posted on: October 1, 2020
A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday blocked an increase in immigration fees that was due to go into effect this week. The fees were set to go up Friday by an average of about 20% depending on the type of entry being sought. The halted hikes include a $50 fee for asylum applications, the first […]
posted on: September 23, 2020
The Trump administration on Tuesday, 9/22/20, said it is reimposing its “public charge” wealth test for green cards that had been blocked during the pandemic. The 2019 rule, which gives officials more power to deny permanent residency to applicants the government deems rely or could rely on public benefits like food stamps or housing vouchers, […]
posted on: September 23, 2020
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced a temporary final rule to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) by using government-contracted telephonic interpreters for affirmative asylum interviews at no cost to the applicant. This temporary final rule changes for the next 180 days the requirement that asylum applicants who do not speak English […]
posted on: September 21, 2020
In a split decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for four countries can proceed. The fate of nearly 250,000 people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan—and their families—is at stake. The case, Ramos v. Nielsen, was filed in federal district court after […]
posted on: September 14, 2020
USCIS is providing additional flexibility to respond to certain requests. The update below details their new policy. In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we are extending the flexibilities we announced on March 30, 2020, to help applicants, petitioners, and requestors who are responding to certain: • Requests for Evidence; • Continuations to Request Evidence […]
posted on: September 11, 2020
The Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) has issued a new message advising designated school officials (DSOs) that it will soon begin issuing notices to F-1 students participating in optional practical training (OPT) if the student does not mention information on the employer in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). Per the message, […]
posted on: September 11, 2020
The U.S. Department of State has announced on September 9, 2020 that due to a federal court order issued on September 4, 2020, consulates may resume processing fiscal year 2020 diversity visa (DV) cases to the degree that “local health conditions and post resources allow.” However, consulates will only be able to process these cases […]
posted on: August 28, 2020
On Tuesday, USCIS cancelled its plan to furlough 70% of its workforce. However, since USCIS is still low on funding, the savings will now come from spending cuts that will affect operations. The deputy director of policy for USCIS said that the agency was avoiding these cuts, but since it has not received emergency funding from Congress, […]
posted on: August 25, 2020
From the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today provided guidance on how it will implement Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf’s July 28 memorandum regarding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. Under USCIS’ implementing guidance, we will reject all initial DACA requests from aliens who have never previously received DACA […]
posted on: August 24, 2020
With approximately 23 million immigrant women and girls in the United States, over half of the foreign-born population is female. Unfortunately, women are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence. Issues such as domestic violence, human trafficking, and exploitation in the workforce present unique challenges to noncitizen women due to the added vulnerability created by their immigration […]
