NEW USCIS FORM FILING FEES IN EFFECT AS OF NOVEMBER 23, 2010

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) which is responsible for the adjudication of most immigration applications filed by aliens who are not in Removal Proceedings before an Immigration Judge, will be raising its form filing fees as of November 23, 2010. This fee increase will raise the average application and petition fees by approximately 10% - a significant bump in filing fees which have already seen considerable increases in the past several years. It should be noted that the final fee increase rule has actually reduced fees for six applications.

There is always a concern that increases in filing fees by the Government will price aliens out of their ability to apply for immigration benefits. However, we have found that USCIS with its fee increases have implemented meaningful improvements in the actual services they provide and even in the time it may take to adjudicate the petitions and applications themselves. Innovations such as Info-Pass have greatly assisted aliens and attorneys alike in navigating the labyrinth that is the Immigration Service. Further, many of the benefits the aliens themselves seek are invaluable and their actual worth far in excess of the fees aliens pay the Government and their attorneys. We are hoping however, that this latest fee increase will represent the last UCSIS forms-related fee increase in a very long while.

To read more about these fee increases please go to: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/template.PRINT/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f61

By: Duane Hamilton

KENYAN GRANTED CANCELLATION OF REMOVAL AFTER 10 YEAR LEGAL BATTLE

Today, a Kenyan client who I have represented over the past 10 years was granted Cancellation of Removal by Judge Sholomson of the Los Angeles Immigration Court. This result was the product of exhaustive litigation from USCIS, to the Immigration Court, through the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeas, back down to the BIA on remand from the 9th Circuit, and then ultimately back to the Immigration Judge on remand from the BIA, where the case was ultimately granted. It should be noted that Judge Sholomson was not the original trial judge from which the case was first appealed.

Cancellation of Removal accords lawful permanent residence (LPR) status in a somewhat similar manner to an adjustment of status. However, the litigation of cancellation claims is far more involved and technical than most adjustment cases.

Chow & Hamilton, congratulates this client and expresses the Client's thanks to both the Court and Government's counsel for their sensitivity and thoughtfulness in this matter.

By: Duane Hamilton

HAMILTON COMPLETES 9TH CIRCUIT ORAL ARGUMENTS

Attorney Hamilton appeared before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California yesterday and presented his oral arguments in a Kenyan asylum case which had been denied by Immigration Judge Ipema six years ago. The case presented many novel issues of law including one one which may be an issue of first impression for the court. The case is now submitted and awaiting the decision of the Court. Such decisions may take several months for issuance by the Court.

By: Maria Rangel

JUDGE DIMARZIO GRANTS KENYAN MALE'S FGM RELATED ASYLUM CLAIM IN JUDGE'S LAST CASE IN LOS ANGELES

On September 30, 2010, Attorney Hamilton completed the trial of a Kenyan anti-FGM male's asylum claim, in what was to be Immigration Judge DiMarzio's final merits hearing in Los Angeles, California before transferring to his home town of Chicago.

In granting the asylum claim, the judge found that Hamilton had established that the alien, who had resided in the U.S. for over a decade before applying for asylum, had overcome the one year filing bar in asylum claims and did qualify for asylum.

This ends several years of litigation for the alien and Mr. Hamilton, who has been on the case throughout the Asylum Office and Immigration Court phases of the matter.

Chow & Hamilton congratulates our client and wishes Judge DiMarzio well in his new assignment in Chicago.

By: Maria Rangel

GOOGLE ERRONEOUSLY DELETES C&H BLOG

To all of those who read this blog from time to time, you may have noticed that we have been missing from the Internet for the past week and a half or so. Apparently, Google which hosts our blog, has automated robots or crawlers of some sort which roam about its blogger universe attempting to delete "spam blogs." In this process however, legitimate blogs are apparently being deleted and then reinstated after a somewhat convoluted process with Google. We have fallen prey to such error.

Thankfully, however, Google was fairly diligent in addressing our request for the blog to be reinstated, yet, the process of reinstatement is not intuitive and you can forget about reaching a customer service rep via phone. The most unnerving aspect of all of this is that we cannot get reassurance from anyone at Google that this will not happen again, and hence, we are looking into other options for the hosting of our blog.

We apologize for our absence.

By: Duane M. Hamilton