A Guide to the Naturalization Process

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Given the impact U.S. citizenship has had on my family, I would like to educate people and dispel myths about the naturalization process. My family’s experience with the naturalization process was very typical. Several years ago when my dad immigrated to the United States from Tamaulipas, Mexico he waited a total of 5 years as a green card holder, then applied for citizenship through the U.S Department of Homeland Security. After a total of six and a half years and large amounts of paperwork, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. For most naturalized citizens throughout the United States this experience is shared — from the ache of the paperwork to the long wait for approval. I’d like to provide more detail about each of the steps in this important process.

Naturalization in the United States:

Though this process can take several years to complete—it’s important to have an idea of what to expect.

Step 1: Determine if you’re eligible. You may be eligible for Naturalization if you are at least 18 years old and have been a permanent resident for at least 5 years (3 if you are married to a U.S citizen) and meet some of these main eligibility requirements:

- If in the past 5 years, you have not been out of the U.S for more than 30 days or taken a trip outside the U.S for more than a year.

- You’ve stayed in the state you’re applying for citizenship in for at least three months

- Can read, write, and speak Basic English.

- Know the fundamentals of U.S history and the principals of the U.S government.

- You are a person of good moral character.

- Have never deserted the U.S Armed Forces or received an exemption or discharge while an alien.

- You are willing to perform either military or civilian service for the United States if required by law.

- You support the constitution of the United States.

- You are willing to take an oath of allegiance to the United States.

Step 2: Prepare form N-400, the Naturalization Application. This is the application that will determine if you can become a citizen or not, and it is recommended to have a lawyer guide you through the process as certain errors can result in a denial or the delayed processing of the application. It is also required that you take 2 passport-style photos taken and collect the documents that show your eligibility.

Step 3: Submitting the Form N-400 Application. When submitting your application, be sure to include your photographs, documents, and fees to the USCIS. As soon as you get your receipt, you can check current processing times and the status of your application anytime you want.

Step 4: Attend the Biometrics Appointment, if applicable. The USCIS requires applicants to be fingerprinted for the purposes of conducting FBI criminal background checks. This check must be completed before you can schedule an interview.

Step 5: Complete the Interview. Once all of the processes above are complete, the USCIS will schedule an interview with you. It is very important to not miss your interview, as rescheduling can add several months to the process. At the time of the interview, expect questions on the N-400 form you completed as well as the English and civics tests (it is important to study for these).

Step 6: If your application is continued. In some cases, the USCIS officer may not be able to make a decision on your Form N-400 on the day of your interview and will continue your case. This may include a request to provide additional evidence or require a second interview. The most reasons for continuation are:

- Failing the English and/or civics test. (You may be rescheduled for another interview within 60-90 days of your first interview and you will only be retested on the areas of the tests that you failed.

- It is determined that you need to submit additional documents by giving you From N-14, Request for Additional Information, Documents or Forms. This is required to continue.

- Failing to provide the USCIS the correct documents.

Step 7: Receiving a Decision. Denied: If you are denied you will receive a letter explaining why you were denied. If you believe that they were wrong in their decision, you may request a hearing to appeal this decision. Granted: If your application is granted, CONGRATULATIONS! You are now able to participate in the oath ceremony. If you cannot attend the ceremony, you must ask for a rescheduling.

Step 8: Take the Oath of Allegiance to the United States. You are not a U.S citizen until you take the Oath of Allegiance at a naturalization ceremony, and will receive your certificate once the ceremony is over.

Step 9: Understanding U.S Citizenship. Once you are a citizen, it is important to understand your rights and responsibilities. Celebrate!

The length of this process is typically 4-6 months, although there are cases that last up to 25 months. The process is quite different with each person and state. If you want an opportunity to see what these different experiences look like, subscribe to our blog and we’ll continue to share stories of different applicant’s experiences. If you are looking to apply, get more information and compare attorneys at LexSpot.com.

