US Immigration - Visas and Green Cards Explained

    SAN DIEGO, CA, September 18, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- US immigration has been termed one of the most complex areas of law in the world. Many immigration officers do not fully understand it; the public struggles with it, often ending up in custody as a result of their ignorance of the requirements. One immigration lawyer, Steven Riznyk, is trying to change all of this.

Mr Riznyk, also a film producer and director, created an almost 5-hour long DVD program called Immigration Revealed, in an effort to simplify understanding the system. Translated to Spanish and Japanese, the program aims to simplify some of the complex concepts associated with US immigration law so that a person for whom English is a second language, with no High School education can understand it. It has saved many people's futures and kept many people out of custody. Had I not watched your program, stated one of his callers, "I would have spent a fortune on lawyers and still been barred from the US for life."

"There is so much complexity to immigration law," states Mr Riznyk, "that to extricate the concepts takes a solid immersion in order to understand the principles. I receive about 50 calls a day, he states, from people frustrated by what they find on the Internet...partial answers. At the heart of the problem, if people don't understand the background law, reading the changes won't matter much. It's as if I told you the stock LVS is trading at $50.00; if you don't know what it normally trades at, where it was a week, month, or year ago, that information in a vacuum won't make much of a difference. Same goes for immigration," states Mr Riznyk. "People will read one update on the law and then assume they understand the whole area and that is where they get hurt."

Common problems Mr Riznyk's firm encounters include:

1. People who have entered illegally twice (and remained for a year before re-entering) who apply for waivers without knowing that there is no waiver available;
2. Those who have entered illegally and then fill out an Extreme Hardship waiver form without a supporting legal brief and supporting legal documentation;
3. Visitors who don't realize that visiting the US too often can lead to cancellation of Visa Waiver privileges and a virtual bar from visiting the US any time in the near future;
4. Persons who are unaware that remaining 6 months past your visa departure time can lead to a 3-year bar, and overstaying 12 months can lead to a 10-year bar;
5. Entrants with no ties to their foreign country can find themselves in detention and returned to their country of origin under what is called Section 214(b);
6. People who let one visa lapse and then apply for another one, not realizing that when it lapsed they had to return to their country of origin;
7. Many people who apply for the H1-B visa on their own do not realize that is has a 4-year or equivalent degree requirement and so apply as plumbers, electricians and other tradespersons; and
8. Students who don't follow the requirements of their visa, unaware of the consequences.

On the positive side, there are many issues people are not aware of that can make their lives easier, such as:

1. Investors who don't realize that if they are from a treaty country can enter the United States with an investment of $100,000 (many think the minimum is half a million, which is really another program, called the EB-5);
2. People with criminal histories who do not realize that in many cases a waiver can be filed that allows them to overcome their pasts;
3. Managers and Executives of companies that open a branch, subsidiary, or affiliate in the United States are able to invest $100,000 or less in the US entity and file for a Green Card a year later. This is a much easier method of entering the United States as a Permanent Resident than the EB5 program, which requires a minimum investment of half a million dollars and the hiring of 10 full-time employees for a 2-year period;
4. Persons with a 10-year bar may still qualify for a waiver to allow them to visit under certain circumstances; and
5. People who overstay their visa and marry a US citizen can still obtain a Green Card, but some discretion is involved and it depends on what city they live in.

Immigration is a tangled web and there are thousands of little facts to know in order to make a proper determination about a complex issue. On the other hand, understanding the Green Card system and what it takes to become a legal Permanent Resident is not that complicated and Immigration Revealed explains in it a way that all can understand. There are also a number of visas available, designated by letters of the alphabet. Each one of them has unique requirements and being aware of what they are before someone applies can save a lot of heartache and lost money. Mistakes with the H1-B visa can be very costly in view of the fact that the filing fees range from $1575 to $2325 plus Premium Processing of $1225. As in any important area of law, knowledge is power and immigration law is no exception.

About Steven Riznyk:
Steven Riznyk is an entrepreneur at heart, helping people in a variety of ways, through his firm, SanDiegoBizLaw (www.SanDiegoBizLaw.com) that is the first firm to combine a business law firm as well as a management consulting firm, as well as his other projects such as Immigration Revealed (www.Immigration-Revealed.com) and his latest project, Relationships901 (www.Relationships901.com), which helps people repair relationship issues based on his background as a high-level negotiator. His background as an attorney as well as a film-maker have been assets he has been able to combine in order to create value for his clients.

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