About Ali

This author Ali has created 157 entries.

Trump Administration’s Plan to Close USCIS Overseas Offices Will Create More Backlogs

Trump Plan to Close USCIS Overseas Offices Causes Backlogs

Written by: Taher Kameli, Esq.  If you live in a foreign country and have had an issue under the US immigration laws, have you ever used the services of a local office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in your foreign country?  This local USCIS office may have helped you with a family visa request, an international adoption, a refugee application, or some other matter. Unfortunately, this convenient and accessible support in your foreign country will no longer be available to you under a recent plan announced by the Trump administration. Last

Some U.S. Visas have significantly furthered the U.S. national interests

U.S. Visas have furthered the U.S. national interests

Written by: Taher Kameli, Esq. Immigration is one of the hot topics nowadays with Trump’s administration instituting a zero tolerance policy on immigration issues. The anti-immigration approach helped put him in the White House, some allege. Despite Donald Trump’s false belief that the current immigration system has undermined the national interests of the country and thus, merits comprehensive reform, extensive research and literature prove otherwise. U.S. visas such as the J-1 (as a non-immigrant visa), EB-1, EB-2 NIW, and EB-5 visas have all been beneficial to the United States. A number of benefits

EB-2/NIW: A Golden Path to U.S. Permanent Residency

EB-2/NIW: A Golden Path to U.S. Permanent Residency

Written by: Taher Kameli, Esq. EB-2/NIW: A Golden Path to U.S. Permanent Residency The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) provides foreign nationals with multiple ways to obtain U.S. permanent residency, one of them being the EB-2/NIW category (employment based green card-second preference for those seeking a national interest waiver). Thanks to the EB-2/NIW category, holders of advanced degrees (Master’s degree or above or Bachelor’s degree plus 5 years of experience in the field) or aliens of exceptional ability in the arts, sciences, or business who benefit the national interests of the United States, can

SEC Request Denied (Kameli)

When the SEC files a complaint, it’s easy for the public to just assume that the defendant is guilty as charged and there won’t be any more to the story but determining punishment. Even worse, USCIS tends to assume this and has been known to deny and revoke investor petitions and terminate regional centers before the SEC cases are concluded. We all need to remember that sometimes the defendant might have a compelling other side of the story, and might not be found guilty.

Senior living developer avoids EB-5 ban, receivership

A Chicago-based senior living developer avoided being barred from the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, and his companies are not going into receivership, after a federal judge on Tuesday denied a request for a preliminary injunction and receivership made by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The commission has accused Taher Kameli, who is an immigration attorney, of improperly commingling and misusing some of the $88.7 million he had raised from foreign investors to finance the construction of assisted living and memory care communities in Illinois and Florida.

SEC Suffers One of its First Major Losses in EB-5 Realm

Earlier this month, the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied the SEC’s request for a preliminary injunction against Seyed Taher Kameli and entities he controlled to (i) stop them from having any further involvement in the EB-5 program and (ii) to halt activities that the SEC alleged were in violation of securities laws. This is one of the first significant losses that the SEC has suffered in a EB-5 case that it has brought before a Court and may be a sign that the SEC is overplaying its hand and has become overzealous in its delve

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