7 Common Misconceptions Revolving Immigration

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We often overhear misconceptions or misunderstandings regarding immigration to the United States. People often rely too heavily on information from their friends and relatives that are based from rumors, which do not reflect the latest immigration laws. To help you recognize these inaccuracies, we selected a few of the most frequently heard misconceptions. In doing so, you will reduce the chance of making a mistake that could delay or even endanger your entitlement to achieving your dream.

 1. Permanent Residency vs. Citizenship

Contrary to popular belief, permanent residency and citizenship are not the same thing.

Permanent Residency

Permanent residency refers to a person’s visa status, allowing him or her to reside in the U.S permanently. However, he or she does not have the benefits of being a citizen, such as voting. A permanent resident receives a social security number and is able to work and travel inside and outside of the United States; thus, this person is usually required to live the majority of his or her time in the U.S.

Citizenship

Citizenship allows a person to not only live in the U.S, but also work and become involved in the political realm, such as voting. However, U.S citizens do not have to reside in the U.S permanently or even at all.

In the end, permanent residency can lead to citizenship.

2.  Status vs. Visa

It is very common to confuse “status” with “visa.” A “visa” is an entry placed in the person’s passport, which gives the individual consideration for admittance to the U.S. However, possession of a valid visa does not guarantee permission to enter the country. Also, a visa does not determine how long a person may stay in the United States.  The determination of admissibility is left to the discretion of the examining immigration officer at the port of entry, who will stamp and annotate the I-94 white card with a visa class and an expiration date.

An individual acquires “status” when he or she is legally admitted to the U.S; it refers to the condition of legal presence within the country. Similar to visas, there are many categories of status, which are defined by non-immigrant classification designations. The classification of visa used for entry into the country will determine this designation, and thus, the person’s status. The I-94, which is received at the time of entry, will indicate the designated status as well as the expiration date of that status.

So, status only exists in the U.S. and visas are obtained outside of the U.S. only for entry purposes.

3. It is O.K. to remarry without divorcing your first spouse. — FALSE!

Marrying a second time without terminating your first marriage is illegal. Many people believe that they can meet someone new and decide to get married if they have not interacted with their first spouse in a long time. However, by law in the U.S, the second marriage would be void if this were to happen. Divorce is legal in the U.S, so make sure you divorce your first spouse before you marry someone else.

4. Knowing someone in the US Embassy or the INS can help put your petition ahead. – FALSE!

All Visa applications are processed in the order they were originally filled with INS. Because priority dates are released every month showing the filing dates or Labor certifications that would currently be processed, you cannot go out of turn. You must wait for your place in line for a visa to be “current.”

5. A visitor’s visa allows you to work in the U.S legally. – FALSE!

A visitor visa allows someone to visit the U.S for a limited period of time for business purposes or vacation. They do not, however, authorize employment in the U.S. In order to work in the U.S, you must obtain a working visa called an H-1B visa.

6. The only way to get a green card is through a family petition. — FALSE!

Employers can also petition people for green cards through the process called Labor Certification. Also, the spouse and minor children of the sponsored employee can get green cards at the same time. Thus, it’s a green card for the entire family!

7. A person’s age and martial status is evaluated by the U.S Embassy and USCIS only at the time the petition is filled and not at the time the person is being interviewed for their visa — FALSE!

Though the person’s status at the time of their visa interview is strongly taken into consideration by the USCIS and Embassy:

(a) If a person was single at the time the petition was filed, but got married before the interview, that person is considered married and will be processed as married.

— If they were petitioned by an immigrant parent, the petition becomes void upon the marriage, because only US citizens can petition married children.

— If the petitioner was alive at the time the petition was filed, but died before the interview, the petition may no longer be valid, because the petition dies with the petitioner. (Some exceptions to this rule may apply, however, such as humanitarian revalidation).

