The HMA Law Firm

10 Things To Know About Biden's new Immigration Plan for Spouses of US Citizens

Biden's new plan to by streamlining the green card process is a bright spot in an otherwise dull record on immigration.

1. IT IS NOT EFFECTIVE YET

Do not fall for scammers ready to take your money. The application process has not yet been announced.

2. The order fixes your unlawful entry into the US. If you have a lawful entry, you're not covered by this new process.

But if you have a lawful entry (even if you overstayed) and you're married to a US citizen, you generally don't need this new process.

3. You will have to show physical presence in the US between June 2014 and June 2024.

You should start collecting photographs, bank statements, pay stubs, lease agreements, utility bills, or school records from this time period. Be creative!

4. This new process still requires that you meet the other requirements of getting a green card. It is NOT a process to simply apply and get a green card. You will still have to file an I-485 and your USC spouse an I-130.

5. If you have any criminal history, talk to a lawyer NOW. Not all crimes are disqualifying, but do NOT make the mistake of not disclosing it.

"My record is clean" are famous last words that have gotten a lot of people a one-way ticket to deportation court.

6. This new process will be for spouses of US citizens, not green card holders. If your spouse still has a green card and is eligible for citizenship - talk to a lawyer and FILE!

7. If you are granted parole in place (which is all this program does) then you will be awarded a lawful entry into the US, as if you came in with a visa. That's what allows you to then file for your green card based on marriage. The parole will be valid for 3 years.

8. Also, you will not have to leave the country or file for a waiver of unlawful presence on Form I-601A. The entire process can be done *inside* the United States.

This is a big deal!

9. You have to be in the US for 10 years, but you do NOT have to be married for 10 years.

However, you must be married before June 17, 2024, at least according to the information we have now.

10. Every case is different. Do not try to file without at least talking to a lawyer first.

Here's a FREE eligibility check:

https://forms.gle/BFq7Vo7RW2RUmF9J7

All responses are confidential and reviewed by a lawyer.

Biden Immigration for Spouses of US Citizens: Eligibility Assessment Fill out this form to determine whether you will be eligible for Biden's announced policy of streamlined green cards for spouses of US citizens. Expect an answer within 24 hours. All information provided is CONFIDENTIAL and PRIVILEGED and cannot be disclosed to any person outside the HMA Law Firm wi...

We are experienced in H1B, L-1A, H1-B1, PERMs, and other employment/business-based immigration processes, offering comprehensive support to meet your immigration needs.

Together, let's build a stronger, more diverse workforce. Connect with us for personalized solutions today.

The best time to start your immigration journey is TODAY!
Contact us!
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We are thrilled to announce that our very own Hassan Ahmad has been awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the Supreme Court of Virginia! The Virginia Access to Justice Commission has included him in the 2024 Pro Bono Service Honor Roll in recognition of his outstanding voluntary pro bono service contributions in 2022 and 2023.

This prestigious acknowledgment is a testament to Hassan's unwavering dedication and commitment to providing access to justice for all. We are incredibly proud of his achievements and his relentless efforts to make a positive impact in our community.

The best time to start your immigration journey is TODAY!
Contact us!
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🎉 Exciting News! 🎉

We're thrilled to announce that The HMA Law Firm has moved to a new office in Sterling! 🏢✨

Our new address is 6 Pidgeon Hill Dr. Ste 330, and we can't wait to welcome you to our modern and spacious new space.

We're looking forward to continuing to serve you from our new location!

See you soon in Sterling! 🌟🔑

I've been MIA on social media for a couple of years. Pandemic and, you know, the fight to defend due process for immigrants. Been busy. Still have post-traumatic stress from Trump's first term, and have anxiety about a second term.

Writing is therapeutic, so here goes:

45 assaulted the immigration law in a way I had never seen. It made me into an advocate because no lawyer can work within a system that screws people over without at least calling for change.

He exposed the weakness in our system: that it can be reprogrammed by executive fiat. I had mid hopes for Biden. I have to give some credit: judges hired from the private bar, prosecutorial discretion, and reversing some (338 out of 1028) of 45's policies.

But after a full frontal white nationalist attack, more needed to be done. https://immpolicytracking.org/home/

Ultimately Biden was a band-aid on a gunshot wound. The Tanton Network is largely responsible for engineering this reprogramming of the immigration law into a deportation machine. It's why I sued and keep fighting to unseal his secret papers. The prospect of a Trump 47 is too dangerous to ignore. It affects the legal advice I give my clients every day: "I don't know what will be possible next year, but I know it won't be good."

45 was unprepared and incompetent. That won't happen again. All the crazy ideas will be put forth in a second term, as there's no re-election to worry about. (In theory.)

