MORE $
After many years, (the Immigration Services says after 7 years) the government announced an increase in filing fees for all applications and petitions at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services (USCIS). WARNING: Those increases are only at USCIS inside the U.S. Separate fee increases may be announced for Immigration Courts, National Visa Center (NVC), U.S. Consulates overseas, U.S. Department of Labor, etc.
No doubt, doing an immigration case will become an expensive project, especially for a big family.
THE CRIMINAL CASE
A big proportion of all people deported from the U.S. in recent years, are non-citizens who had a criminal conviction – even if the conviction was many years ago – even if the conviction was for a minor offense – even if the conviction was later overturned by an expungement.
In other words: criminal law and immigration law became so “entwined” with each other, that it is dangerous for a non-citizen to face a judge in criminal proceedings without two lawyers – a criminal lawyer and an immigration lawyer.
Why so? Because most criminal cases end with a plea deal - the criminal lawyer explains to the client that he has no chance of winning the case, and it would be very costly to handle a jury trial, and if he loses, the angry judge may impose a harder sentence. Plead “guilty” or “nolo contendere” and go home.
But if an immigration lawyer participates, he can advise about what section of the code to plead guilty to. Some sections result in bad immigration consequences, some don’t. And in a plea deal it might be possible to replace a harsh section by another, or reduce the number of sections in the conviction.
Therefore, if a non-citizen is charged with a criminal offense in state court, they should first find the best criminal lawyer they are able to find – and then insist that this lawyer consult with an immigration lawyer before starting anything.
This advice is correct also for Legal Permanent Residents (LPR), also known as Green Card holders.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
A regular immigration case, for a non-citizen who wants to become a legal immigrant, or a Green Card holder, has two aspects: ELIGIBILITY and PROCESS.
The people who are interested in such regular cases – the non-citizen and the American citizen or Permanent Resident who sponsor the non-citizen, are focused, normally, on the aspect of ELIGIBILITY. They want to know whether their RELATIVE or PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEE are eligible to get a Green Card, or what would make them eligible for this benefit. Mostly, they do not consider – and do not know about – the PROCESS that is required to turn ELIGIBILITY into an actual BENEFIT, or crudely, into a LEGALLY-issued PIECE OF PLASTIC in your hand.
And when PROCESS is considered, you must consider the TIME that every PROCESS takes. Even the most perfect EGG doe not turn, automatically, and immediately into a CHICK. First the HEN needs to sit on it for some TIME. So, what about TIME?
NO BIG NEWS
The Biden administration is not able to pass any new immigration laws in Congress. Even regulations they try to pass (such as DACA regulations) get stuck or revoked by the courts. Therefore, there is no BIG news about immigration.
But the field of IMMIGRATION is so BIG, that there is always something going on. So, we have many LITTLE news.
NEW GREEN CARDS
The skills of FAKERS improve. It seems that they are able to produce very realistic Green Cards.
So, the U.S. Government decided to start issuing a new style of Green Cards, with many more security features. The new style made its appearance on January 30, 2023.
Holders of old-style Green Cards are not required to replace them. All existing Green Cards remain valid and effective until the expiration date printed on the cards. Only the REPLACEMENT cards, or NEW cards, would be in the new style.
There is still a small number of Green Cards that were issued many years ago without EXPIRATION dates. They are still valid, even though the holders are “encouraged” to replace them.
CHAOS SPREADS
The Trump Administration had two programs designed to stop ILLEGAL immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border:
“Stay in Mexico” (or Immigrant Protection Protocols), which requires Asylum seekers entering from Mexico to stay in Mexico to wait for their Immigration Court hearings (at the border) and the court’s decision, and
“Section 42” of the Public Health Act which gave the government the authority to turn back without a hearing anybody apprehended at the border, on account of public health considerations.
When these two programs were cancelled by the Biden Administration, the stream of illegal immigrants from the U.S.-Mexico border renewed itself with great vigor. The number of illegal entries now runs at a rate of about 200,000 per month or 2 million per year.
