Law Offices of Brian D. Lerner
Deportation Lawyers & Immigration Attorneys Helping Families Nationwide
The Ninth Circuit held that the REAL ID Act permits the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and Immigration Judges (IJs) to base their adverse credibility determinations exclusively on background evidence in the record, upon consideration of the totality of the circumstances and all relevant factors. As such, the court upheld the BIA’s denial of the …
The Sixth Circuit interpreted INA §240 as requiring that personal service be made upon a noncitizen whenever practicable, and held that personal service to a represented noncitizen’s counsel may, in certain cases, constitute personal service to the noncitizen. The court upheld the Board of Immigration Appeals, finding that the respondent, who was ordered removed in …
BALCA ordered that the denial of a labor certification be reversed and granted certification in a case where it was not clear on the ETA Form 9089 whether the beneficiary met the PERM job requirements, and stated that the certifying officer should have allowed the employer the opportunity to clarify the qualifications.
The court upheld USCIS’s finding that the area of extraordinary ability defined by the plaintiff was gymnastics coaching, not gymnastics, and that it was reasonable to find evidence that the beneficiary won an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics insufficient
BALCA ordered that certification be granted, concluding that individuals “matched” by a State Workforce Agency (SWA) to a job order are not considered applicants for the PERM position because they have not affirmatively applied for the job.
USCIS released an updated Affirmative Asylum Scheduling Bulletin as of September 11, 2015. This Bulletin explains how the Asylum Division has prioritized the adjudication of affirmative applications for asylum and provides the filing dates (month and year) of most asylum applications scheduled for local interviews during that particular month.
DOL posted an alert stating that on September 1, 2015, an update to the PERM case management system caused an unexpected programming glitch to occur, as a result of which, certain information could not be entered on the form. Until the revisions become operational, if you cannot complete and file an ETA Form 9089 online, …
USCIS announced today that, in conjunction with the Department of State (DOS), it is revising the procedures for determining when an application for adjustment of status may be filed, thus implementing part of President Obama’s November 2014 executive actions on immigration. Starting with the Visa Bulletin for October 2015, there are two important dateslisted on …
Holding that it may only review the denial of a statutory motion to reopen under INA §240(c)(7), the Eighth Circuit found that it lacked jurisdiction to review the denial of the petitioner’s motion to reopen, because the motion requested that the Board of Immigration Appeals reopen the removal proceedings pursuant to its sua sponte discretion …
In a precedent decision issued, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) held that, in making an adverse credibility determination, an Immigration Judge (IJ) can consider significant similarities between statements submitted by different applicants in different proceedings, as long as the IJ gives the applicant meaningful notice of the similarities and a reasonable opportunity to explain …
The Ninth Circuit granted in part the petition for review, holding that the Board of Immigration Appeals erred when it denied the petitioner, a transgender woman from Mexico, relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), because it failed to recognize the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation, and assumed that recent anti-discrimination laws in …
The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) announced the appointment of Jean King to serve as the agency’s next general counsel, effective September 6, 2015. In addition to serving as the EOIR’s acting general counsel for eight months earlier this year, Ms. King has been the deputy general counsel for the agency since December 2012.
The Ninth Circuit reversed the Board of Immigration Appeals’ denial of the petitioner’s applications for withholding of removal and Convention Against Torture (CAT) relief, holding that the Board erred in finding that the petitioner’s California conviction for voluntary manslaughter constituted a categorical “crime of violence” and a per se “particularly serious crime.” The court also …
he Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a notice that the Republic of Yemen has been designated for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for a period of 18 months, effective today through March 3, 2017, due to an ongoing armed conflict within the country. This designation allows eligible Yemeni nationals (and immigrants having no nationality who …
The Seventh Circuit reversed the summary judgment in favor of USCIS and remanded, holding that USCIS failed to conduct an adequate search in response to the plaintiff’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which sought “all documents reflecting statistics” about H-1B visa applications. USCIS responded to the request by providing a single data table it …