USCIS Offices Reopening – Updates – Q&A By Radhika Balaji, Associate Attorney After Shelter-in Place Orders began being lifted across the country, USCIS began reopening its offices in the beginning of June. Since then, reopening of the USCIS MPLG has received several questions related to interview and biometrics appointments as well as case processing. We…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr Today, USCIS announced that it plans to publish its final rule in the Federal Register on Monday, August 3rd, 2020 to increase fees across the board for immigration-related filings. A copy of the rule for public inspection can be found here. Notable changes include: I-90 Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card (online…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr On July 29th, The United States District Court, Southern District of New York issued two decisions to temporarily enjoin the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State from implementing the recent Public Charge Rule that took effect earlier in February 2020.[1] Below, we discuss the recent changes to the Public…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr As we reported last month, on June 22, 2020, President Donald Trump signed a Presidential Proclamation suspending the entry of H-1B and H-2B visas and accompanying dependents, certain J visas, and L visas and accompanying dependents, and extending the April 2020 suspension on certain immigrants. banning visa issuance through December 31, 2020.…
On July 6, 2020, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced certain adjustments to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) online study policy for nonimmigrant students for Fall 2020. A Temporary Final Rule is anticipated to be published in the Federal Register by the Department of Homeland Security soon. Spring/Summer and Fall 2020 Semesters…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr and Kalpana Peddibhotla On June 22, 2020, President Donald Trump signed a Presidential Proclamation intended to suspend the entry of certain nonimmigrants purportedly present a risk to the U.S. labor market in the period of economic recovery following the COVID-19 outbreak.[1][2] The suspension is set to take effect at 12:01 AM…
By Radhika Balaji US Citizenship and Immigration Service’s settlement with ITServe Alliance will dramatically change the way H-1B visas have been adjudicated for the last 10 years for Information Technology companies. In its March 10, 2020 ruling in the ITServe Alliance lawsuit, the District Court opined that the two key policy memos from 2010[1] and…
By Roujin Mozaffarimehr. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold and impact all aspects of society, concerns have arisen as to the future of the F-1 OPT program under the Trump Administration. This post describes the history of OPT, the legal challenges and attacks on OPT, and, while no action has been taken to change…
On May 16, 2020 a landmark settlement was reached in the case, IT Serve Alliance, Inc. v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (IT Serve Alliance) after a decision was issued on March 10, 2020 by the District Court for the District of Columbia. The USCIS has agreed to rescind the February 2018 USCIS memo,…
On May 27th, the USCIS announced that it expects to begin reopening domestic offices and public services beginning on June 4th or later. All asylum interviews, naturalization ceremonies, interviews, appointments, and biometrics appointments canceled due to office closures will be automatically rescheduled. All applicants will be issued new notices confirming the rescheduled event.