The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has designated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone for 18 months. The Secretary of DHS, Jeh Johnson, made these designations due to the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in West Africa. Nationals from those countries who are currently residing in the United States may […]
The 2014 Ombudsman Annual Report, released by USCIS, indicated that the Request for Evidence rates for the L-1 intracompany transferee visa category is nearly 50 percent for the first half of the 2014 Fiscal Year. This indicates a significant rise in the Request for Evidence rates for L-1 visas in recent years. Despite this increase […]
In a reversal of the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded on July 18th, 2014, a case in which an asylum applicant seeks to remain in the United States on the basis of his kinship tie to a member of the Mara 18 street gang in El Salvador. Wildon Manfredo […]
A recent Rasmussen Report showed that U.S. voters rate the current immigration crisis as a greater national security problem than Russia and the situation in Gaza with Palestinians and Israelis. Thirty-seven percent (37%) of likely U.S. voters saw immigration as the primary concern, thirty-one percent (31%) for Russia and twenty-three percent (23%) for Gaza. All […]
The Department of State has announced that it will change fees for certain types of applications. These fee changes will take effect on September 12, 2014. The most important changes include a reduction in the E Treaty Investor/Treaty Trader fees from $270 to $205 and an increase in the fee for a K Fiancé Visa […]
Due to the recent surge of unaccompanied children migrants the backlog in Immigration Courts has reached an all-time high. At the end of June the back log totaled 375,503 cases, which is an increase of more than 50,000 since the start of the 2013 fiscal year. Specifically the number of juvenile cases has increased to […]
In its 15th annual report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommends that the Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) list, which tracks and monitors countries with severe violations of religious freedoms, be doubled in size, expanding to include Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, and Tajikistan. The USCIRF is an independent, […]
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program is an Obama Administration initiative implemented to extend rights and benefits to the growing number of undocumented youths and young adults living in the United States. The program allows youths and young adults meeting certain requirements to temporarily defer deportation and receive both eligibility for renewable two-year work […]
In Aldana-Ramos v. Holder, just issued on June 27, 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that family alone can constitute a particular social group, and thus an asylee who has been persecuted on account of his or her family membership can qualify for asylum. In Aldana-Ramos v. Holder, the […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently released its Annual Flow Report analyzing naturalization patterns for the preceding year. This report uses administrative records consisting of information from naturalization applications in the preceding year, drawing conclusions as to present and future trends of immigration. In 2013, the United States naturalized a total of 779,929 persons, […]
