Consistent with the Biden Administration’s Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government by improving the customer experience, on October 8, 2024, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) introduced an electronic PDF filing option for certain I-765 Employment Authorization Document (“EAD”) applicants via their personal USCIS online accounts. Eligible applicants may file Requests for Fee Waiver, Form I-912 in PDF format as well, which marks the first time fee waiver requests can be filed online.
Read more180-Day Automatic Extensions of Employment Authorization Documents
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced on October 27, 2023, they would be reverting back to 180-day automatic extensions of employment authorization and EAD validity for those eligible applicants who timely file a Form I-765 renewal application on or after October 27, 2023. This announcement follows a Temporary Final Rule (“TRF”) adopted by USCIS from May 4, 2022, through October 26, 2023, which increased the automatic extension period for employment authorization and Employment Authorization Documents (“EADs”) available to certain EAD renewal applicants up to 540-days. Please note that this change to automatic 180-day renewals does not affect beneficiaries who were granted automatic extensions of up to 540-days during the time the TRF was in effect. For beneficiaries of the 540-day extension, the increased automatic extension “will end when they receive a final decision on their renewal application or when the up to 540-day period expires (counted from the expiration date of the employment authorization and/or their EAD), whichever comes earlier.”
Read moreUSCIS Updates EAD Authorization to Five Years for Certain Noncitizens, Including Adjustment of Status Applicants
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced on September 27, 2023, it is increasing the maximum validity for initial and renewal of Employment Authorization Documents (“EADs”) to 5 years for certain noncitizens. Applicants for initial and renewal EADs, including applicants for adjustment of status, in both employment and family based categories, will receive an EAD with a maximum five-year validity, as opposed to two-years. This change is being implemented by USCIS immediately, “and applies to Applications for Employment Authorization, that are pending or are filed on or after September 27, 2023.”
Read moreJudge Upholds Right of Spouses of Certain H-1B Visa Holders to Work in the US
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed a law suit brought by Save Jobs USA against U.S. Department of Homeland Security (15-cv-0015, US District Court, District of Columbia) which challenged the rights of certain highly skilled H-1B visa holders’ spouses to work in the US. Judge Chutkan upheld rule which grants certain H-4 visa holders the right for work authorization parallel to their spouses’ H-1B visa validity for employment in the US. The same Judge had previously dismissed the suit, ruling that Save Jobs lacked standing to challenge the H-4 rule. However, a federal appeals court reversed that ruling in 2019 and revived the case.
Read moreUSCIS Rolls Out Premium Processing Option for Certain F-1 Students
Holding to true to its plans to expand its premium processing services to “increase efficiency and reduce burdens to the overall legal immigration system”, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced it is implementing premium processing service and online-filing procedures for certain F-1 student visa holders seeking Optional Practical Training (“OPT”) and F-1 students seeking science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (“STEM”) OPT extensions.
Read moreVenezuelan Exodus: In Search of Livelihoods
Imagine yourself a citizen of a country that has been under an authoritarian regime for the past twenty-three years. You and your family are in a state of food insecurity, violence, and medicinal shortages driven by decades of political turmoil. Would you leave everything behind, risk your life, and perhaps your loved ones’ lives, in search of a better life you may have only seen on television or films? Millions of Venezuelans have had to make this arduous decision and consequently fled their homes due to political persecution, loss of livelihoods, lack of food, medicine, and other basic necessities. Since 2015 more than 7.1 million people have fled Venezuela. The dictatorial government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and his predecessor Hugo Chavez, have turned a country once considered the richest in Latin American, due to its housing the largest oil reserves in the world, into a “narco state” where citizens are forced to live with soaring expenses, limited job opportunities, and minimal political freedoms. Maduro’s government is not recognized by the US government and therefore migrants at the US border cannot be deported back to Venezuela. The idea of reaching the land of the free has prompted thousands of Venezuelans to risk their lives by making a 6,000 mile journey into the unknown. In fiscal year 2022, an unprecedented 188,000 Venezuelans have presented themselves at the US southern border.
Read moreImmigration Backlogs Jeopardize Child’s Organ Transplants
While debates on immigration policy often tend towards philosophical ideas, in practice the immigration system in the United States can lead to serious and even life-threatening situations. Eleven-year-old Julia Espinoza was born in Miami while her parents were attending college on student visas. Julia was born with a congenital malformation to her small intestine, which prevents her from eating normally. As a lifesaving measure, doctors removed most of her small intestine. Julia survives by getting daily infusions of nutrients through an intravenous post in her chest.
Read moreUSCIS to Recall 800 Incorrectly Printed Employment Authorization Documents
As of June 21, 2018, US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) will also begin the process of recalling approximately 800 Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) that were issued in connection with Form I-589, Application for Asylum and Withholding of Removal. These EAD cards, that were granted by USCIS officers and mailed to recipients in April and May of 2018, contain a production error that rearranged individuals’ first and last names. Although this recall will not affect these individuals’ employment authorization, as their Form I-94s show that they were granted asylum and thus have employment authorization, USCIS will be sending notices to the recipients of these incorrect EADs, or their attorneys, so that the incorrect EADs may be sent back to USCIS in the pre-paid envelope provided within twenty days of receiving the notice or returned to a USCIS field office. According to the agency, replacement EADs will be sent to recipients within fifteen days of receiving the incorrect cards. If an individual needs proof of employment authorization, they may contact the USCIS Contact Center.
The Washington Post: “Immigration crackdown shifts to employers as audits surge”
Under the Trump administration, immigration officials have substantially increased audits on companies to verify that employees are authorized to legally work in the US. The increased efforts are focusing on both building criminal cases against noncompliant employers as well as removing employees working in the US without legal documentation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports that there were 2,282 employer audits opened between October 1, 2017 and May 4, 2018, a sixty percent jump from the 1,360 audits opened between October 2016 and September 2017. Derek Benner, head of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, tells the Associated Press that planned audits for this summer would push the total “well over” 5,000 by September 30. Comparably, in 2013 there were 3,127 ICE audits.
Read moreNBC News: “Trump Administration: Dreamers Can Stay, Undocumented Parents Must Go”
On the anniversary of the implementation of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects approximately 800,000 immigrants (also called “dreamers”) who came to the US as children with no legal status by shielding them from deportation and providing them with work authorization for periods of two years, the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) formally eliminated a similar program proposed to protect the undocumented parents of these dreamers.
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