I hope we were able to shed some light on the myths and truth that tend to travel down the grapevine. Though these issues can get a little messy, it is important to have an insight as to how the system works. I hope this helped!

Deferred Action (DACA) Under Attack!

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This post is written by guest blogger Juan Jimenez, a friend of LexSpot through our collaborative effort supporting DACA applicants.

Tuesday night before going to sleep I opened up Facebook and see a comment by someone stating that DACA had lost in court and was going to be terminated.  At that point I wasn’t sure if I should relay the message I was reading and post it on other groups, or wait and see and find out what was really happening. In my mind I could picture Dreamers going through inspections and being arrested by ICE, I could see in my mind ICE agents raiding thousands of Dreamers’ homes and taking everyone since the government now knows exactly where we live and where we work. Luckily I have learned to wait and see what’s really going on before causing unnecessary panic.

What the post was referring to was filed on Aug. 23, 2012 by Attorney Kris Kobach:

” (l) on behalf of Christopher Crane and nine other Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano, ICE Director John Morton and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas, in response to Napolitano’s Directive entitled “Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children,” implementing President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.. “

I remember hearing about the lawsuit on the news and on Facebook but I completely forgot about it just like I am sure many people have.

When I woke up I saw all of these different articles regarding the case but none of them were really clear on what had actually happened and I, not being an attorney, didn’t really understand what the judge had said. I see a local attorney posting on our wall articles relating to what had happened but I believe he was as clueless as we were because the answers he was giving were very “textbook”. One of the Dreamers created a post stating something along the lines of, they attack DACA and they will see what everyone united can do! Immediately the attorney starts confronting him and telling him to be rational and getting involved in the courts will only hurt our case.

It’s funny that people will always tell us to be rational when they don’t understand what DACA means to us and how hard everyone has worked to be where they are. What it means to be told that your life, as you know it is over and you shouldn’t do anything about it. I really don’t believe he was referring to getting involved in the courts but getting organized. As the day went on I keep seeing different threads with people panicking and not knowing what’s going on, even after they’ve been told that everything is fine and nothing is going to happen they won’t rationalize and panic. I have seen these same people write about other things and I know they are smart people and understand politics well, but that’s the bad thing about fear and panic, it’s hard to rationalize.

We now know that as some have put it “DACA IS OK.” It turns out the judge is likely to rule against DACA but he has asked for additional evidence from both sides before making a final decision. My understanding is that even if the judge rules in favor of the ICE agents, the ruling is likely to be stuck in appeals and may make it to the Supreme Court. It may be years before it makes its final journey. For more details, see David Leopold’s Huffington Post article article “DACA Is Alive and Well.”

Now more than ever we need to come together and put pressure on Washington. We need to make them understand that our lives are at stake here and we will not stop until immigration reform passes. Make calls and write letters to your Senate and House representatives. Have friends and family members that ARE U.S. citizens write letters to congress on your behalf. Remember that DACA IS NOT a law and as we have learned there are people out there that are working very hard to take it down and take everything we have worked so hard for away. Let’s not put our guard down and make this the year immigration reform finally makes it into law.

If you or anyone you know would like to learn more about deferred action (DACA) please join a Facebook group I manage here.

10 Issues That Could Affect Your Immigration Eligibility

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Conversation around U.S. immigration law generally revolves around the set of requirements an applicant must answer “yes” to in order to be eligible. For example, to be eligible for Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program an applicant must have arrived in the U.S. before their 16th birthday, continuously resided in the country since 2007, and meet certain education requirements, among other requirements.

However, the equally important set of facts that are often overlooked are the ones that make a candidate ineligible for permanent immigration opportunities. These are referred to as “grounds of inadmissibility” in immigration law circles. It’s very important to understand these 10 key reasons for ineligibility. Answering “yes” to any of the issues below may put you at risk for a denied application.

1. Health-related issues: Are you a drug user or addict? Do you have an infectious disease that poses a threat to public health? Examples include leprosy and tuberculosis.

