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 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced revisions to Form I-601, Application for Waiver of Ground of Inadmissibility. 

As of January 4, 2010, infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is no longer a ground of inadmissibility.  If you have the HIV infection, you are no longer inadmissible to the United States, and are no longer required to file Form I-601 because of your HIV infection.  As part of the revisions to Form I-601, any reference to HIV infection in the form and the instructions were removed. 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services (USCIS) announced that it will reissue Advance Parole documents  (Form I-512) in response to documents that were mailed to applicants with an incorrect issue date of January 5, 1990. All affected documents have been identified and USCIS will automatically reissue documents to individuals who have received a document with the incorrect issue date.

Introduction 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) provides a number of humanitarian programs and types of protection for individuals in need of shelter and/or aid from disasters, oppression, emergency medical issues and other urgent conditions. Humanitarian parole is one such program.

All U.S. consulates and embassies will soon require nonimmigrant visa applicants to use Form DS-160, the Department of State’s fully electronic nonimmigrant visa application, instead of Form DS-156, the paper-based application. Form DS-160 has been in use at selected U.S. diplomatic posts for some time, but the State Department announced late last year that all U.S. posts will require the online form by April 30, 2010 at the latest. Many posts have already adopted the form, and more will begin to require it as April 30 approaches.

USCIS warns Haitians applying for temporary protected status to be aware of immigration scams. USCIS has a dedicated website providing guidance on its response to Haiti at www.uscis.gov/haitianearthquake.

Background

Questions & Answers: Information for U.S. Citizens in the process of adopting a child from Haiti

Introduction

On Jan. 12, 2010, Haiti experienced an earthquake of devastating proportions. This set of questions and answers provides information for United States citizens in the process of adopting a child from Haiti.

USCIS processing times as of January 15, 2010.

 On the one-year anniversary of implementing the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection reminds U.S.-bound travelers from Visa Waiver Program countries of the ESTA requirement. Beginning January 20, CBP will initiate a 60-day transition to enforced ESTA compliance for air carriers; VWP travelers without an approved ESTA may not be allowed to board a U.S.-bound plane.

On Jan. 18, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State (DOS), today announced a humanitarian parole policy allowing orphaned children from Haiti to enter the United States temporarily on an individual basis to ensure that they receive the care they need—as part of the U.S. government’s ongoing support of international recovery efforts after last week’s earthquake.