posted on: August 28, 2024
On Aug. 26, 2024, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, in Texas v. Department of Homeland Security, issued an administrative stay, preventing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from granting parole in place under Keeping Families Together for 14 days. To comply with the district court’s administrative stay, USCIS will, until further notice: Not grant any pending parole […]
posted on: August 19, 2024
WASHINGTON—The Department of Homeland Security today announced a Federal Register notice to implement Keeping Families Together, a process for certain noncitizen spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens. This is part of an effort to promote the unity and stability of families, increase the economic prosperity of American communities, strengthen diplomatic relationships with partner countries in the region, […]
posted on: June 25, 2024
New Policy Opens H-1B Visa Path for DACA Recipients Jun 21, 2024 In a significant move aimed at benefiting U.S.-educated foreign nationals, the Biden administration announced a new policy Tuesday to streamline the work visa process for college graduates, including DACA recipients. ARTICLE AT A GLANCE Graduates from U.S. colleges and universities, including DACA recipients (Dreamers), […]
posted on: June 18, 2024
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced actions to promote family unity in the immigration process, consistent with the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to keeping families together. This announcement utilizes existing authorities to promote family unity, but only Congress can fix our broken immigration system. Under current law, noncitizens married to a U.S. citizen may apply […]
posted on: June 7, 2024
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration took decisive new action to strengthen border security, announcing a series of measures that restrict asylum eligibility, and significantly increase the consequences for those who enter without authorization across the southern border. These extraordinary steps, which will be in effect during times when high levels of encounters exceed our ability to […]
posted on: May 22, 2024
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is issuing guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual on family-based immigrant visa petitions (including Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative and, in limited situations, family-based Form I-360, Petition for Amerasian, Widow(er), or Special Immigrant). This includes explaining how we handle correcting approval notice errors and requests for consular processing or adjustment of status, as well as routing procedures for approved petitions. A petitioner submitting Form I-130 must inform USCIS of the […]
posted on: March 12, 2024
USCIS has begun implementing a streamlined process for Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, to provide Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) more efficiently to eligible refugees after they are admitted into the United States. This streamlined process shortens the wait time for an EAD to approximately 30 days instead of several months. All individuals admitted into the United States […]
posted on: February 1, 2024
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a final rule to adjust certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees for the first time since 2016. The final rule will allow USCIS to recover a greater share of its operating costs and support more timely processing of new applications. The final rule is the result of […]
posted on: January 26, 2024
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced an update to its Policy Manual providing that USCIS, in our discretion and under certain conditions, may excuse a nonimmigrant’s failure to timely file an extension of stay or change of status request if the delay was due to extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of the applicant or petitioner. The update clarifies […]
posted on: January 23, 2024
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today issued policy guidance on how we analyze an employer’s ability to pay the proffered wage for immigrant petitions in certain first, second, and third preference employment-based immigrant visa classifications, including instances when the sponsored worker is changing employers. Generally, employers seeking to classify prospective or current employees under the first-, second-, […]
