Today, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced that it will begin accepting premium processing requests on form I-907 for I-129 petitions for E-3 classification on February 24, 2021. This is the first time that premium processing has been expanded to E-3 petitioners. As of the writing of this post, the USCIS fee…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr Today, President Biden reversed one of the immigration bans of 2020 by former President Trump. This ban was premised on claims that immigrants harm the U.S. economy – a premise wholeheartedly rejected by most economists. Today’s proclamation ends the ban on issuance of certain immigrant visas abroad as set forth by Proclamation…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr On February 3, 2021, USCIS issued a new Policy Memorandum[1] that rescinds the Trump-era Computer Programmer Policy Memorandum.[2] This 2021 Policy Memorandum was issued in direct response to the decision issued in the Ninth Circuit in Innova Solutions v. Baran. By way of background, in December 2000, the Director of the USCIS…
by Roujin Mozaffarimehr On January 25, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order[1] which effectively revoked President Trump’s Buy American and Hire American Executive Order (commonly known as “BAHA”).[2] On April 18, 2017, President Trump signed the Buy American and Hire American Executive order, which was used as the basis for many restrictive immigration policies…
Considerations for Adjustment of Status following admission to the U.S. on the B Visa.[1] The B visa requires “non-immigrant” intent. Therefore, it is important to consider possible application of the rules interpreting pre-conceived intent and misrepresentation when applying for an Adjustment of Status – AOS (an immigrant application) after entering the US on a B-2…
By Radhika Balaji, Associate Attorney As part of the Day 1 Executive Actions signed by President Biden, a memorandum for a regulatory freeze on federal agency actions has been issued to ensure that the new and pending rules that were issued by the Trump administration have been reviewed by President Biden’s new appointees and designees.…
On his first day in office, President Biden signed seventeen (17) executive orders and proclamations; 6 of which relate to immigration. These are mainly aimed at reversing some of the most restrictive immigration measures by former president Trump. Here is our brief summary: President Biden Revokes Muslim and African Travel Bans. In 2017 the Trump…
By Radhika Balaji, Associate Attorney. It is close to a year since the first lockdowns and travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic was issued. Although there had been a remarkable pace in which the COVID-19 vaccines have been developed, there is still long way before everyone can receive it! With a climbing surge in…
By Radhika Balaji, Associate Attorney. On January 12, 2021, USCIS announced that it will issue a revised Form I-797, Notice of Action for Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Cards to extend the validity of the Permanent Resident Card, commonly known as “Green Card”, if it has expired or is about to expire. This…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr, Partner. On his first day in office, President Biden signed seventeen (17) executive orders and proclamations, one of which included the revocation of the Muslim and African Travel Bans. These bans were put into place in 2017 by the Trump Administration and restricted the immigrant and non-immigrant entry of foreign nationals from…