2. Crime-related issues: Have you committed or been convicted of a crime involving fraud, theft, harm to a person or thing, or other such criminal behavior? Inadmissibility on criminal grounds is complex so what crime you committed and when are all factors that a lawyer would consider when evaluating your case.

3. Security-related issues: Does the government have a reasonable case to believe that you are a threat to national security (e.g. involved in espionage, member of a terrorist group)? This issue is less common, but certainly important.

4. Public charge grounds: Are you or will you likely become dependent on the government for basic living expenses like food and shelter? More information here from the National Immigration Law Center (NILC).

5. Labor certification: If you are applying for certain employment-based visas, are there U.S. workers that are qualified for the position? If so, you may not be offered the position on a permanent basis.

6. Immigration status violations: Did you enter the country without permission from the U.S. government? Did you fail to attend removal proceedings? Have you entered the country fraudently (e.g. fake documentation)? Other such violations of immigration law are grounds for inadmissibility.

7. Documentation requirements: Is your visa expired or are you missing other valid unexpired documents required as part of the application process?

8. Draft evasion: Did you depart from or stay outside the country to avoid service in the armed forces during war?

9. Previous unlawful presence: Have you been deported or did you leave the country while a removal order was outstanding? This does not entirely exclude you from eligibility, but you may need to wait 5-20 years between the time of this removal event and your next application depending on a number of factors.

10. Miscellaneous: Have you done any of a number of actions frowned upon by the U.S. government including polygamy, unlawful voting, renounced U.S. citizenship in the past, or other actions that fall into this bucket.

This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list. Instead, our goal is to increase awareness of the types of issues that can make you ineligible for permanent residence or immigration opportunities more generally. If you fall into one of these camps, don’t be immediately discouraged. There are plenty of ways to still maintain eligibility. You’ll just need a good immigration attorney. Need help finding one? Check out LexSpot or get a referral from someone who has been through the same situation.

6 Key Details of the Immigration Bill

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We have provided a snapshot of the immigration system and an overview of today’s immigration maze in part 1 and part 2 of our Immigration 101 series, respectively. As our final part in the series, we cover the 6 “need to knows” about the historic Senate Immigration Bill unveiled this week.



The Path to Citizenship

The bill includes a path to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants. It’s a long path (possibly as long as 10 years) with many non-applicant conditions (like securing the border) that must be met to go into effect plus the potential for multiple fines. The first step on this path is a new immigration status called “Registered Provisional Immigrant,” which can be applied for 6 months after the bill is signed into law.

All Hail the Entrepreneurs

Founders of U.S. startups receive a few paths to citizenship (not just temporary status), but they all require raising capital and employing U.S. citizens. To qualify entrepreneurs must have “significant ownership” in a U.S. business, be employed in a senior position, and have been heavily involved in the founding or early growth of the business. For the details on whether your business qualifies, read this excellent post from Watson Immigration.

Intelligent Visa Caps

Gone are the days where immigration caps are set in stone. The more modern language in this bill allows for caps to reflect prevailing trends in national and regional unemployment and salary rates and automatically revise the number of immigrants accepted. While this isn’t likely to prevent high tech businesses from clamoring for more H1-Bs in five years, it sets an important precedent of directly tying immigration policy to key economic figures.

We Need Your Best and Brightest

The visa program that allows high skilled employment visas (H1-B, L) is set to dramatically expand with the immigration cap doubling to 110,000 in the first year of the program. Additionally the bill increases the cost to employ these immigrants by increasing salary requirements, application fees, and penalties if your business employs more than set ratios of these immigrants. Techcrunch broke down the details of this program in more detail.

We Need Your Manual Laborers

The biggest change in immigration processes is likely the creation of a new visa category for low-wage workers along with additional government oversight to manage the program. The W visa is designed to grant temporary visas to immigrants employed in professions that suffer labor shortfalls. Over time, these immigrants can apply for citizenship through the new merit-based visa program.

