A: Immigrants filing applications to renew permanent resident cards, commonly known as “green cards,” need to file Form I-90 (which can be downloaded at www.uscis.gov) with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The form can be mailed or sent by courier to the addresses shown in the instructions. The submission also can be made on line; go to www.uscis.gov and follow the instructions for online filing of Form I-90.

Currently (as of November 2009) an application fee of $290 and a biometrics processing fee of $80 must be submitted with the application. Applicants filing paper forms should obtain money orders for the $370 total, made out to “U.S. Department of Homeland Security.” Applicants filing on line will pay the fees electronically.

All applicants will receive by mail a notice for a biometrics (fingerprint) processing appointment at a local USCIS Application Support Center and will submit any required initial evidence and documentation during that appointment.

IMPORTANT: Applicants are being instructed to take to their biometrics appointments the records of any arrests, convictions, or any other involvement in criminal matters since last being granted legal permanent resident status. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been attending these appointments and reviewing the documentation supplied by applicants. Some applicants have been detained because of the criminal records they submitted or because their names appeared as a result of an ICE investigation as having outstanding criminal warrants. Accordingly, it is IMPERATIVE that you obtain legal advice before filing your Form I-90 if you have ANY issues involving past or pending criminal proceedings anywhere in the world.

IIC can help you with the I-90 renewal filing process, as well as the application for getting a new green card visa when the original has been lost, or when the card issued contains incorrect information.

NOTE: Holders of two-year conditional permanent resident cards based on marriage to a US citizen don’t file Form I-90 to remove the condition; they use Form I-751 instead.

By the way, anyone who has been a legal permanent resident long enough to be eligible for US citizenship really ought to consider applying for naturalization as soon as possible. IIC can help you with the all aspects of the naturalization application process.

For a free, confidential consultation on this or any other aspect of immigration law, visit one of our legal clinics advertised in The Emigrant.

[Source: Irish Imigrant]

Clutching a rolled-up American flag in one hand, Mahmoud Saad couldn’t stop grinning today as he sat beside 15 other immigrants in a jury box inside a Redding courtroom.

After all, the 26-year-old Egyptian Chico State University electrical engineering student had been waiting for much his life to recite the words that would make him a U.S. citizen.

But it was the special honor of leading the group in the Pledge of Allegiance earlier in the naturalization ceremony in U.S. Eastern District Court that had special meaning for Saad.

“They’re not just words, ‘With liberty and justice for all,’ ” he said prior to the ceremony in the courthouse parking lot, his four friends from Chico beside him. Each held an American flag.

The event was the first ceremony in recent memory offered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to be held in Redding, allowing Northern California immigrants to avoid a lengthy drive to Sacramento or San Francisco to take their citizenship oaths.

A Canadian, a Czech, two Indians, a Kenyan, seven Mexicans and three Filipinos joined Saad in taking their oath.

Each had been in the country for at least three years, living legally in the U.S. first as a permanent resident with a green card visa.

“You can’t simply immigrate,” said Sharon Rummery, a spokeswoman for the USCIS.

For a nonresident to come to the country, someone — usually a parent or a spouse already in the country — must first petition for an immigrant’s green card visa.

An employer can also petition for a green card visa for an employee, but it’s unlikely that someone who doesn’t have at least a bachelor’s degree would be allowed in through that route, Rummery said.

Others can request asylum from their home. A judge can also grant a green card visa during a deportation hearing, Rummery said.

But a few lucky ones like Saad are drawn in what’s known colloquially as the green card visa Lottery, which is officially called the USCIS Diversity Visa Program.

Hundreds of thousands apply from all over the world, but only 55,000 immigrant visas are granted each year.

Most at Redding’s ceremony had family in the United States that allowed them into the country in the first place. Others married in.

The latter was the case for Norma Muzzall, a 37-year-old Mexican immigrant who married a Chico delivery driver named Mark Muzzall, 42.

The two now live in Corning with their two children.

“Hey, you get to vote now,” Mark Muzzall said after the ceremony.

“I know!” she said.

But first, she said, she gets to pick a political party.

“He’s a Republican and his mom’s a Democrat,” Norma Muzzall said. “They’re both trying to convince me to pick their party.”

It was America’s political process that brought Rodolfo G. Lagoc, a 73-year-old retired lawyer from the Philippines who lives in Redding down the path to U.S. citizenship.

“The freedom from want, the freedom from fear, you have peace and order,” Lagoc said.