All of them, or most of them, are released by U.S. Immigration to wait in the U.S. for their Asylum hearings in Immigration Courts. Where are they released? - In American cities and towns, mostly in Texas and Arizona. The local authorities and State governors are losing control of such numbers of people, adults and children, without homes, without work, without medical or educational services, without daily food.
“NEW PEOPLE’S ARMY”
Remember them?
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) just remembered them.
DOS officially announced that the COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES NEW PEOPLE’S ARMY and JAISH-e-MOHAMMED have not changed enough and are still endangering the national security of the United States.
Therefore, the designation of these organizations as FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS remains in force, unchanged.
What does it mean? It is a renewal warning not to get involved with these organizations. Also, advise your friends and relatives in the Philippines not to get involved with them in any way, shape or form.
EXPIRED U.S. PASSPORTS
The rule was that if your American passport expired while you were outside of the U.S., you could not use it to return to the U.S. You had to approach the nearest U.S. Consulate and apply for a passport renewal.
During the past two years, due to all kinds of travel disruptions, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (US CBP) permitted the use of expired U.S. passports for return to the U.S. But no more.
As of June 30, 2022, if passport expiration “surprises” you outside the U.S., you must refer to the nearest American Consul for renewal. The problem is that the Consulate may schedule you an appointment several months later.
Therefore, be careful. Review your passport before you leave. Make better planning.
DACA COMING?
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (the “mother” agency of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), published its plans for new REGULATIONS in the next few months.
One of the items on this schedule is – finally – DACA REGULATIONS.
A reminder: DACA was never enacted OFFICIALLY. Since DACA started in 2012, it was only a set of GUIDELINES issued by President Obama and by his Secretary of Homeland Security. This lack of legal foundation is why DACA was always subject to attack by President Trump and various Republican Governors. Now, FINALLY, the BIDEN Administration will make the DACA program an OFFICIAL program by following legal procedures and publishing official Regulations.
When? They say - in AUGUST 2022. August is not far – in about 4-6-8 weeks.
What would be in the final REGULATIONS? WAIT AND SEE.
TPS – WHAT IS IT?
More and more non-citizens in the U.S. have the benefits of TPS status. The BENEFITS are important: protection from deportation and permits to stay and work in the U.S. and – sometimes – even a permit to travel and return to the U.S.
But what is TPS?
It is TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS, and is granted to people from certain countries, who are in the U.S. on the dates determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security. The eligible countries are selected based on a determination that it is UNSAFE to return to these countries for reasons of ARMED CONFLICT, NATURAL DISASTERS or some other special circumstances.
TPS is granted for periods of 6 – 18 months, and the Secretary of Homeland Security may extend this status again and again, even for many years.
At present, 14 countries are designated for TPS status (listed here in alphabetical order): Afghanistan, El Salvador, Burma (Myanmar), Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen.
GOOD/BAD NEWS
In the past few weeks, we see signs of life from various consulates around the world: they started scheduling more interviews for immigrant visas and issuing more such visas. Even at the American Consulate in Manila. And this is true for both the Family categories and the Employment-based categories. This is GOOD.
The unfortunate result is that the QUOTAS – the number of immigrant visas available, are used up much faster.
The first NEGATIVE impact showed up in the allocation of EMPLOYMENT based immigrant visas in the E3W category for unskilled workers. These are workers sponsored for jobs that do not require a college degree or, at least, TWO YEARS of work experience. For example: housekeepers, caregivers, child monitors, “assistants” in any occupation, etc.
For the month of June 2022, immigrant visas would be issued for UNSKILLED workers if their Labor Certifications were filed with the Department of Labor before May 8, 2019 (three years ago).
This is BAD. It remains to be seen how this would affect other, higher employment categories.
