We the People

Today is Diwali. In the North Eastern Province of Bengal, where I'm originally from, it is celebrated , like the rest of India with lighting rows of oil lamps called the Diya and with fireworks.  But the day before this festival is the day of the ghosts, and in the evening the ghosts are rumored to come out.  With the lighting of the diyas on Diwali, the Ghosts disappear. This is similar to All Hallows Eve, and Dia de los Muertos. Its a celebration of life as opposed to death. The shortening of days make people aware of their own mortality and the festivals reinforce life.

Similarly in the spring there is a renewal of life which is celebrated in different cultures, in different ways. Be it Easter, or the Indian festival of Holi, color plays a dominant part.

We may come form different regions, different religions and cultures, yet we are fundamentally all equal.  The Restrictionists in our Immigration policy cannot see beyond these differences in color, race or religion. But we are becoming one world. The internet today unites the world, and outsourcing forces us to compete globally.  Yet when it comes to Immigration, we try to restrict our borders and try to unnaturally preserve our jobs.  But the reality of the marketplace is that people only come if there are jobs, if they can compete.  If not, the jobs are outsourced anyways.

Maybe some day we will have one  world where there will be no Xenophobia, and  no barriers.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information

Entrepreneurs in Residence

The USCIS recently announced an “entrepreneurs in residence initiative.” This follows President Obama’s speech welcoming foreign entrepreneurs who would want to invest in the US for Permanent Residency. It makes sense, since money brought over by these entrepreneurs will be used towards building businesses and jobs in the US.




Towards that end, the USCIS is launching this Initiative to gather information about these programs. Especially targeted is the EB-5 program, and also on Eb-2 and L-1Bs. The EB-5 applicants will have direct access to adjudicators through e mail. All this is positive development, yet, the adjudicators themselves are still giving out under the kitchen sink Requests for Evidence. This is especially true of L-1 A, new Office where an entrepreneur is bringing in money to start the business here. Sometimes it’s apparent that the officer has not even looked at the file, since they want evidence already included in the original petition.

I think the adjudicators have to meet a certain quota, and some adjudicators are happier to give out requests for evidence (RFE) rather than meeting that quota. What the USCIS should do is require the officers to notate the petition. Also such notations should be included in the actual RFE as well. Clients ask me why, when they are bringing in money and investing in US, should the US Government want every single piece of paper they could possibly generate. Such a burden is a big deterrent in many people investing here. It’s much easier to invest in Canada than the US, so why would people looking towards investing bother with us?







Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information

Approval Notices

Recently the Citizenship and Immigration Service instituted a new rule whereby the approval notices of visas, with the original I-94s are being sent to employers instead of the Attorney. The attorneys get the courtesy copy. The American Immigration Lawyer's Association is protesting against this move.




However I think this is a good move by Citizenship and Immigration Service. First it cuts down on fraud. Fraud is very prevalent in the Immigration petition system. Although the forms require signatures from the employers, those signatures can be forged. Documents can be manufactured. And if employers get a representative’s copy, the lawyer can give the actual copy to the fraudulent employee, who would then get false status. Granted maybe one attorney in the country will do this, but still its fraud.

Secondly the clients can get the approval notice expeditiously. In most states clients need the approvals to renew their driver’s license. Sending that approval notice to the attorney means the attorney has to mail it to the client. Even if the attorney fedexes, it still takes time. And most large law firms take forever to send the documents. This way everything can be done expeditiously.



American Immigration Lawyer's Association has complained that the attorneys can check and see mistakes in the I-797, and correct them. But attorneys can simply ask their clients to scan and send them that approval notice. On the contrary attorneys cannot scan and send the original to the client, since they need the original approval. My clients have no problem scanning and sending the copies to me.



I feel that many lawyers have an inflated sense of ego, and feel that the Citizenship and Immigration Service is slighting them by sending originals to the employer. I applaud this move by the Citizenship and Immigration Service. This is probably the only time, in years, that I think that the Citizenship and Immigration Service is doing something sensible.



Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information

My hats off to Arizona and Alabama

When Arizona enacted the most restrictive Immigration Laws in the book, I was wondering why the deep south was lagging behind. They just take time to think up legislation, and Alabama delivered with a far more severe punch than Arizona. The law even  forbids undocumented school children from attending schools.

The common concern of all these States is that we have too many illegal immigrants. The Federal Government is not going to do anything for it. So these States take Federal law enforcement in their own hand.

Yet these States bring forth the importance of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The only problem is that the legislature cant agree on anything. Even the Dream Act, which gives amnesty to children brought over illegally here by their parents, and educated here have  not passed. They don't have any criminal records. Yet the Republicans don't want to give the Permanent Residency to these people.

The Democrats are no Saints either. They have effectively killed the work visa process for small businesses. Especially hit is the small IT industry, where the Obama Administration "legislated on their own" stating that employers should "control" their employees. They effectively nullified third party contracts for H-1B employees for smaller employers in IT industry.  Yet such contracts are Ok for the health care industry.  Talk about the Rule of Law and Obama's lofty principals.

