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U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services announced it will reopen non-military deferred action cases that were pending on August 7.  Letters will be sent this week re-opening all cases that were pending on August 7.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced a notice of proposed rulemaking that would require petitioners seeking to file H-1B cap-subject petitions to pay a $10 fee for each electronic registration they submit to USCIS.

Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv on the article: 

"The newly introduced proposal, in the context of applicability to the Indian diaspora in the US, will cover citizenship applications, applications for adjustment of status filed by those in the USA seeking to obtain green cards (such as H-1B workers, or those on intra-company transfers holding an L-1 visa). It will also apply to green card holders seeking re-entry permits (who wish to stay away from the US for two years)," explains Arlington-based Rajiv Khanna, Managing Attorney at Immigration.com

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a proposed regulation to improve the process for granting or denying an initial application for employment authorization documents (EADs) by reforming the current 30-day timeline pertaining to pending asylum applicants.

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli issued the following statement on the Supreme Court’s decision to permit the enforcement of the Trump Administration’s asylum rule requiring asylum seekers to seek protection in at least one third country they traveled through en route to the United States.

WASHINGTON—USCIS announced that it will celebrate Constitution Day and Citizenship Day by welcoming nearly 34,300 new U.S. citizens during 316 naturalization ceremonies across the nation between Sept. 13 and 23.

Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv on the article:

According to Rajiv S Khanna, Managing Attorney at law firm Immigration.com, the delay is not the core issue. “When you are bringing in a new regulation or deregulation, there has to be some reasonable basis in fact and circumstance. How do you justify taking away an entire cadre of highly qualified, highly motivated people from the workforce when unemployment levels are below 4%?” he said.

Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv on the article:

“Technology is our only edge in the commercial world and if we lose that, we fall behind. In order to maintain and enhance this, we need a system to attract and keep STEM graduates,” Rajiv S Khanna, Managing Attorney at law firm Immigration.com, said. 

For more on this news please see the attachment. 

USCIS will consider certain fiscal year (FY) 2020 CW-1 petitions seeking an extension of status for temporary workers present in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to be filed on time, even if USCIS receives them after the worker’s current period of CW-1 petition validity expires.

Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv on the article:

Rajiv Khanna, Arlington-based immigration advocate says: “Many of the cases where a change to student status is requested do get approved. But there are also cases where it is rejected owing to the boilerplate reason that the student has the entire family in the US, therefore they have no ties to their home country.” “The life of a youngster and the family unity should not have to depend upon the 'benevolence' of an immigration officer,” he adds

WASHINGTON—Today U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it will provide military naturalization services at four overseas military bases, due to the agency’s shifting international footprint and office closures overseas.

This chart shows the average amount of time it takes to receive a decision in a particular type of case after the case file is received by the AAO. Processing times are directly related to the volume of cases received.

AAO Processing Times as of March 1, 2014

USCIS has implemented a new process to receive and adjudicate applications for civil surgeon designation centrally at the National Benefits Center. This process change requires physicians seeking civil surgeon designation to file a formal application at a USCIS Lockbox. Centralizing the civil surgeon application process will:

USCIS has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the first half of Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. March 14, 2014 is the final receipt date for new H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2014.

How We Determine the Final Receipt Date

The final receipt date is when we have received enough cap-subject petitions to reach the statutory limit of 33,000 H-2B workers for the first half of FY 2014. There will not be any carry over spots from the first half to the second half of FY 2014.