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So… no surprise here.  Everyone is going to need to wait as follows:

Expanded DACA applicants will have to wait about 90 days before they can apply.

DAPA (for parents) will be looking at about a 6 month wait before they can apply.

Expanded Provisional Waivers are available in the next several months (per USCIS).

Employment based visas will be made available… when they get around to rewriting the regulations.  Basically, grab a chair.  It’s going to be a while.

Promoting Naturalization – sometime in 2015.  The most significant part of this feature appears to be partial fee waivers and the ability to pay fees via credit card.

See USCIS’ information page: http://www.uscis.gov/immigrationaction

What does all this mean?  In plain-speak:  Be patient.  For those who want to get a head start on things, USCIS recommends gathering documents that prove:

1. Your identity

2. Your relationship to a U.S. Citizen or Legal Permanent Resident

3. Proof of your continuous residence for the last 5 years.

Well this says more than the speech. Provisional waivers for relatives of LPR children and spouses?

Need to read this through carefully. More to come.

http://www.dhs.gov/immigration-action

The President is about to announce his new plan for immigration relief.

From all indicators, it looks like it is going to be an expanded DACA-type of program.  I’m curious to see how this pans out, and more curious to see if it includes anything to get the existing employment cases moving along.

Will post as information comes down the pipe.  I hate speculating.

So the last couple of months have seen some dramatic changes in the world of labor certification based immigration processing.  The government shut down resulted in a loss of the iCert portal, and even after reopening, we’ve experienced longer than usual processing times for simple matters such as prevailing wage information.

Another unsettling trend is in the increase time necessary for PERM processing.  Cases are now taking significantly longer to process from the U.S. Dept. of Labor than previously.  When PERM was first introduced, it was supposed to be a 2 week processing time through automation.  When that failed, it ended up resulting in processing times of up to 1 year.  Then that fell under scrutiny, and the time suddenly dropped to 2 months.  Since then, it has steadily slowed down again, and is now over 6 months for regular processing, and there has been a dramatic uptick in audited cases.

On a brighter note, the current visa bulletin is showing that the quota numbers are moving in the opposite direction of the PERM cases.  Priority dates for EB3 cases are now down to cases only 2 years old.  The strangest shift is in the China numbers.  While China EB3 cases are being accepted with 2011 priority dates, the China EB2 cases are still only accepting from 2008!

At any rate, the moral of the story is, with these ever fluctuating numbers and increases in processing time, the need for looking ahead and proper immigration planning is more important than ever.  It is well worth the time to make a long term cohesive plan for your immigration needs.  A small investment today can save you from tremendous grief and expense in the future.

Mercifully, the government shutdown has ended.  In many ways, that was just the first step as all government services did not start up right away.

As of this posting, the U.S. Dept. of Labor websites are now open, so we can presume that their offices are back functioning once again.  The question remains how much of a delay will remain as a result of the shutdown period.  I think it is safe to anticipate a delay in processing across the board for all PERM cases.

Strangely, another victim of the shutdown was the Constituent Services at all Congressional offices across the U.S.  Many clients with congressional inquiries reported that constituent services had stopped, and only as of recently have they begun to assist constituents with federal agencies.

Let’s all hope this does not repeat itself and that the focus can go towards comprehensive immigration legislation.

With the Federal Government shutdown, all of the U.S. Dept. of Labor websites used for PERM processing is shut down as well.

We’ll keep you posted on this nonsense.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling striking down DOMA, USCIS is now free to adjudicate same-sex marriages for immigration benefits.  This has far reaching consequences as it can now dramatically affect not only same-sex spouses, but step-children as well.

The one caveat to all of this is that not all states recognize same sex marriages.  This creates a potential issue as USCIS has stated that they will look to the state in which the same-sex marriage was performed, AND (in certain circumstances) look to the state of residence when considering whether a marriage is “bona-fide”.

In California, this is not an issue, but in other states that do not recognize same-sex marriages, it has the potential to lead to a denial.  Further clarification has been promised, and we’ll be sure to examine it closely when released.

Something to consider before applying for a provisional waiver:

Although it is open to anyone who has an approved immediate relative petition (Spouse, Parent, Child under 21 of U.S. Citizen), the extreme hardship must fall on a Qualifying Relative that must either be a U.S. Citizen Spouse or Parent only.

The hardship cannot be on a U.S. Citizen Child for the purposes of the Provisional Waiver.

This was anticipated from the start, but deserves clarification because the eligibility requirements allow all immediate relatives to apply, but then restricts the hardship to U.S. Citizen Spouses and Parents only. 

Let’s hope USCIS relaxes this rule to include hardship to U.S. citizen children in the future.

March 4, 2013.  The new regulation takes effect today, and coincidentally, the new form was published and released at the same time.

This is tremendous news for many people who have been hesitant to immigrate because of the fear of long separation times while I-601 waivers were processing.  It is important to note that anyone interested in this waiver go over their case carefully with an experienced immigration attorney to confirm eligibility.

The standards are not easy and many people may find that they are not eligible for the Provisional Waiver.  After all, it only waives 1 ground of inadmissibility and there may be multiple.

More thoughts to come, but for a preview, check out the new form and its instructions here.

Well, it took USCIS over a year to finish with the “final rule” on the provisional waiver, but it’s finally done.  Here’s the press release.

This is great news for family unity and puts (what everyone hopes) an end to the senseless period of separation required in previous I-601 Waiver applications.  For those unfamiliar with the process, let me give you a brief example:

THE PREVIOUS PATH

Maria is from Mexico and she enters the country illegally as a 2 yr old with her parents.  After growing up her entire life in the U.S., she marries her childhood sweetheart at the age of 21.  Her husband is a U.S. citizen, so he petitions her for a green card.  Because she entered illegally originally, she must apply for a waiver at the consulate in Mexico to obtain her immigrant visa.  Maria is scheduled for an interview in Ciudad Juarez, and she establishes that she is in a bona fide marriage with a U.S. Citizen.  Maria clears all necessary background and health screens, but she has the issue of inadmissibility because of her illegal entry into the U.S. as a child.  Maria is told she must file a waiver.  Then she has to wait for the waiver to be approved.  This can take months to years.  All the while, Maria is unable to return to the U.S. where her family and husband await.

This long waiting period is why many married couples never applied for their permanent residence… they couldn’t stand the idea of separating for an indefinite period of time to wait for the waiver.

THE NEW PATH

Well, not much really changes as far as procedural steps are concerned.  Maria must still file a petition.  She must still pass an interview in Mexico.  She must still file a waiver application and wait for it to get approved.  What’s the difference?  Maria can now do the application here in the U.S. before she flies to Mexico for her interview.  This way, she will not be separated from her husband for an indefinite period of time, and she will have the confidence in knowing she has been provisionally approved for the waiver.

Personally, I think it would be easier simply to allow certain immediate relatives of U.S. Citizens to be automatically waived for such things, but this is still a step in the right direction.  Now the only problem is what to do about all those that did their waiver applications the old way and are still stuck apart from their families waiting to see what the consulate officer decides on their application?