Our new address is 8000 Towers Crescent Drive, Suite 1350, Vienna, VA 22182.
You can continue to reach Attorney Madeline Ellis at mellis@immigratesmarter.com or 703-340-1441 as our email address and phone number have not changed.
Marty & Ellis is pleased to announce that our Washington, DC area office has a new physical address effective March 1st. We are still in Tysons Corner, but our new building features a larger dedicated office space for our firm and free two hour parking spots that will enable us to better serve our clients. The new office is walking distance from Tysons Corner Metro station on the Silver Line.
Our new address is 8000 Towers Crescent Drive, Suite 1350, Vienna, VA 22182. You can continue to reach Attorney Madeline Ellis at mellis@immigratesmarter.com or 703-340-1441 as our email address and phone number have not changed.
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We just received notification from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv that it has changed some of its procedures for E visa processing effective February 23, 2015 in anticipation of increased visa applications under the E-1 and E-2 treaty visa categories (E-1 is for treaty trade visas and E-2 is for treaty investor visas). We are hopeful that this means that E-2 availability for Israelis is imminent, but there has been no definitive word yet on the date that E-2 applications will be accepted for Israelis. As of today, the E-1 treaty trade category is still the only available E visa for Israelis. Among some of the changes are that E visa applicants for Israeli companies that are already E qualified will now apply for visas through the regular nonimmigrant visa application process and attorneys will no longer be allowed to accompany those visa applicants at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. We will continue to monitor this development and post any updates as they become available.
Here is the full e-mail text from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv: Dear Sir/Madam, In anticipation of increased interest in the E1 and E2 visas in Israel, the E Visa Unit of the U.S. Embassy of Tel Aviv would like to inform you of a change to our procedures. These changes apply to certain E1 and E2 visa applicants only. To date, all E1 and E2 visa applicants have pre-submitted documents and scheduled specific appointments, usually on Tuesday afternoons. You have accompanied certain of the applicants during their interviews. In the future, we will be dividing E visa applicants into two groups. The first group, applicants for companies not yet registered for E1 or E2 visas, will be handled in the same manner as before. The second group, applicants for companies which are already registered for E1 or E2 visas, will be handled differently. Starting February 23, 2015, applicants from this second group will be able to schedule their appointment during our regular non-immigrant visa hours, from 7:45 to 13:10 on most days, Monday through Friday. The applicants will be expected to arrive with proper documentation as always. Another important change is that we will no longer permit legal advocates/company representatives to accompany these applicants to their interviews. This process change helps the U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv align with many consular sections throughout the world. Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this change. Sincerely, E1/E2 Visa Unit Embassy of the United States of America Consular Section 71 Hayarkon Street Tel Aviv 6343229 By Fred Barbash from the Washington Post
A federal judge in Texas last night temporarily blocked the Obama administration’s executive actions on immigration. The judge, responding to a suit filed by 26 Republican-run states, did not rule on the legality of immigration orders but said there was sufficient merit to the challenge to warrant a suspension while the case goes forward. No law gave the administration the power “to give 4.3 million removable aliens what the Department of Homeland Security itself labels as ‘legal presence,’” the judge said in a memorandum opinion. “In fact the law mandates that these illegally-present individuals be removed. The Department of Homeland Security “has adopted a new rule that substantially changes both the status and employability of millions.” The Obama orders would offer a legal reprieve to the undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have resided in the country for at least five years. This would remove the constant threat of deportation. Many could also receive work permits. They would also expand the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that allows young immigrants who arrived as children but are now here legally to apply for a deportation deferral. Some 4 to 5 million undocumented immigrants were said to be potentially eligible to benefit from the executive actions. The administration’s directives announced in November have been vigorously challenged by Republicans in Congress and across the country, who cite them as examples of what House Speaker John A. Boehner has called Obama’s “legacy of lawlessness.” The administration has defended them as routine exercises of presidential authority, made necessary by Congress’ failure to enact comprehensive revisions to U.S. immigration law. U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen in Brownsville strongly disagreed. It was a major, if temporary, defeat for the administration, which argued that the case should be thrown out as meritless, “based on rhetoric, not law.” The immediate impact appeared likely to at least delay the application process, which was to begin Wednesday, for some undocumented immigrants wishing to take advantage of the new policies. Hanen was appointed to the bench by George W. Bush and has been outspoken against the administration’s immigration policies in other cases recently. The White House in a statement early Tuesday defended the executive orders issued in November as within the president’s legal authority, saying that the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress have said federal officials can set priorities in enforcing immigration laws. “The district court’s decision wrongly prevents these lawful, commonsense policies from taking effect and the Department of Justice has indicated that it will appeal that decision,” the statement said. Said Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas: “Today’s ruling reinforces what I and many others have been saying for a long time: that President Obama acted outside the law when he went around Congress to unilaterally change our nation’s immigration laws. Today’s victory is an important one, but the fight to reverse the President’s unconstitutional overreach is not over. The President must respect the rule of law and fully obey the court’s ruling.” Republicans in Congress have threatened to deny funding to the Department of Homeland Security unless the appropriation includes provisions rolling back the immigration orders — amendments certain to be vetoed by Obama, possibly leading to a partial DHS shutdown. Specifically, the lawsuit claimed that the president’s