Browse By Tags

Payment of USCIS Immigrant Visa Fee via USCIS ELIS USCIS has moved the online payment of the USCIS Immigrant Fee to its Electronic Immigration System ( USCIS ELIS ). Customers must now pay the $165 fee using USCIS ELIS after they receive their immigrant...

H1-B Filings: USCIS Anticipates Use of Lottery; Temporary Modification of Premium Processing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on March 15, 2013, that it will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2014 cap on Monday, April...

Supreme Court Decides CSPA Case | On June 9, 2014, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Scialabba v. Cuellar de Osorio , 2014 U.S. LEXIS 3991 [ enhanced opinion available to lexis.com subscribers ]. The Court held that the BIA’s textually...

Supreme Court: Padilla Did Not Create New Rule: No Retroactive Application to Cases on Collateral Review On February 20, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Chaidez v. United States. The majority of the Court held that the decision in Padilla...

Napolitano Resigns as Secretary of Homeland Security On July 12, 2013, Janet Napolitano announced her resignation as Secretary of Homeland Security, a position she has held since the start of the Obama administration. Napolitano will remain in her...

EOIR Releases Statistics for FY2012 The Executive Office for Immigration Review has released its statistical yearbook for fiscal 2012. As expected, the backlog of cases before EOIR continued to grow, with 326,255 pending proceedings before immigration...

EOIR Releases Plan to Protect Detainees with Mental Disorders | The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) recently released the first phase of a nationwide plan to provide heightened protections for unrepresented detainees with mental disorders...

USCIS Issues New Guidelines on Credible Fear Interviews On February 28, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued new guidelines for asylum officers charged with determining whether applicants possess credible fears of persecution or torture...

Administration Seeks More Special Immigrant Visas for Afghan Nationals | The Obama administration is urging Congress to expand the number of special immigrant visas available to Afghan nationals who assisted the U.S. government and to do so before...

Federal Judge Certifies Class Action in Mandatory Detention Lawsuit On February 10, 2014, U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor certified a class consisting of noncitizens in Massachusetts who are challenging their mandatory detention under Section 236...

USCIS Ombudsman Recommends Improvements to SIJ Adjudication Process| On December 11, 2015, the Ombudsman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a 12-page report containing recommendations for improving the process for adjudicating applications...

Expedited Review Announced for Cases Affected by Specific Administrative Errors USCIS has now established an expedited process for reviewing and correcting decisions resulting from certain administrative errors. This new process allows customers to...

Juan Osuna Appointed Acting Director for EOIR Attorney General Eric Holder announced the appointment of Juan Osuna as Acting Director for the Executive Office for Immigration Review. The announcement was made on December 23. “Juan has been...

EOIR Revises Docket Priorities | On February 3, 2016, Chief Immigration Judge Print Maggard issued a memorandum revising certain docket priorities for the Executive Office for Immigration Review. In cases involving unaccompanied minors, immigration...

Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program To Begin in 2015 On October 17, 2014, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Haitian beneficiaries of approved family-based immigrant visa petitions may soon be paroled into the United States...