Immigration Law in Oklahoma
The Information You Need To Know from an experienced Oklahoma Immigration Attorney
By Joshua C. Smith
Immigration law manages how a non-resident of the U.S. may gain residency, citizenship, or visitation rights. Immigration Law is designed to unify families that have been dispersed, to bring foreign nationals who have skills to contribute to the U.S. economy, to protect refugees and people at risk and to increase diversity. A citizen of a foreign country who seeks to enter the United States generally must first obtain a visa. A visa is a travel document issued by the traveler’s country of origin and is placed in the traveler’s passport. A United States visa allows a person to travel to a port of entry, airport, or border crossing and request entry into the United States. A United States visa does not guarantee entry into the United States.
“It is crucial that you seek quality legal assistance immediately to ensure the best possible outcome”
There are two types of visas. A nonimmigrant visa is for those who travel to the United States on a temporary basis. A nonimmigrant visa is mainly for tourists, students, and business people. An immigrant visa is for those who travel to the United States to live permanently. An immigrant visa is for people who choose to stay within the United States as a resident to live and work. Applying for a nonimmigrant visa usually occurs at the United States embassy or consulate of your home country.
Immigrant Visa
There are several ways to apply for an Immigrant Visa. Applying for an immigrant visa is the first step that can lead to residency.
The most common way to access citizenship is through family members. A permanent resident or U.S. citizen may file a petition on behalf of a family member from a foreign country. Family unification is a major priority in the American immigration system. As such, the U.S. prioritizes the immigration of immediate family members. It also allows for the immigration of extended family members, though they are petitioned according to priority and in relation to annual quotas.
Immediate family members include spouses, parents (when the petitioner is over 21 years old), unmarried children under the age of 21, and children who were adopted prior to their 16th birthday. There is no limit to the number of immediate family visas the government offers each year. The time it takes to receive the visa is only a matter of its processing.
Distant relatives include married or unmarried adult children, who are given the highest priority, followed by sisters and brothers of an adult citizen who is over the age of 21, and then minor or adult spouses and unmarried children of legal permanent residents. If you are in the lower priority category, getting a U.S. visa can take years. Hiring an experienced Oklahoma Immigration attorney can help with the process.
Family Visa
A family visa is the most common type of visa. As a way to deal with the high number of applicants, Congress devised a system to limit the number of people that can be sponsored annually. The first 480,000 people are allotted for. Then Congress subtracts the number of immediate family sponsorships and aliens paroled into the U.S. during the previous year. Unused employment preference immigrant numbers from the year before are added to this amount. The resulting number shows how many visas can be distributed among the remaining preference categories.
By law, family-based visas cannot be fewer than 226,000. Often, the number of family visas given actually surpasses that number, due to immediate relatives’ entries. Often, the total number may exceed 480,000. While U.S. citizenship grants the right to bring members of one’s family to the country, this eligibility comes with restrictions. In brief, citizens who petition for family members must be financially stable and meet an age requirement. The immigrants who come to the U.S. must also meet such standards. Not only must the U.S. citizen sign a petition, but they also must vouch for being financially liable for the incoming resident, should the new resident fail to support themselves. You should contact an Oklahoma immigration attorney to help ensure you are granted a family visa. Hiring an experienced Oklahoma Immigration lawyer can help with the process.
Business Visa
An E5 visa is a U.S. work visa for those interested in making a business investment in the United States. There are various benefits to obtaining this visa, one of which is its ease of access. There is no quota or limit on the amount of E5 visas dispersed, so they are always available and can allow someone to access the U.S. based on their financial resources.
The E5 can be renewed indefinitely as long as the business investment is profitable. The E5 permits U.S. entry to the investor, a spouse, and children, and it is initially given for a period of two or five years. Often, users of this visa are real estate investors, retirees, and small business owners.
Treaty Investor Visa
As an applicant for an E2 visa, you are approaching the United States with the good will of investing in its economy with your assets, labor, and contribution. Thereby, you are potentially gaining residency to the country with ease, and without a drawn-out immigration process.
An E2 visa is for people who wish to become entrepreneurs or owners of new businesses. They must come from a treaty country and offer 50 percent or more of the ownership of a major investment. Such an investment should create jobs and opportunities for others. The applicant has to reside in the U.S. in order to monitor the labor. Highlights of applying for the E2 include that there is no limit to the number allotted, generally or annually. Therefore, there is no competition to receive it.
Even though the E2 visa is a non-immigrant visa, the applicant is welcome to seek other opportunities while in the U.S. They can apply for a green card, and eventually, for U.S. citizenship. (Until then, however, the applicant must only work at their own enterprise.) The initial visa is often for a five-year period, though two-year periods are also possible. With the E2 visa, the applicant can bring their spouse and children, and all of them can study in the U.S. However, children will lose their status once they are 21 years old.
