Archived reports on immigration matters for October 2019, including premium processing fees, secure travel documents, S-386 Senate voting, and the annoucement of our brand-new H-1B database:
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that petitioners can now complete and file Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, online. Online filing allows aliens to submit forms electronically, check the status of their case, and receive notices from USCIS. “Form I-130 is one of the most widely filed USCIS forms,” said USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli. “As we continue our transition to paperless operations, petitioners can now experience the convenience of filing electronically. USCIS is increasing the number of forms available for online filing to make our agency more effective and efficient.”
The premium processing fee will increase to $1,440 from the current fee of $1,410 for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, and Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker. This increase, which is done in accordance with the Immigration and Nationality Act, reflects the full amount of inflation from the implementation of the premium processing fee in June 2001 through August 2019 based on the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U). USCIS last increased the fee in 2018.
USCIS recently updated several forms. Please check the edition date of the form you're about to submit to USCIS, and make surethey are still accepted.
To prevent secure document tampering, counterfeiting, and fraud, we will begin producing on Oct. 24 a new security-enhanced U.S. travel document, which is a booklet that looks similar to a U.S. passport and serves dual purposes. The travel document can serve in place of:
A slim majority of respondents in a survey released Monday said immigrants moving to the U.S. should adapt to a shared culture and values. Fifty-one percent of participants said immigrants should assume an established U.S. culture, while 46 percent said a blend of cultures and values should make up the country when new residents arrive, according to the poll from The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. - The Hill
Today Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) tried again to pass S-386 with unanimous consent, but was blocked by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), again. "Unanimous Consent" is not a typical Senate procedure to pass a bill with simple or super majority: It requires everybody's consent. As a result, all it takes is one senator to kill the bill. S-386 (to remove per-country quota) has now been blocked four times, by Sen. Rand Paul, David Perdue, and Dick Durbin (twice). The chance of passing S-386 with unanimous consent appears to be very slim, and going through normal Senate order is nearly impossible.
Sen. Durbin actually proposed his own bill today, S-2603, which essentially includes S-386 plus a significant increase of employment-based immigrant visas. This bill, however, was block by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). So it too failed to pass by unanimous consent.
The Department of State has released the Visa Bulletin for November 2019. The table below shows "Final Action (Approval)" cut-off dates and movement from the previous month, for all major employment-based categories. To see filing cut-off dates or family-sponsored categories please go to the Visa Bulletin page linked above. For our unique Visa Bulletin Graphical Tracker, cutoff date predictions and more information please refer to the Visa Bulletin Toolbox.
| Chargeability | Preference | Cut-off Date (Y-M-D) | Movement from last month (Days) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ROW | EB1 | 2018-06-01 | 40 |
| ROW | EB2 | C | 0 |
| ROW | EB3 | C | 0 |
| China | EB1 | 2017-02-01 | 92 |
| China | EB2 | 2015-03-15 | 73 |
| China | EB3 | 2015-11-01 | 0 |
| India | EB1 | 2015-01-01 | 0 |
| India | EB2 | 2009-05-13 | 1 |
| India | EB3 | 2009-01-01 | 0 |
Today is Columbus Day, a national holiday observed by the federal government. Let's see if the Department of State will be able to release November 2019 Visa Bulletin tomorrow (10/15), or wait until late this week.
California lawmakers continued the state’s expansion of rights and protections this year for immigrants who enter the country illegally, with laws signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom allowing them to serve on government boards and commissions and banning arrests for immigration violations in courthouses across the state.
The legislation signed by Newsom also expands California’s college student loan program for so-called Dreamers, young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, to include students seeking graduate degrees at the University of California and California State University schools. Undergraduate Dreamers already are eligible for those loans and in-state tuition. The new laws take effect Jan. 1. - LA Times
DV-2021 program is accepting entries between noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Wednesday, October 2, 2019, and noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), Tuesday, November 5, 2019. If you're eligible and want to participate, do not wait until the last week to submit your entry, as people around the world will rush to enter which may result in website delays. You must submit electronically; no paper entries will be accepted.
For past years' statistics, see Green Card Lottery Results.
Federal judges in three states — New York, California and Washington — have issued temporary injunctions against the Trump administration's "public charge" rule, preventing it from taking effect on Oct. 15.
The controversial rule would make it more difficult for immigrants to get green cards if it looks as though they might need public assistance. Titled "Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds," the rule sparked several legal challenges. - NPR
We've recently added a cool little map on our CBP Deferred Inspection Sites page. If you're required to return to a CBP deferred inspection site, or need to correct an error on your I-94 record, our customized and fully interactive Google Map will come in handy. Feel free to use it and share it on Social Networks.
Do you know that in addition to immigration tools and data, we also provide helpful contents to new immigrants settling in the U.S.? For example, this is our brief explanation of standard bed and mattress sizes. I remember how confusing it was when I first moved here, so hopefully these short articles can help someone out there who is not yet familiar with the daily stuff.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be submitting the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The purpose of this notice is to allow an additional 30 days for public comments. - Federal Register
The Department of State is expected to release November's Visa Bulletin soon. It could be this week, or by early next week. You are welcome to sign up for our Visa Bulletin Alert, and we'll send you an email as soon as it's published.
In case you haven't noticed, we recently released three search portals to access millions of LCA records. Each has a different focus but they're interlinked together to give you the ultimate flexibility in searching for H-1B data. See our blog post for detailed descriptions.
The White House late Friday issued a proclamation saying it would deny visas to immigrants who “will financially burden” the U.S. health-care system starting Nov. 3, demanding that foreign nationals prove that they have insurance or are affluent enough to cover their own health-care costs before entering the United States.
...the new rules would not affect the immigrants already in the United States. The proclamation, which was previously reported by the Wall Street Journal, also does not appear to affect immigrants arriving on work visas, refugees or those seeking asylum at the Mexican border. - WaPo
This is a developing story. Stay tuned for more updates next week.
Dozens of immigrant detainees have resorted to hunger strikes across Japan, once again in the spotlight for its unusually tough stance toward asylum seekers.
Out of close to 16,000 petitions for asylum in Japan last year, only 42 were granted — an acceptance rate of 0.25%. That's unusually low for a rich industrialized nation; Canada took in about two-thirds of its applicants, and even the United States' new lowered resettlement quota still, at 18,000, appears generous by Japanese standards. - CBS
Today, President Donald J. Trump is announcing that the Department of State has formally nominated Poland for entry into the Visa Waiver Program. The Department of Homeland Security will take necessary action, as soon as possible, to assess Poland’s entry into the program. If Poland is designated as a Visa Waiver Program country, its nationals would be authorized for visa-free travel to the United States for business and tourism.
S-386 has been fiercely debated on social networks, such as Twitter. The fate of this bill, which aims to eliminate the 7% per country limit, is still up in the air. So we thought we should post a very quick survey, and see what our readers think of this bill. If you support S-386, vote Yes. if you oppose it, vote No. If you don't know about the bill, don't care, or simply have no opinion, just vote Not Sure. Let us know.
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