General Information on Immigration Law

As with the field of medicine, law can get fairly specific when it comes to subdivisions. When it comes to immigration law, therefore, there are immigration lawyers and whole law firms that work on the behalf of helping immigrants understand their legal rights or lack thereof. However, it is important for applicants to be judicious in the way they approach selecting a law firm, especially if they are inexperienced with using a lawyer's services or understanding English. Consequently, non-residents and residents must do their research in finding a firm to assuage their legal concerns. One way to go about beginning a search for legal representation is over the Internet.

Through search engine and global positioning technology, which some search engines provide free of charge, it will be possible to identify and locate a number of law firms in your area that can better serve you, or at the very least, help you to weed out those which are not amenable to your cause. If a computer is not available or its use is not familiar to the applicant, checking the Yellow Pages of a municipal phone book might also be the ticket to creating a list of candidates for law firms you will consider consulting.

Even the U.S. embassy or consulate with which you secured a visa to the United States might be able to offer the name of an attorney or firm recommended by a patron, and additionally, the American Bar Association and American Immigration Lawyers Association should have lists of accredited, trustworthy firms which you can, if nothing else, contact for more information.

While there are many regularly updated online resources for the casual immigration law student, others who are not comfortable with Internet research and have had issues with the fidelity of the information they have previously obtained over the Internet may want to enlist the aid of print sources of information, even if they are unchanging. They may even wish to purchase each new edition of an individual guidebook to be certain that they are in possession of the most up-to-date facts. Popular book series such as "Immigration Law and Procedure in a Nutshell" might therefore be a good investment even for the long-term.

One major reason is that these print guides are often quite comprehensive in the amount of information they provide for the reader, including a historical perspective that allows the user to appreciate how broad the branch of law is that they are trying to understand. Besides, the history of important changes in national and international immigration law certainly will not change from edition to edition. Still, these guides are only general sources of information, and are really meant as more of a jumping off point than an actual substitute for qualified legal representation.

Induction into American society centuries ago was as relatively simple as stepping off a boat at an established port of entry, clearing medical examinations, and receiving certification of one's ability to legally live in the United States. Imaginably, the steps and safeguards built into the modern immigration process are much stricter and numerous than before, with new agencies being founded to process the flow of information between the different tiers of government and new qualifications for permanent residence and visa for travelinternational bordersdeportationwork

Seeing as immigration law is a pretty narrow field relative to the general pursuit of law and compared with other topics that are more accessible to a mainstream audience (e.g. entertainment news), it may be rather hard to find information on immigration law news by only rifling through the newspaper. The global proliferation of information and the sheer number of sources professing to be experts on individual topics has grown by leaps and bounds alongside advances in technology.

Thus, to stay ahead of the curve, the consumer must seek out multiple ways of getting new information on a subject such as immigration law. Certainly, reading news stories from viable news sources is not impossible over the Internet; on the contrary, the speed of Internet searches allows for a quicker consolidation of relevant information, and what's more, this news can be automatically sent to your E-mail or mobile communications device using simple syndicated feeds.

Blogs, while not an official news source and, consequently, at risk of be factually inaccurate, nonetheless penetrate the more diplomatic aspects of the news and allow you to view current events from a different viewpoint, enhancing your understanding of the subject matter. Social networking, while generally being less informative by virtue of character limits and likewise subject to opinion and bias, is yet faster than its cohorts and is often utilized by official organizations to promote their news and services.

The issue of illegal immigration in our country is one that is already complex given its moral and legal aspects. The language of the law further creates a sense of complexity; for instance, an immigrant and an alien may be two different classes of foreign-born individuals. Illegal immigrants and criminal immigrants, too, are not one in the same. In the way there is a distinction between immigration law and

Two terms that also incorrectly get inflated are "anti-immigration" and "anti-illegal immigration". One can be a proponent of immigration and yet still an opponent to illegal immigration on the simple basis of one satisfying the conditions of law and one failing to. An expansive 2005 bill on immigration branded as anti-immigration legislation called for illegal immigrants, regardless of other criminality, to be mandatorily detained and deported by authorities and prohibited pro-illegal sympathizers from aiding them.

