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In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it adopted measures to assist applicants and petitioners who are responding to certain Requests for Evidence (RFE) and Notices of Intent to Deny (NOID). This alert clarifies that this flexibility also applies to certain Notices of Intent to Revoke (NOIR) and Notices of Intent to Terminate (NOIT) regional investment centers, as well as certain filing date requirements for Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that it will reuse previously submitted biometrics in order to process valid Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, extension requests due to the temporary closure of Application Support Centers (ASC) to the public in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This announcement is consistent with existing USCIS authorities regarding the agency’s ability to reuse previously submitted biometrics.

USCIS has received enough electronic registrations during the initial period to reach the FY 2021 H-1B numerical allocations (H-1B cap). USCIS randomly selected from among the registrations properly submitted. USCIS intends to notify petitioners with selected registrations no later than March 31, 2020, that they are eligible to file an H-1B cap-subject petition for the beneficiary named in the applicable selected registration.

Registrants’ online accounts will now show one of the following statuses for each registration (that is, for each beneficiary registered):

In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it is adopting a measure to assist applicants and petitioners who are responding to requests for evidence (RFEs) and notices of intent to deny (NOIDs) dated between March 1 and May 1, 2020.   

Alert: While premium processing is suspended, petitioners may submit a request to expedite their petition if it meets the criteria on the Expedite Criteria webpage. It is the petitioner’s responsibility to demonstrate that they meet at least one of the expedite criteria. All expedite requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and requests granted at the discretion of USCIS office leadership.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that, due to the ongoing COVID-19 National Emergency announced by President Trump on March 13, 2020, USCIS will accept all benefit forms and documents with reproduced original signatures, including the Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, for submissions dated March 21, 2020, and beyond.

The H-2B Program

The H-2B non-agricultural temporary worker program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary non-agricultural jobs.
For more information about the H-2B program, see the link to the left under "H-2B Non-Agricultural Workers." 

The Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (CNRA) extended U.S. immigration laws to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to create the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker (CW-1) program to ensure adequate employment in the CNMI until the program is phased out on December 31, 2014.

The United States Mission to Nigeria is pleased to announce an expansion of the Drop Box Visa Renewal Program, tentatively to start of June 9th.  This program allows certain visa applicants who have previously been issued U.S. visas to renew their visas without attending an interview.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual relating to changes of dates of birth and names per court orders.

For more information please click  on Policy Alert

Release Date: June 23, 2014

For Immediate Release
DHS Press Office
Contact: 202-282-8010

The following op-ed from Secretary Johnson ran in Spanish-language outlets over the weekend. Please see the English translation below.