Congress has voted to temporarily extend federal government funding through November 21, 2019. The spending measure means that federal functions – including immigration operations – will continue uninterrupted through November 21, 2019, while FY 2020 budget negotiations continue. The bill…
The State Department will begin accepting online registrations for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Diversity Visa (DV) lottery starting Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at noon EDT. Foreign nationals who wish to enter the lottery have until Tuesday, November 5, 2019 at…
The Department of Homeland Security has extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syria for 18 months, through March 31, 2021. Current Syrian TPS beneficiaries will have until November 22, 2019 to request an 18-month extension of status and work authorization,…
The Department of State posted the visa bulletin for October today. USCIS advised that it will accept family and employment-based adjustment of status petitions for October based upon the filing date. See https://www.uscis.gov/visabulletininfo for the updated information. In recent Visa Bulletins,…
The Department of Homeland Security has informed a federal appeals court that a proposed regulation to rescind the H-4 employment authorization program is not likely to be published before Spring 2020 and indicates that even this estimate is “aspirational.” The…
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking to collect five years of social media history from applicants for certain immigration benefits, including Visa Waiver Program travelers and, adjustment of status and naturalization applicants, according to a Federal Register notice published today. If…
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is proposing to impose a fee on employers who file H-1B cap registrations under the forthcoming online registration system. Employers would be required to pay a $10 fee per registration. The proposed rule will be…
The current version of the I-9 employment eligibility form will remain in use beyond its August 31, 2019 expiration date. USCIS announced that employers should continue to use the current version of the form – which bears an edition date of July 17, 2017…
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is experiencing a temporary outage with its processing systems at various air ports of entry and is taking immediate action to address the technology disruption,” the Department of Homeland Security agency said in a statement.…
The State Department has notified the American Immigration Lawyers Association that all EB-3 categories are now immediately unavailable and will remain so through September 30, the end of FY 2019. The annual immigrant visa quotas have been reached on all…