We are proud to announce that our very own Ellen Sullivan is set to be recognized as a Top Lawyer in a forthcoming issue of Boston magazine. Her name will stand alongside those of nearly 1,000 esteemed lawyers, a selection made by Boston Magazine’s Top Lawyers.
Congratulations to our Founding Attorney Ellen Sullivan on being selected as a 2023 Thompson Reuters Super Lawyer!
Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence, is filed by conditional permanent residents who obtained their green cards through marriage to a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. The form is used to request the removal of the conditions on their residency status and to obtain a permanent green card that is valid for 10 years.
In some cases, conditional permanent residents may be unable to file Form I-751 jointly with their spouse because of divorce, abuse, or other reasons beyond their control. In these situations, they may be eligible for an I-751 waiver, which allows them to file the petition without the cooperation of their spouse.
There are three types of I-751 waivers:
It is important to note that the requirements and criteria for each type of I-751 waiver can be complex and challenging. It is recommended that you seek the assistance of an experienced immigration attorney who can guide you through the process and help you present a strong case for an I-751 waiver.
If you need to talk to an experienced immigration attorney. We’ve helped hundreds of people traverse the complicated immigration and citizenship process. We would love to help you as well. Call (617-272-7980) or email hello@cambridgeimmigrationlaw.com to get in touch.
BOSTON, MA – March 27, 2023 – The Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts (WBA) held its Annual Meeting and New Lawyer Reception on March 23, 2023 at Suffolk University Law School.
The WBA is pleased to welcome Jessica Babine as the organization’s incoming President. Jessica is a partner at Cornetta Babine LLC where she practices civil litigation and real estate in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Prior to forming Cornetta Babine LLC, Jessica served as lead New Hampshire counsel at a national law firm’s Boston office focusing on business litigation and before that at a local Massachusetts firm focusing on worker’s compensation and personal injury cases. Jessica has been active in the WBA since 2011, beginning with the New Lawyers Committee, which she co-chaired from 2016 to 2019. In 2012, Jessica joined the Legislative Policy Committee, co-chairing the LPC from 2016 to 2022. Beginning in 2019, Jessica was elected to the WBA Board of Directors, and she has served as Secretary, Vice President of Operations, and President-Elect during that time. In 2020-2021, Jessica was a member of the Women’s Leadership Initiative. In addition to her WBA activities, Jessica serves as a Board member for the Essex County Bar Association, the North Shore Women in Business, and for her local neighborhood association.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell was the keynote speaker at the Reception that followed. She shared lessons from her life and career and described how the work of the Attorney General’s office intersected with so many issues facing the legal profession, such as reproductive rights, gun rights and violence prevention, and housing issues. She also emphasized the importance of the Women’s Bar Association and expressed a desire to continue to collaborate with the WBA on future initiatives.
At the annual meeting, the WBA also voted on a slate of officers and elected members of the Board of Directors. The organization welcomes the following new and returning officers and directors for 2023-24.
WBA Officers
President: Jessica Babine, Cornetta Babine LLC
President-Elect: Alexandra Mitropoulos, Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP
Vice President of Membership & Statewide Outreach: Kim Donlon, Major, Lindsey & Africa
Vice President of Operations: Julie Dick, Community Legal Aid
Treasurer: Payal Salsburg, Laredo & Smith LLP
Secretary: Emily Robey-Phillips, Holland and Knight LLP
WBA Immediate Past President
Kristy Lavigne, Office of Bar Counsel
WBA Board of Directors
At-Large Directors
Jessica Caamano, Goulston & Storrs PC
Margaret Caulfield, Alkermes, Inc.
Martha Coakley, Foley Hoag
Meghan Cooper, Mass General Brigham
Angie Pageler Cunico, Santander Bank, N.A.
Nicole Forbes, G-P
Heather Gamache, Moriarty Troyer & Malloy LLC
Kate Isley, Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General
Elizabeth Keeley, Butters Brazilian LLP
Gwen Nolan King, Nolan & King LLC
Diana Li, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Jamie Sabino, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
Amy Sennett, Karat
Sarah Sousa, Arrowood LLP
Jenna Ventorino, WilmerHale
Sarah Walsh, Robins Kaplan LLP
Regional Directors
Lesley A. Leonessa, Dell EMC (Greater Boston)
Ellen Sullivan, Cambridge Immigration Law, PC (Middlesex)
The new board brings energy, a wealth of experience in varied legal disciplines, diversity, and a steadfast commitment to advocating on behalf of women’s issues.
