Woodside and Sunnyside are two historically Irish neighborhoods in Queens, the most ethnically diverse borough in New York City. After our taco battle that pitted Brooklyn against Queens (Manhattan won, strangely enough), Carolyn and I decided on a new challenge: between the two great Irish neighborhoods of Woodside and Sunnyside, which has the best and most “authentic” Irish pub? We knew the task was going to be difficult. It was going to require drinking lots of beer and whiskey and eating pub food, but we bravely volunteered. We each picked three pubs (I picked three in Woodside and Carolyn picked three in Sunnyside), and out of those three we selected a winner for the other to try. In the end, could we agree on the best pub? The suspense is killing you, isn’t it? - JOSEPH MCKEOWN
Read moreNPR: “Passengers Flying to U.S. Face Heightened Screenings, New Questions”
The Trump administration is imposing heightened security measures for both US citizens and foreign passengers traveling to the US as of October 26, 2017. These measures will affect approximately 325,000 passengers on more than 2,000 flights every day, according to NPR. The new regulations come after government officials lifted the ban on certain electronic devices this past July, and gave airlines a three-month timeframe to improve security. "The security measures affect all individuals, international passengers and US citizens, traveling to the United States from a last point of departure international location," Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says.
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Liz's Excellent Adventure!
Once in a while Liz gets out of the office to visit clients. This week she and Protima ventured out of New York on Amtrak (see how excited Liz was) for client meetings. They covered a wide range of topics at the meetings—everything from how Trump's travel ban effects our client to overviews about the J-1 program—and in return got a tour of their very cool offices. Liz enjoyed the paint brushes installation and lovely chandelier but a favorite was the beehive made out of newspaper and textiles. All in all, it was a good day. Now back to work, Liz! You can go out next year!
OPINION: USCIS Updates Policy for Adjudicating Nonimmigrant Worker Extension Petitions
For over a decade, filing an extension of nonimmigrant status has been fairly routine in most cases. On Monday, October 23, 2017, US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a new policy memorandum that instructs its officers to apply the “same level of scrutiny to both initial petitions and extension requests for certain nonimmigrant visa categories.”
Read morePolitico: “Trump targets 11 nations in refugee order”
President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to restart the refugee resettlement program, after it was suspended for 120 days as part of the president’s travel ban issued earlier this year. The order will resume refugee admissions but will initiate a new 90-day review period for officials to conduct an “in-depth threat assessment” of eleven countries. While neither the executive order nor the White House named these eleven countries, Politico says that based on statements from senior administration officials these countries appear to include: Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen—all majority-Muslim countries except for North Korea and South Sudan.
Read moreDoD: “Policy Changes to Lawful Permanent Residents and the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) Pilot Program”
Earlier this month the Department of Defense (DoD) announced key changes to its policies regarding screening of Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) and qualifying service for the purposes of military naturalization. The DoD states that they made the changes after “lessons learned” from the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) Pilot Program—a program devised as a way for legal noncitizens to obtain expedited citizenship when they join the US military and provide critical and in-demand skills, including medical and language skills. After criticism of the security screening for MAVNI recruits, along with threats that the program would be discontinued, the DoD says that, while expedited US citizenship achieved through military service can be valuable, it is in the “national interest to ensure that all current and prospective service members complete security and suitability screening prior to naturalization.”
Read moreThe Unspoken Dialogue We Share
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors in Washington Square Park.
Famed artist and activist Ai Weiwei has a new multi-site exhibit in New York City. Good Fences Make Good Neighbors is a multi-media exhibition for public spaces, monuments, buildings, and transportation sites and is a "passionate response to the global migration crisis and a reflection on the profound social and political impulse to divide people from each other."
The exhibit is spread out over the five boroughs. In Washington Square Park (pictured above), where Ai Weiwei often visited in the 1980s when he lived nearby, his thirty-seven-foot-tall steel cage titled "Arch" seems at first only an impenetrable barrier, but the opening, cut in the silhouette of two united figures, allows passage. In Central Park, "Gilded Cage" evokes the "luxury of Fifth Avenue and the privations of confinement." At Flushing Meadows in Queens, his 1,000-foot-long "Circle Fence" uses metal frames with netting to surround the Unisphere, making a "global border that can be seen as both playful and sobering." Ai Wewei has also created 200 banners to appear on lampposts across all five boroughs that feature images from his new documentary Human Flow, which was made after he traveled to twenty-three countries and more than forty refugee camps in 2016.
The exhibit title references a folksy proverb cited in poet Robert Frost’s Mending Wall, and Ai Weiwei chose this title with "an ironic smile and a keen sense of how populist notions often stir up fear and prejudice." Visitors to the exhibition will find that "good fences" do not just keep people out but, more importantly, let people in. Ai Weiwei says: “Think about 65 million refugees who stay in the cold and the rain and the horror with no hope...Fortunately, and also fortunately, we’re spoiled by contemporary life; we forget other people still in suffering and in pain and who need help. We have to protect the people just like we have to protect ourselves. Otherwise, anyone can be refugees.”
Visa Options for Study in the US
The United States is one of the most popular places for foreign nationals to come to study. In the 2015 to 2016 academic year, over one million international students came to the US! Although numbers have dropped since President Trump was elected, and there are reports of foreign nationals reconsidering higher education in the US in light of the anti-immigrant rhetoric and atmosphere, many foreign nationals will still come to the US to study at our highly respected educational institutions. As I’ve written before, it’s not uncommon for certain foreign students to move onto work visas once they have completed their studies. In this post, however, we wanted to examine how exactly foreign nationals come to the US as students, and some general issues that foreign students face, including employment while in school and visas for their dependents. It may surprise some readers that there is not just one visa option for students. In fact, there are three different routes for students: F-1, M-1, and J-1. Each visa has its own set of rules concerning how it can be used and what benefits (and potential detriments) may follow.
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