For Saad, becoming a citizen means he at last belongs.

“I used to feel like I was a part from this place,” Saad said. “Now I feel like I am officially a part of this country.”

Reporter Ryan Sabalow can be reached at 225-8344 or at rsabalow@redding.com.

[Source: Redding]

Applicants should bring their green card, Social Security card and driver’s license or state ID, a money order payable to USCIS for $675, two passport photos and the personal information detailed on the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights page at icirr.org.

Future workshops will be held on the third Saturday of every month at various locations in Chicago. For more information, call Caitlin Elsaesser at (773) 772-7170 ext. 3022.

In other words, it hasn’t been just the distance that has kept some U.S. mainlanders away from Saipan. For those green card holders who wished to become U.S. citizens, their time in the CNMI did not count toward their residency requirement. Now it will.

What this means is that once word gets out that Saipan is now part of the U.S. (and as the minimum wage approaches national levels), green card visa holders living in the U.S., or even on Guam, might consider coming to Saipan to live and work, providing a new influx of residents and labor.

That’s just one example. Savvy entrepreneurs follow federalization not just to “see what happens,” but to anticipate what will happen, and see what they can make happen! It’s not all about doom and gloom.

[read the full story here]

The FY 2010 DHS Spending Bill, which passed the Senate on a 79-19 vote on October 27, includes an immigration measure that allows a spouse, child and other family members to receive a green card visa when their priority date is reached, even when the petitioner dies.

FY 2010 DHS Spending Bill puts an end to the “Widow’s Penalty.” According to the New York Times, the Widow’s Penalty is “the government’s practice of annulling foreigners’ applications for permanent residency when their American spouses die before the marriage is two years old.”

According to AILA Info Net, the new law “includes statutory authority for USCIS to complete processing of permanent residence applications for surviving spouses and other relatives of immigration sponsors who die during the adjudication process (section 568).”

In an interview with the Asian Journal, Immigration Attorney Robert Reeves explained that before the signing of the bill, the death of a petitioner or principal benefi ciary usually results in an automatic revocation of the immigrant visa petition.

“This is fantastic news,” said Reeves, whose fi rm has been lobbying Congress to pass this bill. “This is an incredible benefi t for those who have previously fi led humanitarian reinstatement. Now, we can fi le them for permanent resident status. This will benefi t thousands of immigrants.”

The new law does not only allow widows/widowers to submit petitions for permanent residency after their spouse’s death, it also covers all family-based petitions, “including petitions for unmarried children of US citizens under 21, family-preference categories who have approved or pending petitions which include the spouse and unmarried children of permanent residents, unmarried children over the age of 21 of US citizens, married children of US citizens, siblings of US citizens and the derivative children of this group,” says Atty. Reeves and Atty. Joseph Elias in their regular column article in the Asian Journal (see Community Journal section, p.C1 for more information.)

“Derivative beneficiaries of pending or approved employment- based immigrant visa petitions are also covered by the new law which include the spouse and unmarried children under age 21 of an individual who was sponsored under the employment-based category,” the article also stated.

According to Reeves, before the new law was approved, if the petitioner dies before the petition is approved or permanent resident status is granted, the spouse or child would be unable to obtain permanent resident status.

However, the new law does not apply to surviving family members residing outside of the US, added Reeves.

“Unfortunately, if they are not living in the United States right now they would have to file the traditional humanitarian reinstatement which is very difficult,” added Reeves. “The immigration services grants only a very few of them.”

The root of the law began in 1970 when the court ruled that a husband’s death stripped the wife of her position as spouse, meaning she no longer qualified for a green card visa. A 1990 law then narrowed that ruling’s scope, saying a widow married to a US citizen for at least two years can file a petition for a residency permit on her own behalf, according to the Associated Press.

The new law was championed by Rep. Jim McGovern and Sen. Bill Nelso.

[source: Asian Journal]

If it passes, the bill will legalize about 1.5 million undocumented agricultural laborers over five years. The bill also proposes making the federal H-2A program that gets foreign workers into the country legally less burdensome. It would allow illegal workers to apply for a blue card (temporary residency) and eventually get a green card visa (permanent residency).

Immigration reform is a priority for the Obama administration, but with so many other issues on the table, it’s unclear when lawmakers will get to it. And, if a comprehensive reform of immigration is not reached, it’s unknown if Congress will vote on the piecemeal bill, experts say.

read the full story at detnews