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Founded in 1986
Founding Publisher/Editor:
Lito A. Gajilan
Columnists:
Atty. Michael J. Gurfinkel
Joseph G. Lariosa
Gani P. Tolentino
Ted L. Reyes
Atty. Reuben S. Seguritan
Photographers:
Butch Gata
Sheryl Garcia
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not reflect the opinion of the paper nor that of the publisher
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For the past 20 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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To tell us what you think about Filipino Express Online or to comment on the stories published here, E-mail us at Filexpress@aol.com
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Crewmen and EWIs Benefit from Section 245 (i)
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(Editor’s Note: REUBEN S. SEGURITAN has been practicing law for over 30 years. For further information, you may call him at 212 695 5281 or log on to his website at www.seguritan.com)
May crewmen and EWIs (aliens who entered without inspection) adjust their status to that of permanent residents in the US based on their marriage to a U.S. citizen?
Section 245 (a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act says no. They have to go to a U.S. Consulate abroad to apply for an immigrant visa.
But the problem in going abroad is that under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996, aliens who accumulate between six months and one year of unlawful presence in the U.S. after April 1, 1997 are barred from entry to the U.S. for three years. If the unlawful presence is one year or more, they are barred for ten years.
There is a provision in the law, however, known as Section 245 (i) that allows them to apply for adjustment of status if they are the beneficiaries of a family petition or an employment-based petition or labor certification that was properly filed and approvable when filed on or before April 30, 2001. They have to pay a penalty of $1,000.00.
This law which was first enacted in 1994 had previously expired on January 14, 1998. It was revived by the Legal Immigration and Family Equity (LIFE) Act amendments enacted on December 21, 2000.
Physical presence in the U.S. on December 21, 2000 is required if the petition or application was filed after January 14, 1998. Physical presence may be proved by government documents such as driver’s license, income tax records or benefit records. It may also be proved by school records, dated photographs, postmarked envelopes, employment records, rental receipts, utility bills, bank statements or credit card statements.
Section 245 (i) preserves the eligibility of aliens to adjust status at any time. The petition or application that was filed prior to the expiration of the law “grandfathers” them. Their “grandfather” status continues until they get their greencard.
The aliens are not limited to apply for adjustment solely on the basis of their qualifying visa petition or labor certification application. They may also adjust on any other basis for which they are eligible.
Thus, in the case of crewmen and EWIs, they may adjust their status based on the petition of an American citizen wife. The qualifying application may be a petition or labor certification filed by an employer or a family petition filed by a parent of brother.
Their “grandfather” status is not affected by the death of the previous petitioner or the withdrawal or disapproval of the labor certification or employment-based petition.
Until they adjust their status, there is no limit to the number of applications that they may file provided they meet the “grandfather” requirements, including payment of the penalty fee.
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( You think that communicating is a cinch?. Think again. Emailed by a friend, the inter-office memos below are guaranteed to force a rethink.. And some famous “put downs”, which follow the memos, show skillful examples of communicating regrets.. Apparently, so do gravestones -- of all things.. Enjoy – JLM )
Chief Executive Officer memo: “To the Manager -- Today at 11 o’clock, there will be a total eclipse of the sun. This is when the sun disappears behind the moon for two minutes. As this is something that can not be seen everyday, time will be allowed for employees to view the eclipse from the parking lot.
“Staff should meet at ten to eleven, when I will deliver a short speech introducing the eclipse and give some background information. Safety googles will be made available at moderate cost.”
Clear? OK.. Now, read this implementing memo from Manager to Department Heads: “Today at ten to eleven, all staff should meet in the car park. This will be followed by a total eclipse of the sun, which will appear for two minutes. For a moderate cost, this will be made safe with googles. The CEO will deliver a short speech before hand to give all of us some information. This is not something that can be seen every day”.
