Aspen, CO Immigration Law Firms & Lawyers

As a U.S. citizen you can file an immigration relative petition for your mother. However, for your mom to be eligible to file an application for "Adjustment of Status" (Green card) in the United States, she would have to show that there was a petition (either filed by a relative or an employer) on or before April 30, 2001. If your mother doesn't have a prior petition which was filed for her or someone else and she was a derivative beneficiary (for example, if a petition was filed for her parents, etc.), then your mom would have to do "consular processing", which means that she would have to leave the U.S. for her immigrant visa interview (which would be done in Mexico). However, since your mom has been in the U.S. and has more than one year of "illegal presence", she would trigger the 10-year bar to reentry into the U.S., once she leaves the U.S. That is, if she leaves the U.S. she would be barred from reentry into the U.S. for 10 years (as a penalty for being in the U.S. illegally for more than 1 year). Usually, a person can file an application for waiver of the 10-year bar to reentry, if the person can show that the 10-year bar would cause "extreme and unusual" hardship to a "qualifying U.S. citizen or Permanent Resident relative." The qualifying relative under immigration law is a U.S. citizen or resident spouse or parent, but not a child. Since children are not considered "qualifying relatives", so your mom wouldn't be able to file a waiver application based on hardship to you. So at this point you should file the petition for your mom, but because she cannot file an application for Greencard and unless she has a qualifying relative, she cannot file an application for waiver of the 10-year bar, she should wait and see if the Immigration Reform passes. But, make sure she does not leave the U.S. because if she leaves the U.S., she would trigger the 10-year bar and without the waiver, she would not be able to return to the U.S.

Under the circumstances that you describe, there is a good possibility that the company hired the employee without proper authorization. Organizations must comply with U.S.C.I.S.'s I-9 documentary requirements which separate documents into three categories. List A documents are those establishing both identity and employment authorization in the US and include US passports, green cards, and foreign passports with I-551 green card stamps. List B contains documents that establish identity such as driver's licenses or state identity cards. List B documents must be submitted in combination with documents on List C that establish work authorization such as unrestricted Social Security numbers, US Citizen identification cards, and employment authorization documents issued by DHS. You can ask your employee to supply at least one document from list B and C to satisfy the I-9 requirements.Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee, Esq.'s (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.  

You may be able to change your status (for example, to that of a student--F1), but if your J1 is subject to the two-year residency requirement, changing status would not eliminate that requirement.  Extending your J1 status would be up to your program sponsor.