On January 19, 2021, just before the end of his term, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum granting Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for certain Venezuelans for a period of eighteen months. DED is a humanitarian grant...more
The Consent Order and Final Statement (Order) in Subramanya v. USCIS, the case seeking the agency’s issuance of long-delayed Employment Authorization Documents (EADs), has been signed and issued.
Under the Order,...more
The USCIS is in the process of entering a Consent Order to produce, on a specific schedule, Employment Authorization Document (EAD) cards for those 75,000 foreign nationals who have approved employment authorization...more
With a breakdown in talks on the latest COVID-19 stimulus package and with most senators and representatives out of town (though the House has been recalled from vacation to address the U.S. Postal Service crisis), USCIS has...more
There have been rumors floating that USCIS might be selecting more H-1B cap registrations for the FY 2021 cap. Those rumors appear to be true. As of August 14, 2020, registrants have received emails with notifications of...more
The reported failure of USCIS to renew its contract with an outside vendor in June, because it planned to bring all printing of Green Cards in-house, may be the reason foreign nationals who have managed to make it through the...more
Premium processing will resume in stages according to USCIS. Cap-subject H-1B petitions will be included only in the last phase.
June 1, 2020: USCIS will accept requests for premium processing for all eligible Form I-140...more
Due to COVID-19, USCIS field offices have been closed for in-person services since March 18, 2020. The closure will continue until on or about June 4, 2020 when USCIS hopes to re-open to the public. In preparation for...more
In the first bit of relief for individuals waiting for their I-765, Applications for Employment Authorization to be adjudicated and Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) to be issued, USCIS announced that it will start...more
Due to COVID-19, USCIS announced that as of March 20, 2020, it is immediately suspending premium processing service for all Form I-129 and I-140 petitions until further notice. USCIS also said that petitioners that have...more
USCIS has announced that Iranians in the U.S. will not be eligible for extensions of E-1 or E-2 visa status or changes to that status from another visa classification. The announcement comes more than a year after the U.S....more
While Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries await the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion and most Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries also are in limbo, Liberians have been given what appears to be...more
It is no secret that H-1B visa denial rates have been on the rise over the last two years. Recent reporting sheds light on the litigation ensuing from those denials and the impact of denials on H-1B beneficiaries.
Sanduja...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced it is implementing an electronic registration process in the next H-1B visa lottery. Employers seeking to file fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap-subject petitions...more
On December 6, 2019, USCIS announced it is implementing the registration process in the next H-1B lottery. H-1B employers have been awaiting confirmation of and details regarding the new registration process for H-1B...more
Having focused on enforcement and illegal immigration, the Trump Administration has recently turned to legal immigration. The new Public Charge rule which will go into effect on October 15, 2019, absent court action, will...more
The Trump Administration has been trying to put an end to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for many countries including: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal and Sudan. Upon legal challenges to TPS termination, the courts have...more
The “Dreamers” have received another reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court.
DACA litigation has been in the news since September 2017, when then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the DACA program would be terminated....more
On May 20, 2019, USCIS will begin premium processing for cap-subject H-1B cases that were filed concurrently with Form I-907 premium processing requests. Under the Premium Processing Service, USCIS guarantees 15-calendar-day...more
President Donald Trump has extended the wind-down period for termination of Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) status for beneficiaries from Liberia from March 31, 2019, to March 30, 2020.
DED, like Temporary Protected...more
Without warning, USCIS announced that as of March 12, 2019, it is resuming premium processing for all H-1B petitions. This means that for an additional fee of $1,410, USCIS will guarantee a 15-calendar day processing time. By...more
USCIS announced on Friday, February 15,, 2019, that it will resume premium processing on Tuesday, February 19, 2019 for H-1B petitions filed prior to December 21, 2018. This follows up on the USCIS announcement at the end of...more
President Donald Trump has announced that the government shutdown is over, for now. He has agreed to sign a short-term spending bill that will re-open the government for three weeks, until February 14, 2019. The bill does not...more
President Donald Trump surprised the immigration community recently with an encouraging tweet about H-1B visa holders: -
"H-1B holders in the United States can rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring...more
USCIS announced that, effective immediately, it is terminating yet another humanitarian parole program. This one is for individuals living in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). ...more