Obama Immigration Executive Action

President Obama’s Immigration Accountability Executive Action

Expanded DACA Requests to begin February 18, 2015

The implementation of President Obama’s “Immigration Accountability Executive Action” (“referred to hereafter as the Obama Program”) will begin February 18, 2015, when USCIS starts accepting applications.

The Obama Program loosened the requirements of Deferred Action for Early Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”), casting the net wider so that increasing numbers of undocumented foreigners can obtain work authorization and a social security number along with the consequent benefits.

The changes to DACA include:

1. Elimination of the maximum age (which had been age 30);
2. Changing the date of initial residence in the U.S. to January 1, 2010 instead of June 15, 2007;
3. The deferred action and the work authorization period increased to three years instead of two years.

What this means is that people over 30 and more recent arrivals are now eligible for benefits under the DACA program

Form I-821D will be used for the expanded DACA, but USCIS stresses that you use the current version of the form on their website. Older versions will not be accepted.

There has been a lot of information and misinformation in the press about the Obama Program. (Please refer to Levings Law “Immigration News” on our home page for an accurate description of the program by the Immigration Law Council.)

It is important to remember that Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (“DAPA”) will NOT begin February 18, 2015. The USCIS website states that DAPA is expected to begin in mid-May 2015.

For a consultation with me regarding the Obama Program or any other immigration matter, please contact my office for an appointment. I look forward to meeting you.

William F. Levings, Esq.

The Requirements of an E-1 Treaty Trader Visa

I thought I would shift our topic this time from the discussing an immigrant visa (EB-5) to a non-immigrant visa (E-1). The most basic difference between an immigrant visa and a nonimmigrant visa is that the former results in permanent residence whereas the latter is for a temporary period of time. I will discuss the E-1 Treaty Trader visa today.

The E-1 Treaty Trader visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows nationals of qualifying “treaty countries” who undertake a significant amount of international trade with the United States to work legally in the US, travel freely in and out of the US, and stay in the US for the duration of the E-1 visa. A “treaty country” is, as its name implies, a country that has a treaty with the United States forming the legal underpinnings for the visa.

The eligibility requirements for the E-1 visa that the beneficiary of a petition:

1. is a national of a treaty nation,
2. is entering US solely to conduct substantial trade which is international in scope principally between the US and the treaty nation;
3. is a key employee (executive, manager, or specialist) in US company, which must be 50% owned by nationals from the treaty nation.

Two important phrases in that definition are “substantial trade” and “principally between US and treaty nation”.

Substantial trade

• an amount of trade sufficient to ensure a continuous flow of international trade between the US and treaty country;
• cannot be based on a single transaction, regardless of how protracted or monetarily valuable;
• can be binding contracts which call for the exchange of items of future trade;
• Volume of exchanges is given more weight than the value of the exchanges. There is no minimum requirement for either volume or value of exchanges.

Principally between US and treaty nation

• More than 50% of total volume of trade must be with the US;
• Domestic trade not counted toward calculation of more than 50%
• If the enterprise does more than 50%, each E-1 owner doesn’t ne more than 50% trade with U.S. It’s the trade of the business that is considered.

What does USCIS consider to be “trade”?

Trade

• The existing international exchange of items of trade for consideration between the US and the treaty country;
• Items of trade include: goods, services, international banking, insurance monies, transportation , communications, data processing, advertising, accounting, design and engineering, management consulting, tourism, technology and some news-gathering activities.”
• “Goods” are tangible commodities or merchandise having extrinsic value.
• “Services” are legitimate economic activities which provide other than tangible goods. Services are interpreted in an expansive fashion.

For your own reference those definitions can be found at 8CFR 214.2(e)(9), 22 CFR 41.51 (h) and (i) and 9 FAM 41.51 N.4.

Please tune in next time when I will discuss the E-2 Treaty Investor visa. For more information contact us at Levings Law, 213-915-6680.