Last week, Simone Williams, Managing Attorney with Williams Global Law PLLC, spoke at the National Bar Association’s (NBA) Annual Convention in Toronto, Canada. Ms. Williams was a moderator and co-panelist for a CLE seminar entitled, “Immigration 101 – Basics of US and Canadian immigration law and latest hot topics affecting immigrants in Canada and the U.S.”, and participated as a co-panelist at the “Anticipated Changes in Immigration Law” CLE seminar. The NBA Convention is the largest gathering of African American lawyers, judges and law students in North America, in which lawyers discuss trending legal social justice and economic issues. #SimoneWilliams #Conference #NBA #Canada

On July 23-26, 2017, Simone Williams attended the Jamaica 55 Diaspora Conference in Kingston, the heart of Jamaica. Convened every two years by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, the conference is an important platform in Jamaica’s strategic effort to meaningfully engage with Jamaicans dispersed around the globe. The event brought together Diaspora business interests, philanthropic groups, and young people of Jamaican descent and Jamaicans at home. The theme of this year’s conference was “Partnering for Growth”. The Conference remains the key mechanism through which Jamaica engages with its Diaspora, places specific emphasis on the Government’s priority areas, and seeks to fo

In a loss for the Trump administration, on July 19, 2017, the Supreme Court left intact a lower court opinion that temporarily exempts grandparents and other relatives from President Donald Trump's travel ban. According to the ruling, grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of persons in the United States are not subject to travel restrictions. However, the Supreme Court gave President Trump a partial win on another issue by lifting an order exempting a category of refugees from the travel ban. According to the court, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals should review the issue. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is temporarily postponing the effective date of the International Entrepreneur Final Rule. This delay should provide DHS with an opportunity to obtain comments from the public regarding a proposal to rescind the rule pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13767, “Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements.” The rule, which was proposed by President Obama’s DHS last year, would have given the agency the authority to grant entrepreneurs “parole” on a case-by-case basis to enter the U.S. for up to five years, with the possibility of an extension, if they could demonstrate substantial U.S. investment and the potential for rapid growth and job c

According to the Immigrant Investor Program Office (IPO), it is currently processing I-526, Immigrant Petitions By Alien Entrepreneur, filed on or before November 22, 2015. This means that the average processing time for adjudicating this type of petitions is approximately 19 months. The average processing time for I-924, Applications For Regional Centers is approximately 18 months, which is a minor increase from last month. The IPO is currently reviewing this type of petition as of December 25, 2015. In regards to the I-829, Petitions by Entrepreneur to Remove Conditions, the IPO is currently reviewing cases as of January 15, 2015, which makes the average processing approximately 29 months.

On July 19, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officially announced that it has returned all H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in computer-generated random selection process for the fiscal year 2018. USCIS previously announced on May 3, that it completed data entry of all selected cap-subject petitions. If your petition was not selected in this year’s H-1B “lottery”, contact our experienced attorneys who can assist you with finding alternative solutions to obtaining a U.S. nonimmigrant visa. #H1B #FY2018