A few weeks ago, stories of Canadian citizens being refused admission to the U.S. as individual or blanket L applicants requesting an additional period of stay in the U.S. started to increase. The sheer number of reports suggests a possible new policy versus an errant occurrence at certain ports of entry along the Canadian border …
Employment-based Immigrant Visa Availability—When to File to Adjust Status to Permanent Resident?
The Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) sets forth preference classes to which the yearly allotment of 140,000 employment-based immigrant visas (or “green cards”) are allocated. A new yearly allotment of employment-based immigrant visas becomes available on October 1 of each year, the first day of the federal government’s fiscal year. The yearly allotment of immigrant …
New USCIS ‘Deportation’ Policy May Impact Legal Foreign Workers
On July 5, 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published new guidance dated June 28, 2018 regarding when officers should issue a “Notice to Appear” (NTA). An NTA is essentially a notification to a foreign national in the United States (U.S.) that the government has determined that he or she is “removable” from the …
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At a Crossroad: Consular Options to Immigrate as USCIS Adjustment Backlogs Increase
In order to uphold the “integrity of our nation’s immigration system,” on October 1, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began to phase-in a mandate of in person adjustment of status (I-485) interviews for employment based cases at USCIS field offices nationwide. Previously, USCIS field offices would rarely interview an employment based adjustment applicant. …
SURVIVAL IN THE IMMIGRATION CULTURE OF DELAY AND SOCIAL MEDIA MINING: ADJUSTMENT INTERVIEWS
With the recent change by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to mandate in-person interviews for employment based adjustment cases along with changes to require the review of social media and to what constitutes a misrepresentation of intent at the time of a visa application or entry to the U.S., employers must recalibrate and intensify …