USCIS to Implement Next Phase of Premium Processing for Certain Previously Filed EB-1 and EB-2 Form I-140 Petitions The next stage of the premium processing expansion is currently being implemented by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for a select group of petitioners who hold an active Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, under the EB-1 and EB-2 categories. This phase only applies to specific previously submitted Form I-140 petitions under an E13 multinational executive and manager classification or E21 classification as a member of professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability seeking a national interest waiver. This phase is similar to the first and second phases of the expansion (NIW). Source: USCIS USCIS to Welcome 19,000 New Citizens in Celebration of Constitution Day and Citizenship Day Between September 17 through September 23, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will welcome more than 19,000 new citizens in more than 235 naturalization ceremonies across the country to commemorate Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. As part of Constitution Week, the country honors Constitution Day and Citizenship Day on September 17. (Sept. 17 to 23). The celebration recognizes both the U.S. Constitution’s adoption on September 17, 1787, and an occasion known as “I Am an American Day” that first occurred in 1940. President Harry Truman passed Citizenship Day into law in 1952, and President Dwight Eisenhower declared the first Constitution Week in 1955. Source: USCIS USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap for First Half of FY 2023 The number of petitions received by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has reached the limit for H-2B visas for temporary non-agricultural employees set by Congress for the first half of fiscal year (FY) 2023. The final day for receipt of new cap-subject H-2B worker applications requesting employment start dates before April 1, 2023 was September 12, 2022. New cap-subject H-2B petitions that are submitted after September 12, 2022 and ask for an employment start date before April 1, 2023 will be denied by USCIS. Source: USCIS Dreamers Wait for a Court Decision While the DACA Program Is Freeze-In-Time The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was codified and strengthened by the Biden administration in late August in an effort to shield the program and its beneficiaries from continued legal risks. DACA provides work authorization, deportation protection, and, in some cases, travel authorization to those who were brought to the nation as children without legal status or who later lost that status. DACA recipients, sometimes known as “Dreamers,” have long been associated with immigrant kids. However, in reality, many Dreamers are already entering their middle years and are starting their own families. Source: Boundless

DHS Publishes Fair and Humane Public Charge Rule The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a final rule, which will be published in the Federal Register, that clarifies and uniformly applies DHS’s handling of the public charge ground of inadmissibility for non-citizens. Before the previous Administration started to take into account supplemental public health benefits like Medicaid and nutritional assistance as part of the public charge inadmissibility determination, the rule restored the historical understanding of a “public charge” that had been in place for decades. The rule that was just announced demonstrates the Biden Administration’s dedication to reviving confidence in our lawful immigration system. Source: USCIS I-589 and I-765 revised editions were released by USCIS Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, and Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, new editions were made available by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on July 26, 22. The Form I-589 and Form I-765 will only be accepted by USCIS as of November 7, 2022, in their respective 07/26/22 revisions. Until then, you may submit either the new versions of Form I-589 (dated 08/25/20) and Form I-765 (dated 05/31/22 and 08/25/20) or their earlier versions. The form and its accompanying instructions have the edition date at the bottom of the page. Please note, however, that due to the Asylumworks vacatur, certain instructions in the earlier editions are no longer valid. Source: USCIS US to make it easier for low-income immigrants to get green cards A Trump-era policy that discriminated against low-income immigrants by preventing them from obtaining legal residency if they used specific government services has been officially overturned by the Biden administration. Those who would burden the United States are not eligible for green cards under the public charge regulation. That was understood for years prior to the Trump administration as being primarily dependent on financial aid, maintaining an income, or receiving help from the government for long-term institutionalization. Source: The Economic Time Some Indian applicants’ statuses regress in October’s Visa Bulletin The Visa Bulletin for October 2022 was published by the U.S. Department of State. India’s EB-2 and EB-5 categories experienced a regression of almost 2 years and 10 months, while other nations observed no change. DHS issued all of the employment-based green cards that were available for the fiscal year 2022, which ends on September 30. However, according to government estimates, roughly 60,000 family-based green cards were not utilized. Those family-based green cards are lost, and instead will be added to the employment-based category beginning October 1, the first day of FY2023. Source: Boundless US educational institutions report an increase in applications from foreign students. Given a rise in applications for the 2022–2023 academic year, institutions of higher education in the United States are optimistic that the number of international students is rebounding. However, a rise in applications does not always indicate a rise in the number of international students enrolled in American higher education institutions. Source: VOA

