Editorial credit: christianthiel.net / Shutterstock.com WASHINGTON—The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced a final rule to strengthen the integrity of the T nonimmigrant status (T visa) and ensure eligible victims of human trafficking can access protections and stabilizing benefits on a timely manner. T nonimmigrant status enables certain victims of human trafficking to […]
By Adriel Orozco | Immigration Impact Thousands of immigrant workers with pending work permit renewals, and their employers, breathed a sigh of relief last week. On April 8, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a temporary rule that automatically extends the validity period of their work permits for up to 540 days, or about a year […]
Effective May 9, 2024, we will reject affirmative asylum applications improperly filed at service centers instead of at the lockbox with jurisdiction over your place of residence. We announced this change in filing location on May 31, 2023, and finalized the associated revision to Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, in the Federal Register, 88 […]
Editorial credit: Walter Cicchetti / Shutterstock.com WASHINGTON— Building on extensive modernization efforts that have streamlined and improved access to work permits for eligible noncitizens, USCIS today announced a temporary final rule (TFR) to increase the automatic extension period for certain employment authorization documents (EADs) from up to 180 days to up to 540 days. This announcement follows improvements […]
By Karen Aho | Immigration Impact A recent analysis by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) found that the number of petitions by, or on behalf of, foreign-born workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) increased following a pair of guidance clarifications the agency made in January 2022. One outlines how […]
Editorial credit: Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Thursday, March 21 announced that we are updating guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify how we consider expedite requests related to government interests and requests related to emergencies or urgent humanitarian situations, including travel-related requests. This update also clarifies how to make an expedite request and […]
Editorial credit: Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com WASHINGTON— Today U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is releasing end of fiscal year (FY) 2023 data that illustrate the agency’s progress in meeting its strategic priorities. The USCIS workforce has worked tirelessly over the past year to uphold America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility by […]
By Adriel Orozco | Immigration Impact U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) finalized its long-awaited fee rule on January 30, which impacts the filing costs for almost all the agency’s applications. The new fees will take effect April 1, 2024. The agency’s fee increases significantly impact the cost for family-based and employment-based applications and petitions. In addition, […]
Editorial credit: Walter Cicchetti / Shutterstock.com U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on January 5 issued policy guidance on how we analyze an employer’s ability to pay the proffered wage for immigrant petitions in certain first, second, and third preference employment-based immigrant visa classifications, including instances when the sponsored worker is changing employers. Generally, employers seeking to classify […]
USCIS has received a sufficient number of petitions needed to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year (FY) 2024. We will send non-selection notices to registrants through their online accounts over the next few days. When […]
