Immigration and Firm News

The primary trend for family immigration is a slow down in processing of all petition and application types at USCIS, at the National Visa Center, and at US consulates abroad. And, interviews are taking longer as part of the "extreme vetting" campaign.  I mentioned in an earlier post that mandatory interviews for employment based adjustment of status applicants is impacting processing times for family based adjustment of status and naturalization interviews. Here in Seattle, where once upon a … [Read more...]

Today, USCIS announced that it agreed with the Ombudsman’s recommendation to implement a parole policy for U visa petitioners and qualifying family members who live abroad. Parole is neither a visa nor a green card but a legal fiction type of interim status.  The U visa – available to individuals who have suffered substantial physical or mental abuse as a result of a qualifying crime and who meet certain other criteria – are capped at 10,000 per fiscal year. When the cap is exceeded, U … [Read more...]