SCAMS (2)
REMINDER:
A scam is an illegal plan for making money, by tricking a VICTIM into paying the SCAMMER for obtaining something of value – which actually is of no value at all,or may be even harmful to the victim in addition to the loss of money.
In the field of immigration, the SCAMMER promises the victim an immigration benefit, such as a Green Card or an Employment Permit, and not delivering. The additional harm is caused by exposing the victim to the Immigration Service, which treats the victim as the real culprit, even if the victim truly did not know they are being scammed.
NURSE’S STORY
A Filipino nurse, of course. Her name, for short, is N.D.
Note: My source for this story is a very long item published in a very respectable magazine, BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK, in the 2/7/2022 edition. The story has to do with a lawsuit that nurse N.D. filed against the staffing agency that brought her from the Philippines to a hospital in Pennsylvania.
NEW MONEY
Congress took note of the enormous backlogs of petitions and applications for immigration benefits. These have been piling up at U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS).
In the last two (2) years, the backlog mountain grew by an additional two million (2,000,000) petitions and applications.
In response, Congress allocated an additional $250 million ($250,000,000) to USCIS for backlog reduction operations. This is in addition to the amounts the USCIS collects every day as FILING FEES with every piece of paper submitted.
USCIS “plans to focus on a combination of new staff, expanded overtime hours, and information technology investments to promote more efficient processing of cases and use of officers’ times.”
We shall believe it when we see it.
SCAMS (1)
What is a SCAM?
Some definitions: (a) Fraudulent or deceptive act; (b) An illegal plan for making money, especially a plan that involves TRICKING people; (c) A fraudulent scheme, especially for making a QUICK profit.
In other words: it is an illegal idea to TRICK a person into giving money to a SCAMMER, so that the Scammer can make a QUICK profit.
How does the Scammer trick the victim? By gaining the victim’s CONFIDENCE and making the victim believe that they would benefit. Sometimes the victim knows that the idea is illegal, sometimes the victim does not know. The Scammer always knows.
Why is the scammer’s profit quick? Because in most cases, after receiving the money, or part of it, the scammer simply disappears. And when he or she does not disappear, the scammer still feels PROTECTED, because the victim is either unable or afraid to complain.
CONSIDER THE POSITIVE
We are disappointed because President Biden did not succeed in passing a big, comprehensive reform of immigration law. But we should also remember that Biden’s administration did make many changes to remove obstacles that ex-President Trump put in the way of LEGAL immigration. Remember, ex-President Trump declared that he wanted to cut legal immigration by half, and he succeeded. Not by changing the immigration law, just by imposing all kinds of administrative obstacles. The Biden administration removed many of these obstacles. Here are some of the Biden changes.
PLAN “D” – REALLY?
The White House, and the Democrats, failed in three attempts to convince the Parliamentarian of the Senate to approve their immigration plan for the Budget Reconciliation Bill. The White House and the Democratic Party understand that this puts them in a political bad shape. Because if they don’t accomplish anything for the millions of non-citizens in the U.S., after all their promises, what is the difference between them and the Republicans? Why vote for the Democrats – if they accomplish nothing?
Therefore, suddenly, there are some new voices in the Senate, trying to find a way to “salvage” the Democrats immigration plan, after all.
How? When? What?
It’s too early to tell. Wait and see.
PLAN “C” – DEAD
On Thursday, 12/16/2021, the Senate’s Parliamentarian issued her decision that Plan “C” – to grant parole status to non-citizens who arrived and stayed in the U.S. since before January 1, 2021 – is not acceptable as part of a BUDGET RECONCILIATION law.
This means that the Democrats should not include these immigration provisions in the big spending Bill (Build Back Better) they still hope to pass.
In theory, the Democrats could bypass the Parliamentarian’s decision because legally it is only a RECOMMENDATION. They could revive Plan “C” and make it law. But for this, to ignore the Parliamentarian’s decision, they must have unity of all 50 Democratic senators. The chance for such unified vote is very, very, very small.