Everything is Conditional on Border Security

Border security is getting a lot of attention in this bill as it gets an initial increase of $4.5 billion to add additional security personnel and fencing to border areas. In fact, many of the provisions discussed above are contingent on a few key security conditions being met:

  • Continuous surveillance in all high risk sectors (some sectors are already at 100%, but others are at a mere 11%)
  • Once monitoring is continuous, a 90% success rate apprehending or turning back entrants

This is a cursory look at 6 features of the bill that caught our eye. To learn more we highly recommend a few other takes on this important legislation:

Senate Immigration Bill – The Good, the Bad, the Ugly by Prerna Lal

Immigration Bill Simplified: 5 Proposed Changes for High Skilled Immigrants by Gregory Ferenstein

Startup Visa Provisions from Watson Immigration

Outline of the Immigration Bill from the Senators themselves!

A Salute to 7 Immigration Activists

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I know yesterday’s unveiling of the Senate immigration bill was just the first step on the road to immigration reform. “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch”, “don’t put the cart before the horse”, or insert your favorite idiom about avoiding premature celebration. Nevertheless it’s important to recognize the efforts of the incredible immigration advocates that have dedicated themselves to this cause and carried us this close to sweeping immigration reform legislation. I have had the pleasure of speaking with only some (but not all) of these heroes, but their names are ubiquitous and their impact transcendent.

Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose is an award-winning journalist and founder of Define American, a powerful campaign that raises awareness around immigration issues. His 2011 New York Times essay revealed his status as “undocumented” and drove national recognition of the issues facing the undocumented community. His incredibly powerful testimony at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in February 2013 further elevated the discussion as officials in D.C. worked on an immigration bill. His reaction to the bill revealed yesterday: “This is not a perfect bill, but I am optimistic.”

Gaby Pacheco

Gaby has been vocal about her undocumented status since high school and an inspiration for the community ever since. In 2010, along with three friends, she walked 1,500 miles from Miami to D.C. to make a powerful statement to President Obama about separations and deportations that were tearing apart families. She also played an important role in fighting for Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The latest bill has given her a “renewed sense of hope.”

Lorella Praeli

Lorella is the Director of Advocacy & Policy for United We Dream. Originally from Peru, Lorella is a longtime fighter for human rights as she originally advocated for anti-bullying actions before coming out as “undocumented.” Like Gaby, Lorella played a pivotal role in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals efforts as the co-lead for United We Dream’s national campaign.

Erika Andiola

When your scholarship is taken away, financial aid is denied, and your family is detained all because of your undocumented status, you can become disillusioned and unable to recover or you can rise up fearlessly. Erika chose the latter. She is co-founder of DRM Action Coalition, an influential immigrants rights group, and works as an aid to Representative Kyrsten Sinema (D, Arizona). As a fearless relentless leader who knows the next few months will be a battle, her reaction to the latest bill was simple: “Let the fight begin.”

Prerna Lal

Prerna is the founder of DreamActivist, a powerful network of undocumented youth leveraging digital assets to increase awareness around their well-crafted message. Born in Fiji and of Indian descent, she is an aspiring immigration lawyer and serves on the board of Immigration Equality. Among other issues, she fights tirelessly against deportations, including her own. She sums up the immigration bill beautifully with her Good, Bad, and Ugly article.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Mayor Bloomberg needs no introduction but many are unaware of his contributions to the immigration movement. He is a vocal supporter of immigration reform and formed the Partnership for a New American Economy with News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch. He understands the economic and cultural contributions made by the immigrant community and has been an influential voice in rallying other top business leaders to support the cause.

Steve Case

Case co-founded AOL and could have chosen to focus his efforts exclusively on building Revolution, his venture capital firm. Instead, Case is the leading technology pioneer advocating for immigration reform. What’s more important is that Case is pushing for family reunification and reform for unskilled workers in addition to the startup visas and high-skilled visas that many others in the technology community support. Like Vargas, Case provided a powerful testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in February 2013 that highlighted the importance of this issue to other business leaders.

