Archive for the ‘Legal News’ Category
Trump Suspends H-1b, H-2B, L-1, and J-1 Visas with His Latest Counter-Productive and Damaging Immigration Proclamation
Trump’s latest attack on immigration is arguably his boldest, most pretextual and most counter-productive to its stated goal (though the Travel Bans may be a close tie). In order to try and convince people of its illogical rationale, the order is clumsily titled “Proclamation Suspending Entry of Aliens Who Present a Risk to the U.S. […]
Advisal for Nonimmigrants (H-1b, L-1, O-1 and TNs) on Working from Home and Other Material Changes to Work Due to the Coronavirus
As that many workers are now working from home due to “stay-at-home” orders, it is important to understand what immigration effects there could be for nonimmigrant workers due to this change in work location, or due to other significant changes to employment such as wage and/or hour reductions, or substantial changes to job duties. H-1bs […]
Coronavirus Immigration Updates – March 18, 2020
The nature of the Coronavirus threat is changing rapidly and daily. Here are some recent updates that we wanted to share with everyone in case they were missed: LOCAL USCIS OFFICE CLOSURE – USCIS’s local Denver Office has cancelled in-person appearances until at least April 1, this includes all application related interviews (naturalization, adjustment of […]
Highlights from the October 2019 Visa Bulletin: The Start of the 2020 Federal Fiscal Year
The October 2019 visa bulletin has been released. The October bulletin shows some notable movement in a few categories, but not as much movement as we had hoped for in others. The October bulletin is a big deal since it represents the start of the next federal fiscal year when annual visa numbers are replenished. […]
Visa Bulletin Trends for April 2019 and a Review of the Employment Based Immigrant Visa System
A Review of the Employment-Based Immigrant Visa System The visa bulletin continues to have a number of unusual trends in the employment categories as we head into April of 2019. As a refresher, our employment system contains 5 categories, named employment based 1 through 5, or EB-1 through EB-5. The first three categories are the […]
Trump Issues New Rule that Prevents Individuals Who Crossed the Southern Border Without Inspection from Applying for Asylum
General Background for Asylum Asylum refers to the process of applying for protection in order to avoid harm in one’s country of origin. Asylum (or refugee law) provides protection against human rights violations, namely being harmed in your country of origin based on one of the following protected grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in […]
Big Changes to How Immigration (USCIS) Calculates Unlawful Presence for F, J and M Nonimmigrants
Background: The Current (soon to be old) Rule Surrounding Unlawful Presence for F, J and M Nonimmigrants F, J and M nonimmigrant status is used for students, professors, exchange visitors and other short-term categories. Because many of these programs have indeterminate end dates, or dates that can be extended directly by a school (rather than […]
Current Status of DACA Renewals
Based on federal lawsuits challenging President Trump’s ending of DACA, the DACA program is currently back in place. This means that current DACA recipients can apply to extend their DACA status. Normally, USCIS has always advised DACA recipients to renew their applications between 150-120 days prior to expiration; HOWEVER, USCIS has stated that they will accept […]
A Dream Act, at What Price?
Last week Trump sent his “term sheet” to congressional republicans containing what he wants in exchange for a “DREAM Act” that would provide an eventual path to citizenship for Dreamers. In contrast to his earlier statements (“I will sign any Dream Act legislation that is put on my desk”), Trump is now attempting to extract […]
What are the chances of a DREAM Act in 2018?
What is Necessary for the DREAM Act to Pass? While the first proposed deadline has passed to bring the DREAM Act to a vote in 2017, we are still cautiously optimistic that we could see a DREAM Act in 2018. Our primary reason for optimism is that the majority of both houses of Congress, as […]