Incoming WBA President Jessica Babine remarked, “I am honored to serve as President of the Women’s Bar Association, which has been a formative organization throughout the advancement of my career. Through the WBA, I have gained trusted mentors and friends, and many opportunities for leadership and professional development. My involvement with the WBA has provided me with a deep understanding of the importance of the WBA’s legislative advocacy to promote a fair and just society. I look forward to working with our members in the year ahead to make positive changes for women lawyers and all women in the Commonwealth.
Outgoing WBA President Kristy Lavigne reflected, “It has been an honor serving as President this year. As the world gradually reopened, I am proud of the work that we accomplished this year. I am grateful for the opportunity to have collaborated with so many of our members on issues facing our profession and community, and to have been a voice advancing the full and equal participation of women. Congratulations to Jessica Babine, our new WBA President, and our new Executive Board and Board of Directors, I look forward to continuing our important work with you all.”
Contact:
Jessica Babine
President
Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts
jbabine@gmail.com
Margaret Talmers
Executive Director
Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts
(617) 973-6666
mtalmers@womensbar.org
About the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts
Founded in 1978 by a group of activist women lawyers, the Women’s Bar Association boasts a large membership of women lawyers, judges, policy makers, and law students across Massachusetts. The WBA is committed to the full and equal participation of women in the legal profession and in a just society. The WBA works to achieve this mission through committees and events and by developing and promoting a legislative agenda to address society’s most critical social and legal issues. Other WBA activities include networking and professional development, drafting amicus briefs, studying employment issues affecting women, encouraging women to enter the judiciary, recognizing the achievement of women in the law, and providing pro bono services to women in need through its sister organization, the Women’s Bar Foundation. For more information, visit www.womensbar.org.
**This post is from: https://wbawbf.org/content/womens-bar-association-holds-annual-meeting-ushers-new-leadership**
Congratulations on taking the important step of scheduling a Strategy Session with Cambridge Immigration Law. Here’s what you can expect in our upcoming meeting.
First, you will be greeted in-person, on Zoom, or on the phone by our Client Engagement Specialist. Our Client Engagement Specialist will gather contact information about you and anyone else who will be involved in the Strategy Session or who relates to the immigration issues at hand. Then, you will meet one of our experienced immigration attorneys for a one-to-one 45 minute Strategy Session. During the first 5-10 minutes of the Strategy Session, you will let our attorney know why you decided to seek our advice. What is the situation? What are your questions? What happened recently that you decided that you need help now? What are your deadlines?
Then, in the next 10-20 minutes, our Cambridge Immigration Law attorney will ask you many questions about you.
With those questions answered, our attorney will spend the next 15-20 minutes laying out your options for moving forward to achieve your goals. We will answer your questions about how the process will work and advantages and disadvantages of different strategies you can take.
Sometimes, there is nothing that our team or anyone else can do to help, and we will let you know if that is the case. Sometimes, our team cannot help you, but we can connect you with another attorney or other professional who can.
If we offer you representation, our Cambridge Immigration Law attorney will bring you back to our Client Engagement Specialist who will help you open your case with us. You will receive a Representation Agreement by email (or paper if you are in the office) and a credit card authorization link. Our Client Engagement Specialist will help you complete those documents to officially open your case. Once that paperwork is complete, our Client Engagement Specialist will send your case to our Legal Team. About 2-3 business days after your case is opened, our Legal Team will contact you for your Kick-Off meeting and your case will get started!
If you need to talk to an experienced immigration attorney. We’ve helped hundreds of people traverse the complicated immigration and citizenship process. We would love to help you as well. Call (617-272-7980) or email hello@cambridgeimmigrationlaw.com to get in touch.
Our client of many years recently got their Citizenship Application approved! When they came to us, they were a newly engaged couple who had experienced some complications with their Fiancé Visa application. They decided that they couldn’t wait to get married so we filed an I-130 instead. Once their application was approved, we worked with them on the National Visa Center applications and prepared them for the Embassy Interview. Not long after that, the couple was reunited in Massachusetts! A couple of years later we submitted their I-751 application. While their I-751 was still pending we submitted their Citizenship Application. On the day of the interview, both the I-751 and the N-400 were approved! All these years later and the newly engaged couple has grown into a happily married family of four.
