Insight, News, and Strategy on Immigration Matters Around the World
Announcing a new final rule, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is officially reinstating the 2020 asylum rules in light of the court decision that said they were invalid.
In February 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated two 2020 Trump-era rules that for two years had made it more…
After years of litigation followed by uncertainty, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken the official action of issuing a new final rule that “restores the historical understanding of a ‘public charge’ that had been in place for decades . . . .” The new rule, which goes into effect on December 23, 2022,…
USCIS is resuming the Cuban Family Reunification Parole (CFRP) Program beginning with already pending CFRP applications. This program started in 2007 and has been on hold for some time. It allows beneficiaries of approved Forms I-130, Petitions for Alien Relative, to come to the United States on parole while waiting for an available visa number. …
For H-1B visas, employers have been hoping there will be another round of selections for FY 2023, but that is not on the horizon.
USCIS has been sending non-selection notices to registrants’ online accounts. USCIS can only send non-selection notices once it has determined that enough petitions for the regular cap and the advanced degree…
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…