May be follow-up memo from Department Heads to Floor Managers is even clearer : “The CEO will deliver a short speech to make the sun disappear for two minutes in the form of an eclipse. This is something that can not be seen every day. So, the staff will meet at the car park at ten or eleven. This will be safe if you pay a moderate cost.”
But nothing beats the final memo for clarity. From Floor Managers to Supervisors: “Ten or eleven staff are to go to the car park where the CEO will eclipse the sun for two minutes. This does not happen everyday. It will be safe. As usual, it will cost you.” As they would say in the land of Luciano Pavarotti: : Capito?
The “put down”, or rejection, is even tougher to communicate. But there have been some who excelled in this art, as the examples below show:
The playwright-author George Bernard Shaw, for example, sent this letter to Winston Churchill : "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play. Bring a friend --- if you have one."
Churchill scribbled a one line response: "Regret cannot possibly attend first night. Will attend second --- if there is one." Bingo!.
Then, there was Lady Astor who, in a moment of pique, snapped: “Winston, if you were my husband, I’d put poison into your coffee.” To which Churchill calmly replied: “Madam, if you were my wife, I’d drink the coffee.”
But Churchill firmly denied that he said this of his rival: “An empty taxi arrived at 10 Downing Street. And when the door was opened, ( Clement ) Atlee got out.” But he admitted, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, that Atlee was “a modest man who has much to be modest about.” In fact, he added: Atlee was a “sheep in sheep’s clothing.”
Margaret Thatcher was known as the “Iron Lady.” And these statements explain why. “I don’t mind how much my Ministers talk, as long as they do what I say.” And following a close vote, she added: “We really got a good consensus in the last elections. Consensus behind my convictions.”
Then, two great writers exchanged these barbs. “He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary", William Faulkner cracked about Ernest Hemingway who replied: "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
It was Mark Twain, of course, who counseled young writers they should use “five cent words” in lieu of polysyllables. "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?", he once asked a friend. And when informed of the death of a politician he disliked, Twain admitted: "I didn't attend the funeral. But I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."
Other glittering “put downs” include these: "He has no enemies,” Oscar Wilde said of a colleague. “But he is intensely disliked by his friends." And the New York Times James “Scotty Reston wrote of Richard Nixon "He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them." And the irrepressible Mae West snapped about a suitor: "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, “ Groucho Marx told an over-fussy host “But this wasn't it." And Australian politician Paul Keating dismissed his rival, saying : "He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." Jack Leonard, on the other hand, dismissed a critic saying: "There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure."
But did you know that gravestones “communicate”? Here are some random samples : “Antonio R. Perdices: Age 102. The Good Die Young”. In a Maryland, cemetery: “ Here lies an Atheist -- All dressed up but no place to go”. In a Uniontown, Pennsylvania, cemetery: “Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake. Stepped on the gas instead of the brake.”
This is a lawyer's epitaph in England: “Sir John Strange. Here lies an honest lawyer, and that is Strange”. In a cemetery in Scotland: “On the 22nd of June, Jonathan Fiddle went out of tune.” And in a cemetery in Novaliches : “Remember man, as you walk by, As you are now, so once was I.. As I am now, so shall you be.” ####
( E-mail : juan_mercado@pacific.net.ph )
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Michael J. Gurfinkel has been an attorney for over 26 years, and is an active member of the State Bar of California and New York, as well as the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Immigration Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He has always excelled in school:
Valedictorian in High School; Cum Laude at UCLA; and Law Degree Honors and academic scholar at Loyola Law School, which is one of the top law schools in California.
WEBSITE: www.gurfinkel.com
Four offices to serve you:
LOS ANGELES:
219 North Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California 91203
Telephone: (818) 543-5800
SAN FRANCISCO:
966 Mission Street, San Francisco, California 94103 Telephone: (415) 538-7800
NEW YORK:
60 East 42nd Street, Suite 2101, New York, NY 10165 Telephone: (212) 808-0300
PHILIPPINES:
Heart Tower, Unit 701, 108 Valero Street, Salcedo Village, Makati, Philippines 1227
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