The Lure of a Good Sandwich: Pastrami on Rye

Pastrami on rye with mustard and pickles from the famous Katz's Delicatessen in the Lower East Side.

Pastrami on rye with mustard and pickles from the famous Katz's Delicatessen in the Lower East Side.

Jon Blank, our hungry paralegal, trekked all the way to the Lower East Side (ok, he skateboarded) to Katz's Deli because he wanted a good pastrami on rye "with just mustard, nothing else, because that's the way it should be served!" He's a connoisseur.

It reminded us of The New York Times' thoroughly researched "A Field Guide to the American Sandwich" which is one of the most comprehensive and informative guides to the sandwich we've read. It also made us really, really hungry. The pastrami on rye, according to the Times, falls under the "Sliced Bread" category—the other categories include "Kaiser or 'Hard' Roll;" "Soft Bun;" "Hero or Sub Roll;" and "'Singulars,'" which fall "outside these other groups but are still vital to the sandwich landscape, like the muffuletta." Pastrami remains unsurprisingly "closely associated with Jewish delicatessens" and is a "Romanian-Jewish-American hybrid of barbecue, basturma (Turkish dried, spiced meat) and corned beef[.]” Oh yeah, and it's delicious!

Visas for Architects: 5 Common Issues

The world is full of many talented artists—including those who design our public and private spaces. Often these talented artists want to come to the US to work in the numerous architectural firms that do business in the US. So, what visas do architects typically have?

H-1B: Probably the most common visa type for architects is the H-1B specialty occupation visa. As architects will most likely have at the very least a bachelor's degree, an H-1B may be the logical first choice; however, with the numerical limits of this visa type, the H1-B may not be possible.      

E-3: Since architects are generally recognized as “specialty occupations” it is likely they will also be eligible for an E-3 visa if they are Australian.  

TN: Since “architect” is one of the professions allowed to apply for a TN visa, architects who are nationals of Canada or Mexico could be eligible for this visa category.

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The News & Observer: "Asylum for homeschooling enters immigration debate"

Recently introduced legislation, the Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act, sponsored by Representative Jason Chaffetz, would criminalize being an unauthorized immigrant in the US and also make it more difficult for applicants to prove a “credible fear of persecution claim” for US asylum. Included in the legislation is also a provision to help homeschoolers (and their families) persecuted in their home countries by granting up to 500 asylum claims per year based on persecution because of their preference for homechooling. Jürgen and Rosemarie Dudek, a German couple, who were sentenced to prison for three months because they were homeschooling their children, a practice that has been officially banned in Germany since 1938, could potentially benefit from such legislation. All Jürgen Dudek wants is “to be able to educate his kids without worrying about fines or prison” and said that the passage of the homeschool provision “would send a message to the German government that parents deserve the freedom to educate their children in the way they best see fit.”

Michael Donnelly, the director of global outreach for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), which helped draft the bill, called it “groundbreaking” and said that a "'country that bans homeschooling is violating the basic human rights of their citizens.'" HSLDA also supported another German family, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their seven children, after a Tennessee judge initially granted the family asylum but the Obama administration overturned the decision, arguing that Germany’s homeschooling ban was not a form of religious persecution and therefore could not be used as a basis for US asylum. The Romeikes, like many homeschoolers, are religious and incorporate Christian teachings into their homeschool curriculum. While The Supreme Court declined to hear the family’s case, the Department of Homeland Security granted “deferred action,” allowing the Romeikes to remain in the US.

The homeschooling asylum provision, however, is puzzling to many, as it could actually weaken what has traditionally been a tough asylum standard. Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration professor at Cornell University Law School, "questions whether homeschooling bans rise to the level of persecution or whether they are more about discrimination and could set a more generous precedent, including those the overall legislation is intended to prevent." He said: "'Most courts have defined persecution as being something pretty significant...Generally, it’s hard to win asylum and they don’t want any decisions to make it seem easier to get asylum.'"

Representative Luis Gutiérrez questions whether it is right to offer asylum to homeschoolers while making asylum more difficult for those fleeing drug and gang violence. Gutiérrez said: “The Republicans have put homeschooling as a priority for asylum in the United States ahead of murder, rape, child abuse[.]'”

The Joy of Growing-Up Italian

"I was well into adulthood before I realized I was an American. Of course I had been born in America and had lived here all of my life, but somehow it never occurred to me that just being a citizen of the United States meant I was an American. Americans are people who ate peanut butter and jelly on mushy white bread that came in plastic packages. But I was ITALIAN.

For me, as I am sure for most second generation Italian-American children who grew up in the 40's or 50's, there was a definite distinction drawn between US and THEM. We were Italians. Everybody else....the Irish, German, Polish, Jews, they were the "MED-E-GONES". There was no animosity involved in that distinction, no prejudice, no hard-feelings....just, well, we were sure ours was the better way, For instance, we had a bread-man, a coal-man, and ice-man, a fruit and vegetable man, a watermelon man, and a fish-man; we even had a man who sharpened knives and scissors, who came to our homes or at least outside our homes. They were the many peddlers who plied their wares in the Italian neighborhoods. We would wait for their call, their yell, their individual distinctive sound. We knew them all and they knew us. Americans went to the stores for most of their foods. What a waste! Truly I pitied their loss. They never knew the pleasure of waking up every morning to find a hot crispy loaf of bread waiting behind the screen door...

