The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Immigration Statistics, recently reported that over 990,000 foreign nationals were granted U.S. permanent residence ("green card" status) in fiscal year (FY) 2013. These individuals, their respective countries of origin, and avenues to permanent resident status provide...
The U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Vermont Service Center (VSC) has announced a pilot program to use two-sided printing for certain types of notices. The purpose of this initiative is to reduce costs and waste. Stakeholders should be careful to review both the...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has provided instructions regarding the process for renewing enrollment in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA provides temporary immigration relief to eligible undocumented foreign nationals who entered the United States as children. Beneficiaries of the program...
The United States Supreme Court issued a long-awaited decision on June 9, 2014, interpreting the "automatic conversion" provision of the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA). Unfortunately, the Court sided with the restrictive CSPA interpretation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and overruled a more...
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently released a fact sheet outlining the strategy that is used by its Entry / Exit Transformation (EXT) Office, which was created in May 2013. The goal of the EXT Office is to "accurately verify who arrives and to...
On June 9, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow against hopes for a favorable interpretation of family unity-related provisions within U.S. immigration law. The Court held that the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) had authority to narrowly interpret key protections offered by the...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) system for filing and tracking Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests has recently been improved. A FOIA request is a powerful tool used to obtain case-specific government records and other internal government documents. FOIA requests submitted to the...
The U.S. Supreme Court heard an important case related to immigration on December 10, 2013. The case, Mayorkas v Cuellar de Osorio, involves the interpretation of provisions of the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA). A favorable decision in this case would facilitate family unity by...
In response to complaints from stakeholders, a recent statement from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) indicates efforts to significantly reduce the processing time for form I-130 relative petitions filed by U.S. citizens on behalf of immediate relatives. The USCIS notes that processing times...
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has alerted stakeholders of the issuance of inappropriate requests for evidence (RFEs) by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) National Benefits Center (NBC) in connection with family-based, second preference "A" (FB2A) petitions. These RFEs are asking petitioning family...
