By: Anthony Danilov
Interested in learning about immigration law and everything having to do with visas and green cards? In this article, I break down everything I learned from my time with David Nachman and Ludka Zimovcak of NPZ Law Group at their event regarding Current Issues in Immigration Law during BCC’s Immigration Week.
Nachman and Zimovcak, both currently stationed in Ridgewood, have been working together for almost 18 years now at the NPZ Immigration and Nationality Law Group. As they say, you either “love or hate” immigration law, but their goal for the evening was to make the road to a Green Card and Citizenship more basic and understandable for everybody there.
The presentation, although more geared towards international students, made one thing very clear: every case is different. Not everybody’s immigration case will look like my mother’s, especially considering how lucky she was to get chosen from the lottery to get a Green Card.
The base position the lawyers always take is immigrating people to Canada and then eventually bringing them back down to the United States. However, therein lies the first issue that current Immigration Lawyers are facing today.
The United States is very specific with their procedures and who they let into the country. Just last year there were 750,000 petitions for green cards with only 80,000 spots being available, all of which would end up being chosen by random lottery.
“It’s frustrating,” Zimovcak says. “There are people in pharma companies with publications who are highly educated and they don’t get the chance.” On top of that, many of those applications ended up being disqualified due to many of the petitioners duplicating their applications.
Nachman calls it a “World-wide brain drain.” With Canada opening their doors to the best and the brightest, eventually, the US will lose the cutting edge they’ve always been known to have. “Going to Canada is becoming a thing,” he jokes. Fortunately, there are many other options and many other visas.
The attorneys mentioned the U-Visa, a visa that allows victims of certain international crimes to be granted asylum and work authorization in the United States that will last for about a year. Unfortunately, asylum brings up another issue.
The partners agree that many asylum cases are clogging up the court system nowadays. Not only does it usually take four to five years just to get a court date, but the client must also reside in the US while awaiting any sort of update. Many calls the firm receives all ask the same thing: “Where is my case?” “How can we expedite things?” All they can really say at the end of the day is that it’s out of their control; once they send the cases over to D.C., it’s the government’s decision as to which cases get priority and when they can get to them.
A more sure-fire way for asylum would be marriage to a U.S. citizen. All you would need to do is file for a marriage license and get a green card following that process.
In regards to citizenship, surprisingly, many immigrants may not want to become citizens, as their countries may not allow dual citizenship, as well as for beneficiary tax purposes. However, it is always recommended to apply for citizenship, as life in the US gets a little less difficult. The completion of residence is five years, or three if married to a US citizen.
For non-immigrants, most of the time pertaining to student visitors, there is the option of dual-intent visas. According to Nachman and Zimovcak, these are very powerful long-term work visas granted to students looking to study in the U.S. These students must show they have very strong ties to their home country and make clear that they do not plan to stay in the United States. Some students may even end up switching to some type of work status, using their employment immigration to eventually help their family immigrate to the States.
The NPZ law group describes it as “riding the rollercoaster with our clients on a day-to-day basis.” Though the cases may be plentiful and it may seem daunting, these are only several of the visa options available and the opportunities are vast. Just as the attorney informed me that day, I hope this has made the immigration law system a bit easier to comprehend despite its very complex workings and that it may help anyone reach out for any help they may need.