On June 5, 2014, USCIS announced the renewal process for persons whose two-year grant of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was coming to an end. DACA renewals can be requested as long as the applicant has not departed the U.S. on or after August 15, 2012 without advance parole; has continuously resided in the
California governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law a measure that will reduce the maximum penalty for misdemeanor convictions from 356 days to 364 days. This change is expected to significantly reduce the deportation of legal immigrants convicted of certain misdemeanors. Under federal immigration law, a felony is defined as a crime punishable by 365
On July 20, 2014 the Department of State’s Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) underwent a recommended software update. Since then the CCD -a database containing essential information for the printing of U.S. passports and U.S. visas – has experienced major outages. As a result there was a significant backlog in the system causing difficulties for applicants
On August 10, 2014, Camiel Becker, partner at Becker & Lee LLP, spoke to a group of more than 50 scientists and researchers at the American Chemical Society’s National Meeting and Exposition in San Francisco. Mr. Becker presented an overview of both temporary visa and permanent residency options for scientists and researchers. The American Chemical