October 28, 2016
Remember To Make Your Voice Heard This Election 
   
The U.S. Presidential elections are coming up soon and we want to make sure that all our U.S. citizen clients and friends will exercise their citizenship right and go to vote. Even if you are not supportive of either candidate (which many people are), voting for the one you prefer out of the two options is important, otherwise the one with the majority vote wins. It's better to exercise early the voting option, which is available even throughout weekends to avoid long lines during Election Day. If you are not a U.S. citizen make sure not to vote, as this is both a criminal offense and a deportable offense to vote in a federal election when you are not a citizen.
An End to a Bureaucratic Nightmare

Two years ago, Richard filed an application for Naturalization. After having his interview, he had not heard any decision from USCIS (neither approval nor denial). Every time he contacted immigration to know the status of his case he was told to wait. Or that his case was still pending or processing. Or that an officer will be reviewing his case, etc. After waiting for almost two years he was about to lose hope on ever getting his citizenship.

Before throwing in the towel, he decided to take one last chance and contacted us for an expert opinion in his matter. He came to our office asking whether something could be done to get his case resolved and make him a U.S. citizen. He talked to Nellie Navidi, our specialist in family immigration, about filing a mandamus law suit to sue the government for all the waiting and the hassle he was encountering. Nellie asked him to give her one last chance- a single shot at going to immigration for him herself to try to resolve the matter once before filing the law suit. We are happy to share that just a few hours later, Richard's case was rescued from the bureaucracy black hole where it had been lost and due to Nellie's assistance he was approved and his naturalization ceremony scheduled for a week later (see picture here).

Richard's case is not unique, however. Sometimes, applications get lost or stay in the bottom of a shelf. When this happens, it is important to have by your side someone who knows how to deal with the administration to make sure it is rescued and moves forward.
Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one. We could have sued the government in this case, and had all the justification for it. However we did not want to waste valuable resources if the case did not need it, and we always had the option to sue them later if trying to resolve it in person did not work. Try to think of short cuts or more simple solutions rather than going the long way and have very elegant and sophisticated solutions. Sometimes it may surprise you and work out.