Refugee Status
The Refugee Act of 1980 defines a refugee as someone seeking safety from their home country, and in certain circumstances — such as delivering a missing American POW or MIA soldier — this is granted readily. The status is not given to those who persecuted others or are convicted of murder.
The necessary qualifications to apply for refugee status include fear of persecution in one’s homeland, the existence of which must be proven through subjective feelings as well as objective evidence that persecution exists. There may be persecution due to social group, politics, religion, national origin, or other identification.
Refugee candidates may apply from outside of the U.S.; often this is done through a transition country that has given the applicant temporary relief. Whether an immigrant is accepted depends on the degree of danger, as well as U.S. concern over their class or group. Whether they already have family in the U.S. is also a factor.
If you are already in the U.S. but think that you will be in danger if you return to your country of origin, another option is to seek asylum. This can be applied for within the first year of arriving in the U.S. There is no limit on the amount of people who can be granted asylum.
Employment Visa
It is possible to become a resident by being offered a job with a legitimate employer. This employer must petition for you, and on that basis, the government can offer a work visa . In this situation, you are connected to the U.S. by virtue of the job. There are over twenty different kinds of work visas available, some of which may lead to green card status.
Having a green card means that you are a resident of the U.S., and you are given the right to come and go across the country’s borders. You can seek employment, work, and pay taxes. Once five years have passed, you may be permitted to apply for full citizenship. U.S. citizenship bestows many benefits, including the right to vote.
To seek employment in the U.S., consider which work visa is the correct fit. The quota for permanent employment-based residents is 140,000 per year, and this includes the applicants in addition to spouses or children.
Preference categories can include persons of extraordinary ability in any field, with a yearly limit of 40,000, professionals with advanced degrees or exceptional ability across disciplines, with a yearly limit of 40,000, skilled workers with at least two years of training or experience and college degrees, with a yearly limit of 40,000 and an additional quota of 5,000 for workers with other skills, special immigrants, such as religious workers, employees of the U.S. foreign service, and former U.S. government employees, 10,000.
If some of these spots are not filled, they may be transferred to the upper priority categories. No country can offer an amount of more than 7 percent of the total number of immigrants in a given year.
Visa Lottery
The visa lottery was initiated in 1990 in order to bring immigrants worldwide to the U.S. For people in some countries, this is the most likely way to receive a green card, and visas are given across the six major regions of the world.
The visa lottery was initiated when it was found that citizens of Ireland were disenfranchised due to not receiving enough visas. In order to resolve this issue, an annual lottery was initiated to supply visas to the Irish and to citizens of other countries that had suffered.
The most visas are offered to areas with the lowest immigration rates. Annually, 55,000 visas are offered to civilians of countries who had fewer than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. over the past five years. Countries that sent over 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. over the past five years are not eligible. Often, Africans and Eastern Europeans are eligible, though the countries do fluctuate each year. 5,000 of the 55,000 visas allotted are made available under the NACARA program, which means that the actual visa limit is 50,000.
Eligibility for the program necessitates:
- Having attended high school or its equivalent.
- Having had two years in a job that needed two years of training, over past five years.
The lottery is completed via computer generation, and candidates must apply online. Upon winning the lottery, spouses and dependents may join the winner in the United States.
Deportation
If you are deported, it means you inhabited American soil illegally and, for various possible reasons, are to be removed. Illegal immigrants are more likely to be deported if they commit a felony after their arrival. Even not reporting a change of address can lead to deportation. If false documents helped illegal immigrants enter the U.S., they will be at risk for deportation. Other risk factors include helping other illegal immigrants enter the country, using fraud to enter the U.S., using marriage fraud for entry, threatening U.S. security, voting illegally, not providing an address to the government every three months, regardless of whether it had changed.
Deferred action is when an individual who is threatened with deportation is given temporary relief, during which time they may apply for temporary employment. They cannot claim citizenship or residency, but rather, remain in the country within the legal bindings of the law. Deferred action may be attainable on an individual basis. For example, in 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals was established, allowing relief for people under 31 years of age who entered the U.S. before the age of sixteen and remained illegally.
In 2014, illegal immigration was tackled via numerous ways, usually by attempting to deport illegally residing individuals instead of whole families. Deferred action periods increased from two to three years, the age requirement was annulled, and the continuous residence requirement was changed from 2007 to 2010. The Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents programs were established, allowing parents to apply for Deferred Action under certain circumstances. Such programs are active, yet presently on hold due to a Supreme Court case. Hiring an experienced Oklahoma Immigration attorney can help prevent deportation.
Ensure Residency
It is crucial that you seek quality legal representation immediately to ensure the best possible outcome in an immigration case. Hiring an experienced immigration attorney can increase the chances of legal entry and residency in the United States. Joshua C. Smith is an experienced and compassionate immigration attorney in Oklahoma. He will provide you with valuable advice on how to best resolve your immigration issue.