Tag: Citizenship and Naturalization
October 23, 2019
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the November 2019 Visa Bulletin. All employment-based categories see little to no movement for the month of November. The cut-off date for the EB-2 category for persons born in China has advanced since October 2019 but has continued to remain retrogressed since July 2019. The cut-off ...
October 23, 2019
On October 15, CEOs and Deans from the top business schools in the country wrote a letter addressed to the President and members of Congress, asking them to reform the U.S. Immigration system to meet the country’s need for highly skilled employees in the STEM field. The ...
October 14, 2019
On Friday, three federal courts in California, New York, and Washington issued judgments that will block the implementation of the Trump Administration's public charge rule. As previously reported, the rule was to go in to effect on Tuesday, October 15. The public charge rule would evaluate ...
September 25, 2019
On September 20, the Trump administration came to an asylum cooperation agreement with El Salvador, designed to deter migrants from seeking asylum in the United States. The agreement states that any migrants that pass through El Salvador seeking asylum must apply for protection in that country first ...
September 11, 2019
On September 4, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a proposal to collect social media user identifications in order to “assess an alien’s eligibility to travel to or be admitted to the United States or to receive an immigration-related benefit from DHS.” This change would ...
August 30, 2019
On Wednesday, August 28, the Trump administration announced changes to the definition of residency as it relates to the citizenship of children of U.S. service members born outside of the U.S. The current policy states that certain children living outside of the United States were considered ...
August 28, 2019
Twenty states announced their plans to file a lawsuit against the Trump Administration in response to its plans to amend the rule that limits the amount of time a migrant child may be held in detention centers to 20 days. Amending this rule would allow the ...
August 12, 2019
On Monday, August 12, the Trump Administration said it would move forward with new regulations that would deny green cards and visas to immigrants who use or are expected to use a wide range of government benefits, including food stamps, housing vouchers, and Medicaid. This ...
July 25, 2019
As previously reported, on July 15, the Trump Administration published a new rule, Asylum Eligibility and Procedural Modifications, which would require individuals who pass through a third party country seeking asylum in the U.S. to first apply for asylum in that third party country. The rule was met ...
July 25, 2019
In this week's Immigration Nerds podcast, we are joined by Taylor Gibson, a law clerk with Erickson Immigration Group. Taylor recently spent a week volunteering with unaccompanied minors at the border. Through her account, we enter the lives and stories of those separated from their ...
July 18, 2019
USCIS is the agency charged with administering and providing immigration benefits to foreign nationals. Naturalization, green cards, work authorization, H-1B visas, asylum, family-based immigration, investment visas, cultural exchange programs, foreign doctors, NAFTA professionals, victims of crimes and domestic violence, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, and many ...
July 17, 2019
On July 15, the Trump Administration published a new rule, Asylum Eligibility and Procedural Modifications, requiring individuals who pass through a third party country seeking to apply for asylum in the U.S. to apply for asylum in that third party country first. Under the new rules, ...
July 17, 2019
On July 10th, the House of Representatives passed the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, which intends to eliminate the per-country cap for employment-based green cards. The bill will now be considered by the Senate. If the bill is approved, the first-come, first-served system would give every immigrant ...
July 3, 2019
This week, NPR obtained government documents showing that the Trump administration has fined some immigrants who are in the United States illegally, after "failing to depart the U.S. as previously agreed." The Department of Homeland Security sent out notices to targeted individuals with fines up to ...
July 2, 2019
On June 17, 2019, USCIS announced that it plans on decreasing processing times for Naturalization and Green Card processing. USCIS plans to distribute Naturalization and Green Card adjudication more evenly among the field offices to address issues caused by the disparate adjudication burden on different field offices ...
July 2, 2019
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that will send 4.5 billion dollars in humanitarian aid to crisis-stricken migrants at the border. The aid will fund overcrowded shelter facilities to improve living conditions for women and children who are detained. It will also go toward U.S. ...
June 27, 2019
On Thursday morning, the Supreme Court ruled against adding the citizenship question to the 2020 Census. The majority stated, they "cannot ignore the disconnect between the decision made and the explanation given" by the Trump administration. The proposal to add the citizenship question, "Is this person ...
June 21, 2019
In this week's Immigration Nerds Podcast, we sit down with EIG attorney Jeremy Dumetz and talk about the hotly debated "citizenship" question the Trump administration is pushing for in the 2020 Census. Jeremy and EIG Media Producer Ian Gaines talk about the history of the ...
June 12, 2019
“Is this person a citizen of the United States?” With the 2020 census looming and the issue of a new question on citizenship to be added, the Trump Administration is blocking Congress' access to background documents about how the new question came to be with executive ...
April 23, 2019
On April 22, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) agreed to hear the case of a permanent resident in the U.S. currently under removal proceedings following criminal convictions. In deciding this case, SCOTUS will determine whether U.S. Federal Immigration Laws allow for a permanent resident to ...
January 30, 2019
On January 22, the United States Supreme Court declined to address the Trump Administration’s request to review the lawsuit challenging the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The Trump Administration announced an end to the program in the fall of 2017, which was challenged ...
January 30, 2019
United States Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, directed the US Census Bureau to add a question that has not appeared since 1950: “Is this person a citizen of the United States?.” This question was challenged in the United States District Court and found to be a violation of ...
December 5, 2018
The USCIS Citizenship and Assimilation grant program exist to provide educational materials and resources to assist the naturalization process and to facilitate partnerships to raise awareness of the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. USCIS awarded $9.4 million inCitizenship and Assimilation grants to 40 organizations for FY 2018. ...
November 8, 2018
In this week's Immigration Nerds podcast, we sit down with attorney John Sherry who explains the process of receiving dual citizenship. John sheds light on this often overlooked possibility to tie identity not only to one's personal history but to the very land.
October 11, 2018
The Department of State (DOS) is now accepting online registrations for FY 2020 Diversity Visa Lottery until November 6, 2018. The Diversity Visa Program, also known as “the green card lottery,” allows for 50,000 immigrant visas to be made available annually through random selection. The lottery is ...
October 2, 2018
In a recent announcement, the White House has proposed key changes to the Public Charge Policy that is designed to reduce the number of immigrants eligible for green cards. In essence, immigrants may be denied citizenship based upon the amount of government assistance they receive. ...
July 26, 2018
Tied to funding for other key immigration initiatives, the bill has a chance of success. Update: On Wednesday, an immigration proposal Forbes called "The Most Popular Bill in Congress" was integrated into the House version of the FY2019 Homeland Security Funding Bill, which was approved by committee and referred to the full ...
June 25, 2018
EIG attorneys Lieselot Whitbeck and Miatrai Brown discuss the current zero tolerance Family Separation policy and legal procedure, and share their own experiences working at family detention centers and what we can expect moving forward.
May 1, 2018
On April 25, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding the Trump administration’s third travel ban. This ban is currently in effect and applies a permanent ban to most (or all) nationals of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, as well as certain Venezuelan government ...
May 1, 2018
A US District Court judge in Washington, DC ruled on April 24 that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program cannot be phased out, but the decision has been delayed for 90 days to allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to respond. This month’s lower ...