Fees and Penalties

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Premium processing fees are going up (the bad news), but premium processing will be available for more types of cases (the good news) according to changes included in the recently passed Continuing Resolution (CR) that will fund the government until December 11, 2020. The changes are meant to provide additional funding to USCIS to bolster…

A federal judge in California has enjoined the USCIS’ new fee rule just a little more than a day before petitions and applications had to be postmarked.

Judge Jeffrey S. White’s decision in Immigrant Legal Resource Center v. Wolf was based on a finding that Chad Wolf’s appointment to the position of Acting Secretary of…

While it typically uses the “Final Action Dates” chart for accepting adjustment of status application filings, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that for October 2020, it will allow employment-based adjustment of status applicants to file based upon the U.S. Department of State’s (DOS) October “Dates for Filing” chart.

This means that individuals…

On September 11, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will release a new regulation for notice-and-comment that proposes to expand the collection of biometric data and give DHS increased flexibility to deal with emerging needs. Here are a few highlights from the draft 328-page rule.

  • Unless waived by DHS, any applicant, petitioner, sponsor,

…

Employers need to ready themselves for investigations from the Department of Labor (DOL) into the use of H-1B visas.

Without Congressional oversight or legislative changes, the Trump Administration has changed the policies for H-1Bs, resulting in the highest denial rate in history of this legal immigration program. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic national emergency,…

USCIS has announced that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has suffered a steep decrease in revenue and, without assistance, might run out of funding this summer. The agency has asked Congress for $1.2 billion in emergency relief (as a loan) along with a 10% COVID-19 surcharge (to repay the loan) on top of a…

U.S. firefighters coming to help extinguish the devastating forest fires were cheered when they arrived at the airport in Sydney, Australia. In the past, in what became a reciprocal arrangement, Australian firefighters have assisted U.S. firefighters.

A different sort of reciprocity has led to the sudden increase in visa fees for Australians coming to the…

With his “Buy American, Hire American” Executive Order, President Donald Trump officially announced his intention to reform the H-1B visa program and the DOL and the USCIS are taking steps accordingly.

In April, the DOL announced it would be investigating violations of the H-1B visa program, “cautioning employers who petition for H-1B visas not…