It seems that for some time more, we have to live with the present Immigration Law.
PLAN “C”: STEP 1 1/2
Where is Plan “C”? What happened to it?
It is still in the hands of the Parliamentarian of the Senate.
The good news is that the Parliamentarian did not reject it out of hand like she did with Plans “A” and “B”. Instead, a series of meetings and hearings, formal and informal, was held about the contents of the plan, its scope and its potential cost to the government. Actually, some bargaining, maybe “fine tuning” of the plan.
What it all means is that there is still a chance that Plan “C” would become a reality.
There is no “deadline” for this. It is part of the much, much bigger President Biden’s Build Back Better Act. Now the Democrats say that they hope to accomplish something by Christmas (this year).
Wait and see.
PLAN “C”/STEP 1
A few days ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a Bill to enact President Biden’s domestic program called BUILD BACK BETTER. This is a huge program covering many important areas, including changes in immigration law, what many people call PLAN “C”.
But this is only Step 1 for Plan “C” to become law. It still must be passed by the U.S. Senate.
Even before it is brought to a vote in the Senate, the famous PARLIAMENTARIAN must agree that these IMMIGRATION changes can be included in a Budget Reconciliation Act. After that, all the Democratic Senators must vote for it.
So, we must wait for Step 2 and Step 3 to materialize.
PLAN “C” – STILL COOKING
There is still no decision by the Senate PARLIAMENTARIAN whether to permit the Democrats to include PLAN “C” in their Budget Reconciliation.
Reminder: Plan “C” is to grant LEGALIZATION to 7-8 million non-citizens, but with no PATH TO CITIZENSHIP.
We hope to find out within the next 1 – 2 weeks.
PLAN “C”
Finally, common sense prevails.
The Democrats in Congress have a new plan: to grant employment permits plus permits to stay and travel to millions of non-citizens – but without a “path to citizenship”. Meaning: a status similar to DACA, which would make the life of the beneficiaries much easier, but would be less than having a Green Card – and, therefore, not lead to American citizenship.
This would be GREAT. Millions of people would be able to live and work legally in the U.S., to change jobs without fear, to visit their families back home, to be safe from ICE raids and, eventually, even get Green Cards if somebody is able and willing to petition them.
This new status would be called “PAROLE”, it would be granted for five (5) years and would be renewable every five years.
It is still not clear whether this Plan “C” would cover members of some preferred groups, or perhaps everybody who arrived in the U.S. before January 1, 2011.
But, but, but this Plan “C” must still get the consent of the now famous Parliamentarian – the same Parliamentarian who rejected Plan “A” and Plan “B”.
PLAN “B”?
Plan “A” was to legalize 4 groups of non-citizens in the U.S., for a total of about 8 million people, through the Budget Reconciliation procedure. The Parliamentarian of the Senate shot it down, because it was too much of a change of policy and did not fit in with Budget reconciliation.
Plan “B” was presented to the Parliamentarian last week. It was a simple update of Section 249 of the present Immigration Law.
However, the Parliamentarian refused to approve this plan, too, for the same reasons for rejecting Plan “A”.
THE BIDEN DISAPPOINTMENT
The “plan” was to include a change of immigration law in a Budget Reconciliation.
What change? Giving legal status (Green Cards) to 8 million non-citizens in the U.S., which will enable them to become American citizens.
Why through a BUDGET RECONCILIATION? Because the Democratic Party has only 50 senators (out of 100) in the Senate and passage of a regular law requires a majority of 60 senators, which the Democrats don’t have. But anything to do with the Government’s Budget requires only 50 senators, which they have (actually, 51 – when you count in the Democratic Vice-President who is permitted to vote, when the count is 50-50).
However, the Senate has one official (not a Senator) called the PARLIAMENTARIAN, who must decide whether the contents of a Bill (the immigration reform) fits the procedure (Budget Reconciliation). Last weekend, this Parliamentarian decided that the big immigration change planned by the Democrats does not fit into the Budget Reconciliation.
