In this blog, I have written a lot about the visa waiver program – on September 26, 2010,  October 31, 2010, January 16, 2011, and January 29, 2011  – and written other places, such on the ILW website  and the now defunct Immigration Law Today magazine.  I have also litigated the issue. The conclusion from all this writing and analysis is that for six years aliens and attorneys have been on notice, at least in the the 9th Circuit, that when…

Appealing a case denied by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can be quite expensive. If a visa is denied, reopening, reconsidering, or appealing costs $630 – often as much or more than the fee for the underlying benefit denied. The denial of a naturalization application is appealable with a fee of $650.  The total fee for an application to naturalize is $680. When I think of appealing, my first instinct is to think that there is an ambiguity in the…