EAH Immigration Blog

USCIS published its final regulations governing EB-5 investor visas on July 24; the new rules go into effect on November 21, 2019. The major change created by the new regulations is to increase the minimum investment amounts that foreign investors must invest to obtain an EB-5 green card. Starting on November...

Congress has adjourned for its annual summer recess and will be returning after Labor Day to address a number of immigration bills. The following are worth watching: Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 (H.R. 1044) passed the House of Representatives on July 10; its Senate companion bill (S. 386)...

Created in 1996, expedited removal is a process by which low-level immigration officers can quickly deport certain noncitizens who are undocumented or have committed fraud or misrepresentation. Since 2004, immigration officials have used expedited removal to deport individuals who arrive at our border, as well as individuals who entered without authorization...

The following additional items may be of interest to our readers: Trump Expands Executive Order on Venezuela: An August 5th Executive Order (EO) further extends the scope of a 2015 and subsequent EOs impacting Venezuelans. The latest EO directs that all property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela...

Immigration enforcement raids dominated the news in July and August. While new ICE raids in 10 cities in July did not materialize, a raid in Mississippi on August 7 resulted in the detention of some 680 undocumented immigrants in what a federal prosecutor described as a record-setting operation, “the largest single-state...

At an August 16 liaison meeting with the State Department, the American Immigration Lawyers Association was made aware that following a review of the dates listed in the September 2019 Visa Bulletin, the entire EB-3 category has immediately been made “unavailable” for the remainder of FY2019. This means that the annual...

DHS published a new public charge rule that dramatically changes the standard of whether an applicant for admission to the U.S. or for adjustment of status is likely to become a “public charge.” “Public charge” is not defined in the immigration law, but since 1999, the term has meant a person...

Denver, Colorado, August 15, 2019 David Harston, Camila Palmer, and Phil Alterman have once again been selected by their peers for recognition in the 26th Edition of The Best Lawyers in America, for their work in Immigration Law.

USCIS will close its international offices, starting with Ciudad Juárez (Mexico) and Manila (Philippines). All offices, including the main district offices for the separate regions, are scheduled to close by March 10, 2020. In September 2019, the Monterrey, Mexico, office is projected to close, as well as the station in Seoul....

A district court judge for the Middle District of North Carolina issued a nationwide preliminary injunction, effective immediately, enjoining USCIS’s memo titled “Accrual of Unlawful Presence and F, J, and M Nonimmigrants,” originally issued on May 10, 2018, and updated on August 9, 2018, that went into effect on August 9,...

On May 17, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that the Administration’s rescission of DACA violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). The Court of Appeals agreed with the district court that the plaintiffs’ challenges are subject to judicial review and that the government’s decision to rescind DACA did...

On May 22, the Brennan Center for Justice released a new and scathing report, Social Media Monitoring: How the Department of Homeland Security Uses Digital Data in the Name of National Security, that analyzes DHS’s expansion and use of social media information and data collection culled from press reports, information obtained...

For the past 20 years, Congress has required a foreign national’s sponsor to sign an affidavit of support (Form I-864) pledging financial support in the event the sponsored foreign national applies for or receives means-tested public benefits. The law requires that when a foreign national receives certain forms of means-tested public...

The House of Representatives passed the American Dream and Promise Act (H.R. 6) on a bipartisan vote of 237 to 187, the first time the House has passed a bill on protection for Dreamers since 2010. The bill offers permanent legal status for “Dreamers” and thousands of Temporary Protected Status (TPS)...

It seems like every month the Administration comes up with yet another way to restrict the ability of asylum seekers to obtain protection from persecution in order to deter the flow of refugees. On April 29, President Trump issued a memorandum ordering changes to U.S. asylum policies. The memo orders the...

The following additional items may be of interest to our readers: USCIS Begins Premium Processing for H-1B Cap-Subject Petitions: On June 10, USCIS resumed premium processing for all remaining FY2020 H-1B cap-subject petitions. Petitioners may file a Request for Premium Processing Service, with the USCIS service center processing their petition on...

Senior Partner, David Harston to serve as panelist at the 2019 AILA Annual Conference on Immigration Law, on Friday, June 21, 2019.

In late 2018, USCIS issued a new policy memo that limits when officers can waive the interview requirement for Form I-751, the petition certain marriage-based green card holders must submit to remove the condition on their permanent residence. Under the previous policy guidance dated 2005, USCIS officers were advised that interviews...

USCIS has issued guidance to clarify that violation of federal controlled-substance law established by a conviction or admission, including for marijuana, remains a conditional bar to establishing good moral character (GMC) for naturalization, even where that conduct would not be a state law offense. Moreover, an applicant who is involved in...

Immigration lawyers have always encountered people who thought they were U.S. citizens only to find out they aren’t. The issue often arises when the individual goes to renew his/her driver’s license and doesn’t have a birth certificate or passport, or when the person seeks to renew his passport. Whether this issue...