 

Please join us in thanking these leaders. While LexSpot’s focus is on improving access to immigration legal services, we know how critical overhauling our broken immigration system is as a first step. We’ll all look back decades from now and appreciate their role in improving the socioeconomic fabric of our country.

A Visual Representation of the Senate Immigration Bill

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When you take a 844 page bill and distill it into a word cloud, you start to understand the key issues in this debate.

 

When you take an 844 page bill and distill it into a word cloud, you start to understand the key issues in this debate — namely employment-based visas and undocumented immigrants.

Immigration Basics: The Paths to the U.S.

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The rules around the United States immigration system are mind-numbingly complex. In part one of our three part Immigration 101 series, we provided an overview of the key players involved in the immigration system. In this post we’ll break down the basics of immigration law. Understanding the various paths to enter and remain in the country is a critical foundation for evaluating proposed changes to the system.

The immigration maze

At a high level there are two kinds of visas, temporary and permanent. A temporary visa permits you to be in the country for a period of time but your intent must be to return to your home country when the visa expires. You would apply for a temporary visa if you were visiting the U.S. for vacation or attending a university, for example.

Getting a permanent visa means the same as getting a green card or being a legal permanent resident. This is an intermediary step in the path to citizenship that allows you to be in the U.S. indefinitely. There are four paths to getting a green card:

Through a family member

This is the most common path, with approximately 70% of legal immigrants getting admitted through a relationship with a family member. The basic idea behind family-based immigration is that U.S. citizens and green card holders should have the opportunity to bring their family to the country permanently. There is no cap on the number of visas for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens (spouse and young children), but there is for non-immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and all relatives of green card holders. Preference is based on a combination of how immediate the relative is and whether the U.S-based family member is a citizen or green card holder. This preference-based quota system leads to a long time-to-approval for many prospective immigrants because the number of applicants dramatically exceeds the quota.

Through an employer

Approximately 15% of legal immigrants receive green cards through an employer sponsorship. Like family-based visas, employment-based visas are granted through a preference-based quota system. These visas are meant to support immigrants with unique skills that couldn’t otherwise be filled by an American. As you can imagine, this becomes a fairly subjective assessment and the application process is extensive. One unique path that falls under employment-based immigration is the EB-5 program that grants a green card to immigrants that invest $1,000,000 in the U.S. and create 10 jobs for American citizens.

Through asylum

Approximately 5-10% receive green cards through asylum or as refugees. This is the U.S. government’s way to supporting global citizens that face potential harm in their home country. In today’s world that could be immigrants seeking asylum from countries like Syria.

Through the visa lottery

This is exactly what it sounds like – a low likelihood opportunity to win big. Every year the government makes 55,000 visas (~5% of total) available to countries with low levels of immigration to encourage diversity in the U.S. With millions of people applying for this opportunity, the odds of winning are very slim.

Although the paths described above may sound straightforward, the process of determining which path (and subpaths) to apply to can be extremely complicated. Choosing the wrong route can be costly and jeopardize your immigration status in future. Want to learn what immigration options are available to you? Check out LexSpot’s free Eligibility Tool, a customized guide to your options.

You’re now well on your way to chatting immigration with the Congressional “Gang of Eight” that plans on unveiling an immigration bill this week. In our final post of this series, we’ll get into the details of the immigration reform debate.

Immigration Basics: Key Facts and Figures

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We are on the brink of the most extensive immigration reform in the last 25 years, with a bill likely to be introduced next week. If you haven’t been following along, don’t worry, we’re here to catch you up.

This three-part “immigration 101” will provide a snapshot of the immigration ecosystem (part 1), an overview of the paths to immigrating to the U.S. (part 2), and a summary of the key issues up for debate (part 3). Rather than bore you with the nitty gritty, we’ll give you just enough to be an intelligent participant (rather than a casual observer) in this monumental debate.