Therefore, the dreams of the DREAMERS, the dreams of 8 million non-citizens - all these dreams turned into a big disappointment.
The Democrats in Congress claim that they have other ways to achieve their plan. Maybe. Wait and see.
THE BIDEN PLAN? CRAZY!
The present immigration plan of the Biden administration is to create LEGALIZATION through the BUDGET PROCESS, but not for all 11-12 million non-citizens in the U.S., only for certain groups.
The groups are: Dreamers, TPS (Temporary Protected Status) holders, agricultural workers, ESSENTIAL workers. The government says that these groups would cover 8 million non-citizens (and they would be required to pay a penalty of $1,500 in addition to regular Filing Fees).
Still unknown is who are ESSENTIAL workers? Actually, who are WORKERS? A parent who stays home (father or mother) and cares for 3 children – is he or she an ESSENTIAL worker?
The questions are many, but we have one, general, big question: why not say, simply, anyone who stayed in the U.S. illegally for more than a certain number of years (and is not a criminal, etc.) would be eligible for legalization? Is this too simple for this government? This is how President Reagan did legalization in 1986.
Still, there is no law. Just a plan.
WANT A GREEN CARD?
Whatever your application is – for Political Asylum, for Immigrant Visa at an American Consulate, for Adjustment of Status at an immigration office in the U.S. – you must undergo a medical exam by a physician authorized for this purpose by the U.S. government.
As of October 1, 2021 you, the applicant, would have to prove to the examining physician one more thing – that you have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Excuses not to be vaccinated are available.
NEW PLAN – NEW HOPE
The Democratic party in the U.S. Congress devised a new plan how to pass an immigration legalization law without any support from the Republican party.
The idea is to claim that legalization of certain groups of non-citizens who are already living and working in the U.S. would help the government’s budget. If so, they can put the legalization law inside another law, which is an addition, or a supplement, to the BUDGET law. This is called a RECONCILIATION, and the Democrats have enough votes to pass it without any Republican support.
There is still no definition what groups of non-citizens would be covered by this new law, but the estimates are that between 8 to 10 million illegal aliens could be legalized this way. (DREAMERS would be included for sure).
U.S. EMBASSY IN MANILA
The American Embassy in Manila cancelled all non-immigrant (B1/B2) visa appointments until the end of August 2021. It means that all Filipinos in need of a Visitor’s Visa for Business or Pleasure, as a Tourist of a Businessperson, must postpone their travel plans by several months.
The reason? Covid-19 pandemic.
It is still unpredictable how many and how fast interviews may be scheduled for Immigrant Visas.
DACA…DACA…DACA?
On Friday, July 16, 2021, a Federal Judge in Brownsville, Texas issued a 77-page decision that the Obama administration acted improperly, without legal authorization, when it issued the DIRECTIVE that started the DACA program in 2012.
The decision by Judge Andrew S. Hanen permits the USCIS to continue accepting new and renewal applications for DACA, but forbids the issuance of new DACA cards to applicants who did not have one before. Judge Hanen is the same judge who blocked the implementation of the DAPA program (for parents of U.S. citizen children) several years ago.
President Biden said that he was “deeply disappointed” by Judge Hanen’s decision.
USCIS will probably file an appeal of Judge Hanen’s decision, but this appeal would go to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, the same court that approved Judge Hanen’s previous decision against the DAPA Program.
The only way the Biden administration can bring a permanent solution to the DACA issue would be by legislation, through the Congress of the U.S.
BACKLOGS
BACKLOG: DACA
In December 2020, the DACA program was reopened for new applicants (not just “renewals”), and during the next 3 months at least 50,000 new applications were filed with USCIS.
However, only very few, less than one thousand (1,000) of these applications were actually processed and approved, during the same three months.
