In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is extending the flexibilities it announced on March 30, 2020, to assist applicants, petitioners, and requestors who are responding to certain:

Requests for Evidence;

Continuations to Request Evidence (N-14);

Notices of Intent to Deny;

Notices of Intent to Revoke;

Notices of Intent to Rescind and Notices of Intent to Terminate regional investment centers;

Motions to Reopen an N-400 Pursuant to 8 CFR 335.5,

Receipt of Derogatory Information Aer Grant;

Filing date requirements for Form N-336,

Request for a Hearing on a Decision in Naturalization Proceedings (Under Section 336 of the INA);

or Filing date requirements for Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion.

Notice/Request/Decision Issuance Date: This flexibility applies to the above documents if the issuance date listed on the request, notice, or decision is between March 1, 2020, and Jan. 1, 2021, inclusive.

Response Due Date: USCIS will consider a response to the above requests and notices received within 60 calendar days aer the response due date set in the request or notice before taking any action. Additionally, we will consider a Form N-336 or Form I-290B received up to 60 calendar days from the date of the decision before we take any action

Fiance Visa Processing is functioning again for case already approved by USCIS, but not yet forwarded to the Embassy or Consulate. US Embassy and Consulates Posts will resume K visa application processing as local conditions and resources allow.

Applicants should check the website of their nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate for updates on what services that post is currently able to offer. Where an embassy indicated on its website that is allowing routine visa scheduling we are recommeding that clients contact the Post directly for the case file to be forwarded from the National Visa Center (NVC) to the Post for interview scheduling.

The process for interview will vary widely Post to Post, so in each case it will be important to keep in close contact with the local post and follow their local instructions closely to ensure timely visa stamping interview scheduling.

The 1-129 Petition for Alien Fiance(e) is typically valid for four months; however, consular officers may revalidate the 1-129 petition in four month increments. For most cases impacted by the suspension of routine visa services or COVID-19 travel restrictions it will not be necessary to file a new 1-129 petition.

USCIS will not stop paying its employees... Rather USCIS will find "cost savings" in failing to actually work in a reasonable time frame on the cases that are submitted for review. 

How bad could this be? We don't know yet. 

However USCIS is now quoting that an Employment Authorization Document that took 45-90 days to process prior to Trump for legally working in the US will now take approximately 28.5 MONTHS to 37 MONTHS to be produced.... and on October 2 you will even need to pay extra for this application....

This begs the question. Is US immigration even open for business if you need to wait three [3] years for a work card to begin working? 

The Trump Administration's message here is clear. If you want to end all legal immigration to the US vote for Trump in 2020. The best and the brightest will move away, and the good jobs will follow them out of the US.

With four more years of Trump, US workers will begin immigrating elsewhere for jobs and opportunity as large corporations will see no need to staff in such an inhospitable, anti-international, and hateful climate. 

Bottom line for now: we can expect delays in every facet of immigration processing, and if Trump is re-elected in November....

USCIS, in yet another legal loss for its unconscionable conduct during the Trump Administration and during the pandemic, was forced by the courts to agree to expand the evidence for proof or employment eligibility based on USCIS's failure to timely print and mail out EAD cards after their approval.

As a result, employees may use Form I-797, Notice of Action, with a Notice date on or after December 1, 2019 just as they would an EAD card. 

Employees may present their Form I-797 Notice of Action showing approval of their I-765 application as a list C document for Form I-9 compliance until at least December 1, 2020.

See this update on I-9 Central https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-verification-during-ead-production-delays-due-to-covid-19:

The Trump Administration has significantly changed the USCIS fee schedule by adjusting fees by a weighted average increase of 20 percent, adding new fees, establishing multiple fees for nonimmigrant worker petitions, and limiting the number of beneficiaries for certain forms.

The rule is effective 10/2/20. Any application, petition, or request postmarked on or after this date must be accompanied with the fees established by this final rule. (85 FR 46788, 8/3/20)

In addition to adjusting fees, the final rule removes certain fee exemptions, limits fee waivers, alters premium processing time limits, and modifies certain intercountry adoption processing.

Some of USCIS’s forms will change. USCIS will post the new and revised forms online 30 days before the new rule goes into effect. These forms include:

• Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker;
• Form I-600/I-600A, Supplement 3, Request for Action on Approved Form I-600/I-600A;
• Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization; and
• Form I-912, Request for a Fee Waiver.

USCIS will provide a grace period of up to 60 days in which it will accept both the previous and the new versions of certain forms as long as payment of the new, correct fees accompanies the forms. Applicants and petitioners must use the new or revised form by Oct. 2, 2020.

The claim: Trump banned welfare for some immigrants, which will save $57.4 billion a year

President Donald Trump's agenda has fueled a stream of immigration-related misinformation. 

