EAH Immigration Blog

This month, USCIS announced that it will now accept credit card payments for 41 of its fee-based forms being processed at USCIS lockbox facilities. These forms include the I-130 petition for relatives, I-140 petitions for employees, and I-485 green card applications. The Form I-129 is not included, meaning that fees...

In November, the Senate published its proposed budget for FY2018 Department of Homeland Security funding. Some $53 billion is doled out over 12 major components and agencies that make up one of the largest departments in the U.S. government. While the bill is still pending and will be amended, it...

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an audit of the H-1B program and determined that USCIS employer site visits were being conducted in a sparse and inefficient manner. The purpose of these visits is to determine if the foreign national is working at the jobsite indicated in the petition,...

Attorney General (AG) Jeff Sessions has expressed his frustration with the pace of case processing before the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), and its immigration court. The agency is facing a caseload of 650,000, which has far outstripped the agency’s resources to hear cases in a timely manner. The...

On December 5, the Senate confirmed Kirstjen M. Nielsen as the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary with a 62-37 vote. She was sworn in the following day. While Secretary Nielsen is the first former DHS employee to hold the position, many senators who voted against confirmation noted that...

Below is our top 10 list of changes that the current administration has put into place, without legislation or regulations, that drastically change the immigration landscape for employers, immigrants, and their families: 10. USCIS increases site visits to employers who hire H-1B and L-1 nonimmigrant workers. 9. Consular officers re-adjudicate...

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C O N T A C T : Barbara Ingram, Firm Administrator Elkind Alterman Harston, PC Telephone: 303.736.6650 Fax: 303.736.6655 www.EAHimmigration.com For Immediate Release New Partner Announcement – Camila S. Palmer Denver, Colorado, January 2, 2018 –  Elkind Alterman Harston PC, a leading full-service immigration law firm, is pleased to...

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The following additional items may be of interest to our readers: DACA Update: In November, a myriad of advocates took to the phones, Facebook, and Twitter to contact members of Congress in support of DACA. Scheduled to expire in March, the legislative branch has not yet come up with a...

For over 10 years, USCIS has taken the approach that, when adjudicating extension petitions involving the same employer, the same beneficiary, and the same underlying facts, its adjudicators would defer to prior approval determinations. USCIS has now reversed this policy, interpreting it as placing an extra burden on the agency...

The following is an update and roundup of the current status of TPS for some 10 countries. As of August 2017, an estimated 325,000 TPS beneficiaries live in the United States. More than 90 percent of individuals with TPS are nationals of El Salvador (195,000), Honduras (57,000), or Haiti (50,000)....

On December 4, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two orders staying the preliminary injunctions issued against President Trump’s September 24, 2017, Presidential Proclamation, or “Travel Ban,” pending disposition of appeals still pending in the courts. The ban restricts nationals of Chad, North Korea, Iran, Libya, Venezuela, Syria, Yemen, and...

C O N T A C T : Barbara Ingram, Firm Administrator Elkind Alterman Harston, PC Telephone: 303.736.6650 Fax: 303.736.6655 www.EAHimmigration.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Law Week Colorado, 2017 Barrister’s Best – “Best Immigration Lawyer” Denver, Colorado, October 16, 2017 –  Managing Partner David A. Harston has been selected as the...

All new employees are required to complete a Form I-9 when they are hired. While many new employees do so with little thought, the consequences for foreign nationals of improperly completing the form can be disastrous, leading to serious immigration consequences. Some USCIS districts have been scouring I-9 forms to...

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) released new data showing that the odds of obtaining representation in immigration deportation proceedings varies widely, depending upon the community in which an immigrant lives. According to the report, if you happen to live in Honolulu, then the odds are good that if an...

On July 11, 2017, USCIS released a final rule delaying the effective date of the International Entrepreneur Rule from July 17, 2017, to March 14, 2018. The final rule would have allowed international entrepreneurs to use the parole program to stay temporarily in the United States to grow their start-up...

Despite strong opinions from the Fourth and Ninth Courts of Appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the injunction on President Trump’s travel ban and allowed a version of it to go into effect. The Supreme Court will hear the arguments for the case in October, shortly after the ban is...

Several reform proposals have been introduced in recent weeks, but the RAISE Act, introduced in the Senate with strong support from Trump, has garnered much public attention. Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act ( S.354 ) seeks to cut legal immigration numbers in half. The bill would:...