U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

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Following up on its November announcement, last week USCIS issued a Final Rule to change the way cap-subject H-1B petitions are selected.

The Final Rule (which is unchanged from the proposed November Rule) would significantly alter the H-1B cap selection process by creating a tiered selection system. The tiered system would be based on the…

On November 2, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) announcing its plan to drastically change the way USCIS selects the H-1B Cap registrations of U.S. employers.  If the Proposed Rule is finalized in its current form and made effective, this would affect the registration selection process for employers…

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced revisions to the naturalization civics test.  The changes will affect those applicants who apply after December 1, 2020.  These applicants will need to take the updated version of the civics test.

Instead of studying 100 questions, applicants must now study 128 possible questions.   The new test is…

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that it will not furlough employees as had been previously scheduled to begin on August 30, 2020.  USCIS had previously pushed back the anticipated furlough in August and now has cancelled it altogether, with the expectation of being able to maintain operations through the end of fiscal…

On Friday, May 29, 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced plans for the phased-in resumption of premium processing for eligible I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker petitions and eligible I-129 Nonimmigrant Worker petitions. (See USCIS website at https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-resumes-premium-processing-certain-petitions.)

USCIS temporarily suspended premium processing availability for all eligible Form I-129 and I-140 petitions…

On May 11, 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a Policy Memorandum relating to certain J-1 waivered foreign medical graduates during the COVID-19 national emergency. The memo, captioned “Temporary Policy Changes for Certain Foreign Medical Graduates During the COVID-19 National Emergency” was issued solely as guidance to USCIS officers with regard…

USCIS extends immigration related deadlines:

On March 30, 2020, in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced an extension of the flexibility it announced to assist applicants and petitioners who are responding to the following types of requests, with deadlines:

  • Requests for Evidence;
  • Continuations to Request Evidence (N-14);
  • Notices of

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On March 18, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services temporarily suspended in-person services at its field offices, asylum offices, and application support centers (ASCs) to help slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).  This closure was scheduled through May 3.  Today, April 24, 2020, USCIS is announced that it will reopen on or after June 4. Employees

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On March 18, USCIS extended the suspension of all routine face-to-face services with applicants at all of its offices through May 3, to protect its workforce and to help mitigate the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in our communities.  USCIS offices plan to re-open on May 4, unless the public closures are extended further.

This includes…