This webinar is intended for legal service providers who are new to the area of family-based immigration and will focus on the basics of the family visa petition. We will cover what relatives can qualify for family-based immigration and how they fit, and move around the preference categories with events such as marriage, divorce or the naturalization of the petitioner. The discussion will include an overview of the Child Status Protection Act and the rules applying to widows and other beneficiaries when the qualifying relative dies. We will also review how priority dates are established, lost and recaptured, as well as the role of the visa bulletin and what happens when the visa availability date advances or regresses. The webinar will conclude with a brief introduction to the second step in the family immigration process - the adjustment of status under INA 245(a).

Presenters:

• Lourdes Martinez, ILRC Staff Attorney
  Before joining ILRC, Lourdes worked as an immigration attorney at the Tahirih Justice Center in the DC metropolitan area, where she represented immigrant women and girls survivors of gender-based violence on immigration matters. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts from Rice University and her Juris Doctor from the George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC, where she was awarded the JB & Maurice Shapiro Public Service Fellowship for her dedication to public interest law. While in law school, she worked on international human rights litigation involving cases from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean both, with the International Human Rights Clinic at GWU and as a law clerk with the Center for Justice and International Law in San Jose, Costa Rica.
• Erin Quinn, ILRC Staff Attorney
  Erin brings to ILRC over 8 years of experience as an immigration defense attorney and holds a joint degree in law and public policy (JD/MPP) from the University of Michigan. Prior to opening her own practice in 2007, Ms. Quinn represented immigrants as an associate at the Law Office of Robert B. Jobe. Her experience in immigration law and policy includes working as a fellow for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, EU headquarters in Belgium; clerking for the Immigration Court of San Francisco; and guest lecturer at CSU Eastbay.