USCIS has all kinds of explanations and excuses why so few applications (about 2%) of the total were processed and approved. For us, who deal with the immigration system on a daily basis, it is only additional proof that the system is still stuck in the “Trump” era, and things are still not moving as they should be.
CITIZENSHIP FOR “OUTSIDE” VETERANS
U.S. Armed Forces are still recruiting persons who are not LPR’s (Green Card holders) in the U.S. If they serve during designated periods of wartime, and are honorably discharged, Section 329 grants them eligibility to naturalize (to become American citizens). But, if they are not living in the U.S., they could not realize this eligibility. Now comes USCIS and clarifies: such honorably discharged veterans who served during periods of war, and who are not living in the U.S. – can file their applications for naturalization from outside the U.S. and when the paperwork is reviewed and approved – they will get special permits to come to the U.S. for personal interviews and for naturalization ceremonies.
SEND THEM BACK
Not to Mexico. To the USA. In recent years, under President Trump, when it became very difficult to apply for Political Asylum in the U.S., a great number of non-citizens (non-Americans) continued north through the U.S., all the way to the border with Canada, presented themselves at an official border crossing and asked for Political Asylum in Canada. Until a few days ago, Canadian border officials accepted the applications and let the asylum seekers into Canada to await the processing of their applications. Now a Canadian Court of Appeals decided that Canada does not have to admit those asylum seekers but can send them back to where they came from - to the U.S. So, if somebody has an asylum problem in the U.S., they can save themselves the trip to Canada. The problem will follow them.
PROGRESS?
Maybe.
The commotion at the border with Mexico is a little less noisy. All the UAC (unaccompanied children) have been moved to decent shelters. The Republican party is occupied with other issues.
The Biden administration is less distracted by border issues, and is able to pay attention to other immigration issues.
The major immigration issues require legislation – Congress must enact laws, such as: Comprehensive Immigration Reform, legalization of the millions of non-citizens in the U.S., pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, etc., etc.
In the recent days, we began to notice more activity, more interest from the Biden administration in these major issues. Maybe something will finally happen.
IMMIGRATION NEWS
IMMIGRANT VISAS
Immigrant visas are issued by American Consuls in dozens of American embassies. Visas are issued after personal interviews with every applicant and after much paperwork is completed.
Since March 2020, most American consulates stopped normal functioning, and very few immigrant visas were issued in the past 14 months. This created a big backlog of cases for all consulates.
On April 30, 2021, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) published its system for scheduling immigrant visa interviews. The system is based on four (4) PRIORITY TIERS, based on different immigration categories. Not on PRIORITY DATES and not on FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED.
This means that applicants in the FAMILY preferences and those who are EMPLOYMENT-BASED, would have to wait even longer. How much longer? It is unknown.
Hopefully, the DOS will find a better – and a more fair – way to overcome the mountain of applications that have built up in the consulates.
THE BIG FREEZE
For more than one year, the consular system of the U.S., the part of U.S. Embassies which is in charge of issuing immigrant visas, is not functioning.
At first, it was the policy of the Trump administration to delay and slow down the immigration process. Then it was the lockdown here, there and everywhere due to the Covid-19 virus, then there were all kinds of “travel bans”. Then, for the past three months, there is simply no movement to schedule interviews and issue visas of all kinds. No explanations are given.
The situation became so bad, and affected so many people, families, companies, institutions, etc., that last week the American Immigration Lawyers Associatio (AILA), together with some law firms filed a Federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of State (DOS) asking the Court to order the DOS to resume normal visa issuance.
Wait and see.
NASTY LAWYER?
Is a lawyer required to be nice?
Not necessarily, not always – but there are limits to how much nastiness is a lawyer permitted.
A certain lawyer in the Los Angeles area just lost his license for exceeding the limit. What was the particular nastiness?
The lawyer represented a client in a salary dispute with an ex-employee and threatened to have the ex-employee deported. NASTY.
The State Bar of California found that this piece of nastiness was too much and took away that lawyer’s license.
