Immigration
Florida has enacted two new anti-immigration bills in the last couple of weeks - Senate Bill 264 and Senate Bill 1718. In summary, Senate Bill 264 says the following: - Mandates that a foreign principal may not directly or indirectly own, have a controlling interest in, or acquire agricultural land
economy
In looking at news reports over the last several weeks, several jumped out at me. A couple discussed immigration and social security, and several more discussed immigration and education spending. These are two very different issues, but both are being impacted by immigration - both those coming with documentation and
economy
While reviewing immigration news this week, two articles jumped out at me. Both were about the importance of immigration to the US economy. The first was in Yahoo! Finance and reported on a press briefing by the Secretary of Labor on the November Job Numbers. During this briefing, he (the
Backlog
The December 2022 Visa Bulletin was released today. In the new bulletin, the Department of State has determined that the EB-2 category needs to be backlogged somewhat because of demand. As a reminder, the EB-2 category includes employer-sponsored applications for positions that require an Advanced Degree (Master's or
Backlog
USCIS will issue a temporary final rule providing that the automatic extension period applicable to expiring EADs for certain renewal applicants who have filed Form I-765 will be increased from up to 180 days to up to 540 days from the expiration date stated on their EADs. This increase will
Immigration
USCIS has majorly reconfigured how it is handling I-485s based upon I-140s. For all I-485s based upon I-140s EXCEPT Employment Based Category 4 cases (religious workers and some other special immigrants), USCIS is transferring the I-485 cases from the Texas Service Center and the Nebraska Service Center, where they are
Immigration
USCIS has indicated that some local USCIS office personnel are being pulled out of the local offices to go to US Military bases to help process the incoming Afghan Refugees. In the local DC Field Office all September (or, at least, many) appointments have been cancelled so that personnel can
Covid-19
The incoming administration has issued an order halting the implementation of all proposed rules that are not yet final for 60 days (so until March 20, 2021). This includes the DOL wage change rules as well as the USCIS changes to the H-1B process (see a description of these rule
DOL
Just this week, USICS and DOL issued new final rules that will take effect in 60 days. Before getting into the details of the rules, it is important to note that the new Biden administration has stated that it will halt implementation of new rules for at least 60 days
Adjustment of Status
On September 11, 2020, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals limited the scope of the preliminary injunction on the USCIS new public charge rule issued by the New York State District Court. The Court of Appeals changed the injunction from nationwide to only applying to New York, and two other
Executive Orders
There was a recent, very interesting article published by NPR that highlighted the problems that may be faced by the Biden administration (if he wins the election) in rolling back the changes implemented by the Trump administration. You can read the full article here. While there were several possible barriers
Adjustment of Status
Overall dates are moving forward, but there are some noticeable categories that are lagging behind and not progressing as much, this includes Employment Based Third Preference which doesn't move forward at all this month. Below is a summary of movement in most categories Family Based Categories F1: Moved