Immigration Update with Lin Walker

Meyner & Landis Immigration partner Lin Walker continues her pop-culture immigration myth-busting by destroying The Terminal, a 2004 Steven Spielberg film starring Tom Hanks and Stanley Tucci.

The Terminal tells the story of Viktor Navorski from the fictional Eastern European country of Krakhosia who gets stranded at JFK airport in New York when war breaks out in his country while he is in the air.

How realistic is his dilemma? How plausible are the solutions that the director of Customs at the airport proposes for the "man without a country"?

In this episode we explore topics such as:

What is Expedited Removal?

When and why is asylum granted?

What is Temporary Protective Status?

How does one qualify for Humanitarian Parole?

And how does The Terminal get almost ALL of this wrong?

Immigration in The Movies! Myth or Fact?

In our ongoing quest to educate people about the U.S. immigration system (and have some fun), we’ve been reviewing the portrayal of the U.S. immigration system as depicted in popular movies.

In this episode, we reviewed (in order of factual immigration accuracy):

1. Brooklyn

2. The Godfather Part 2

3. An American Tale (Wow, how is this a children’s movie and can anyone tell us what happened to the baby mouse by the end of the movie?)

4. The Immigrant

5. The Golden Door

Answer: They are both back!

Each year around this time, during peak holiday travel season, we like to remind employers and foreign nationals alike the devastating and expensive mistakes that can occur on the 1-94 Arrival Departure record.

Here are a few tips to avoid problems while traveling this holiday season.

In February 2021, we began publishing articles detailing the extensive backlogs and processing delays at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and how these delays have impacted foreign nationals, their families and U.S. employers.

It has been more than twenty-one (21) months since President Biden took office and while the Biden-Harris Administration has made many promises to modernize the immigration system and enact comprehensive and compassionate immigration reforms, it has been exceptionally slow to deliver meaningful changes that positively impact foreign nationals, their families and U.S. employers.

In this episode we are going to discuss the Current Backlogs and Processing Times, tell you about a new piece of legislation that promises to alleviate some of the delays and at the end of the podcast we have some tips for employers and foreign nations that can help to minimize the time it takes to process your petition.

To arrange a consultation contact us here https://meyner.com

Today we are bringing you two short excerpts from the Minutes of the AILA Liaison Meeting that we thought would be useful for employers, immigration attorneys and foreign nationals.

The most important takeaway for business owners...IER advised that it has identified several software platforms with dropdown menus that resulted in employers inadvertently posting job advertisements with unlawful citizenship status restrictions.

On November 1, 2022, the salary transparency provisions of the New York City Human Rights Law (“Salary Transparency Law”) will take effect and will require “employers advertising jobs in New York City” to “include a good faith salary range for every job, promotion, and transfer opportunity advertised.”

On this episode we hope to provide some guidance upon which employers and their job opportunities are affected and how the Salary Transparency Law may affect the Permanent Labor Certification Application (“PERM”) process in the employment-based immigration context.

Today we are going to talk about a common mistake that can put employers in jeopardy of breaking discrimination laws, resulting sometimes in tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

Today we are going to be talking about some Petition Information Management Service (PIMS) delays that are impacting some NIV issuance and at the end of this podcast give some advice to foreign nationals and employers how to avoid or minimize delays.

In this video we distinguish between the two most easily confused criteria for O-1B classification "Production or event" vs "organizations and establishments".

As some of our listeners know, we sometimes like to discuss topics beyond business-immigration that we believe may be helpful or relevant to our audience of immigration practitioners, foreign nationals and their employers.

Today, we are honored to welcome our guest, Luis Enrique Díaz Páez, who is an immigration attorney and founder of Paez Law, and a dedicated advocate for vulnerable immigrants seeking asylum in the United States, helping LGBTQIA+ families, couples with their immigration matters, and removal defense for queer immigrants.

Luis talks about the "silent issues" that immigration lawyers face today such as, the perception of the quality of pro-bono work, the importance of mental health counseling for immigrants, avoiding notary fraud and the difficulty of the immigration system for LGBTQI+ individuals and couples.

You can contact Luis Enrique Díaz Páez, Esq. here... https://www.paez.law/