On February 22, 2018, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) released an advisory calling attention to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Fall 2018 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions and Regulatory Plan, which was released in October 2018 and gives an overview of anticipated regulations. These regulations do not always come to pass,…
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DOJ to Blame for Immigration Court Backlog
It is no secret that the immigration courts, run by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), are seriously overworked and backlogged. The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) recently obtained a copy of the EOIR’s Strategic Caseload Reduction Plan for dealing with this backlog, but the data makes it clear that EOIR’s strategic plan was…
USCIS Resumes Premium Processing for Fiscal Year 2019 H-1B Cap Petitions
USCIS has announced that, as of January 28, 2019, it will resume premium processing for all cap-subject petitions, including those eligible for the master’s cap. This only applies to pending petitions, not newly filed petitions.
DHS Publishes Final Rule Modifying H-1B Lottery Process
As previously discussed in our post on December 4, 2018, DHS has indicated that it intended to amend its rules pertaining to the H-1B lottery system. For a detailed discussion of those plans, please refer back to the earlier post. On January 31, 2019, DHS did as promised, publishing a final rule in the Federal…
USCIS Processing Delays at Record Levels
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) recently released a policy brief detailing the unprecedented processing delays at USCIS. As a practitioner, it has been increasingly apparent that USCIS under the Trump Administration has been implementing policies that waste resources and result in slower adjudications of petitions. AILA’s policy brief supports this observation and details some…
USCIS Provides Additional Clarity on Secure Identity Document Delivery
On January 16, USCIS issued a Policy Alert providing new guidance in its policy manual on its issuance of secure identity documents, such as employment authorization documents, travel documents, permanent resident cards, and naturalization and citizenship certificates. Of note, it explains how USCIS delivers and tracks these documents, as well as the appropriate procedure to…