Immigration News

USCIS Clarifies Physical Presence Guidance for Asylees and Refugees Applying for Adjustment of Status

Effective immediately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify that both asylees and refugees must have been physically present in the United States for one year when USCIS adjudicates their Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, rather than at the time they file their adjustment of status application. This applies to all Form I-485 and Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, applications pending on February 2, 2023, and those filed on or after that date.
This update will promote consistency across asylee and refugee adjustment of status applications. If USCIS cannot determine whether an applicant satisfies the one-year physical presence requirement by reviewing their file or USCIS’ records when the agency adjudicates their Form I-485, USCIS may request additional evidence.
This policy manual update also:
• Clarifies that asylee and refugee adjustment of status applicants previously admitted in J-1 or J-2 nonimmigrant status and otherwise subject to the two-year foreign residence requirement under Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) 212(e) do not need to meet that two-year requirement (or obtain a waiver) to adjust their status under INA 209; and
• Makes minor technical updates, including clarifying processing steps for refugees seeking waivers of inadmissibility, removing references to the obsolete Form I-291, Decision on Application for Status as Permanent Resident, and adding regulatory citations related to asylum termination procedures.

USCIS Announces Green Card and Employment Authorization Document Redesign

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced new designs to improve security of Permanent Resident Cards (also known as Green Cards) and Employment Authorization Documents (EADs). USCIS will begin issuing the redesigned cards on Jan. 30, 2023.

The new Green Card and EAD designs include:
• State-of-the-art technology that continues to safeguard national security and improve service for our customers;
• Improved detailed artwork;
• New tactile printing that is better integrated with the artwork;
• Enhanced optically variable ink;
• Highly secure holographic images on the front and back of the cards;
• A layer-reveal feature with a partial window on the back photo box; and
• Data fields displayed in different places than on previous versions.

To mitigate the risk of fraud and counterfeiting, USCIS redesigns the cards every three to five years.
The introduction of the new designs does not mean that currently issued cards are invalid. Current cards generally remain valid until their expiration date (unless otherwise noted, such as through an automatic extension of a Green Card or EAD as indicated on a Form I-797, Notice of Action, or in a Federal Register notice). Some older Green Cards also do not have an expiration date. These older Green Cards without an expiration date generally remain valid.

USCIS FACES NEW CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS FOR ITS EXTREME DELAYS IN PROCESSING WAIVERS

A lawsuit was recently filed against U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on behalf of 248 people, and a class of tens of thousands more, to end the delays, which have increased exponentially to about three years.
The plaintiffs seek to certify a class of noncitizens who have filed or will file this type of waiver application and whose application has been pending for at least 12 months. For applications filed in the future, the lawsuit asks USCIS to decide the waiver application within six months from the date the application is filed.

FY 2024 H-1B Cap Initial Registration Period Opens on March 1

Today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2024 H-1B cap will open at noon Eastern on March 1 and run through noon Eastern on March 17, 2023. During this period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to complete and submit their registrations using our online H-1B registration system. USCIS will assign a confirmation number to each registration submitted for the FY 2024 H-1B cap. This number is used solely to track registrations; you cannot use this number to track your case status in Case Status Online.
Prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives are required to use a myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary. Prospective petitioners submitting their own registrations (U.S. employers and U.S. agents, collectively known as “registrants”) will use a “registrant” account. Registrants will be able to create new accounts beginning at noon Eastern on February 21. Representatives may add clients to their accounts at any time, but both representatives and registrants must wait until March 1 to enter beneficiary information and submit the registration with the $10 fee. Prospective petitioners or their representatives will be able to submit registrations for multiple beneficiaries in a single online session. Through the account, they will be able to prepare, edit, and store draft registrations prior to final payment and submission of each registration.
If USCIS receives enough registrations by March 17, it will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications via users’ myUSCIS online accounts. If USCIS does not receive enough registrations, all registrations that were properly submitted in the initial registration period will be selected. USCIS intends to notify account holders by March 31.
The U.S. Department of Treasury has approved a temporary increase in the daily credit card transaction limit from $24,999.99 to $39,999.99 per day for the FY 2024 H-1B cap season. This temporary increase is in response to the volume of previous H-1B registrations that exceeded the daily credit card limit.  Additional information will be provided before the start of the initial H-1B registration period. An H-1B cap-subject petition, including a petition for a beneficiary who is eligible for the advanced degree exemption, may only be filed by a petitioner whose registration for the beneficiary named in the H-1B petition was selected in the H-1B registration process.

DHS EXTENDS AND REDESIGNATES HAITI FOR TPS

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a Federal Register notice for the extension and redesignation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, from February 4, 2023, through August 3, 2024. DHS previously announced the decision to extend and redesignate TPS for Haiti on December 5, 2022.
This extension and redesignation of Haiti for TPS allows nationals of Haiti (and individuals having no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti) who have continuously resided in the United States since November 6, 2022, and who have been continuously physically present in the United States since February 4, 2023, to apply for TPS. Those who have been continuously residing in the United States since November 6, 2022. and have a pending TPS application with USCIS do not have to refile at this time.
The Federal Register notice explains the procedures necessary for an existing TPS beneficiary to re-register under the extension and for an individual to submit an initial application under the redesignation and to apply for an Employment Authorization Document.

NEW IMMIGRATION RELIEF FOR NONCITIZEN WORKERS WHOSE LABOR RIGHTS HAVE BEEN VIOLATED

On January 13th, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") announced that noncitizen workers who are victims of, or witnesses to, the violation of labor rights can now access a streamlined and expedited deferred action request process and potentially receive work authorization for two years. Deferred action protects noncitizen workers from threats of immigration-related retaliation from the exploitive employers. Effective immediately, this process will improve DHS’s longstanding practice of using its discretionary authority to consider labor and employment agency-related requests for deferred action on a case-by-case basis.

EXTENSION AND RE-DESIGNATION OF SOMALIA

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced the extension and redesignation of Somalia for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, from March 18, 2023, through Sept. 17, 2024. Individuals who were already residing in the United States as of Jan. 11, 2023, will be eligible for TPS under Somalia’s redesignation if they also meet all other eligibility requirements. Somalis entering the United States after Jan. 11, 2023, are not eligible for TPS under this redesignation.

USCIS IMPLEMENTS PREMIUM PROCESSING FOR MULTINATIONAL EXECUTIVE MANAGER AND EB-2 NATIONAL INTEREST VISA

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is implementing the final phase of the premium processing expansion for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, under the EB-1 and EB-2 classifications and it will start accepting Premium Processing Requests on January 30, 2023 for all pending and initial petitions.
Unlike previous phases of the expansion, this phase applies to new (initial) petitions, in addition to all previously filed Form I-140 petitions under an E13 multinational executive and manager classification or E21 classification as a member of professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability seeking a national interest waiver (NIW).
Petitioners who wish to request premium processing must file Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service.
 

DHS ANNOUNCES SPECIAL RELIEF EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS FROM YEMEN

On December 30, 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a notice in the Federal Register that provides Special Student Relief (SSR) employment benefits for F-1 nonimmigrant students from Yemen experiencing severe economic hardship as a direct result of the current crisis in Yemen. This notice extends relief from March 4, 2023, to September 3, 2024, for eligible Yemeni students.

SSR is the suspension of certain regulatory requirements by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for an F1 student from parts of the world that are experiencing emergent circumstances. Regulatory requirements that may be suspended or altered for an F-1 student include duration of status, full course of study and off-campus employment eligibility.