Do you have a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent? Will you be working in a specialty occupation? Will you be earning a wage? The H-1B visa has an annual numerical limit, or cap, of 65,000 visas each fiscal year. Cap numbers are often used up very quickly, so it is important to plan in advance […]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has already approved the statutory maximum of 10,000 petitions for U-1 Nonimmigrant Status (U-Visas) for the 2015 fiscal year that began on October 1, 2014. The cap was reached almost immediately due to the applicants who were on the wait list from the 2014 fiscal year. Unfortunately, this means […]
President Obama’s Executive Action announced on November 20, 2014 aims to make a number of changes to the current immigration system. The Executive Action will help secure the border and crack down on illegal immigration, prioritize deporting felons not families, and will require certain undocumented immigrants to pass a criminal background check and pay their […]
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 […]
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, […]
In her May 19, 2014 article in Politico titled “States Take on Immigration,” Seung Min Kim explains that states are increasingly taking immigration into their own hands. However, where states used to pass laws focusing on immigration law enforcement such as Arizona’s anti-immigration laws partially struck down in 2010, now they are focusing on expanding […]
The American Immigration Council recently issued a special entitled, “Mexican and Central American Asylum and Credible Fear Claims: Background and Context.” This timely report discusses the current rhetoric surrounding the credible fear process and the state of the U.S. asylum system. Specifically, the report examines the legitimacy of credible fear claims based on situations of […]