If you need to talk to an experienced immigration attorney. We’ve helped hundreds of people traverse the complicated immigration and citizenship process. We would love to help you as well. Call (617-272-7980) or email hello@cambridgeimmigrationlaw.com to get in touch.
This week one of our clients became a US citizen in less than three months. She had been a permanent resident for more than 5 years and decided that it was time to take the next step in her immigration process. We immediately began to work with her and submitted a strong application to USCIS on her behalf. She was scheduled for her Naturalization interview within 3 months. Our attorney prepared our client for her naturalization interview and went with her to the interview. The attorney was with our client through the whole interview process to make sure everything went smoothly. Our client’s naturalization application was approved the same day. She is now a United States citizen, in what we consider record time.
If you need to talk to an experienced immigration attorney. We’ve helped hundreds of people traverse the complicated immigration and citizenship process. We would love to help you as well. Call (617-272-7980) or email hello@cambridgeimmigrationlaw.com to get in touch.
Bona fides are pieces of paper that show that your relationship is real. Real means that you married each other because you wanted a life together, not because one of you paid the other to get married to get a green card. We have a long list of examples of “bona fides” that we give our clients. Sometimes it’s really easy for client to pull together lots of documents because they have years’ worth of joint bank statements, joint leases, joint health insurance, and much more. Sometimes, that’s not the case, and so we work with our clients to figure out what documents relevant to their lives tell their story on paper. In almost all cases, we help you prepare about 5 letters of support from family and friends who can attest that you got married to live a life with your loved one.
If you need to talk to an experienced immigration attorney. We’ve helped hundreds of couples traverse the complicated immigration and citizenship process. We would love to help you as well. Call 617-744-7919 or email hello@cambridgeimmigrationlaw.com to get in touch.
A client was arrested for soliciting a prostitute when he was caught in a sting at a local massage parlor. He successfully defeated the criminal case against him by winning “pre-trial” probation and completing probation without any problems. This meant that he had no criminal conviction. However, all criminal issues must be disclosed on US naturalization applications, and even dismissed cases can cause someone to be denied US naturalization. Here, the client waited until 5 years passed after finishing probation and then wanted to apply for citizenship. He was statutorily eligible, meaning there was no reason that USCIS had to deny his case. On the other hand, there was no reason that USCIS was required to approve his case. He had to prove that despite participating in activity that got him arrested, that he was a good person who deserved to become a US citizen. Our team prepared an excellent application that explained that this man was not defined by one error, was an upstanding member of his community, and deserved the privilege of becoming a US citizen. He was approved on the spot at the interview and sworn in as a US citizen on the same day as the interview.
If you need to talk to an experienced immigration attorney. We’ve helped hundreds of couples traverse the complicated immigration and citizenship process. We would love to help you as well. Call 617-714-4375 or email hello@cambridgeimmigrationlaw.com to get in touch.
Yes!
USCIS considers this information relevant to most family-based applications, and even if it does not seem relevant to an employment-based application, USCIS wants to know all of this information.
Make sure that you have valid, final divorce decrees for all your divorces, even old ones. We have seen cases where clients filed for applications without divorce certificates from the 1970s, and USCIS wants the divorce certificate despite the ancient history that the divorce may be for you. As for children, if you leave them off of immigration applications, not only do you risk getting charged with misrepresentation, but you risk making it difficult, or impossible, for those children to get immigration status through you (if they are eligible).
Do not omit something from your application because it seems to complicate your application. Believe us when we tell you that your application will be much more complicated if USCIS knows, or even suspects, that you omitted information from your applications. We have seen clients’ cases become delayed for years as they try to clean up the simple mess of not disclosing a prior divorce because it was so long ago.
Speak with an immigration attorney about your history and eligibility for a green card before you file any application with USCIS or speak with any USCIS or other US government agent or official about your immigration application.
If you need to talk to an experienced immigration attorney. We’ve helped hundreds of people traverse the complicated immigration and citizenship process. We would love to help you as well. Call 617-676-0503 or email hello@cambridgeimmigrationlaw.com to get in touch.