In a Country where even economic reforms gets shot down, willl there be a Comprehensive Immigration Reform? I dont think so.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information

Advice for Foreign Students

A question is sometimes get form foreign students is , "what school should I go to?"  The answer to that is probably simple, the school that is best ranked by US News and World Report. There was an ex Taliban student from Afghanistan, who got a visa to go to Yale.

The rationale for that is US needs bright students. But what if you cant get into Harvard or Yale?

Usually its harder to get a visa from a foreign country (especially India) if you are going to a community college.  Try for at least a 4 year degree college. A community College degree is useless anyways, so dont waste your money on them.  The colege has to be SEVIP approved. Ask and find out if it is.

There are numerous colleges and Universities in the US. Online colleges and degrees obtained from them are not given the F-1 visa. In general, online colleges are not good colleges, and most places dont recognize such degrees.

The procedure is simple.  After getting admission, the College will send you the I-20. One needs to take that, and proof of financial Support to the consulate to get the student visa and come in.


Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information

The decade Since 9/11 in Immigration

I was working on a sunny morning when my legal assistant came in looking agitated and said,"Did you hear, the World Trade Center got hit by a plane." I did not think much about it. I did not have a TV in the office, so I did not get the impact. Then my husband called and said, the towers are falling. The news took a long time to sink in, actually.  It was unbelievable that such a thing could happen, right in the middle of NYC. 

That past summer we were in NYC, and although we don't usually do the touristy thing in NYC, we thought it would be fun to take the children on top of the twin towers. That night my son clutched the bear he bought from the gift store on the top and said, "you are safe bear, although a lot of your friends may have not survived."

Thankfully all our friends who worked at the WTC were safe. Yet the specter of death, the sheer magnitude of it gave rise to tremendous nationalism. Flags went up everywhere, and we could not help but feel solidarity towards the people. We were one America, scared by the ravages of terrorism.

Yet, as so often happens in Nationalism, there was a backlash to internationalism.

Soon people began to discriminate against others who looked like Muslims, or looked foreign. For their part, the Muslims began to bad mouth America as well. Thus began a mutual distrust and hatred, which saw the passing of the Patriot Act. In those early days, Immigration Services showed up at the door of illegal Muslims, without any warrant, or any documents, and deported them, simply because they were from Pakistan, or Iran.

The Immigration Service instituted the 'Special Registration" a process by which citizens of Muslim countries had to register, with their information to the Government and testify as to whether they know of any terrorists. They had to let the Immigration Service know when they exited the country and when they got back. This process was so similar to the Japanese internment that we all wondered if America, the home of the free was lost forever.

This was followed by the notoriously slow FBI name checks. If you applied to become a Permanent Resident or a Citizen, the FBI had to (1) clear fingerprints, and (2) Do a name check. The fingerprints were unique so they cleared quickly. But the name check involved a computer search of the name or combination of names that could match any known criminals on the FBI database.  That database was never released to the public. Of course since Muslims have common type names like Muhammad , their names would very often get a hit.  But so would Hispanic names or simply names like Jones or Smith. If the name got a hit, an individual officer would have to go into the files and manually make sure that the applicant was not the same as the criminal.  The problem is that this would take 3-4 years.  Our plea that if these people really were criminals, would it not be safer to do the check as soon as possible and deport or prosecute them were not heard.  99% of these cases ultimately cleared, yet these individuals had to wait a long time before they could get their green cards.  Many times they were scared to visit or for legal reasons could not visit their home country until they got their green card. This meant they could not see many a dying parent, although they never committed any crime.

Yes, we went into two wars, we have to go through lengthy process of checks at airports.

Yet, things seem to be getting better.  The FBI name checks eventually got quicker, and is not much of a problem any more. The Special Registration process was scrapped earlier this year.

Of course we can never replace the lives lost that fateful day, and we may never become the trusting country that we were pre 9/11.  Yet maybe that's a good thing.  The world is becoming very small and the trusting simplicity that America, Canada and UK have are not matched by most other countries. That day 09/11/2001, we had lost our ignorance and we stand now, like the rest of the world, distrusting our citizens.

Even now it is so much easier to pull the wool over the eyes of these countries than it is to do that to the rest of the world. Routinely applicants for Asylum concoct their stories and very often the US government buys those fib. I have been asked by Muslim citizens from certain countries whether they can convert to Christianity and claim Asylum. Thankfully I dont do Asylum. Same is true , although to a lesser extent to many immigration cases. Its time the Government smarten up and treat their citizens like the rest of the world does. No one can do that to the Israeli, Chinese or even Indian Government.

And for my part, I would happily succumb to a search at the airport if this means we all can be safe.





Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information

Choosing a Lawyer-- clients beware

A lot of clients come to me and ask things like: Can you help me find a job? Can I just say something not true. And when they don't like what I tell them, they go to another lawyer.

Yes, there are lawyers who for a price give them jobs, and the promise of Immigration. And very often deliver.  But what if the lawyer gets caught? CIS investigates every case that the attorney had represented, and investigates. So people who get their green card by dishonest means can loose it after several years, when they are settled here and gotten used to the US lifestyle. Please remember , if the attorney does something illegal for you, he or she is probably doing this for many others. And eventually the CIS will catch on, and investigate the lawyer. And if your case is found to be a fraud, you will be banned permanently from the United States.

Thus the stakes are high.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information.