USCIS Extends Evidence of Status for Conditional Permanent Residents to 24 Months Due to longer than usual processing times, USCIS has extended the time that receipt notices can be used to show evidence of continued status from 18 months to 24 months for petitioners filing Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence, or Form Read more about September 2021 Newsletter[…]
Immigration Updates A couple of small, but useful changes to the immigration process took effect this month. First, USCIS made a decision to extend the validity period for Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, from two years to four years due to COVID-19-related delays in processing. The validity requirements for Form I-693 Read more about August 2021 Newsletter[…]
Federal Judge Blocks DACA We had some frustrating immigration news last week, as U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen from Texas declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program illegal. The verdict was handed down in a lawsuit filed by Texas and eight other conservative states with intention to halt the DACA program. Please note Read more about July 2021 Newsletter[…]
Employment Authorization for U-visa Petitioners This month was looking pretty uneventful in terms of immigration news, and then we got a major announcement. USCIS issued an important policy update that provides new protections to U-visa applicants (both principal and derivative) with pending cases. Effective immediately, upon initial review of Form I-918 petitions, USCIS will issue Read more about June 2021 Newsletter[…]
President Biden’s 100 days in Office As we passed the mark of President Biden’s 100 days in office, many immigration advocates are evaluating how he has done so far. Opinions are mixed. At this stage, the President seems to acknowledge the immigration bill he sent to Congress in his first days in office is too Read more about May 2021 Newsletter[…]
This month has been relatively quiet as compared to the craziness of the election season and post-election actions, but we are beginning to see some much needed progress on the immigration front. Immigration Bills On March 18th, the House of Representatives passed two bills: The first, H.R. 6, provides a path to citizenship for 2.5 Read more about April 2021 Newsletter[…]
Immigration Bills All eyes are on Congress this week, for what has been dubbed “Immigration Week”. After spending much of the past month working on COVID-19 relief legislation, immigration reform finally gets its turn, with important votes on two bills: the Farm Workforce Modernization Act and the American Dream and Promise Act. The first aims Read more about March 2021 Newsletter[…]
With President Biden in his second month in office, things continue to change daily on the immigration front. The biggest thing happening this month is the attempt to pass several bills during the week of March 15th, dubbed “immigration week” by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. A Comprehensive Immigration Bill vs. Several Smaller Bills In his Read more about Immigration Week in Congress and an End to the Green Card Freeze[…]
Biden’s First Weeks It has been a busy month! We were happy to see that President Biden kept his word and made immigration one of his biggest priorities, signing a number of policy documents in his first week in office. The first, a memorandum to the Attorney General, protects the DACA program by encouraging him Read more about February 2021 Newsletter[…]
So far, President Biden is keeping his promise to make immigration one of his biggest priorities upon entering office. In his first week in office, he signed four key documents to immediately undo some of the damage the Trump administration did to the country’s immigration policies. These included: a memorandum to the Attorney General, which Read more about Understanding the New U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021[…]