Insight, News, and Strategy on Immigration Matters Around the World
Proposed changes to Form DS-160 would include aspects of “extreme vetting” in all nonimmigrant visa applications. The public has until May 29, 2018, to submit comments to the Trump Administration proposal.
Visa applicants would be required to submit five years of social media handles on specific platforms and five years of phone numbers and email…
Congress reached agreement and voted to end the government shutdown at least until February 8, 2018.
In case another impasse occurs, this is how a federal government shutdown would affect immigration.
Department of Labor (DOL)
The Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) will stop processing all applications, and its personnel will not be available to…
Extreme vetting, strict scrutiny, travel warnings, and the latest travel ban have made travel abroad more worrisome than ever this holiday season.
Reminders for individuals who will have to apply for new U.S. visas while abroad in order to return to the United States:
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On the eve of its taking effect, President Donald Trump’s third attempt at a travel ban has been blocked by the District Court in Hawaii.
On October 17, 2017, Judge Derrick Watson granted a nationwide temporary restraining order holding that the newest travel ban executive order (dubbed “EO-3”) suffered the same legal maladies as its …
As part of the Trump Administration’s “Buy American, Hire American” Executive Order, the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs (BCA) is joining with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to combat both visa fraud and potential discrimination against U.S. workers. The partnership between the two agencies is based upon a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) …
We previously reported on the Department of State’s acceptance of applications for the diversity immigrant lottery. Since then, the DOS has announced on the Diversity Lottery website:
Due to a technical issue, the DV-2019 entry period that began on October 3 has been closed. Entries submitted during October 3-10 are not valid and have been…
Registration for the Department of State’s Diversity Lottery will be opened from noon EDT on October 3, 2017, to noon EDT on November 7, 2017.
This program makes 50,000 immigrant visas available to individuals from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. The lottery registration and application process is conducted completely online and…
The Department of State has quietly revised guidance to Consular Officers on the “30/60 Day Rule” regarding adjustment of status applications.
The Rule sets standards for determining whether an alien would be inadmissible for inconsistent conduct. It provides:
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During the chaos that followed the issuance of the travel ban in January and before it was blocked by a court, at least 140 individuals from the seven named countries were denied admission to the U.S. with then-valid visas.
In Darweesh v. Trump, No. 17-CV-480 (CBA), Iraqi nationals challenged the first iteration of President…
A group of diversity lottery applicants from countries covered by President Donald Trump’s travel ban have filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to force the State Department to adjudicate their diversity lottery visa applications before time runs out for them.
Administered by the Department of State, the Diversity …