USCIS Updates Relating to Religious Workers Guidance As part of a reorganization and expansion of current policy guidance pertaining to special immigrant and nonimmigrant religious employees, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is releasing it in the USCIS Policy Manual. The special immigrant religious worker advice has been reorganized for clarity, and this update offers more thorough details on the application process, evidence verification, and site inspection. Source: USCIS By 2043, immigration will be the main factor in U.S. population increase According to a recent assessment by the Congressional Budget Office, immigration will be the only source of population growth in the United States in 20 years. According to the estimate, net immigration, which is calculated as the number of immigrants entering the country minus the number of immigrants departing in a given year, will rise from 950,000 during the next ten years to around 1.1 million by 2052. Source: Boundless Falling short of US Refugee Admissions Cap under the Biden Administration The annual refugee ceiling was established by President Joe Biden at 125,000 last October, but as of July, the program had only accepted 17,690 refugees. Advocates assert that the Biden administration won’t meet its challenging goal for the fiscal year 2022, but they point out that the refugee program is still rebuilding. In October, Biden is anticipated to establish a new ceiling. Aline Barros, a VOA immigration correspondent, wrote the article. Source: VOA

DHS Issues Regulation to Preserve and Fortify DACA The Department’s final rule (PDF), which the Secretary of Homeland Security announced, will preserve and strengthen the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy for a select group of eligible noncitizens who entered the country as children, delaying their deportation and giving them a chance to obtain a renewable, two-year work permit. On Monday, October 31, 2022, the final rule will go into force. Source: USCIS USCIS Exceeds H-1B Cap for Fiscal Year 2023 In order to meet the congressionally mandated 65,000 regular H-1B visa ceiling and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, also known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year (FY) 2023, USCIS has received enough petitions. USCIS has finished notifying registrants online accounts of their non-selection. And will keep processing petitions that are not otherwise subject to the cap. The FY 2023 H-1B cap does not apply to petitions submitted for current H-1B employees who have previously been counted against the cap and who still have their cap number. Source: USCIS Diversity Visa 2023 update Selected applicants should only submit the DS-260 immigrant visa application form to the Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) for themselves and any accompanying family members for the Diversity Visa (DV) program for fiscal year 2023 (DV-2023). If the selectee’s visa case number is still valid as shown in the Visa Bulletin after KCC has reviewed the selectee’s DS-260 for completeness, that case may then be scheduled for a visa interview. This carries on the tradition that was established during the previous program year, and a choice based on statistics will be made subsequently for subsequent program years. Source: Travel.State.Gov

Farmers Will Find It Even Harder to Hire Workers Under the New H-2A Visa Rule The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a new regulation that makes it more difficult for farmers to hire immigrants and address the severe labor shortage that the industry is now experiencing, which threatens to raise already record-high food costs. Increasing the number of immigrant agricultural laborers can lower food prices and boost incomes, claims a recent Texas A&M University study. Despite this, the DOL has proposed a rule that would make hiring even more difficult for American farmers by adding more paperwork and stages that may lengthen the H-2A application process by nearly seven months. Source: Boundless Employers in the US are having trouble filling open positions “Help Wanted” billboards for salespeople, waiters, and postal employees are commonplace across the country as businesses battle a labor shortage brought on by the epidemic, a wave of early retirements, and tough immigration regulations. Many people who left the workforce as Covid-19 began to devastate the US economy in early 2020 have never come back. Source: VOA Backlog for green cards decreases in August By raising the number of interviews scheduled for August from 36% over July, the National Visa Center (NVC) of the Department of State made some headway this month on reducing the backlog for immigrant visas (IV). Compared to the 32,888 interviews slated for August 2022, little over 24,000 interviews were scheduled for July 2022. Due to the increase in green card interviews, the backlog decreased proportionately, from 409,645 outstanding cases last month to 388,780 cases this month—a almost 6% reduction. Source: Boundless Civil Rights Organizations Demand an Investigation Into ICE Sting Operation In 2015, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) established a phony institution, and more than 40 organizations asked for an investigation into it. The University of Farmington in Michigan was established as part of the sting operation, which allegedly sought to expose student visa fraud. It is claimed that the operation resulted in the unlawful detention of more than 600 students and netted more than $6 million in tuition payments from the victims. Source: Boundless

