U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) applicants who are eligible nationals of Burma, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela or Yemen, or individuals without nationality who last habitually resided in one of those countries, can now file Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status, online, if they are applying for TPS for …
USCIS Expands Credit Card Payment Pilot Program to Form I-140 When Requesting Premium Processing
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced that it has expanded a previously announced pilot program at the Nebraska Service Center (NSC) for accepting credit card payments using Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions, for certain applicants applying for premium processing.On July 19, the NSC started accepting credit card payments using Form G-1450 for petitioners filing Form I-140, Immigrant …
How to Request Expedite Processing of your Immigration Application
Most of the time, the government takes many months if not years to decide the millions of immigration applications filed each year. Sometimes, an applicant may urgently need a faster decision because of special circumstances. In that case, a request to expedite an application might be appropriate. However, most expedited processing requests are rejected because …
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DACA Ruled Unlawful by Texas Judge
On July 16th, 2021, a federal court overseen by Judge Hanen in Texas ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program is unlawful because the Department of Homeland Security did not properly follow the mandated rule-making process as proscribed in the Administrative Procedures Act. Other federal courts, however, had already determined that the …
Justice Department Settles with Delivery Services Company to Resolve Retaliation Claim
The Department of Justice today announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with Around the Clock Dispatch Inc., a freight and delivery services company in Queens Village, New York. The settlement resolves the department’s claim that Around the Clock violated the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by retaliating against a …
What is happening with the EB-5 immigrant investor program?
Since 1990, the EB-5 immigrant investor program has allowed foreign investors to receive permanent residence for their family members by allowing them to invest money in approved businesses, which must create at least 10 full-time jobs. The program had undergone several changes as announced in the so-called Modernization Rule under the Trump administration; however, due …
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New International Entrepreneur Parole Rule
International entrepreneurs and U.S. investors might be interested to know that the Biden administration recently revived the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), which was first introduced under the Obama Administration and was suspended under Trump’s administration. According to the federal government, the IER could benefit America’s economy while simultaneously encouraging quality entities to start viable businesses …
Second Chance for Denied H-1B Petitions During Trump Administration?
During the Trump administration, many H-1B applications, including renewals of H-1B employment, were denied due to three policies which federal courts have found to violate the law. The policies were embodied in several USCIS memoranda: “Determining Employer-Employee Relationship for adjudication of H-1B petitions, including Third-Party Site Placements (Reference AFM Chapter 31.3.(g)(16)) issued January 8, 2010“Contracts …
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Biden Administration Revokes Trump Era “Buy American, Hire American” Executive Order
On January 25, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order (“Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers”), which effectively revoked Trump’s Buy American and Hire American Executive Order (“BAHA”). The revocation of BAHA may represent a shift in employment-based immigration policy in particular. The BAHA order led to many restrictive immigration policies under the …
Computer Programmers may now qualify again for H-1B visas
In its unrelenting assault on H-1B visas for IT professionals, the Trump administration turned back a long standing policy and denied thousands of H-1B petitions for computer programmer positions. The USCIS claimed these positions were no longer specialty occupations as defined by H-1B rules. Many companies filed lawsuits to contest denials based on this policy …
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Ann Massey Badmus 