Back from Caracas With a Serious EB-5 Buzz

Things went very well in Caracas for Roger, Carlos, and me.  Our visit this month focused on the "referrers"...the relationships we seek to cultivate with the best lawyers, banks, and financial advisers in Venezuela.  We learned that there is a GREAT DEAL of baloney being promise...

Jose E. Latour Nov 15, 2009

Happy Veterans’ Day from Caracas

Jose E. Latour Nov 11, 2009

Great Article from Fragomen re ICE Petitioner Site Visits

I wrote a few days ago about the sudden surge in unexpected site visits for small and medium sized companies which have been petitioning for non-immigrant workers.  In researching this, I found a GREAT article which was recently published by brilliant folks at Fragomen.  I encourage you to...

Jose E. Latour Nov 04, 2009

Thank you, thank you…

...for having the courtesy to comment on the video blog via my personal email as opposed to trackbacks.  All the suggestions regarding audio, camera placement, liposuction and Botox are being taken under consideration.Perhaps after you are all over the Jose the Vidiot part of this, I will actua...

Jose E. Latour Nov 04, 2009

Your Enforcement Dollars at Work

Listen up: recent chatter on AILA InfoNet as well as recent reports suggest a new targeted effort aimed at small company NIV petitioners.  Not only have there been recent adjudications which seem to ignore all prior policy on H-1Bs issued by companies in which the petitioner has an interes...

Jose E. Latour Oct 27, 2009

“Give a Damn” Lawyering

If you count my time as a visa officer in the State Department, I have been immersed in immigration law for 22 and a half years now.  I was thinking about the lawyers I've met over that time, and they range between the Jedi Masters of immigration law to public menaces who should be disbarred retroac...

Jose E. Latour Oct 05, 2009

Cause and Effect: Illegal Cuban Migration is Down

The Miami Herald reported this morning that the number of Cubans attempting to illegally enter the U.S. has dropped dramatically in the past year.  Based upon what the U.S. Coast Guard has seen, the reason is that "fewer undocumented Cubans are leaving the island for the United States, not...

Jose E. Latour Sep 29, 2009

EB-5 Investor Visas: Congressional Intent Manifested 20 Years Later

The following is an excerpt from the testimony of distinguished immigration attorney Stephen Yale-Loehr before the U.S. Senate's Committee on the Judiciary, July 22, 2009:"Congress created the fifth employment-based preference (EB-5) immigrant visa category in 1990 for immigrants seeking t...

Jose E. Latour Sep 25, 2009

Rethinking “Ineffective Assistance” of Immigration Counsel

Yesterday I wrote about the astoundingly high percentage of immigration clients who walk through my door after having been ripped off, defrauded, or simply incompetently represented by an attorney, notario, or immigration consultant.  I told you that based upon what I've seen so far in 200...

Jose E. Latour Sep 24, 2009

When it Really is the Immigration Lawyer’s Fault

Over the course of the past two decades of legal practice, I've observed a trend which, frankly, reflects poorly on my profession as an immigration attorney.  First, as a consular officer in Mexico, I was astounded almost daily at both the regularity of fundamental legal mistakes...

Jose E. Latour Sep 23, 2009