Department of Homeland Security Will Change Handling of Notices of Decision and Documents Evidencing Lawful Status

On January 27, 2015, United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) will change their procedures for sending out notices of approval and other documents granting status to foreign nationals such as work cards (Employment Authorization Documents) and Green Cards. Currently, Employment Authorization Document (EAD) cards and Green Cards can only be delivered directly to the applicant’s US address.

Such deliveries do not require a signature, however, and occasionally these important documents are never received by the applicants. In such cases, USCIS requires that the applicant submit an additional filing and related fee, unless USCIS systems show that the document was returned as undeliverable to USCIS. This practice arguably places an unfair burden on applicants who may not be at fault in the delivery failure.

The new rules allow applicants and employers to request that these original documents along with approval notices be delivered solely to the business address of the applicants’ attorney or accredited representative. Effective January 27, 2015, applicants and employers will be able to make this request by selecting a check box on the new Form G-28, Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Accredited Representative. In having these important documents delivered to the business address of the applicants’ attorney, it is hoped that the number of deliveries “lost” in the mail will be reduced.

USCIS also clarified their rules regarding delivery of notices of approval and other documents conferring status:

  • USCIS will only send notices to the person or entity applying for the benefit, when neither is represented by an attorney or accredited representative;
  • When USCIS is notified on the Form G-28 that a person or entity is represented by an attorney or accredited representative, USCIS will send notices to the applicant or petitioner who filed the request and to the attorney or accredited representative;
  • For applications or petitions filed electronically, USCIS will notify both the applicant or petitioner and the attorney or accredited representative;
  • USCIS has codified its current practice of sending Form I-797 approval notices with tear-off I-94, Arrival-Departure Records to the applicant’s or petitioner’s attorney or accredited representative; and
  • USCIS will continue to send original secure identification documents, such as EAD and Green Cards only to the applicant, unless the applicant specifically requests that USCIS have such documents delivered to their attorney or accredited representative.

All this reflects USCIS’ ongoing efforts to account for industry-specific practices, giving applicants and employers greater control in how they would like to receive notifications and documents from USCIS. For instance, while some industries may typically want all such communications to go through their human resources or in-house counsel, other industries or individuals would prefer that any important documents be delivered directly to their attorney. And now, fortunately for them, they have that option. Now if only we can get our mail person to deliver the mail on time.

Tourist Visa on Arrival for US Citizens Traveling to India

Getting to India as a visitor just became much easier. As of early December 2014, US citizens may now apply online for permission to enter India as a visitor. Prior to this, US citizens had to go through a lengthy visa application process (similar to the US visa application process, one might argue) in order to get a three- or six-month visitor visa stamped into their passports.

Now, a US citizen traveling to India need only complete an application on-line at least 4 days before they travel to India, pay $60 and submit a recent photograph. Once approved, travelers must present their passport (valid for at least 6 months) and a copy of the approved travel authorization at one of 9 airports in India (Bengaluru, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai & Trivandrum). The single-entry tourist visa is valid for 30 days, cannot be extended, and a traveler may apply twice in a year at most. Business visas are not covered currently but might be included at a later date. In facilitating the visitor visa application process, India hopes to attract more tourists, particularly Americans who apparently spent a lot of money abroad! 

The program is currently open to citizens of 43 countries including Germany, Australia, Brazil, Djibouti, Fiji, Finland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Russia, Thailand, and Ukraine.  It is expected that the United Kingdom and other countries will be added at a later date.

In This Enormous New Country

“But he was no longer in Tollygunge. He had stepped out of it as he had stepped so many mornings out of his dreams, its reality and its particular logic rendered meaningless in the light of day. The difference was so extreme that he could not accommodate the two places together in his mind. In this enormous new country, there seemed to be nowhere for the old to reside. There was nothing to link them; he was the sole link. Here life ceased to obstruct or assault him. Here was a place where humanity was not always pushing, rushing, running as if with a fire at its back.”

- Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland

New Year's Eve Around the World

Santa has come and gone (obviously, he uses Global Entry). It's time now to decide how to celebrate New Year's Eve (for those of us on the Gregorian calendar). In the always-delightful-never-crowded New York City's Times Square, you can watch that famous ball drop. This ball (a geodesic sphere, rather) is twelve feet in diameter, weighs 11,875 pounds, and is covered with 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles. Before you go make sure to have some some black-eyed peas and collared greens for good luck and fortune in the new year. Approximately one million people are expected in Times Square. There is no alcohol allowed.

In Paris at midnight, the Eiffel Tower will have a light show "offering a truly festive and magical sight for the eyes!" If your eyes survive, take a walk down the Champs-Élysées and have a glass (okay, bottle) of Champagne. Or avoid Paris and go to Plérin in Brittany for a New Year's Eve swim in the freezing sea. Better have a drink after that. Salut!

In Beirut, smash some china with Orthodox Christians (or how about some celebratory gunfire?). In Spain, as the clock strikes midnight, eat twelve grapes keeping time with the striking clock to have twelve prosperous months. Or gather with the locals in the plaza where bars typically stay open all night. In Japan with your family, watch NHK's Kohaku, "a marathon TV show in which J-pop stars reprise the year's most nauseating hit singles." In Mexico City, wear red underpants, run around the block carrying an empty suitcase, and eat twelves grapes (okay, sounds familiar) in quick succession each time making a wish for the coming year.

In Rio de Janeiro, wear newly-purchased white clothing, cleanse yourself in the ocean, and throw small mementos into the surf making a wish (if the waves do not bring the mementos back, the wish will be granted), and, of course, head to Copacabana Beach for the fireworks display. In Santiago, wear yellow underwear (if you're a woman looking for love), eat twelve grapes (yes, again), and head to Valparaíso for the reportedly largest fireworks display in South America. In Bangkok, for a Times-Square-like countdown party, go to Central World shopping mall for friendly crowds, live bands and DJs, and more fireworks.

Or you can take comedian John Oliver's sage advice and skip all New Year's Eve celebrations. But whatever you do, Happy New Year!

The Next America

"Immigration is about more than immigration. It always has been. The question of immigration is a question about America. About our national identity and destiny. What is America? What does it mean to be an American? Who are we as a people and where are we heading as a country? What will the 'next America' look like? What should the next America look like?"

- Archbishop José Gomez
  Immigration and the Next America

United States to Resume Diplomatic Relations with Cuba After More than Fifty Years

The United States will restore diplomatic relations with Cuba, President Obama announced last week, ending he said "an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests, and instead we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries." The announcement was the result of secret eighteen-month negotiations between the two governments aided by Pope Francis that involved a prisoner swap as well as the release of imprisoned Cuban political dissidents and, separately on humanitarian grounds, American contractor Alan Gross. 

The next steps will involve re-establishing the US Embassy in Havana in the coming months and high-level diplomatic talks between the two governments under the leadership of Secretary of State John Kerry, who said that the move to restore relations (severed in January 1961) is the "best way to help bring freedom and opportunity to the Cuban people, and to promote America's national security interests in the Americas, including greater regional stability and economic opportunities for American businesses."

While the US trade embargo will need congressional action to be fully lifted, President Obama's actions will facilitate the expansion of travel to Cuba by US nationals under the general travel licenses (which, incidentally, is how Jay-Z and Beyoncé traveled to Cuba), ease travel for Americans for business purposes, facilitate authorized financial transactions between the US and Cuba as well as the use of American debit and credit cards in Cuba, and expand commercial sales and exports to and from the US.

Cuban President Raúl Castro praised the move but "told his nation that the change did not mean the end of communist rule in Cuba."

On Coming to America

"In a land of immigrants, one was not an alien but simply the latest arrival. Rather than be asked to abandon one’s own heritage and to adapt to the mores of the new country, one was expected to possess a treasure of foreign skills and customs that would enrich the resources of American living. The foreign accent was a promise, and indeed, all over the country, European imports added spice to the sciences, the arts, and other areas. What one had to give was not considered inferior to what one received."

-  Rudolf Arnheim, To the Rescue of Art