posted on: February 5, 2021
President Biden will implement a multi-pronged plan to ensure safe, lawful, and orderly migration to the United States. The administration will examine the root causes of migration to better understand what causes people to flee their homes. It will also collaborate with foreign governments, international organizations, and nonprofits to build other countries’ capacity to provide […]
posted on: February 4, 2021
President Joe Biden has frozen for 60 days last-minute rules from the Trump administration that would allow only higher-wage foreign workers to be employed in the U.S. Under a final rule issued Jan. 8 by the Homeland Security Department, only the highest-paid applicants to the H-1B visa program — which allows companies to temporarily employ […]
posted on: February 3, 2021
Hundreds of children are still separated from their families in the aftermath of Trump’s zero tolerance policy. Government officials had no plan to keep track of families after the initial separations, making reunification efforts even more difficult. Biden’s executive order establishes the Family Reunification Task Force, which will work to reunite families after years of […]
posted on: February 1, 2021
People who need access to their government immigration records scored a huge victory in the Nightingale et al. v. USCIS case on December 17. A judge ruled that a nationwide class of individuals should have access to their immigration files—called A-Files—within the timeframes outlined in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) statute. A-Files contain records of interactions […]
posted on: January 29, 2021
USCIS announced that, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the agency is extending the flexibilities it announced on March 30, 2020, to assist applicants, petitioners, and requestors who are responding to certain requests for evidence, continuations, notices of intent, and motions to reopen, among other things. In addition, USCIS will consider a Form I-290B or Form […]
posted on: January 25, 2021
On his first day in office, President Biden took significant steps towards undoing the harm of the Trump administration’s immigration policies—and reforming our punitive and inhumane enforcement system. In response to years of work by immigrants and advocates, Biden quickly signed a series of executive actions related to immigration. Here is a summary of eight […]
posted on: January 22, 2021
In early February, U.S. Embassy Kabul will begin a phased resumption of immigrant visa interviews. The initial phase will involve rescheduling applicants who had their interviews canceled due to the U.S. Embassy’s Consular Section halting in-person appearances because of COVID. Once this phase is complete, the U.S. Embassy’s Consular Section, in coordination with the National […]
posted on: January 20, 2021
The U.S. Department of State (DOS), which is responsible for all U.S. embassies and consulates, has provided an update on its plan for the phased resumption of routine visa service across the globe. While this provides the general plan on how it will go about restarting normal visa services, no timelines are provided. To the […]
posted on: January 19, 2021
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a new policy, effective January 26, 2021, which will require airlines to obtain negative pre-departure COVID-19 test results for all international airline passengers arriving in the United States. The test must be from within three days of the flight. In the alternative, the passenger […]
posted on: January 18, 2021
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently issued a final rule changing the way U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) selects the registrations of U.S. employers that want to file H-1B petitions subject to the annual “cap.” The end result could dramatically reduce the number of recent foreign graduates who can work in the United States and […]
