The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will celebrate our nation’s 233rd birthday by naturalizing over 6,000 applicants for citizenship in special ceremonies held across the United States and overseas. This year, USCIS’ has scheduled about 50 citizenship oath ceremonies during the course of this week, including ceremonies on July 1 at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium for about 800 applicants and on July [...]

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced recently that that the Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification), revised on February 2, 2009 that is currently on the USCIS Web site will continue to be valid for use beyond June 30, 2009. Form I-9 is used by U.S. based employers to determine whether or not an individual is authorized [...]

The White House released President Obama’s remarks following a meeting yesteday with congressional leaders about immigration reform. The President had asked DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to lead a group that would be working with leaders from both chambers of Congress to draft legislation that would reform the nation’s immigration laws. Additionally, the President asked that in the next 3 months, for the US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) [...]

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced recently, that in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), it has met all of the goals set forth in a joint business plan announced on April 2, 2008 and has  eliminated the FBI’s National Name Check Program (NNCP) backlog. Prior to the attainment of these goals, the USCIS has held millions of approvable applications in [...]

The U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced yesterday that effective June 29, 2009, Premium Processing Service for Form I-140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker) based on certain employment based petitions for legal permanent residence will resume.    The USCIS suspended Premium Processing Service on I-140 petitions on June 2, 2007 due to an increase in applications when employment-based immigrant visas [...]

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a guidance memorandum yesterday that clarifies the definition of job creation and the meaning of full-time positions in the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. The guidance memorandum clarifies the requirement of employment creation and, what is considered as a permanent job for the purposes of the invesment based immigrant visa petition. Under the guidance memorandum, The USCIS [...]

The Miami Herald reported today that President Obama, Democratic congressional leaders, and advocates for reforming the nation’s immigration laws have said that that passing a comprehensive immigration bill this year is a top priority, despite other legislative actions that include confirming Sonia Sotomayor to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, reforming the nation’s health care system, addressing climate change and, conducting wars in both Iraq [...]

The Orlando Sentinel reported yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Immigration Statistics released a report on the number of illegal immigrants apprehended at the border.  The report shows that apprehensions at the border are at a 36 year low. The number of apprehensions made by the U.S. Customs & Border Protection (USCBP) has declined for the third [...]

The Mercury News reported recently that Immigration Reform is making a comeback as a hot button issue.   The concern among advocates for immigration reform is whether it becomes legislation this year, next year, or at all.   The Obama administration and Congress is currently working on legislation to pass a war spending bill, reform health care, address global warming, and [...]

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) reported recently that Senators Menendez (D-NJ), Gillibrand (D-NY) and Leahy (D-VT) introduced the Orphans, Widows and Widowers Protection Act (S. 1247) to amend the immigration laws to provide benefits for applicants who have submitted family-based petitions based on marriage to U.S. citizen spouses who subsequently pass away during the immigration process.   The bill if [...]