News

On July 24, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a FINAL rule that will make significant changes to the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program; the rule will go into effect on Nov. 21, 2019. This is noted to be the first significant revision to the program’s regulations since 1993. Some of these revisions include:

• raising the minimum investment amount from $1 million to $1.8 million, marking the first raise since 1990 in order to take account for inflation, as well as automatically adjusting for inflation every five years;

On Nov. 30, 2018, in Zhang v. USCIS, No. 15-cv-995, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia certified a class that includes any individual with a Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur, that was or will be denied on the sole basis of investing loan proceeds that were not secured by the individual’s own assets. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated these denials and ordered USCIS to reconsider the petitions.

Starting April 2, USCIS will destroy Permanent Resident Cards, Employment Authorization Cards and Travel Documents returned as undeliverable by the U.S. Postal Service after 60 business days if USCIS is not contacted by the document's intended recipient to provide the correct address.

USCIS encourages applicants to report a change of address within 10 days of relocation using the procedures outlined at uscis.gov/addresschange.

TPS Nicaragua Ending in January 2019

WASHINGTON— Current beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) under Nicaragua’s designation who want to maintain that status through the program’s termination date of Jan. 5, 2019, must re-register between Dec. 15, 2017 and Feb. 13, 2018. Re-registration procedures, including how to renew employment authorization documentation, have been published in the Federal Register and on www.uscis.gov/tps.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today it is taking steps to implement the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), in accordance with a recent court decision.

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the third version of the Trump administration’s travel ban to go into effect while legal challenges against it continue. The court’s orders mean that the administration can fully enforce its new restrictions on travel from eight nations, six of them predominantly Muslim. For now, most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea will be barred from entering the United States, along with some groups of people from Venezuela.

On October 16, 2017, Judge Derrick K. Watson, a federal judge, in the state of Hawaii largely blocked the Trump administration from implementing the third travel plan decreed by the Trump Administration. The latest ban was set to fully go into effect in the early morning hours of October 17 barring various types of travelers from Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Chad, Somalia, North Korea, and Venezuela.

The Department of Defense announced today a change to policies regarding initial screening of Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) and qualifying service for the purposes of military naturalization. These changes reflect lessons learned from the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) Pilot Program. While the Department recognizes the value of expedited U.S. citizenship achieved through military service, it is in the national interest to ensure all current and prospective service members complete security and suitability screening prior to naturalization.

Due to a technical issue, the DV-2019 entry period that began on October 3 has been closed. Entries submitted during October 3-10 are not valid and have been excluded from the system; they will not count as a duplicate entry. The technical issue has been resolved and a new full entry period will begin at noon, U.S. Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday October 18, 2017 and will run until noon Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday November 22, 2017. Only entries submitted during this period will be accepted and considered for selection in the lottery.

USCIS issued a reminder regarding the October 5, 2017, deadline for DACA recipients to properly file renewal requests and associated applications for employment authorization. These requests must be properly filed and physically received by the agency at the proper filing location no later than October 5, 2017. Also, during the AILA SCOPS Liaison Committee call on September 27, 2017, USCIS confirmed that only persons whose current DACA expires between September 5, 2017, and March 5, 2018, are eligible to renew their deferred action grant.