A claim that Trump banned welfare for immigrants in the U.S. illegally, which will save $57.4 billion per year, has circulated on Facebook and resurfaced in late May. But this claim is false for a couple of reasons.

First, Trump didn’t ban welfare for immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Undocumented immigrants have been ineligible for most federal programs since before Trump took office. 

Second, the “$57.4 billion” figure comes from a 2017 study that measured the economic cost of general public services at the state and local level of immigrants who came to the country both legally and illegally and their children. So this measurement includes all immigrants, not just those here illegally, as the Facebook post claims. Researchers attributed most of the $57.4 billion to education, PolitiFact reported.

Examining '$57.4 billion' 

The National Academies published in 2017 a 618-page report by the Committee of National Statistics that details the economic impact of immigration in the United States.

The report averaged data from 2011-13 and concluded that first-generation immigrants (foreign-born residents) and their dependents (children) cost state and local governments $57.4 billion, with most of the expense going to education. 

But researchers relied on data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, which according to the professor who chaired the panel of researchers, barred them from differentiating between types of immigration, PolitiFact reported. So their estimate includes immigrants who came to the country legally and illegally. That's not what the Facebook user claimed.

The Trump administration must begin accepting new applications for the Obama-era program that shields undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children from deportation that do not have a criminal record, a federal judge ruled Friday.

The order comes nearly a month since the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration's attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. That ruling emphasized that the administration failed to provide an adequate reason to justify scrapping DACA.

Judge Paul Grimm of the US District Court for the District of Maryland said Friday that the program is to be restored to its "pre-September 5, 2017 status," meaning the status quo before President Donald Trump tried to terminate it, thereby giving hundreds of thousands of DACA-eligible immigrants the opportunity to apply.

However it may still be wise before filing a new, first time DACA application to wait until there is better guidance issued by USCIS to ensure proper filing. 

To qualify for DACA one must:

1. Have entered the United States under the age of 16,
2. Be currently enrolled in school, have graduated high school (or GED), OR willing and eligible to serve in the military,
3. Have been in the United States since June 15, 2007, AND
4. Have a minimal criminal record. (No felonies, DUI's, or high-level misdemeanors. Minor traffic and most minor misdemeanor crimes should not cause a problem.)

To learn more about filing for DACA click here...

Expect Delays in EAD/AP card and Green Card Production. USCIS litterally turned off the printing presses in June.

SEVP modifies temporary exemptions for nonimmigrant students taking online courses during fall 2020 semester

Families, including those with US citizen children, are being separated. Business will suffer significantly.

No respectable democracy in the world is doing this. Why is the US doing this? Japan's unemployment rate is less than 3% right now. What do you think the US unemployment rate is right now?

Who you vote for matters. Hindsight is 20-20. When you elect a clown, don't be surprised if your country becomes a joke.

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President Trump issued a proclamation continuing Proclamation 10014 of April 22, 2020, and suspending and limiting the entry of any individual seeking entry pursuant to any of the following nonimmigrant visas:

(a) an H-1B or H-2B visa, and any individual accompanying or following to join such individual;

(b) a J visa, to the extent the individual is participating in an intern, trainee, teacher, camp counselor, au pair, or summer work travel program, and any individual accompanying or following to join such individual; and

(c) an L visa, and any individual accompanying or following to join such individual.

The proclamation shall apply only to any individual who:

(i) is outside the United States on the effective date of this proclamation;

(ii) does not have a nonimmigrant visa that is valid on the effective date of this proclamation; and

(iii) does not have an official travel document other than a visa (such as a transportation letter, an appropriate boarding foil, or an advance parole document) that is valid on the effective date of this proclamation or issued on any date thereafter that permits him or her to travel to the United States and seek entry or admission.

The suspension and limitation on entry pursuant to section 2 of this proclamation shall not apply to:

(i) any lawful permanent resident of the United States;

(ii) any individual who is the spouse or child, as defined in section 101(b)(1) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1101(b)(1)), of a United States citizen;

(iii) any individual seeking to enter the United States to provide temporary labor or services essential to the United States food supply chain; and

(iv) any individual whose entry would be in the national interest as determined by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or their respective designees.

For the purposes of determining who is covered under the “national interest” exemption, the Proclamation directs the Secretaries of State, Labor, and Homeland Security to determine standards for those to whom such an exemption would be available, including any individuals who:

• are critical to the defense, law enforcement, diplomacy, or national security of the United States;

• are involved with the provision of medical care to individuals who have contracted COVID-19 and are currently hospitalized;

• are involved with the provision of medical research at U.S. facilities to help the United States combat COVID-19;

• are necessary to facilitate the immediate and continued economic recovery of the United States; or

• are children who would age out of eligibility for a visa because of this proclamation or Proclamation 10014.

Discretion: The consular officer has discretion to determine if an individual is within one of the exempted categories outlined above.

The proclamation is effective immediately, and shall expire on December 31, 2020, and may be continued.