For those that care about the rights of future citizens, this is a BFD and an emergency. I don't see a reality in which it's not. The Tanton-founded Center for Immigration Studies, a white nationalist immigration "think tank" published their to-do list back in 2016:

https://cis.org/Report/Pen-and-Phone

Many of these items were checked off, but now even things like birthright citizenship are on the chopping block. That's how extreme they are. *Anything* that helps immigrants will be revoked, and the answer will always be "hell no." What are we doing to prepare? When I bring up Trump 47, most of my clients are surprised. Our aspiring American communities cannot afford to be this in the dark. Just last week a client told me, "I'm pretty comfortable with my DACA."

Contentment and acceptance is DANGEROUS. I hate being alarmist, but I don't think I am here. I'm sad the best the country could come up with is Biden. What a disappointment. But I won't let my country fall into authoritarianism.

Keep his ass out of the White House, at all costs. It's damage control time, y'all.

79 immigration actions the next president can take This Backgrounder lists steps the next president can take — legally — with his or her own pen and phone early in the next administration.

Wishing you all a joyful holiday season filled with love, laughter, and cherished moments. We are blessed to continue being part of your journey. May the coming year bring you success, good health, and endless happiness. Happy Holidays from our family to yours! 🎄✨

Representing children in immigration court has its unique heartaches, but also unique rewards. I remember a judge who kept candy on the bench, and another who thought 3 year olds could represent themselves. There's something fundamentally wrong with a system that allows for children to be deported.

But there are due process protections in place for children. They don't always work, and they're not consistent, and they change with political winds. I've been in this game long enough to know when to take the shot. I took one such shot today.

Sometimes several years pass between the time we initially meet with our clients and the time of their trial. What's a little girl from El Salvador gonna say to a 6'4" brown dude who speaks Spanish funny? Well, fast forward a few years and she's grown into a poised, intelligent young woman. She showed up for trial today in a smart business suit, much better dressed than her lawyer, and looking around at the other respondents, asked me (in flawless English) whether she was overdressed. I told her no, you did good. But privately I marveled that I didn't have to tell her to dress up - thinking about most teenagers I know.

Then it turned out we didn't even need a trial. In an intense 20 minute pre-trial negotiation, I was able to convince the government to agree to asylum. I wanted to put my client on the stand: I knew she would be a *great* witness. But she won without a fight.

The lawyering comes in our ability to reduce the case down to a few sentences that include the "magic words" we know the government is looking for. 9 years of waiting and the rest of this woman's life in this country hinged on this 20-minute conversation. So much is outside of your control, which irks my lawyer nerves. We want order and predictability and immigration court isn't the place to find it.

Building a case is like building a shelter in a storm: you grab your few rocks of solid evidence and tie it together with ropes of corroborating affidavits, raise support beams of country condition evidence, slather on the mortar of legal argument to harden the walls, throw on a thatched roof of expert opinions covering it all - and then hope it holds.

Today's shelter felt like a piece of art.

The best time to start your immigration journey is TODAY!
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Atención venezolanos en Estados Unidos!

Atención venezolanos, les compartimos información importante!
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The best time to start your immigration journey is TODAY!

Contact us!
📞: +1(703) 964-0245
✉️: [email protected]
🌐: http://linktr.ee/TheHMALawFirm

I've been a hermit since COVID began. But yesterday was a breath of fresh air, reconnecting with colleagues at the AILA-DC Fall Conference and joining the panel on federal court litigation. And like the title says: don't take no for an answer!

We talked about how the writ of mandamus is an indispensable tool in an immigration lawyer's toolbox, but we also talked habeus, jurisdiction stripping, and naturalization delays and denials.

Empowering lawyers is a great way to amplify our collective impact as we fight for our clients, and thanks to AILA-DC for giving us all the opportunity to share our knowledge and become better advocates.

Tanton Papers Update: HUGE WIN!

As many of you know, 7 years ago I filed a FOIA to unseal the papers of John Tanton, the founder of the modern anti-immigrant movement. His organizations have been behind every draconian immigration policy for the last 40 years.

After 7 years of litigation, yesterday the Michigan Court of Claims ordered the sealed papers to be released.

The University of Michigan will no doubt continue to fight me on this, but this ruling is a huge win for transparency in government, and made new law in Michigan: FOIA trumps private gift agreements.

I hope to very soon get access to the papers that form the conceptual underpinnings of the anti-immigrant movement.

Today we won a most unusual case.

A client missed their interview for converting their two year green card into a permanent 10 year one.

The regulations say this means they lost their green card. But it was because they never received the notice, and happened to be outside the United States when it was sent!

And then COVID hit, so my client was really stuck.

Three years later, we tried to ask USCIS to reopen. The time period for any reconsideration had long since passed.

And...crickets. Radio silence. You get the picture.

What do you do? Sue sue sue!

