On May 21, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a policy memo addressing how officers should exercise their discretion when adjudicating Adjustment of Status (AOS) applications (Form I‑485) filed within the United States. Historically,...
As background, in a new rule issued September 29, 2022, the Biden Administration clarified and aligned the existing Public Charge rule with long-standing USCIS practice, which requires most “green card” applicants to show that they will not need to primarily rely on...
On October 29, 2020, the last day to file October adjustment of status filings, the Department of State issued the November Visa Bulletin, and USCIS announced that it is accepting the Dates for Filing Chart for November filings. The cutoff dates remain the SAME as the...
On September 24, 2020, the Department of State issued its first Visa Bulletin of the new Fiscal Year for October 2020. USCIS then announced that it is accepting the Dates for Filing Chart for October filings. EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 “All Other” are all current for...
09/29/2020 update:On September 29, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted the motion for a preliminary injunction (“PI”) filed by eight nonprofit organizations in the ongoing Fee Rule litigation. The PI has a nationwide effect...
As previously posted, on Monday, January 27, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the administration’s request for a stay of the nationwide injunction against the administration’s public charge rule, which cleared a path for the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to implement the public charge rule within the United States starting on February 24, 2020.
The new rule drastically changes the standard by which a foreign national is determined to be “likely at any time to become a public charge” (and consequently inadmissible to the U.S.), and affects not only family-based but also employment-based filings.
Update:
USCIS announced on January 31, 2020 that it will implement the rule changes for filings received on or after February 24, 2020. New forms are to be released the week of February 3, 2020.
Original post:
As discussed in a prior post, the administration’s “public charge” rule changes the standard by which a foreign national is determined to be “likely at any time to become a public charge” (and consequently inadmissible to the U.S.). While litigation has delayed the implementation of the rule, on Monday, January 27, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the administration’s request for a stay of the nationwide injunction against the rule, which clears a path for the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to implement the public charge rule within the United States, except for Illinois, which has a statewide injunction that remains in place.
Update: This regulation is the subject of litigation. As of Friday October 11, 2019, there is a nationwide injunction against the enforcement of this rule by DHS. The Department of State (“DOS”) version of the rule, however, went into effect on October 15, 2019, but as of October 15, 2019, the DOS has not yet implemented that rule.
Original post:
Effective October 15, 2019, unless halted by litigation, the standard by which a foreign national is determined to be “likely at any time to become a public charge” (and consequently inadmissible to the U.S.) will drastically change.
The U.S. Department of State’s instructions for the 2020 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV-2020) are now available. Entries for the DV-2020 program must be submitted electronically between October 3 and November 6, 2018.There are no changes in eligibility this...