USCIS updates requirements for green card sponsors for 2022 USCIS updated the minimum annual income required for a family of 2 has increased from $21,770 to $22,887. This assumes that the sponsor – the U.S. citizen or current green card holder – is not in active military duty and has only one relative to sponsor. However, Alaskans and Hawaiians have higher income requirements based on their family size. Source: Boundless  High-Skilled Immigrants’ H-1B Visa Cap is reached for FY 2022 The H-1B lottery received over 300,000 registrations in fiscal 2022, surpassing the previous record high in fiscal 2021. Each year, Congress mandates a cap of 65,000 regular H-1B visas and another 20,000 for advanced degree exemption categories. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.  Source: Bloomberg, USCIS

The USCIS rolls back harsh standards for bringing refugee spouses to the U.S. Earlier this week, USCIS issued guidance eliminating a previous policy that prohibited refugees from bringing their spouses to the U.S. if their marriages were not recognized by local authorities. USCIS’ new guidance restores its prior policy of allowing informal marriages among refugees and asylum seekers. Many of these couples live in refugee camps, where informal social structures are usually not recognized by local law, or they are LGBTQIA+ or interfaith couples who are not able to get married in their countries of origin. Source:https://www.boundless.com/blog/boundless-weekly-immigration-news/#:~:text=U.S.%20Citizenship,their%20home%20countries. USCIS urges eligible applicants to switch employment-based categories due to the high availability 02/18/2022, USCIS Due to an exceptionally high number of EB immigrant visas available in these categories during this FY (October 2021 through September 2022), USCIS encourages eligible applicants to request to transfer the underlying basis of their adjustment of status application to the first category (priority workers) or the second category (noncitizens in professions with advanced degrees or with exceptional abilities). Since FY 2021 had approximately 140,000 family-sponsored visas, the overall annual limit for FY 2022 is twice as high as usual. Source:https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/uscis-urges-eligible-applicants-to-switch-employment-based-categories USCIS urges eligible applicants to switch employment-based categories due to the high availability02/18/2022, USCISDue to an exceptionally high number of EB immigrant visas available in these categories during this FY (October 2021 through September 2022), USCIS encourages eligible applicants to request to transfer the underlying basis of their adjustment of status application to the first category (priority workers) or the second category (noncitizens in professions with advanced degrees or with exceptional abilities). Since FY 2021 had approximately 140,000 family-sponsored visas, the overall annual limit for FY 2022 is twice as high as usual. Source: https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/uscis-urges-eligible-applicants-to-switch-employment-based-categories US Visa Service has been reopened in several countries, including India and China In response to CVID-19, visa services for U.S. citizens have been suspended around the globe. In recent weeks, most of the U.S. embassies and consulates have resumed booking certain immigrant and nonimmigrant visa appointments.  Source:https://www.boundless.com/blog/covid-19-u-s-embassy-and-consulate-reopening/  Pandemic restrictions have been lifted throughout the world Worldwide, countries such as Sweden, UK, and Australia have begun to lift COVID restrictions, despite the World Health Organization’s warnings. Australia reopened its borders to international vaccinated travelers later this month, after closing them since early 2020. Source: https://www.boundless.com/blog/boundless-weekly-immigration-news/#:~:text=COUNTRIES%20AROUND%20THE,later%20this%20 month.  Application deadline for adjustment of status for family sponsorship and EB visas: March 2022 US State Department releases Visa Bulletin for March 2022. It can be a major issue if you are waiting for your priority date to be current in order to be able to submit your green card application. To learn more about how to file an Adjustment of Status petition on your behalf if a relative or employer hasn’t already done so, please contact us or go to the USCIS website. Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, cannot be filed until you have an available visa in your category (if applicable). Check this page to learn when to apply for adjustment of