visa Archives | Attorney Earl L. Jiang

When an H1B Visa Holder Might Need an Immigration Lawyer in San Jose

By admin | October 1, 2018

Globalization is not an unfamiliar term anymore. The world understands it and in fact, benefits from the interconnectivity and interdependencies among countries. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people enter the US in search of opportunities to transform their lives and support their families.

However, the complexity of immigration laws and the current situation between the state of California and the federal government makes it imperative for any immigrant to understand the laws thoroughly before setting foot here. Those who are already working in the US under H1B visas need to get in touch with immigration lawyers to know and defend their rights.

The H1B Visa

Visa is a passport endorsement, and a permission from a country to the individual to cross its borders. Visas can have many different statuses e.g. some allow individuals to work in a country while others only let them stay for a few months. The H1B visa in the US allows foreigners to work professionally in the US. It is a non-immigrant visa status under which the individual can work in the US for only a specified term. However, they can apply for extension of their stay. The visa is for three years and the individual can get an extension of three additional years allowing him/her to stay in the US for six years.

What Can Go Wrong?

While employers and employees both need to benefit from an immigration lawyer, employees need it more. Sometimes, individuals who come to the US in hopes to change their lives can come across their worst nightmares. The company that applies for their visa and employs them refuses to pay their salaries or asks them to perform duties that might not be in their job description. A person who comes to the US for the first time and faces this situation would not know how to handle it.

On most occasions, employees choose to remain quiet and change employers—they consider it the easy way out. However, changing employers often gets them in even deeper trouble. The unsuspecting employee ends up breaching a contract and facing a lawsuit from the company to pay thousands of dollars.

The company might sue the employee for not working for the number of months that were on the signed contract. While California, and as result companies in San Jose, can write such agreements where employees can be penalized for breaching the contracts, they can’t always justify their own actions too.

An Immigration Lawyer to the Rescue

In situation where the employee was not given his salary and made to do tasks that were not in his/her job description, it seems funny and shocking at the same time to be getting sued by the same employer. If the employee with the H1B visa does not take action immediately, they can get in a huge trouble. It only makes sense at that point to hire an immigration lawyer. Not only will the lawyer save the employee from an undeserved lawsuit, but also have the company penalized for their dishonest conduct.

If you live in San Jose and someone you know is in such a situation, call Earl Jiang at 866-263-7866 immediately. Keep in mind that your timely action matters crucially because your H1B visa is only limited to three years.

An Alameda Immigration Lawyer to Help You with Complex Californian Immigration Laws

By admin | September 15, 2018

The clash between California and the federal government over immigration laws is not hidden from the public anymore. As California continues to disharmonize with the federal government on undocumented immigrants, understanding the law becomes more difficult for employers, law enforcement departments, educational institutes, etc. It won’t be wrong to say that even the immigrants face some tough situation as they attempt to wrap their heads around the law when interacting and transacting with various local institutions as customers, students, and citizens.

Here is a basic snapshot of what Californian immigration laws look like and how having an Alameda immigration lawyer on your side can help you out of an unfriendly situation.

Employers and Immigrant Workers

Employers are faced with the biggest dilemma they ever have while employing undocumented immigrants and complying with federal law when it comes to immigration agents visiting their business for investigation. State law will penalize employers that let immigration agents interrogate their workers or go into their records without a legal warrant. If they allow investigations without warrants, employers can face penalties ranging from $2,000 to $10,000. On the other hand, ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) plans to increase the pace of its investigations to capture illegal immigrants in California since the state has become a Sanctuary State.

The Sanctuary State Law

That’s where the state and the federal governments have come head to head. California has become a sanctuary after the enactment of California Value Act that protects investigations and detaining of undocumented immigrants by federal agencies. With this law, federal agents cannot keep an individual detained until they have a federal warrant or proof of that individual’s felony. The law also prevents the state law enforcement officers from handing over undocumented immigrants to federal agencies unless that individual is a sex offender or has committed a crime in the last 15 years.

The crimes for which an individual can be given into federal custody have to be one of those that appear on California’s Trust Act.

Law Pertaining to E-Verify

E-verify, an internet-based system for validating an individual’s eligibility to work as a legal employee is commonly used in many other states whereas California has restrictions on its use. Californian counties and municipalities are not to make private employers follow ordinances pertaining to e-verify. Private employers, however, have the liberty to use or not use the system while hiring employees.

Educational Benefits

California’s DREAM act goes against the laws that many other states follow. Those states have higher rates of tuition for undocumented immigrants and lower tuition rates for their legal residents. The DREAM act allows undocumented immigrants to pay the same tuition fees that any legally residing students of the state pay. These same undocumented immigrant students can take advantage of various grants and aids available from the institutions too.

The Immigration law in California can be extremely confusing, especially when the state and the government are up in arms about each other’s take on undocumented immigrants. If you are an individual, educational institute, employer, etc. from California and the immigration law is confusing you, get in touch with Earl Jiang at 866-263-7866 for immediate assistance.

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