ROLLBACKS
The foundation of our Immigration system is the Immigration & Nationality Act (INA), which was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1965. It is very difficult to change the INA, because any change requires an Act of Congress. Such changes happen once every 10, or 20 years.
The second level of our Immigration system are Regulations. These, too, are not so easy to change because changes require many formal steps which take time and are subject to obstacles, opposition and contradictory court rulings. Changes are possible, but take time.
On top of these, we have a big pile of Guidelines, Policy Memorandums, Executive Orders, Presidential Proclamations, etc. etc. These are easy to change because they are done “administratively” – inside Government Agencies. When the changes are to cancel previous changes we refer to them as ROLLBACKS.
What President Biden can do now – early and quickly – are ROLLBACKS.
U. S. Ctizenship Act 2021
On Thursday, February 18, 2021, President Biden sent to the Congress his Bill proposing a new Immigration Law.
This is a long document (353 pages), and it proposes a great number of changes to the current Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
It should be remembered that this is only a proposal.
It is unknown when it might become an actual law, and what shape or content it might have at that time.
DREAM ACT OF 2021
Two senators, Dick Durbin (Democrat) and Lindsay Graham (Republican) introduced a Bill in the Senate, the Dream Act of 2021, to provide young people who were brought to the U.S. as children the opportunity to apply for Legal Permanent Resident status (Green Cards) and then U.S. citizenship. Don’t celebrate yet. It is just a proposal. Let’s wait and see.
DISAPPOINTMENT #1
About a year ago, President Trump issued an order to halt the issuance of immigrant visas to beneficiaries of approved petitions by family relatives and by sponsoring employers, from all countries. It was expected that President Biden would cancel this order and would resume visa issuance to such approved beneficiaries who have been waiting for consular interviews and immigrant visas for many months. It was expected that this might happen on Tuesday, February 2, 2021. To our great disappointment, it did not happen. The ban on legal immigration from all countries is still in place. To our astonishment, we were not given an explanation why and for how long this ban will continue.
PROMISES, PROMISES
In 2008, President-elect Obama promised that Comprehensive Immigration Reform would be on the top of his agenda.
In 2020, President-elect Biden promised that he would push for new immigration law immediately.
In 2009-2010, President Obama had control over the House of Representatives and the Senate.
In 2021-2022, it seems that President Biden will have control over the House of Representatives and the Senate.
In 2009-2010, President Obama could have passed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform.
In 2021-2022, it seems that President Biden would be able to pass a new Immigration Law.
In 2009-2010, President Obama did not keep his promise about a new immigration law.
In 2021-2022, will President Biden keep his promise about a new immigration law?
WAIT AND SEE.
TRAVEL BAN – RENEWED
The TRAVEL BAN on issuance of most immigrant visas and most temporary working visas, which was imposed by President Trump during 2020, was supposed to expire on 12/31/2020. However, on that day, President Trump issued a new EXECUTIVE ORDER extending the same TRAVEL BAN for three (3) months, up to 3/31/2021.
This means no consular interviews and no visas issued to most categories of immigrants or skilled workers for another three months.
It remains to be seen what will Mr. BIDEN do when he becomes president on 1/20/2021: will he issue his own EXECUTIVE ORDER to cancel President Trump’s order, or will he simply let it run its course to expiration on 3/31/2021?
DELAYS, DELAYS….DELAYS
Once upon a time, in the pre-Trump days, when you filed an application or petition, you would get a Filing Fee Receipt within 7-10 days. This was good, because then you knew that your papers were received, processed and you are in the system.
Now, this is a far-away memory. To make it official, a few days ago, USCIS issued notice that Filing Fee Receipts would be mailed within 30 days of filing. It remains to be seen if they keep even this timeline.
They also “hammered” in another change: if the paperwork is “incomplete or improperly filed” it would be REJECTED. They will not give you a chance to correct mistakes, they will just “reject” the whole package, so that you can try again.