There was another difference between US and THEM. We had gardens. Not just flower gardens, but huge gardens where we grew tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes. We ate them, cooked them, and jarred them, Of course, we also grew peppers (hot and sweet), basil, parsly, lettuce and zucchini. Everybody had a grapevine and a fig tree....and in the Fall, everyone covered the fig-tree and made home-made wine, lots of it. Of course, those gardens thrived so, because we also had something else our American friends didn't seem to have. We had a GRANDFATHER!! It's not that they didn't have a Grandfather; its just that they didn't live in the same house or on the same block. They VISITED their Grandfathers. We ate with ours...and God forbid, if we did not see them once a day."

- Elvira S. Oliver
  The Joy of Growing-Up Italian

Becoming Another

"Apa is a well-known and unruly character in the dances of the Monpa and Sherdukpen peoples. Alternating between playing the village chief (with a yellow form of this mask), an animal hunter (a black or dark red form), a lustful drunk (an orange form), or a senile old man, he appears in multiple village and monastic dances. This mask of Apa most likely represents the farcical drunk, who in the dance tries to seduce and intoxicate eleven women of high rank. The performance ends with Apa realizing his wrongdoing and excusing himself to the women."

Maintaining Green Card Status (Even When Temporarily Living Outside the US)

As an immigration attorney, it gives me great joy to tell our clients that their Green Cards (giving them permanent residency status in the US) have been approved. My husband is himself a Green Card holder so I know firsthand how important the freedom and security that permanent residency in the US provides for immigrants; at the same time, it’s also important for Green Card holders to know their rights and responsibilities as permanent residents—including how to maintain their permanent residency to ensure that they keep their Green Cards and, if they so desire, apply for citizenship down the road!  

The following dialogue is a fictional example of a conversation I often have with our clients about maintaining permanent residency.  (No Daryanani & Bland client information is used or revealed and any similarity to real people is entirely coincidental!).

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CBP: "Mobile Passport Control App Expands to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport"

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently announced the expansion of the Mobile Passport Control (MPC) app—the first authorized app to expedite a traveler’s arrival into the US—to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport. The MPC app was first launched in August 2014 for eligible travelers arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and was soon available to passengers arriving at Miami International Airport. At this time, eligible travelers for the app include US citizens with a valid US passport and Canadian citizens with both a valid Canadian passport and B-1 or B-2 visa status.

To use the MPC app, eligible travelers must have iOS or Android devices that can connect to the internet and should follow these steps:

  • Download the Mobile Passport Control App from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store prior to arriving in US;

  • Create a profile using valid passport information. Profiles can be set up for the entire family. Note that all information will be encrypted and shared only with CBP;

  • Complete the “New Trip” section upon arrival in the US;

  • After submitting the customs declaration form through the app, users receive an electronic receipt with an Encrypted Quick Response (QR) code. By submitting, travelers are confirming under penalty of law that their information is correct. The digital bar-coded receipt is valid for four hours;

  • Bring passport and smartphone or tablet with the digital bar-coded receipt to a CBP officer in the Mobile Passport Control line;

We haven't yet been able to field test the app, but reviews range from "app is very good and easy to use" and "we breezed past the line at Immigration and Customs" to more critical user comments including "Waste of time, inconsistent reliability. The set up was easy, the idea is good in theory. However, it needs to work consistently."

Along with the paperless I-94, the Automated Passport Control (APC) kiosks, and Global Entry (which we love), the MPC app is part of CBP's overall "resource optimization strategy which is transforming the way CBP does business in land, air and sea environments." CBP is planning to expand the MPC app to more airports later this spring (Chicago O'Hare International Airport is reportedly up next) and is committed to expanding the program to the twenty airports with the highest volumes of international travelers by the end of 2016. The future of a paperless and electronic CBP is here. And it's on smartphones.

USCIS Reaches FY 2016 H-1B Cap!

The H-1B cap has been reached! US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reports that they have reached the congressional-mandated H-1B cap numbers for fiscal year 2016 (i.e., for new H-1B petitions with a start date of October 1, 2015 filed in April of this year). In addition, USCIS has received more than the 20,000 limit of H-1B petitions filed under the US advanced degree exemption.

As in previous years, after completing intake on all H-1B cases received between April 1 and April 7, 2015, USCIS will conduct (on a date yet to be determined) the "H-1B lottery" using a computer-generated process to randomly select the 65,000 regular category petitions and also the 20,000 advanced degree exemption cases. USCIS states they will first select H-1B petitions for the advanced degree exemption; all unselected advanced degree petitions will then become part of the 65,000 general category selection process. Except for duplicate filings, USCIS will return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions. In the meantime, USCIS will continue to accept and process H-1B cap exempt petitions. We will provide updates on when the lottery will take place as soon as USCIS releases this information.

UPDATE 4/14/2015: USCIS reports that they received nearly 233,000 H-1B petitions including advanced degree exemption cases filed during April 1 and April 7, 2015. On April 13, USCIS conducted the H-1B lottery using the computer-generated random selection process to meet the 65,000 general-category cap and the 20,000 cap under the advanced degree exemption. In addition, USCIS announced that they will begin premium processing for cap-subject H-1B petitions (including advanced degree cases) on April 27, 2015. This fifteen-day premium processing period will begin on April 27, 2015, regardless of the date on the Form I-797 receipt notice, which merely indicates the date that the premium processing fee is received.

UPDATE 5/5/2015: USCIS announced that it has completed data entry for all fiscal year 2016 H-1B cap-subject petitions selected in the random lottery. This means that they have issued all I-797 receipt notices for all H-1B cap cases that were selected in the lottery although it is not clear that all receipts have been sent out yet. USCIS will now focus on returning all H-1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected. The time frame for returning all unselected petitions is unknown, but USCIS will announce once all the petitions have been returned.