Breaking Down the Immigrant Population

Today there are 40 million foreign born immigrants in the U.S. (or 1 in 8 people!), with approximately 1.3 million new people immigrating every year.

The breakdown of those 40 million foreign born immigrants is perhaps more surprising than the total itself. Only 40% of those 40 million are “naturalized citizens,” meaning that they have obtained U.S. citizenship by completing the required steps including residing in the U.S. for a 5-7 years.

Approximately 30% of foreign born immigrants are Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR), meaning they are not citizens but are allowed to reside permanently in the U.S. Permanent resident status is most frequently obtained through a family relationship with a U.S. citizen or another LPR or through sponsorship by a U.S. employer. However, the most staggering fact to me is that 9 million LPRs (or 70% of total LPRs) are eligible for citizenship but are not applying. There are a number of potential explanations for the country’s low naturalization rate, but I suspect the cost and complexity of the immigration system has a lot to do with it.

Finally, approximately 25% of immigrants are referred to as “undocumented.” These are immigrants that are in the country without the government’s permission, either by entering illegally or overstaying a legally-obtained temporary visa. The small remainder of immigrants falls into various buckets including students and temporary workers.

The Government

Three government agencies handle different responsibilities of the immigration system. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) carries out the administrative functions associated with immigration, such as processing visa and naturalization applications. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigates violations of immigration law and is responsible for enforcement, like deportations. Lastly, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) focuses on securing the border and preventing terrorists from entering the U.S.

You’re now equipped with some basic facts, figures, and knowledge of the players – both immigrants and government agencies – directly involved in the immigration system. Go share your knowledge and don’t be shy about asking us follow up questions!

In part two of our Immigration Basics series, we’ll help simplify the immigration maze and explain the key immigration paths through which people immigrate to the U.S.

A Shout Out to DACA Youth Groups

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DREAMers Organize at a Rally

Since we got involved with DACA applications in late August, we’ve been reaching out to community groups to discuss ways LexSpot could get involved and make the Deferred Action application process easier for them and their members. While we’ve found amazing partners among some of the already established Not-for-Profits, we’ve been absolutely blown away by the consistent effort and success of the youth groups we’ve seen in action.

This shouldn’t have come as a surprise — after all, these groups and their young leaders have been actively pursuing the DREAM Act for years. Nonetheless, we’ve been blown away by their dedication to the community and how tirelessly they serve. Here’s a shout out to two of the groups we’ve been thrilled to work with along the way!

DACAInformation.com

Iván Ceja was among the first DACA applicants, but getting his own relief wasn’t enough for him. First, he went to Facebook and created a group “Deferred Action” which rallied the community into a single discussion where individuals could ask for help, share information about the process, and celebrate their acceptance. Even then, Iván realized that many of the common questions of the group could be better served by a static website detailing many of the processes he was faced with after he was accepted for DACA — applying for a Social Security card, Drivers License, etc — and so DACAinformation.com was born!

One Michigan

One Michigan is another group that stands out from the crowd. Located in Detroit, One Michigan provides resources to immigrants through organizing, education, and empowerment. Among many other efforts, One Michigan offers local DACA workshops but they quickly found that 1) they had more applicants than they could assist efficiently and 2) applicants were finding them from all over Michigan. That was when Jose Franco reached out to us to discuss a partnership.

I love seeing how these groups have hustled to serve their communities and how inclusively they’ve defined themselves. Because these groups are headed by youth that’s engaged online, they’re recognizing opportunities to serve their communities that have never existed before. At LexSpot, we want to keep up with the efforts of these groups and others like them. If you see an opportunity to improve the DACA application process in your community, we want to hear about it.

What other groups have you seen go above and beyond for their communities? More of these stories need to get told so that DACA applicants all over the country can find the local resources they need.