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Category Archives: English

Foreign Spouses: Trending Upwards

The New York Times is reporting on a growing trend, cross-national intermarriage.  This is not a new phenomenon, but the numbers are growing significantly, and so the issues surrounding these sorts of mixed marriages are gaining attention. An article by Lauren Collins provides some interesting details. Over 7% of marriages now taking place in America… Read More »

Immigration Law and the Military, book review

John Egan recently reviewed the book “Immigration Law and the Military” by Margaret Stock on Amazon Books: https://www.amazon.com/review/RM58I5UTOQ9M1/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_asr_PmntE.1C2HE00 Take a look! “A “go-to” source for reliable information” Margaret Stock has written the essential resource for anyone working with Immigration Law issues and U.S. Military members. This book should be on the bookshelf of every immigration… Read More »

Hawaii’s Economy Needs Immigration Reform

IMMIGRATION INSIGHTS: John Egan’s commentary on how Immigration Reform will impact Hawaii’s economy was recently published in Honolulu’s Pacific Business News: Hawaii’s economy needs immigration reform – Pacific Business News www.bizjournals.com We have read about how the growing Hispanic vote has shaken up electoral demographics, how current policies are hurting kids who came to the… Read More »

The Visa Wizard, New Tool from the Department of State

IMMIGRATION INSIGHTS: The Department of State has posted a fun new tool – a Visa Wizard! You fill in basic info like where you are from and what you want to do in the United States, and the wizard suggests the right visa options. Do you need a B-1 or a B-2? An F-1 or… Read More »

Same Sex Couples to be Allowed to Sponsor Visas

IMMIGRATION INSIGHTS: Now here is some good news, long-awaited. USCIS is accepting new immigration applications from same-sex couples, and is reviewing older cases to overturn past denials. One of the most difficult tasks I have had in my career as an Immigration Lawyer has been explaining to same sex couples that, until now, there was… Read More »

International Student Enrollments Up In U.S., Down in Hawaii

IMMIGRATION INSIGHTS: A recent article in Civil Beat Hawaii, the online news site, outlines a counter-intuitive trend: international student enrollments in colleges and universities across the U.S. are growing at an unprecedented rate, but enrollments in Hawaii are falling. Many reasons are given, but perhaps some thought should be given to why it is so… Read More »

Indian Tech Company Fined for Visa Abuse

IMMIGRATION INSIGHTS: Infosys, a large multi-national technology services company based in India, has agreed to pay $34 million dollars to settle charges that it mis-used the U.S. visa system in hiring and deploying foreign technology workers in the United States. The New York Times reports that this is the largest ever settlement in a visa… Read More »

Higher Denial Rate for Working Visas

IMMIGRATION INSIGHTS: Businesses with international staffing needs are finding it harder and harder to work with the immigration bureaucracy, a trend that shows little sign of near term improvement. Here in Hawaii, our hospitality, travel and emerging technology sectors are negatively impacted. USA Today reports on the issue. Study: Work visas being denied at a… Read More »

Annual “Tech Visa” lottery leaves half of applicants disappointed

IMMIGRATION INSIGHTS: The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service ran its annual selection process to distribute the quota of 85,000 high-skilled worker visas among over 172,000 applicants in April. Tech firms who rely on the H-1B visa category are finding this bottleneck in the labor market increasingly difficult to manage and appear to be developing strategies… Read More »

More Immigrants Now Coming From Asia Than Latin America

IMMIGRATION INSIGHTS: Despite the media focus on Hispanic immigration, there has been a significant change in immigration demographics – Asian immigration is now significantly higher. Over time, will this make the rest of the U.S. look a little bit more like Hawaii? Nate Silver’s blog FiveThirtyEight provides some interesting analysis. Immigration Demographics