DACA IS BACK – AGAIN
On Friday, 12/4/2020, a Federal Judge issued an order instructing the USCIS to immediately begin implementing the DACA program exactly as it was before President Trump tried to cancel it. Meaning: USCIS must accept and process new applications from eligible applicants who never applied before (not only renewals of old applications), and DACA-based employment permits must be for two years (not one year), and DACA recipients should be eligible for Advance Parole to enable travel out of the U.S. and legal return. Good, very good news. But, it remains to be seen how the present management of USCIS would obey this order – or find new ways to distort and evade it.
NEW AMNESTY?
On Tuesday, November 24, 2020, on a TV interview, President-elect Joe Biden declared that during the first 100 days of his administration (beginning on January 20, 2021), he would submit to the U.S. Congress a Bill for legalization of millions of undocumented aliens in the U.S. – with a path to citizenship. Congress would need to approve it and pass it as a Law.
WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT FROM THE NEW ADMINISTRATION?
Former Vice President Joe Biden, is now President Elect Biden. He will become President Biden on January 20, 2021.
A little more than two (2) months from now. He still cannot govern the U.S.
WHAT RIGHT NOW: as President Elect, Mr. Biden cannot issue orders, make or change laws. For these powers, he needs to wait until January 20, 2021, when he is sworn in as the 46th President of the U.S. But, he can make preparations and publish his plans. What can we expect from him in the field of IMMIGRATION?
GOOD NEWS – OPEN EMPLOYMENT QUOTAS
All the restrictions and difficulties imposed by the Trump Administration over the past four years, had his desired effect: the number of legal immigrants has been reduced dramatically, maybe by 50%. As a result, the “waiting lists” (or “quotas”) for employment-based (the “EB” categories) for all countries (except China and India), have been shortened, until there is no waiting list for any employment category (except for China and India). This means that if you are “in status” (you entered legally and your visa has not expired), or if you are outside of the U.S., and you have a good prospective employer to sponsor you, you (and your family) can get Green Cards within a relatively short time. We cannot predict or promise how long this happy condition will remain available, but as long as it is – why not grab the opportunity?
VOTING IN THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS? BE CAREFUL – IT COULD BE DANGEROUS IF YOU ARE NOT AN AMERICAN CITIZEN – DO NOT VOTE.
If you believe that you are an American citizen - because that was what your parents told you, or because the DMV REGISTERED you to vote, or because you have a Green Card for many years – but you do not have a valid U.S. passport in your hands, or a Certificate of Naturalization or Citizenship – DO NOT VOTE. If you vote when you are not entitled to vote – you are committing a crime that (practically) has no forgiveness.
NEW FEES
On October 2, 2020, a new FEE SCHEDULE becomes effective for all Petitions, Applications, etc. filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The Schedule was published a few weeks ago, showing the “old” fees, the “new” fees and even the differences between them. But, some increases were not published, they were sort of hidden.
The published schedule shows the fees for an Application for Adjustment of Status – Form I-485 (Green Card) as: OLD FEE - $1,140, NEW FEE - $1,130. No increase. Actually, a reduction of $10. How nice.
But the published schedule does not tell you that if you file, at the same time, together with Form I-485, also Form I-765 (for Employment Authorization), the new fee will be $550, while the old fee was 0 (yes, zero) dollars. And if you also file a Form I-131 (for a Travel Document), the new fee will be $590, while old fee was 0 (yes, zero) dollars.
In most cases, the Application for Adjustment of Status (Form I-485) is, actually, a package of four (4) applications. We call it “Combined Processing”. The new fee picture for such a “combined processing” per person will be:
Form Old Fee New Fee
I-130 $ 535 $ 560
I-485 $ 1,140 $ 1,130
I-765 $ 0 $ 550
I-131 $ 0 $ 590
Bio $ 85 $ 0
Total: $ 1,760 $ 2,830