Immigration Law

Recent Posts

DOS Update on Worldwide Visa Operations (Oct. 21, 2022)
Posted on 4 Nov 2022 by Daniel M. Kowalski

DOS, Oct, 21, 2022 "Worldwide Visa Operations Are Recovering Faster than Expected from the COVID-19 Pandemic The Department of State is successfully lowering visa interview wait times worldwide, following closures during the pandemic. We’ve... Read More

The Budgetary and Economic Tradeoffs of Reducing the Immigration Backlog
Posted on 30 Sep 2022 by Daniel M. Kowalski

Gordon Gray, American Action Forum, Sept. 29, 2022 "There are about 8.6 million immigration benefit applications pending before United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, of which 5.2 million are considered part of the agency’s... Read More

Tags: backlogs , USCIS

Documented Dreamers Age Out
Posted on 3 May 2022 by Daniel M. Kowalski

Aishvarya Kavi, New York Times, Apr. 30, 2021 "In 2011, after five years of working and living with his family in the United States on a temporary visa, Barathimohan Ganesan submitted green card applications for his wife, his 5-year-old daughter... Read More

Tags: backlogs , visas

USCIS Announces New Actions to Reduce Backlogs, Expand Premium Processing, and Provide Relief to Work Permit Holders
Posted on 29 Mar 2022 by Daniel M. Kowalski

USCIS, Mar. 29, 2022 "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is announcing a trio of efforts to increase efficiency and reduce burdens to the overall legal immigration system. USCIS will set new agency-wide backlog reduction goals, expand premium... Read More

Mounting Backlogs Undermine U.S. Immigration System and Impede Biden Policy Changes
Posted on 24 Feb 2022 by Daniel M. Kowalski

Muzaffar Chishti and Julia Gelatt, MPI, Feb. 23, 2022 "The Biden administration is seeking to overhaul the U.S. immigration system, expanding protections to hundreds of thousands of immigrants and embarking on a plan to restructure the asylum process... Read More

A Mounting Asylum Backlog and Growing Wait Times: TRAC
Posted on 22 Dec 2021 by Daniel M. Kowalski

TRAC, Dec. 22, 2021 "Over four out of every ten Immigration Court cases in which asylum applications have been filed since October 2000 are still pending. That means that of the 1.6 million Court cases in which asylum applications were filed, two... Read More

Tags: backlogs , asylum

Immigration Court Backlog Nears 1.5 Million Cases: TRAC
Posted on 15 Nov 2021 by Daniel M. Kowalski

TRAC, Nov. 15, 2021 "Including nearly 50,000 new deportation cases filed in Immigration Court in just October 2021, the total pending cases in the Immigration Courts now reaches 1,486,495 according to TRAC's updated Quick Facts tools . Immigration... Read More

Proposal for the Biden Administration to Reduce Backlogs: Count the Family Together So That They May Stay Together
Posted on 17 Nov 2020 by Daniel M. Kowalski

Cyrus Mehta, Nov. 16, 2020 "Ever since I co-wrote The Tyranny of Priority Dates in 2010, followed by How President Obama Can Erase Immigrant Visa Backlogs With A Stroke Of A Pen in 2012, I have steadfastly maintained that the current and prior... Read More

Furloughs of USCIS Private Contractors Will Trigger Delays, Backlogs Nationwide
Posted on 10 Sep 2020 by Daniel M. Kowalski

Daniel C. Vock, Kansas Reflector, Sept. 10, 2020 " Members of Congress from the Kansas City region scored a victory last month when a federal immigration agency backed off plans that would have led to thousands of layoffs of government employees... Read More

Is USCIS Building a 'Second Wall' to Block Naturalization Applicants?
Posted on 31 Oct 2017 by Daniel M. Kowalski

National Partnership for New Americans, Oct. 27, 2017 -"On October 27, 2017, National Partnership for New Americans released our NPNA Report: Building a Second Wall, USCIS Backlogs Preventing Immigrants from Becoming Citizens detailing the sad and... Read More

Path to What, and When?
Posted on 22 Jan 2014 by Daniel M. Kowalski

"House Speaker John Boehner is set to unveil his counter to the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill. The one-page GOP set of principles could be aired just prior to President Obama's State of the Union speech on January 28th. ... Read More

Some Skilled Workers Must Wait for Centuries for Green Cards - Cyrus Mehta
Posted on 1 Aug 2016 by Daniel M. Kowalski

Cyrus Mehta, July 30, 2016 - " David Bier at the Cato Institute has emerged as a fresh and new scholarly voice on immigration. It has always been known that an individual who got sponsored by an employer today in the India employment-based third... Read More

Deluged Immigration Courts, Where Cases Stall for Years, Begin to Buckle
Posted on 2 Dec 2016 by Daniel M. Kowalski

Julia Preston, New York Times, Dec. 1, 2016 - "Weighed down by a backlog of more than 520,000 cases, the United States immigration courts are foundering, increasingly failing to deliver timely, fair decisions to people fighting deportation or asking... Read More

Families Counted Together Stay Together: How to Eliminate Visa Backlogs
Posted on 15 Sep 2014 by Daniel M. Kowalski

"There is nothing in the Immigration and Nationality Act that requires each derivative family member to be counted on an individual basis against the worldwide and country caps. That being so, President Obama tomorrow can issue an executive order... Read More

Immigration Court Backlogs and Wait Times Reach New Highs
Posted on 19 Jul 2012 by Daniel M. Kowalski

From TRAC on July 19, 2012 : The number of cases awaiting resolution before the Immigration Courts keeps rising, along with the average time these pending cases have been waiting. At the end of June 2012 the backlog reached a new all-time high of 314... Read More