Once we did that, things started moving. The case was reopened. We got to pick a convenient date for the interview. But we still had a problem: my client had no visa, and the green card had long since expired. How could they board a plane?

Because we had sued, I was able to convince USCIS to confirm the case had been reopened on the interview notice. It took a lot of wrangling, but eventually the airline allowed my client to board.

Then, CBP decided to cause trouble. But I had advised my client in advance to not take no for an answer, and had several layers of backup plans laid out. My client was legally a permanent resident, albeit conditional...but was eventually allowed to enter, with nothing more than a passport and an interview notice. No visa, no entry document!

We had the interview, but then had to complete a special waiver of passport and visa form, for which there was a fee that the local USCIS office didn't even know how to collect! Eventually, the officer who interviewed us took my client's check and physically drove to the airport and tendered it to CBP who accepted it.

And finally, 4 years after my client left the US, and all but abandoned hope, the permanent green card was approved.

It's a lesson to not give up, keep pushing through obstacles, and sue.

DHS has implemented that Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan nationals and immediate family members may request to come to the US in a safe and orderly manner.
https://www.uscis.gov/CHNV

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"Can you just write down what you need and I'll sign it?"

We get this request quite a bit from our employer clients seeking to "sponsor" (the correct term is "petition for") a foreign national employee's green card.

I usually respond to this by telling a story.

Before March 28, 2005, employers filed their labor certifications on Form ETA 750, parts A and B. The entire process used to be entirely paper-based. There didn't have to be a lot of employer involvement - it was theoretically possible for the attorney to do the work and have the employer simply sign off.

The problem is, this led to fraud. A *lot* of fraud. The DOL reported, "For more than 15 years, the Department has expressed concern that various immigration practices, including substitution, were subject to a high degree of fraud and abuse." 72 Fed. Reg. 27904 (May 17, 2007)

Many well-respected attorneys (and some not so respected) went down for filing applications that had little to no employer input. In some of the more egregious cases, fake labor certifications were filed without the employers even knowing: that's right: forged signatures and all!

The current system, PERM, was designed to actively involve the employer. I tell my clients that our job is to advise them on how the Dept of Labor, and later USCIS or a consulate, will treat a job description. And no, we can't just write it for you.

Fortunately, I think many employers become more invested in the process due to the process forcing them to be involved. Some may decide it's not what they thought, and well - it's better they realize that before rather than after.

It can be a very frustrating process, but it's important for employers to be aware of what they're signing up for. So one of my oft-repeated pieces of advice at the initial consult is:

"Every immigration case - whether marriage, asylum, or business - tells a story. In this case, we want to tell the story of why your business needs this employee. So help us understand this - how is this employee going to boost your bottom line?"

There may be bumps in the road, but we're here to navigate you around them!

Congratulations to our managing attorney Hassan M. Ahmad for being named one of the top DC Immigration lawyers by the Washingtonian! Check out the link below to see the full list:
https://www.washingtonian.com/best/lawyers/

Contact us!
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✉️: [email protected]
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#2022 #2023

Wishing you all a happy holiday season!
"It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving." –Mother Theresa

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We wish you all a happy holiday season! We feel beyond grateful and excited to work with our amazing team.

Contact us!📞: +1(703) 964-0245
✉️: [email protected]
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Happy Chanukah to all! Wishing you all love, joy and much light in all of your happiest and most turbulent moments. May we all see the miracles that life has to offer--big or small.

Contact us!
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Travel plans but your green card is expiring? File your I-90 today! We can help with that, schedule with us today!

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Do you finally have your immigration interview date? Don't wait or let nerves take over, hire a lawyer to guide you through the last stretch.

Contact us!
📞: +1(703) 964-0245
✉️: [email protected]
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The holiday season is the best time to be with family. Schedule a consultation today, know what to expect when petitioning for family members.

Contact us!
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✉️: [email protected]
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Thank you for recognizing our team!
We will always be kind, compassionate, and understanding. You're not alone, we're here to help and we're on your side.

Contact us!
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✉️: [email protected]
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Navigating the legal processes for our family members can be hard but that's what we're here for! Hire an expert that you can trust, get real results.

Contact us!
📞: +1(703) 964-0245
✉️: [email protected]
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! is automatically extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for for an additional 18 months, from February 4, 2023, through August 3, 2024, Haitian nationals residing in the United States as of November 6, 2022, can apply for TPS through August 3, 2024
**NOTE: Haitians entering the United States after November 6, 2022, are NOT eligible for TPS

Questions or concerns?
Contact us!
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Thank you to Islamic Relief USA for inviting our respected colleague Spojmie Nasari () from the Law Office of Spojmie Nasiri, PC and our managing attorney Hassan Ahmad () from The HMA Law Firm to discuss the legal options for Afghan evacuees, newcomers, asylum, SIV, among many other important topics!

We are very grateful and honored for these opportunities.