Denver Mayor Protests Legal Immigrants Being Denied Citizenship for Marijuana Jobs

Legal Immigrants Denied Citizenship for Marijuana Jobs
May22

Written by: Taher Kameli, Esq. Oswaldo Barrientos emigrated to the United States from El Salvador when he was a baby 29 years ago.  He received his green card at age 13 and currently remains a legal immigrant in the United States. Barrientos has no criminal record and a stable job.  Does he seem like the type of person who should be rejected when he applied for US citizenship? You probably would think no, but unfortunately such is not the case.  Barrientos in fact was recently denied US citizenship, and told that he “lacked moral character”, because

May 22, 2019
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Immigrants who engage in “marijuana related activities” may be denied U.S. Citizenship

Citizenship denied to Immigrants involved in marijuana
May13

Written by: Taher Kameli, Esq. Do you regard people who use marijuana, solely based on their marijuana use, as lacking “good moral character”?  Probably not, but unfortunately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has adopted a different position.  Under a “Policy Alert” issued on April 19 by USCIS, a person who engages in certain “marijuana-related activities” may be considered to not have “good moral character” and thereby may be denied U.S. citizenship. To become a naturalized citizen of the United States, an immigrant must demonstrate that he or she had “good moral character” for

May 13, 2019
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Trump Administration’s Plan to Close USCIS Overseas Offices Will Create More Backlogs

Trump Plan to Close USCIS Overseas Offices Causes Backlogs
May03

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

May 3, 2019
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U.S. Government Shutdown: Touching the Lives of Hundreds of Thousands of Federal employees

U.S. Government Shutdown: Touching the Lives of employees
Jan14

Written by: Taher Kameli, Esq. Three weeks have passed since the federal government shuttered, leaving almost 800,000 federal employees frustrated. Marked as the longest government shutdown in the U.S. history, it has been driven by the disagreement between Donald Trump and the Congressional democrats over the construction of a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border. With Donald Trump persistently refusing to sign a spending bill without the requested $5.7 billion for the border wall, it is hard to predict how long the government shutdown will last. The shutdown has resulted in the closure of some departments including

January 14, 2019
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Why May a Green Card Application be Denied?

Many Reasons Why a Green Card Application is Denied?
Jun08

Written by: Taher Kameli, Esq. Finding out that your green card application (either complete Form I-485 or adjustment of status in the United States or apply for an immigrant visa at a U.S. embassy abroad) has been denied can be devastating. But, the authorities responsible for this don’t deny applications for silly reasons. More often than not, the denial is based on valid and justifiable factors. Though the decision cannot be reversed easily, knowing what caused the denial might provide some form of closure. So, here are some of the top reasons why green card applications usually get denied. Your

June 8, 2018
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Disconcerted by the Anti-Immigration Wave? File Family Petitions Now.

Disconcerted by the Anti-Immigration Wave? File Petitions
May01

Written by: Taher Kameli, Esq. President Donald Trump made his priorities clear during election season, one of them being immigration enforcement. Over the past months, the fixation of conservatives has been on ending ‘chain migration’, a loose umbrella term describing immigration to the United States based on family ties. Building a chain so to speak is by itself challenging, as it can take years for an immigrant with a green card and citizenship to bring his siblings and parents to the country and then facilitate the entry of more immediate family members. Petitioning for and receiving a family-based visa takes time

May 1, 2018
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Waiver from the US travel restrictions

Third Version U.S. travel restrictions go into effect
Feb16

Written by: Taher Kameli, Esq. As you are aware, on September 24, 2017, Donald Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation imposing restrictions on travelers from eight countries including Iran and barring them from receiving U.S. visas. Unfortunately, the presidential proclamation has been fully implemented since December 08, 2017 per the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision allowing the third version of the travel ban to go into effect. However, this does not completely close the door on receiving a U.S. visa and individuals can still obtain a U.S. visa under certain circumstances. In fact, those willing to enter the United States are able

February 16, 2018
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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. →

October 11, 2017
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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

October 11, 2017
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