General Glossary Terms

In general, you may apply to change your nonimmigrant status as long as you were lawfully admitted into the United States with a nonimmigrant visa, your nonimmigrant status remains valid, you have not committed any crimes that would make you ineligible, and you were not admitted to the United States in one of the following visa categories:

(CPO) An order issued by the court intended to help protect victims of domestic violence and children who have been abused, by requiring that the person who committed the violent act stay a certain distance from the residence. If a CPO is in place, the person who committed the violent act will be at risk for immediate arrest should they return to the residence (even if they were invited) and another violent act takes place.

Refers to the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, the federal law that allows employees, spouses, and dependent children to continue participating in group health insurance plans, at the employee’s expense, when the employer has 20 or more employees, after a “qualifying event” that causes the employee (or dependents) to lose group health coverage. Qualifying events for employees may be a reduction in number of hours worked or termination for reasons other than gross misconduct. Employee coverage may continue for up to 18 months. For spouses or dependent children, COBRA qualifying events may include any of the employee events in addition to employee divorce, death, or eligibility for Medicare. Spouse/dependent child COBRA coverage can continue up to 36 months. Employees of companies with less than 20 employees who participated in a company’s group health plan may be eligible for up to six months of continuation coverage under applicable state laws.

A newer divorce process where both spouses are represented by lawyers but an agreement is created and signed in advance (by both spouses and their attorneys) about the way in which the divorce will be conducted. Collaborative divorce agreements include goals of having spouses and their attorneys meet together to try to negotiate a settlement and participants make a promise not to threaten each other, play games, or end up going to court. If the parties can’t find agreement without ending up in court, Collaborative Law attorneys agree to withdraw from the case, creating financial motivation for them to help the process work. The Collaborative Divorce process is designed to be faster, less expensive, more private, and less confrontational but it may not be appropriate if the spouses are too adversarial or unable to negotiate in good faith.

When two people become legally married by living together for a long period of time. There is no ceremony or license. The couple must intend to be married and present themselves as a married couple for the common-law marriage to be valid. Common-law marriage is valid in eleven states. It is not valid in Ohio. Common-law marriage can only be ended by annulment, divorce, or death.

A short-term loan for financing the cost of construction.

Copyright is protection provided to authors of fixed literary, dramatic, artistic, and musical works as well as some other intellectual works, published and unpublished. The owner of a copyright has the exclusive rights to use the copyrighted work for reproduction, distribution, creating derivative works and public display of the work. Copyright protects the form of expression but not the subject matter, protecting for instance, the way an author described a cat but not preventing anyone else from writing their own description of a cat – as long as it is not copied from an original work. The Library of Congress registers copyrights. Registered copyrights of works created since 1978 last the life of the author plus 70 years. For works "made for hire", the duration of copyright will be 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. Some treaties extend copyright protection in member countries.

The separate business entity created by filing articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State. Corporations are required to follow appropriate corporate tax laws and create and follow Corporate Bylaws that address the appointment of directors, issuance of stock to shareholders, and required meetings and minutes. Corporations can be created as an ‘S’ corporation (function similar to an LLC) or ‘C’ corporation (regular corporation), depending on the number of shareholders and tax considerations. A small business attorney can advise how best to organize and operate a corporation legally.

Also known as the Allocation of Parental Rights and Responsibilities. Custody refers to the legal status within a divorce that details who will be responsible for day-to-day care of the child, with whom the child will live most frequently, who will have the right to make long-term decisions about the child, and when/how often the child will spend time with each parent as well as where the child will attend school. Shared Parenting agreements address the various factors individually, often granting one parent physical custody (meaning the child lives primarily with them but visits the other parent every other weekend and holiday) but having both parents share legal custody (the legal right to make long-term decisions for the child). Sole custody agreements (with one parent holding all physical and legal decision-making power for the child) are unusual but may be awarded if one parent is particularly unfit or incapable of responsibility (i.e. due to drug addiction).