The US Senate, on Tuesday, June 24, confirmed Leon Rodriguez as the next Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The director is responsible for administering and processing asylum and refugee applications, immigration benefits, and naturalization and visa petitions. Mr. Rodriguez previously served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at […]
USCIS has implemented a new process to receive and adjudicate applications for civil surgeon designation centrally at the National Benefits Center. This process change requires physicians seeking civil surgeon designation to file a formal application at a USCIS Lockbox. Centralizing the civil surgeon application process will: Improve the application intake process; Enhance USCIS’s ability to […]
April 1, 2014 is the first day on which U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) may receive H-1B specialty worker petitions for the next fiscal year that begins on October 1, 2014. To qualify for the H-1B category, the position offered must be a specialty in which a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent is normally […]
By: Danielle Beach-Oswald The current U.S. government shutdown is having adverse impacts on the immigration process for both immigrants in the U.S. and U.S. citizens. A brief discussion of how the immigration process is being impacted is detailed below. Due to the fact that the fact that the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) is […]
On Sept. 30, 2013, authorization for the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program for Iraqi nationals who worked for or on behalf of the United States government will expire. The program was created by Section 1244 of Public Law 110-181, as amended by Public Law 110-242. It covers Iraqi nationals who—during the period between March 20, […]
By James Sellars Earlier this month, Lexology published an article discussing the recent steps taken by federal agencies to align the Nation’s immigration policies with the recent Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Windsor. The article, written by Helen Pihlstrom, gave an in-depth analysis on the preliminary efforts taken by various governmental agencies to ensure […]
Immigrants, both authorized and unauthorized, contribute greatly to the economies of the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland. With close to 1.8 million immigrants in the DC-VA-MD[1] area, immigrants are helping to revitalize the economy through entrepreneurship, consumer spending, and by contributing to the tax base. Economic activity, consumer spending, and job creation are extremely […]
By: Margarita Baldwin* The memorandum of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals prevents deportations of illegal immigrants who were brought to the US as children. Many of them already obtained a 2-year work permit. However, will they be able to travel? Depending on what source they rely on, the answers vary, and it can be very […]
By: Helena Coric* An overwhelming amount of sources discuss the backlog problems our immigration system is facing. In deportation proceedings, the difficulties become more apparent as hearings are delayed and one is left to simply wait it out. For those individuals that feel they do not have a strong case or lack the funds for […]
By: John Nicholas Mandalakas* In a recent court case a federal judge ruled against the USCIS, finding the agency in violation of requirements under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The case was based on a dispute that lasted almost ten years. Mirsad Hajro, who was the primary plaintiff of the case, was denied naturalization […]
