Monthly Minute | Design Patents
The Department of Homeland Security recently published a Final Rule in the Federal Register establishing a filing fee increase that will go into effect on April 1, 2024. The new fee schedule significantly increases several...more
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has put forth a Proposed Rule in January 2023 (“Proposed Rule”), suggesting fee increases and other modifications. Under this proposal, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services...more
Last January I posted about "An Unwelcome Update to Start 2023: USCIS Proposing Rule to Raise Filing Fees; Set Specific Filing Fees for Different Types of I-129 Filings". That unwelcome proposal to start 2023 may become an...more
Increases to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS’s) immigration fees are all but guaranteed as the White House reviews the agency’s final proposed fee schedule. The agency is working to publish the...more
USCIS has proposed raising its filing fees – and the burden of those increased fees will fall primarily on employers large and small. For example, the filing fee for an H-1B visa would be raised by 70% from $460 to $780....more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years — and this past...more
On January 4, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a Notice of Prospective Rulemaking proposing a sweeping fee hike for immigration services across the board. The proposed fee increases range between...more
On January 4, 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would increase fees for specific immigration and naturalization benefit requests. The department’s U.S....more
On January 4, 2023, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a proposed rule seeking 60-day comment on proposed changes to the fee schedule for benefit requests before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services...more
At the beginning of each fiscal year, U.S. government agencies announce their regulatory agendas, which guide the agencies’ future actions. Here are the most relevant short and long-term regulatory changes that have been...more
The USCIS filing fee increases that were proposed last summer will not be implemented. In August 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a new filing fee rule in the Federal Register that raised USCIS...more
On October 1, 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law a stopgap spending measure to fund the U.S. government through December 11, 2020. The spending measure includes a provision titled “Emergency Stopgap USCIS...more
As we reported previously, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was due to increase filing fees by approximately 20 percent across many filing types, including new fees on asylum and additional fees for applicants...more
On September 29, 2020, Judge Jeffrey S. White of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a nationwide preliminary injunction enjoining the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) proposed...more
A federal court has temporarily barred the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from implementing a rule that would have significantly increased many immigration application filing fees. The rule was set to take effect...more
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will implement a new fee schedule on October 2, 2020 to account for increased costs in adjudicating immigration applications and petitions. The new fee schedule also ushers in...more
On August 3, 2020, USCIS published a final rule that will significantly change forms and increase fees for certain immigration and naturalization benefit requests effective October 2, 2020. Any application, petition, or...more
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is poised to implement new filing fees on October 2, under regulations published in the Federal Register on August 3. However, two lawsuits were filed in federal court about a...more
Updates to USCIS Policy on New Forms, Premium Processing, and Filing Fee Increases Take Effect on October 2, 2020 - As previously reported in Epstein Becker Green’s August 2020 Immigration Alert, U.S. Citizenship and...more
On August 3, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a final rule that makes sweeping changes to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) fee schedule. It also removes certain fee exceptions,...more
USCIS Will Increase Filing Fees as of October 2, 2020 - On July 31, 2020, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) announced it will increase filing fees effective October 2, 2020. The fee increases will...more
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration continues to install stringent measures that will impact employers hiring foreign national temporary workers. Fee Increases - On July 31, the Department...more
Effective October 2, 2020, filing fees for certain non-immigrant, immigrant, and naturalization benefit requests will be adjusted to help meet U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) operational needs. As a...more
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently issued its much anticipated Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy memorandum titled, “Reconsideration of the June 15, 2012 Memorandum Entitled ‘Exercising...more
In recent years, if you have filed a petition for an H-1B professional worker or an application for your foreign national fiancé, you may have noticed more delays, more requests for evidence, and even more denials of cases...more