Former INS Attorney Carl Shusterman has been writing an immigration blog on a regular basis since 1996.
Under a new USCIS regulation, automatic EAD extensions are available to persons in 15 different categories. In the December 2016 issue of our newsletter, we summarized the new 366-page DHS regulation regarding employment-based immigration which will become effective on January 17, 2017. In this article, we focus on the portion of the regulation which allows […]
On December 9, 2016, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced the Bridge Act which would protect 740,000 DACA recipients from deportation and allow them to continue working and studying in the United States for the next 3 years. Like DACA, the bill does not provide a path to green cards for Dreamers. Instead, the bill […]
The government’s new fiscal year will begin on October 1st, and as usual, there will be some significant advances in priority dates for green cards, particularly in the employment-based categories. Employment-Based Categories The EB-1 category for persons born in India and China will again be current (no backlogs). The worldwide EB-2 category will again be […]
On March 9, 2016, the USCIS designated Matter of H-V-P, I.D. 16270 (AAO) as a precedent decision. It provides that the physicians who are specialists who practice in a medically-underserved area for a minimum of 5 years are entitled to permanent residence in the US through a National Interest Waiver (NIW). Is this really news? […]
While traveling in Southeast Asia in March, my wife showed me the following story on her phone: “The Hunk Who Loved Lady Liberty: Fabio Becomes a U.S. Citizen”. This is a Success Story for America. “This is one of the happiest days of my life” said Fabio. “Over the course of my career I’ve had […]
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died on February 13, 2016. He may have been the most influential Justice on the Court during the past 30 years. His use of the doctrine of “originalism” lead to a multitude of decisions which were, for the most part, favorable to conservatives. Justice Scalia’s death creates a vacancy on […]
Did you ever hear about Colonel Tom Parker, the man who made Elvis Presley famous? Who is more of an American idol than Elvis Presley? The Beatles? No, those lads were from Liverpool. What made a teenager from Tupelo, Mississippi into an icon of music, television and film? Yes, Elvis was extremely talented. His rock […]
On December 16, it was announced that members of Congress had finalized a 2,009-page budget bill. The bill is expected to be approved and signed by President Obama before the end of the year. The bill contains a number of immigration law changes, each of which is listed below: H-1B and L-1 Filing Fees – […]
On December 2, 2015, the USCIS introduced the feature “Ask Emma”, a virtual assistant, on www.uscis.gov. Emma is named after Emma Lazarus, the woman who wrote the sonnet “The New Colossus” which appears on a bronze plaque at the base of the Statute of Liberty (“Give me your tired, your poor…”) The USCIS press release […]
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (aka the “Hart-Celler Act”) turned 50 years old on October 3, 2015. The Act was passed shortly after the Civil Rights Acts in 1964 and 1965, and ended the National Origins quota system which had restricted most U.S. immigration to natives of Germany, Great Britain and Ireland. For […]
