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On March 1, 2021, USCIS will be returning to the 2008 version of the naturalization civics test. This change is a response to President Joe Biden’s Executive Order, “Restoring Faith in Our Legal Immigration System,” that directed a review of the naturalization process to eliminate barriers to the process. Individuals who file naturalization applications…

The United States-Canada border is not only the world’s longest international border, but it includes some of the busiest commercial crossings in North America. New travel restrictions have been implemented as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Non-Essential Travel Ban

The land border has been closed to “non-essential” travel since March 2020 due to COVID-19. Restrictions include:…

The Biden administration announced that restrictions on travel known as the “14-Day Rules” will remain in effect, despite former President Trump’s decision to terminate some of them. These rules restrict entry by most non-U.S. citizens and non-Green Card holders from China, Iran, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil and the 26 Schengen Zone countries.  While there…

Due to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, land border travel between the United States and Canada has been restricted since March 21, 2020, and will likely continue through at least January 21, 2021. Individuals may not be admitted for tourism or other non-essential reasons. For the most part, work has been considered an essential…

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued an alert on delays in processing receipt notices due to the surges in petition filings at lockbox facilities because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the agency’s “flexibility” in response.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many foreign nationals continue to be stuck and unable to leave the United…

Announced via Tweet by Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the COVID-related restrictions at the Canadian and Mexican borders have been extended yet again until November 21, 2020. These restrictions apply to land and sea entries and prevent entry for non-essential purposes. Although there continues to be some inconsistency at ports…

Business groups, universities, and technology consulting firms have filed suits seeking to enjoin the new rules on H-1B and PERM labor certification programs issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) on October 8, 2020.

Those rules, both issued as Interim Final rules and without the usual notice and…

Due to the COVID-19 experience, some employers and employees are exploring the idea that work may be carried out remotely. Countries with economies that rely heavily on tourism (and hard-hit by the pandemic) are using this to their advantage.

In the United States, business advocacy groups and many companies have been urging the removal of…

Judge Amit Mehta in Gomez v. Trump ordered the Department of State (DOS) to make good faith efforts to “expeditiously process and adjudicate DV-2020 diversity visa and derivative beneficiary applications” and issue visas to those eligible by September 30, 2020 – the deadline for the Diversity Visa program.

In response, DOS has issued guidance,…