In order to balance workloads, USCIS recently began transferring some cases from the Vermont Service Center to the California Service Center. The affected cases include:
How You Will Be Affected
A Washington DC Federal court has held that DHS improperly promulgated the 2008 regulations creating the 17-month OPT CAP GAP extension for STEM graduates (strictly speaking, this is not reallly "CAP GAP" issue). According to the court, DHS should have placed the proposed regulation before the public, allowed everyone to comment, considered the comments and then published the final regulation. Thus, DHS violated the procedural mandate requiring "notice and comment." According to the court, there was no good reason to skip the "notice and comment" mandate.
On August 2, 2015, Typhoon Soudelor caused extensive damage in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). USCIS reminds customers affected by Typhoon Soudelor that certain U.S. immigration benefits or relief may be available to them. USCIS understands that a natural disaster can affect an individual’s ability to maintain lawful immigration status or obtain certain other immigration benefits.
Eligible individuals may request or apply for temporary relief measures, including:
USCIS has accounted for over 99 percent of the approximately 2,600 identified invalid work permits requiring return. Twenty-two of the approximately 2,600 recipients failed to return their work permits or certify good cause for not doing so by the deadline of July 30, 2015. As a result, those 22 have been terminated from DACA.
The Office of Foreign Labor Certification has posted new and updated Labor Condition Application (LCA/ ETA Form 9035/9035E) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for the H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3 programs.
For the new FAQs click here.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015, is the deadline for eligible nationals of Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone (and people without nationality who last habitually resided in one of those three countries) to register for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). This deadline marks the end of DHS’ 90-day extension of the initial registration period. The TPS designations for these three countries run from Nov. 21, 2014, through May 21, 2016.
By conveying the online request process to mobile devices, requesters can submit requests and check the status of existing requests anyplace, anytime. The mobile capabilities of the eFOIA app will greatly enhance the user experience, and provide convenience for the requester community.