The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced an upgrade to its online tool, the Freedom of Information Act Immigration Records System (FIRST). FIRST now allows stakeholders to make Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests online for certain documents. Background FOIA, which went into effect in...
Processing times at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have long been a point of concern. And the Trump Administration's efforts to implement roadblocks in the legal immigration system have only exacerbated the situation. Since the last fiscal year of the Obama Administration, the...
On June 10, 2019, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan announced that Ken Cuccinelli would be assuming the role of Acting Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). There is no consensus as to whether President Trump will confirm...
The USCIS has updated the Adjustment of Status Filing Charts from the Visa Bulletin webpage to clarify that the family-based, second preference "A" (FB2A) category is "current" under the July 2019 Visa Bulletin.The July 2019 Visa Bulletin contains an extremely unusual entry in the FB2A...
On May 20, 2019, the Texas Service Center (TSC) began accepting certain cap-exempt H1B petitions for processing. Beginning July 19, 2019, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may reject any petition not filed at the appropriate service center. General H1B Filing Address and Other Information Until...
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued new guidance regarding rejection criteria for the petition for a nonimmigrant worker (form I-129). Beginning August 5, 2019, the USCIS will reject any petition that does not include the petitioner's name and primary U.S. office...
Effective Monday, June 10, 2019, in addition to any cap-subject H1B petition filed for regular processing that requested a change of status, the USCIS will also accept filings of premium processing requests of all remaining cap-subject petitions. Those employers who elect to "upgrade" their pending...
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated the Adjudicators Field Manual (AFM) with guidance regarding the processing of marriage-based green card applications that involve a U.S. sponsor or foreign national spouse under the age of eighteen (18). As of April 21, 2019, certain...
On May 10, 2019, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) updated the Adjudicator's Field Manual (AFM) to reduce the circumstances under which the USCIS will consider granting a case expedited treatment. In general, the USCIS has the authority to grant an expedite request on...
A lawsuit challenging a number of recent H1B policies enacted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has begun to heat up. IT Serve Alliance v. USCIS is the lawsuit filed by a group of IT consulting companies who are members of the organization...
