Category: Green Cards

The U.S. State Department has announced that starting July 1, 2019, the filing for 2A spouses and unmarried children of lawful permanent residents will be current. This process has had a two-year backlog for many years. This announcement came from Charlie Oppenheim of the State Department at the Immigration Conference of the Federal Bar Association […]

Ted Logan works in the United States for PGA of America as a Player Development Consultant. Mr. Logan has always felt passionate about golf and has found his true calling working for the PGA in the U.S. However, Ted and his family are Canadian nationals and have faced numerous immigration roadblocks to stay in the […]

On April 12, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) added to its February update on spousal petitions involving minors. USCIS has now decided that I-130 spousal petitions involving a minor require more heightened scrutiny than has been applied in the past. The new guidance was released as an update to the USCIS Adjudicator’s Field […]

Direct Consulate Filing (DCF) is an expedited process through which a United States citizen living overseas can petition the government for an immigrant visa for his or her immediate relatives. DCF requires that, instead of sending an I-130 petition back to the United States, the citizen sends it to a U.S. Embassy or Consulate in […]

A foreign national living abroad will typically start the family-based or marriage-based green card process by filing a Form I-130 petition with United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS). This petition will typically pend for about 6-12 months (subject to change) before an approval is issued. Once this petition is approved by USCIS, the application […]

A new bill has just been introduced in both houses of the United States Congress that would make a dramatic change to the current immigration system by scrapping the per-country limit on green cards. Bill HR 1044, also known as the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, proposes that green cards be issued by category and […]

In the United States, state law determines the minimum age that an individual can be married. Every state but two requires that both members of the married couple be 18 years of age or over to be married without parental or judicial consent. Occasionally, immigrants coming into the United States have minor spouses, or immigrants […]

The government has placed statutory limits on how many people can immigrate to the United States each year, so once you submit your application, you may have to wait until there is a visa available in the category you applied for. Each month, the Department of State (DOS) issues a visa bulletin, which indicates when […]

Peter Hapak is a long-standing client of Berardi Immigration Law. Peter’s relationship with Berardi Immigration Law began when he decided it was time to settle permanently in the United States due to many of the opportunities available here. He decided to apply to become a Legal Permanent Resident of the United States after spending years […]

Foreign nationals looking to obtain a green card to immigrate to the U.S. who work as either nurses or physical therapists may qualify for a special form of expedited processing. As a result of significant shortages of U.S. workers, the Department of Labor (DOL) established nurses and physical therapists as Schedule A shortage occupations. Schedule […]