On July 14, 2020, President Trump issued Executive Order (EO 13936) that ends the special treatment of Hong Kong as a separate foreign state from China. The immigration impact to Hong Kong nationals is significant. For the permanent residence (i.e. green card)...
Updated 7/29/2020Disclaimer: Any foreign national considering international travel should have an attorney review the particular circumstances of their case as there are currently several “bans” in effect. Presidential Proclamations: As detailed in our continually...
Presidential Proclamation: As noted in our blog post, the April 22, 2020 Presidential Proclamation regarding immigration affects only consular processing immigrant visa cases, with certain exceptions. Nonimmigrant visas and statuses are unaffected; PERM, I-140,...
Updated May 29, 2020Presidential Proclamation: As noted in our blog post on April 22, the new Presidential Proclamation regarding immigration affects only consular processing immigrant visa cases, with certain exceptions. Nonimmigrant visas and statuses are...
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.
On November 14, 2019, DHS published a new rule containing numerous adjustments to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) filing fee schedule. These proposed adjustments are in addition to other recently finalized fee rules increasing the Premium Processing Service fee by $30 and adding a $10 fee for each electronic H-1B cap registration. In this new rule, DHS is planning on an upward adjustment of USCIS fees “by a weighted average of 21 percent” among other changes.
AILA has published a searchable table of fee adjustments, located here, which shows upwards adjustments to filing fees for many commonly used forms such as N-400 for naturalization, I-485 for Adjustment of Status, I-140 for immigrant visa petitions, and I-129 for nonimmigrant visa petitions.
Update: This Presidential Proclamation is the subject of litigation. As of Saturday, November 2, 2019, there is a nationwide temporary restraining order against the enforcement of the Proclamation.
Original post:
On Friday, October 4, 2019, President Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation entitled Presidential Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Will Financially Burden the United States Healthcare System, which imposes a health care insurance requirement on new immigrants. Specifically, it requires applicants for immigrant visas to show the ability to purchase unsubsidized commercial health insurance within 30 days of U.S. entry.
We are pleased to announce that JSP has named Christopher Beckerson and Jennifer Carr Principals of the firm. Hearty congratulations to them both!
