This advanced webinar will walk practitioners through how to handle complex issues in U visa cases, including complicated inadmissibility waivers and practice tips for when and why to apply for an extension of status. The webinar will also discuss current adjudication trends and strategies for responding to RFEs, NOIDs and denials in U visa, U adjustment, and I-929 family petitions.
Presenters
Alison Kamhi is a Supervising Attorney based in San Francisco. Alison is a dedicated immigrant advocate who brings significant experience in immigration law to the ILRC. Alison provides technical assistance through the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day program on a wide range of immigration issues, including immigration options for youth, consequences of criminal convictions for immigration purposes, removal defense strategy, and eligibility for immigration relief, including family-based immigration, U visas, VAWA, DACA, cancellation of removal, asylum, and naturalization. She leads ILRC’s project on driver’s licenses for immigrants, and also conducts frequent in-person and webinar trainings on naturalization, family-based immigration, U visas, FOIA requests, and parole in immigration law.
She has co-authored a number of publications, including The U Visa: Obtaining Status for Immigrant Victims of Crimes (ILRC); Parole in Immigration Law (ILRC); FOIA Requests and Other Background Checks (ILRC); Hardship in Immigration Law (ILRC); Naturalization and U.S. Citizenship (ILRC); Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Other Immigration Options for Children and Youth (ILRC); A Guide for Immigrant Advocates (ILRC); and Most In Need But Least Served: Legal and Practical Barriers to Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for Federally Detained Minors, 50 Fam. Ct. Rev. 4 (2012).
Prior to the ILRC, Alison worked as a Clinical Teaching Fellow at the Stanford Law School Immigrants' Rights Clinic, where she supervised removal defense cases and immigrants' rights advocacy projects. Before Stanford, she represented abandoned and abused immigrant youth as a Skadden Fellow at Bay Area Legal Aid and at Catholic Charities Community Services in New York. While in law school, Alison worked at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, and Greater Boston Legal Services Immigration Unit. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Julia Gibbons in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Alison received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and her B.A. from Stanford University. Alison is admitted to the bar in California and New York. She speaks German and Spanish.
Jess Farb - Directing Attorney, San Francisco Office of the Immigration Center for Women and Children (ICWC)
Jess Farb: Jess joined ICWC’s San Francisco office in 2011. She got her B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her J.D. from American University Washington College of Law in DC. She began U-vangelizing in 2003 during her AmeriCorps VISTA year at Casa Cornelia Law Center in San Diego. Jess represents a diverse group of U visa and VAWA clients, provides national trainings on the U visa, regularly appears on Univision, and is a co-author of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s U Visa Manual. She created and oversees the ICWC U Visa Zoho Database, a national and live web-based platform where over 1000 users share information on changing practices related to the U visa.
Safiya N. Morgan - Senior Staff Attorney, Immigrant Protection Unit at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG)
Safiya N. Morgan is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Immigrant Protection Unit at the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG). Ms. Morgan represents clients in immigration matters including adjustment of status, naturalization, U Visas and self-petitions under the Violence Against Women Act. She is a frequent speaker on immigration law and has provided trainings to various agencies, organizations, and advocates throughout New York City. Prior to joining NYLAG, she represented immigrants in diverse settings including in private practice, as a legal services attorney and in a pro bono capacity. Ms. Morgan earned her B.A., magna cum laude, from Howard University. She earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School, where she served as Article Editor of the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review. Ms. Morgan is fluent in Spanish and is admitted to the state bars of California and Tennessee.