On Friday a Federal Judge issued a nationwide preliminary injunction enjoining USCIS from implementing its August 2018 Unlawful Presence Memo affecting F, J, and M students and exchange visitors. The memo implemented a policy where F, J, and M nonimmigrants, and their dependents, would begin to accrue unlawful presence from the moment they violated the[…]
President Trump issued a memo yesterday proposing sweeping restrictions on asylum seekers at the Mexican border. Chief among these restrictions and changes are charging fees for asylum applications, barring those who entered or attempted to enter the U.S. unlawfully from employment authorization until their asylum application has been granted, and ensuring adjudication of asylum applications[…]
We are thrilled to introduce our associate attorney Luka Jurić. A graduate of University of Washington, he is an experienced immigration lawyer who has specific expertise in dealing with current challenges in employment-based immigration. He is bright, hardworking, and his sense of humor always brings a laugh to our office when we need it the[…]
USCIS announced recently the issuance of policy guidance clarifying that violations of federal controlled substances laws are generally a bar to establishing good moral character, an essential prong for naturalization applications. This applies even in states that have decriminalized and/or legalized medicinal and recreational marijuana under relevant state laws. Copied from USCIS: USCIS[…]
In the article below, Jill Scott, Associate General Counsel at the Allen Institute, shares her firsthand experience as a volunteer attorney with WIDEN’s pilot program. Jill explains the motivation behind her involvement in immigration defense, her personal experience defending asylum seekers held in detention, and the way that WIDEN’s program enabled her, a busy[…]
Today the White House issued a memo with the stated purpose of combating high nonimmigrant visa overstay rates. The memorandum gives broad authority to the Secretary of State, Attorney General, and Secretary of Homeland Security to identify countries with high rates of B-1/B-2 visa overstays and provide recommendations of actions to reduce overstays, including, but[…]
USCIS has announced that, on May 1st, certain Israeli nationals lawfully present in the United States will be eligible to change status to E-2 classification. Copied from USCIS: Certain Israeli nationals who are lawfully present in the United States will soon be able to request a change of status to the E-2 treaty[…]
Below is a list of policies and regulations that USCIS has enacted since Buy American and Hire American (BAHA) went into effect. Despite its seemingly benign and lofty ideals of “[protecting] economic interests of U.S. workers” and “[preventing] fraud and abuse” BAHA’s reality has been little more than furthering the not-so-secret policy of this administration[…]
The May 2019 Visa Bulletin was just released. EB1 all countries is disappointingly still not current, and shows no signs of becoming so any time soon. However, the date for filing employment-based visa applications for EB1 all countries finally showed some significant movement, advancing about three months to 1 September 2018, after having not moved[…]
USCIS announced on Friday additional guidance for the adjudication and evaluation of spousal petitions involving minors, in the form of a Policy Alert updating the Adjudicator’s Field Manual. These additional evaluation factors appear to be limited in scope to only spousal petitions involving minors, but with the current administration clamping down on legal immigration at[…]