Steven Pham's Legal Blog

 
Once a year, Vietnamese from all over the world gather to celebrate Lunar New Year in which it is known as “Tết” in Vietnamese. Traditionally, Tet is the time that friends and families gather together to celebrate our ancestry, to remember and be thankful for what we have, and to celebrate a New Year […]

[Read more →]

Suffering from daily ridicules from all sides for his failure on the War on Terror and Iraq, President Bush attempted, at the 11th hour, to leave the office with some sense of accomplishment pushed for tougher enforcement of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization law. The result, as in all of Mr. Bush’s decisions, is disastrous. […]

[Read more →]

Today, January 17, 2008, the House’s Immigration Subcommittee will hold a special hearing regarding the Naturalization Backlog problems.  In 2007, there were approximately 1.4 million persons applied for U.S. citizenship, doubling the number from 2006. The increase in naturalization applications, as well as the long FBI background check processes, pushed back the waiting list for naturalization […]

[Read more →]

In 1983, my family and I escaped from Vietnam and came to the U.S. in 1984 as refugees.  We were fortunate and were able to benefits from services from the Social Security Administration within our first year of arrival.  Thousands of refugees that entered the U.S. in recent years, such as those that were from […]

[Read more →]

On January 10, 2007, I appeared on behalf of our client on a construction defect cause of action.  Our client’s house was being built by the Defendant over an extended amount of time.  Defendant failed to complete the project in a timely manner and defrauded our Client $82,000 in building cost.  In addition, Defendant failed to […]

[Read more →]

On January 3, 2008, USCIS announced that they have reached the numerical limit for H-2B Temporary Worker Visas.  Each year, Congress authorized 66,000 H-2B visas for foreign nationals to come to the U.S. to work on a temporary basis. 

H-2B nonimmigrant visas are reserved for temporary/seasonal workers.  The workers cannot stay past 365 days unless there […]

[Read more →]

On January 4, 2008, USCIS announced that they will continue suspending premium processing for religious worker (R-1) visas until July 8, 2008. USCIS previously suspended premium processing for R-1 on June 18, 2007 for an initial 6-months period. Premium processing is the process in which USCIS allows certain nonimmigrant employment applicants to file an expedited […]

[Read more →]

Over the past seven years, my friends and I have gone deep sea fishing in a number of areas in the Gulf of Mexico.  Although I have to admit that fishing is hit & miss on many occasions.  There are a few good spots that we have recorded in the GPS.  Unfortunately, we have not […]

[Read more →]

Today, construction began in our Houston office.  We are moving to the new 5,000 square feet office next door that will support our growing family and affiliated staffs.  The expected finish and move in date is February 1, 2008.  At the same time, we have just signed the contract for the 2500 square feet Long Beach […]

[Read more →]