be issued to qualified applicants.

Qualification Criteria for an E-2 Treaty Investor Visa
There are six requirements for getting an E-2 visa:

The applicant must be a citizen of a country that has a relevant treaty with the United States.
The applicant must be coming to work in the U.S. for a company that he or she either owns or that is at a minimum 50% owned by other nationals of the country of origin.

The applicant must be either the owner or a key employee (executive or supervisor, or someone with essential skills) of the U.S. business.

The applicant or the company must have made a substantial investment in the U.S. business (there?s no legal minimum, but the applicant or company must be putting capital or assets at risk, be trying to make a profit, and the amount must be substantial relative to the type of business).

The U.S. company must be actively engaged in commercial activities and meet the applicable legal requirements for doing business in its state or region. It also cannot be merely a means to support the investor. The underlying goal of the treaty investor visa is to create jobs for U.S. workers.

The applicant must intend to leave the U.S. when his or her business in the U.S. is completed, although the person is not required to maintain a foreign residence abroad. The applicant will likely be asked to show the U.S. consulate evidence of eventual plans to leave the United States.