Weekly Immigration News Recap (April 03-09)
USCIS Updates Guidance on Administrative Naturalization Ceremony Venues
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify the types of venues USCIS may use for administrative naturalization ceremonies. This update, contained in Volume 12 of the Policy Manual, is effective immediately, and includes the following:
- Clarifies the process for potential donors of facilities to submit an offer to donate the use of facilities.
- Eliminates the requirement for a donor to complete and submit an Offer of Gift from Non-Governmental Sources (Form G-1194).
- Explains the internal USCIS process for review and approval and simplifies the process for organizations to submit offers to donate the use of facilities on multiple dates.
- Clarifies different types of venues where USCIS may hold ceremonies by providing a non-exhaustive list of commonly used locations and the considerations for accepting the donation of the facilities.
Source: USCIS
DHS Publishes Privacy Document About ATDs and the Data They Collect – Two Decades Late
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) implementation of Alternative to Detention Programs (ATD) on March 17. ATD programs provide noncitizens in removal proceedings the ability to remain in their communities as their cases progress through the immigration court system instead of being detained. See more.
Source: Immigration Impact
New USCIS Center Is Good News For Some Of Its Worst Backlog Victims
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is opening a new service center to try to fix some of its most egregious backlogs. The agency reportedly has already reassigned 150 employees – and plans to have over 300 – to staff a virtual service center, which will eventually operate fully remotely (though it will accept both hand copies and online applications).
Since it can’t be named after its location like most centers, it will be named the HART Service Center after the types of cases it plans to adjudicate: Humanitarian, Adjustments, Removing Conditions, and Travel Documents. Specifically, USCIS has confirmed that the center will process four types of forms – all of which involve urgent cases involving violence, persecution, and/or family unity and have become subject to processing delays of over a year to five years.
- U visa “bona fide determinations” (Form I-918).
- VAWA status petitions (Form I-360).
- Provisional “unlawful presence” waivers for green card applicants (Form I-601A).
- Family reunification for asylum recipients (Form I-730).
USCIS has lagged on several other applications in the past decade. Immigrants and their lawyers are increasingly using federal courts, like the Council’s temporary unlawful presence waiver litigation, to expose USCIS’s failings and force action. A new service center without a new office is a good way to increase capacity. But the agency’s delays are so severe that more work needs to be done in a different capacity before immigrants can trust its decisions to organize their life.
Source: Immigration Impact