The bill, which stood to affect millions of immigrants if passed into law and prosecuted to its full extent, never became official for a number of reasons. H.R. 4437, as the bill was officially termed, angered members of the Mexican and Latino communities, of which a majority of illegal aliens are members, as they saw the motion as a means of criminalizing the desire of undocumented immigrants for a better life.

Those lawmakers whose constituencies contain large numbers of these populations, too, might nominally have rejected the bill for fear they would alienate those voters. There are other logistical concerns with such strict enforcement of immigration law, namely the cost of these measures, the risk that legal immigrants could wrongfully be detained amidst the enthusiasm, and the idea that undocumented aliens are an immeasurable part of the work force.

With all the statutes, amendments and corollaries inherent in law, it can be difficult to navigate this field without a substantive reference book, even for a legal professional. Keeping this in mind, while you make take a hit financially in purchasing a print handbook on immigration law, the time you save in having an easy-to-use, comprehensive resource at hand may be worth more than your initial deposit.

One element of a good immigration law handbook is dictionary definitions for some of the more obtuse terms, hopefully contained in a glossary and/or bolded or italicized within the text to pop out to the reader. To break up the text, easy-to-follow notes to the reader are also prudent, especially when an immigration applicant chooses to represent him- or herself. Moreover, if possible, a country-by-country list of

Regardless of one's stance on illegal immigration, chances are they have some viewpoint on how reform of immigration should be addressed. Whether the individual calls for zero tolerance, full allowance or a compromise of various components, certain key issues under the larger issue of illegal immigration are universal.

Obviously, for people to enter the country illegally, they must cross our land and maritime borders illegally, so border patrol is a topic of considerable concern. While security of the nation's international boundaries is vital, and fortifying the protective measures of those boundaries is a positive thing, a trade-off exists in the federal funding and local law enforcement resources that stand to be diverted by an intensification of immigration law enforcement.

Another area of interests lies with employers who make use of illegal labor, sometimes exclusively. Between the two sides, there are varying views on the necessity of fining employers who resort to such methods and questions made by some about how many jobs undocumented aliens are really taking away from the American workforce. The idea of an amnesty program or other path to citizenship is yet another point of contention, with fervent conservatives generally crying foul over affording any benefits to illegals whatsoever.

Through all of this debate and with whatever happens with immigration reform, the United States government hopes to work together with Mexico to help them secure their borders and aid the convalescence of their economy to make illegal immigration less of an incentive.

Immigration Law and Disease

When America first got word of the global HIV/AIDS situation in the 1980's, little was understood about the disease and how it is transmitted. Much stigmatization of those individuals who suffered and died from complications of AIDS occurred. Although we have not found a cure for HIV and AIDS, we realistically know much more about these conditions, specifically with regard to their origins and treatment for their symptoms.

It is therefore somewhat surprising that it was only relatively recently that restrictions were taken lifted that barred HIV-positive individuals from legally immigrating to the United States. Such restrictions were made as amendments 23 years ago to the Immigration and Naturalization Act, and this reversal corrected a policy that was, at best, ill-informed, and at worst, blatantly prejudicial.

In terms of the United States' place in rescinding the HIV ban, in truth, it is still late compared to many others' decisions. Nevertheless, there are other countries that still have yet to do away with restrictions on HIV-positive travelers: China, Brunei, Qatar, Yemen, Russian, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the Sudan, and Papua New Guinea.

While it may seem as if the sacrament of marriage should be impervious to the reaches of the law, this institution is very much a legal distinction in the United States and is taken very seriously by the federal government.

Consequently, there are rules specified by the government concerning the assimilation of a foreign-born national to the country through marriage, despite outdated conceptions of the green card (another name for the U.S. Permanent Resident Card, a symbol of permanent residency) being a fast track to completing the naturalization process. With an application for a visa, a bona fide spousal or fiancé relationship must exist, which much be evidenced in an interview with both the alien and the U.S. citizen alongside proper forms, fees, ID, and records (e.g. bank statements) that would signify they live together.

Also, before becoming a lawful permanent resident, an individual who acquired the ability to live on American soil through marriage must submit and application to remove the conditions on their residence.