Immigration News Briefs
Premium Processing for H-1B Petitions Resumes
USCIS resumed premium processing on March 12, 2019 for all H-1B petitions. If you received a request for evidence (RFE) for a pending petition, you should include the RFE response with the premium processing request. For properly made requests, USCIS guarantees a 15-day processing time. If more than 15 calendar days is taken, USCIS refunds the premium processing service fee and continues with expedited processing.
It is uncertain at this time if USCIS will discontinue premium processing for FY2020 Cap H-1B petitions.
Many International Field Offices May Be Closed
NPR reports that the Trump administration is seeking to close nearly two dozen U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices around the world in a move it estimates would save millions per year. Critics argue that closures will further slow refugee processing, family reunification petitions, and military citizenship applications.
These offices also assist with foreign adoptions, parole requests from people outside the U.S. for urgent humanitarian reasons, and naturalization for military members who marry foreign nationals, among other responsibilities. They also “provide technical expertise on immigration-related matters to U.S. government agencies abroad, including other Department of Homeland Security components, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense,” per their website.
A USCIS spokesperson Jessica Collins announced that the agency may delegate its international responsibilities to the State Department or to its own personnel in the U.S. In some cases, the workload would be absorbed by U.S. embassies and consulates abroad. "The goal of any such shift would be to maximize USCIS resources that could then be reallocated, in part, to backlog reduction" at the agency, Collins told NPR.
ICE Agents Given License Plate Access
The Hill reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been using over the past year a vast license plate database to identify the location of vehicles associated with immigrants who do not have legal status, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The ACLU, through a Freedom of Information Act request, obtained documents showing that more than 9,000 ICE agents have been given access to the controversial database, which contains hundreds of millions of license plate scans from across the country. ICE employees can thus find where individuals have been and when they were there, with data going back as far as five years.
"With access to this database, ICE can pinpoint the exact location of drivers going about their daily lives," said Matt Cagle, technology and civil liberties attorney with the ACLU. And the database shows detailed information on anyone—not just individuals wanted for deportation.
"ICE is not prohibited under this program from tracking the locations of citizens," he said.
APPLICATION FINAL ACTION DATES FOR April 2019
|
FAMILY |
India |
Pakistan/Bangladesh |
|
1st |
01Dec11 |
01Dec11 |
|
2A |
01Mar17 |
01Mar17 |
|
2B |
22Oct12 |
22Oct12 |
|
3rd |
22Sep06 |
22Sep06 |
|
4th |
15Jul04 |
01Jan06 |
|
EMPLOYMENT |
India |
Pakistan/Bangladesh |
|
1st |
22Feb17 |
01Feb18 |
|
2nd |
12Apr09 |
Current |
|
3rd |
22Jun09 |
Current |
|
Other |
22Jun09 |
Current |
|
4th |
Current |
Current |
|
5th |
Current |
Current1B |
DATES FOR FILING VISA APPLICATIONS - April 2019
|
FAMILY |
India |
Pakistan/Bangladesh |
|
1st |
01Jul12 |
01Jul12 |
|
2A |
15Dec17 |
15Dec17 |
|
2B |
01Jul14 |
01Jul14 |
|
3rd |
22Apr07 |
22Apr07 |
|
4th |
05Feb05 |
01Aug06 |
|
EMPLOYMENT |
India |
Pakistan/Bangladesh |
|
1st |
01Oct17 |
01Jun18 |
|
2nd |
01Jun09 |
Current |
|
3rd |
01Apr10 |
Current |
|
Other |
01Apr10 |
Current |
|
4th |
Current |
Current |
|
5th |
Current |
Current1B |
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