Effective April 13, 2012, there will be changes to the fees for immigrant and non-immigrant visas and other consular services. Fees for most non-immigrant visa applications will increase, while fees for processing immigrant visas will decrease. The U.S. Department of State announced that the increase is necessary ... Read more
In my column this week in La Opinión I answer readers' questions. Here I respond in a general way to readers' doubts. Each case is different, so you should consult an attorney for personalized legal advice. I am Mexican and have been living in Los Angeles since last month. I am an actuary with a degree in ... Read more
Last night, July 7, Humberto Leal Garcia (Leal), a 38-year-old Mexican national was executed in the state of Texas. The man had been convicted of the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1994. But there was a problem with Leal's execution. Texas authorities never informed Leal, a ... Read more
In Sunday's edition of The Post Standard newspaper, there was a story about the abuse of a group of immigrants recruited in Mexico to work in Syracuse, New York at a fair. The account of the abuse and mistreatment suffered by 19 Mexicans horrified me. It also infuriated me to learn that there are such inhumane people willing to practically enslave and ... Read more
Beginning tomorrow, April 1, applications for H-1B visas for fiscal year 2012 will begin to be accepted. The number of visas available is 65,000. This number does not include the first 20,000 petitions submitted on behalf of individuals who hold graduate degrees obtained in the U.S. The acceptance date for H-1B visas is April 1, ... Read more
The number of petitions for H-1B visas has reached the statutory limit for fiscal year 2011. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that Wednesday, January 26, 2011 was the deadline to receive petitions for H-1B visas, which allow U.S. employers to temporarily hire U.S. workers to work in the U.S. in the U.S. for the first ... Read more
Yesterday, the manner in which Mexican citizens must apply for non-immigrant visas to the United States changed. To explain what the changes consist of, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico has coordinated a webchat with visa consuls for next Wednesday, January 12, starting at 4:00 pm. The dialogue will be live at ... Read more
Bad news for those who are waiting their turn to obtain visas through the family-sponsored preference category. The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has significantly moved back the priority dates, as indicated in the January 2011 visa bulletin. This means that beginning in January, in many cases, they will have to wait ... Read more
Beginning today, fees for U.S. passport, immigrant visa and other consular services will be increased. The U.S. Department of State announced that the increase was necessary to cover the costs associated with processing these consular services. Last June, the State Department also increased visa fees ... Read more
Last week I wrote about an incident in which Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) demonstrated his anti-immigrant stance in Avalon, California (on Catalina Island). The congressman confronted a Mexican consul and tried to prevent employees of the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles from issuing matricula consular plates to his fellow citizens during ... Read more
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