President Joe Biden has revoked a visa ban introduced under President Donald Trump, asserting that it not only hurts would-be visa beneficiaries, but also “harms the United States” itself. Mr. Trump used a broad executive power to prohibit the issuance of certain visas for prospective immigrants hoping to move to the U.S. permanently through […]
Read more...25 February 2021
The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case challenging the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule, which limited access to green cards for those deemed likely to accept public assistance. The “public charge” rule sought to deny green cards to immigrants who used Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of government assistance. […]
Read more...22 February 2021
The White House announced a sweeping immigration bill Thursday that would create an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of immigrants already in the country and provide a faster track for undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children. Here’s what the bill, titled the US Citizenship Act of 2021, includes: Plan for a pathway to citizenship The U.S. Citizenship […]
Read more...19 February 2021
Here’s what Biden has done so far to roll back Trump’s policies since taking office on Jan. 20: ASYLUM AND REGIONAL MIGRATION Biden issued three executive orders dealing with asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, legal immigration and reunifying families. The asylum-focused order mandated a review of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a controversial program […]
Read more...16 February 2021
Due to a federal court order, USCIS has resumed accepting both initial and renewal requests for deferred action under DACA, including initial requests from individuals who have never before been granted deferred action under DACA. Until further notice, and unless otherwise provided in this guidance, the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place […]
Read more...12 December 2020
The Trump administration will issue two rules Tuesday that will overhaul the H-1B specialty occupation visa program, including by raising the minimum salary levels for foreign employees and narrowing the program’s eligibility criteria. The updated regulations redefine “specialty occupations,” limit the validity of an H-1B visa to one year for a worker placed at a third-party […]
Read more...6 October 2020
The Trump administration has agreed to rescind a directive that would have barred foreign students from the United States if their colleges canceled in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic, following lawsuits by a number of universities and states, a Massachusetts federal judge said in a Tuesday hearing. During the hearing Tuesday in a case filed […]
Read more...14 July 2020
The Trump administration is introducing a series of new restrictions on visas that allow immigrants to temporarily work in the United States. In April, Trump signed an immigration proclamation targeting people outside of the US seeking to legally migrate to the US, with some exceptions. That order, which was set to lapse, will be extended until the […]
Read more...26 June 2020
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that protects nearly 800,000 immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation and allows them to remain in the U.S.
Read more...19 June 2020
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that it will resume premium processing for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker and Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, in phases over the next month. Effective June 1, 2020, USCIS will accept Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service for all eligible Form I-140 petitions. Effective June 8, USCIS will accept premium processing requests for: H-1B petitions filed before June 8 that are pending […]
Read more...30 May 2020
