Ware Immigration Blog

Louisiana state laws can be pretty confusing, and federal laws are not any easier to understand. This is just one of the reasons that so many people do not understand what rights they have under U.S. immigration law. This can lead to unfortunate outcomes, like even being unlawfully detained.

A court recently sided with the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit that it filed back in 2018. The lawsuit claimed that officials in a county from another state broke the law when they detained undocumented immigrants, and then waited for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement -- ICE -- to pick them up. But the lawsuit claimed that those officials never had any sort of cause to actually hold the dozen or so affected immigrants.

Immigration decisions are not always as final as they seem. U.S. immigration law allows people to appeal petitions, applications and even visas that were denied or revoked. Since filing an appeal is often complicated, it is important for people in Louisiana to understand how the process works.

When a petitioner -- the person who submitted an application or petition -- thinks that a request should have been approved instead of denied, he or she can ask the Administrative Appeals Office to reconsider. This is done by filing an administrative appeal. Only petitioners are allowed to make appeals, so a woman whose visa petition for her husband was denied has to be the one to do so.

Filling specialty occupation jobs is not always easy, especially since they usually require very specific qualifications. Employment immigration helps employers hire the most qualified candidates even if they are living outside of the United States. There are many individuals living in Louisiana who originally came to America to work in specialty occupations. But the process they used to get their visas will soon be much harder.

In March 2020, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services plans to start using an electronic registration for H-1B visas. The annual lottery for all 65,000 visas will take place the following month. Employers might like the idea of submitting applications electronically, but it could actually be a bad thing. The new system requires employers to only submit minimal information on their professionals. Since the process will be easier, the percentage of approved petitions is expected to decline for the fourth year in a row.

Navigating through the United States immigration system can be very confusing. Even though a lot of people talk about U.S. immigration law as if it is just one big process, there are many applications, visas and processes that are unique to different situations. It is understandable that some people in Louisiana might need a bit of guidance when dealing with immigration issues. Unfortunately, there are many fraudulent services that are eager to take advantage of people.

There are no guarantees in life, especially not when it comes to immigration. This does not stop some immigration services businesses from promising people that they can secure visas, employment authorizations or even green cards. These so-called guarantees are never true. Not only is it impossible to promise anything like that, but those fake guarantees are usually just a front for exploiting immigrants by charging very high fees.