Friday afternoon saw the judicial hammer dropped, as the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a nationwide preliminary injuction against the Department of Homeland Security’s proposed “Public Charge” rule, which was set to take effect in mere days. A much welcome victory on the immigration front, the decision saw[…]
After a longer than usual wait, the October 2019 Visa Bulletin was just released today. It was a bit of a mixed bag, with certain categories experiencing significant advancement, returning to priority dates from earlier this year, and some unanticipated retrogression. The most disappointing development was EB1 India, which only returned to its 1 January[…]
In just a little over a month, on October 15, 2019, the “Public Charge” rules will take effect, and will fundamentally change how USCIS makes public charge determinations for those applying for greencards. The rule will significantly raise the standard for how greencard applicants are judged in their ability to remain “self-sufficient.” It is difficult[…]
On Monday, September 9, 2019, DHS will publish a notice of proposed rulemaking which would eliminate the mandatory 30-day timeline in which USCIS must adjudicate an application for employment authorization submitted by asylum applicants. DHS is also proposing to eliminate the provision requiring applications for renewal EADs to be submitted to USCIS 90 days prior[…]
Yesterday, USCIS issued policy guidance which clarifies and further defines “residence” in regards to citizenship. The policy alert seeks to clarify between residence, which is defined in the INA as the person’s principal actual dwelling place in fact, and physical presence, the actual time a person is physically in the United States. The memo also[…]
The September 2019 Visa Bulletin was released last week, bringing further retrogression in many employment-based preference categories. Most significantly, EB1 India is currently unavailable, meaning that visas are not authorized for anyone under this category regardless of priority date. Moreover, we have received breaking news that, despite the dates listed on this visa bulletin, the[…]
Tomorrow, 7/24/2019, USCIS and DHS will publish the final rule revising EB-5 regulations. Among other changes, the most significant are that the minimum investment amount has been increased from $500k to $900k (although less than the $1.3M that was initially rumored), the standard investment amount has been increased from $1M to $1.8M, and a mechanism[…]
USCIS announced today that it is revising the current naturalization test which, among other things, tests applicant’s knowledge of civics and U.S. history, government, and constitutional values. Earlier this spring, former USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna issued a memorandum instructing USCIS to revise and update the test, and also formalized a decennial (every 10 years) revision[…]
USCIS announced today that it expanding into a fully digital FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) system, becoming the first government agency to do so. As a brief and general overview, FOIA requires, upon request, disclosure of previously unreleased documents and information controlled by the United States Government and its agencies. USCIS’ FIRST system will now[…]
According to the Department of State, the EB-2 and EB-3 Worldwide categories, which have fortunately remained current for quite some time, may experience retrogression in the coming months. The demand in these categories has apparently increased significantly more than anticipated, and may require the imposition of a final action date as early as next month’s[…]