Insight, News, and Strategy on Immigration Matters Around the World
USCIS has announced that, due to an “unprecedented” increase in revenues, the source of which is unclear, it would not go forward with the furloughs previously scheduled for August 30, 2020 – at least not until the end of the fiscal year (October 1, 2020).
The USCIS Deputy Director for Policy, Joseph Edlow, stated this…
With a breakdown in talks on the latest COVID-19 stimulus package and with most senators and representatives out of town (though the House has been recalled from vacation to address the U.S. Postal Service crisis), USCIS has not received the $1.2 billion that it wants and says it needs to avoid furloughing two-thirds of its…
USCIS confirmed that its planned furlough of 70% of its workforce (13,400 employees) will be postponed at least until the end of August. The ostensible reason for the furlough was a budget shortfall, even though USCIS is a fee-based service that historically has covered costs.
The furlough announcement, when coupled with the anti-immigration agenda from…
In addition to the COVID-19-related travel restrictions and consular closures, Chinese graduate students and post-doctoral researchers will now face another hurdle in coming to the U.S. As of noon (EDT) on June 1, 2020, President Donald Trump’s “Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Nonimmigrants of Certain Students and Researchers from the People’s Republic…
A bi-partisan group has introduced a new bill in both the House and the Senate that would make additional immigrant visas (green cards) available to doctors and nurses. The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (HWRA) would ease the long wait lines for green cards that make the U.S. a less attractive alternative to other countries that…
On the same day that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recapitulated its usual policies and procedures for dealing with delays in processing extensions and changes of status due to COVID-19, 100 Democrats in the House of Representatives joined the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to urge the Trump Administration to automatically extend work authorization for…
President Donald Trump and his senior advisor, Jared Kushner, are continuing to try to build a coalition for immigration reform. They reportedly are trying to decide whether to move forward before November’s election.
Kushner first presented the 600-page comprehensive plan almost a year ago (lacking much in terms of publicly released details), but the President…
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed into law in 1993, eliminated trade barriers and increased investment opportunities between the three signatory countries, the United States, Mexico, and Canada. After more than 25 years, the agreement was seen to require revisions, particularly as to labor, digital trade, and data flows. A revision to NAFTA,…
While Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries await the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion and most Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries also are in limbo, Liberians have been given what appears to be a pathway to citizenship due to passage of the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness (LRIF) Act as part of the National Defense…
These are questions USCIS has answered in the negative in…
