Insight, News, and Strategy on Immigration Matters Around the World
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is trying to approve as many employment-based green card applications as it can before the annual deadline of September 30, 2022 (the end of the fiscal year).
Primarily due to COVID-19 restrictions, approximately 140,000 family-based visa numbers went unused last fiscal year. As a result, these unused visa numbers…
Some Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders will once again be able to overcome inadmissibility for adjustment of status purposes by traveling internationally because USCIS is updating its interpretation of MTINA, the Miscellaneous and Technical Immigration and Naturalization Amendment of 1991.
As of July 1, 2022:
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Automatic Employment Authorization Document (EAD) extensions are confusing. Before you can figure out whether one of the various extensions applies, you need to identify the EAD category.
Certain EAD applicants are entitled to 180-day automatic extensions if they have pending, timely filed EAD renewal applications. The code on the face of the expired EAD indicates…
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering making a change which would permanently allow the flexibility it has extended over employers’ verification of employees’ identity and employment eligibility since March 2020.
Historically, Form I-9 has required employers to physically inspect original documentation presented by employees in a face-to-face interaction. Over the years, workforces have…
In March 2022, USCIS published a final rule expanding its premium processing service to include additional immigration petition and application types. This announcement was welcome news to businesses and foreign nationals dealing with extensive delays in the processing of immigration benefits.
On May 24, 2022, USCIS announced that premium processing will begin as of June…
The Temporary Protected Status (TPS) grant for Afghanistan will go into effect on May 20, 2022, with publication of the notice in the Federal Register with instructions on how to apply for TPS and for Employment Authorization.
In March 2022, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that Afghanistan was added to the…
The Department of State (DOS) has reinstituted talks with Cuban representatives about how to support family reunification and safe, orderly migration from Cuba to the United States.
Talks of this nature were instituted in 1984 and continued biannually from 1994 until 2018 when the talks were paused by the Trump Administration.
The Biden Administration is…
The Jumpstart Our Legal Immigration System Act (Jumpstart), introduced by Zoe Lofgren (D-Calf.) in the House of Representatives, if passed, could revolutionize the green card process. The legislation would recapture thousands of unused family- and employment-based visas and allow beneficiaries to expedite their processes by paying additional fees.
The Jumpstart Act would help to…
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a Federal Register notice with instructions on how to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for both Ukraine and Sudan. Both designations run for 18 months, until October 19, 2023.
When Ukrainian TPS was originally announced, only individuals who had continuously resided in the United States…
The Department of Homeland Security has announced the designation of Cameroon for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months.
The designation is based on the ongoing armed conflict in Cameroon. Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas stated, “Cameroonian nationals currently residing in the U.S. who cannot safely return due to the extreme violence perpetrated by government…
