Legal Insights

The AAO recognized the merit of earthquake research but found insufficient evidence connecting this proposed endeavor to broader prospective effects.

A lawyer’s NIW appeal failed because the initial filing lacked a specific endeavor and later submissions materially changed the proposed work.

A California abandonment order did not resolve conflicts in school, travel and financial records. The AAO separately dismissed reopening and reconsideration.

The BIA held that returning to the country of claimed persecution on advance parole can abandon asylum, withholding, and CAT claims absent compelling reasons.

L. Ramirez overruled the special U-visa continuance presumption and applied the general good-cause framework to an uncertain adjudication timeline.

The AAO held that an SIJ petition received on the petitioner’s twenty-first birthday was untimely, despite a qualifying state-court judgment.