orders unilaterally changed federal immigration law, usurping Congress’s exclusive power to legislate, and violated the president’s constitutional duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” It also said Obama violated the Administrative Procedure Act by not running his orders through the elaborate process of rulemaking — including 90-day notices and comment periods — instead just ramming them through via directives. The administration countered that the states would suffer no harm from the executive orders and thus they had no standing to sue. It argued as well that the executive branch has sufficient power over immigration, including “prosecutorial discretion,” to implement the changes just as it did. Hanen based his temporary injunction on his belief that the administration, in making such a sweeping change to what current law “mandates,” at the very least failed to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act’s provisions on “notice and comment.” He said the case should go forward rather than be thrown out, as the administration has urged. He said it was necessary in the meantime to stop implementation in part because failing to do so could prove costly to the states. They would have to deal with suddenly legalized immigrants who “armed with Social Security cards and employment authorization documents,” would start seeking various government benefits and services. “Once these services are provided, there will be no effective way of putting the toothpaste back in the tube” should the states ultimately prevail on the merits. The order was made public by Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott (R), who filed the suit on Dec. 3, when he was the state’s attorney general. “President Obama abdicated his responsibility to uphold the United States Constitution when he attempted to circumvent the laws passed by Congress via executive fiat,” Abbott said in a statement, “and Judge Hanen’s decision rightly stops the President’s overreach in its tracks. We live in a nation governed by a system of checks and balances, and the President’s attempt to by-pass the will of the American people was successfully checked today.” Reaction from immigrants’ rights groups was swift. “Judge Hanen’s ruling is not permanent and we are confident that it will be repealed in a higher court,” Cristina Jimenez, managing director of United We Dream, a Washington, D.C.-based immigrant advocacy group, told the Los Angeles Times. “Republican attacks like this lawsuit do not scare us, they just focus our resolve to make these programs even more successful.” “We are confident that the higher courts will reject this lawsuit since it has no legal merit and only wastes taxpayer dollars,” the group said in a statement. Link to article available here. February 6, 2015 Huffington Post
If the U.S. jobs data released on the first Friday of every month is starting to sound like a broken record, it's because records continue to be broken. The American economy added 267,000 private-sector jobs in January. That's 59 straight months of consecutive job growth, the longest streak on record by a mile. Our last three months of job growth represent the most job growth in 17 years. Small businesses have been at the forefront of our ongoing expansion, accounting for 81 percent of the net new jobs in January, according to ADP data, which is higher than the historical two-thirds job-creation rate of small firms. Small businesses are also creating opportunities for two important segments of the labor market that have historically struggled: younger workers and immigrants. At its peak, youth unemployment reached 27 percent during the recession -- the highest in the 66 years that the federal government has kept track. Today, that number is down to 19 percent, a significant decline but still three times the national rate. Meanwhile, foreign-born workers have similar unemployment rates as native-born workers, but they are paid 20-percent less. Immigrant-owned firms today employ one in 10 U.S. workers. Immigrant entrepreneurs are twice as likely to start a business as native-born citizens. While they account for 16 percent of the labor force nationally, immigrants make up 28 percent of Main Street Business owners. Immigrants represent 61 percent of all gas-station owners, 53 percent of grocery-store owners, 38 percent of restaurant owners, and 32 percent of jewelry-store and clothing-store owners, according to a recent nonpartisan study. In other words, immigrants are actually creating jobs in neighborhoods where they're needed the most. In so doing, they're contributing to America's entrepreneurial character. The jobs report showed that the construction industry added 39,000 jobs last month. Immigrants have also helped drive these gains. Parag Mehta and Hitesh Kothari have been best friends since fourth grade, growing up together in Gujarat, India. They immigrated to the United States in 1983, became business partners, and bought the oldest hardware store in Connecticut with the assistance of a half-million-dollar SBA loan. Their company began with three workers in the kitchen department. Today, their company, Express Kitchen, employs 140 people and generates $17.5 million in annual revenue while competing against big-box retailers like Home Depot and Lowe's. Headquartered in inner-city Hartford, Express Kitchen has seven locations and is in the process of opening an eighth. In recent years, the company has hired more than 40 low-skilled workers and inner-city youth through a partnership with the local workforce development board to up-skill underemployed workers to assemble and install kitchen cabinets. Today, Express Kitchen is working closely with an SBA counseling partner, their local SCORE chapter, on an aggressive long-term expansion plan in which they are standardizing processes with the goal of opening five more stores and doubling their workforce. It is small businesses like Express Kitchen -- committed to local economic development and urban revitalization -- that are the true unsung heroes of America's economic recovery. They're the driving force behind our job market's string of broken records, and the SBA is committed to helping more entrepreneurs sing the same tune. Follow Maria Contreras-Sweet on Twitter Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration; member of President Obama’s cabinet www.twitter.com/MCS4Biz The Senate just failed to pass a bill to fund Department of Homeland Security by forcing President Obama to undo his executive actions to protect unauthorized immigrants from deportation. One Republican Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) noted with Democrats against the bill. Congress and the President need to agree on a plan to fund DHS sometime before February 27th, when its current funding runs out. If they can't agree on a funding Bill, DHS will be in a technical shutdown - but around 85 percent of the Department will keep coming to work as "essential" government workers or employees of Fee-Funded Agencies. For more information on this update http://www.vox.com/2015/1/15/7553521/republican-dhs-shutdown.
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