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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.

Published by: Light Reading - Date: July 31, 2003

Quotes and Excerpts from Rajiv on the article:

"There are eight or nine bills pending with similar provisions [to Tancredo's]," says Rajiv S. Khanna, a lawyer specializing in H-1B visa issues who practices in Arlington, Va. But he thinks the H-1B visa program already has shrunk along with the rest of the economy. "It's down, in my opinion, to 10 percent of what it was."

For more details please see the attachment below.

Advisories

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There are not currently any advisories impacting trade, travel, or CBP Operations.

Wait Times

Get up-to-date information you need on Airport and Border wait times before you begin your travel.

If there is a change of address help  USCIS ensure that you receive any notices or documents without delay. Most applicants with pending applications or petitions should notify USCIS as soon as possible, no more than 10 days after your move.

Use this online link below to change your address

https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=coa&localeLang=en

Beginning May 5, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will accept only the current edition of Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, dated 9/13/2013. USCIS will reject and return all naturalization applications using previous versions of Form N-400 after Sunday, May 4, 2014. You can find the edition date at the bottom of any Form N-400 page.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has several new resources for citizenship instructors, volunteers, and program administrators in the Citizenship Resource Center.

On April 1, 2014, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting applications for a competitive grant funding opportunity to promote immigrant civic integration and prepare permanent residents for citizenship. USCIS will offer up to $10 million in competitive funding for citizenship preparation programs in communities across the country.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2015. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the U. S. advanced degree exemption.

Before running a random selection process, USCIS will complete initial intake for all filings received during the filing period which ended today. Due to the high number of petitions, USCIS is not yet able to announce the date on which it will conduct the random selection process.

• The White House fact sheet contains information on the USCIS current rule-making agenda on reform in employment-based immigration system. Below is the relevant part.