Despite the USCIS’s intensified scrutiny of marriage petitions marriage continues to be the avenue most frequently used by foreign nations to gain U.S. permanent residence. If you are married to a United States’ Citizen or Permanent Resident you may qualify for an immigrant visa based on marriage. Marriages Where Immigrant is Outside the United States Generally, a foreign resident [...]

Marriage to an American citizen is the most common method foreign nationals use to obtain permanent residence or green card status in the United States. It is also the method that is most often abused. Because of the high incidence of fraud, USCIS officials carefully scrutinize all marriage applications (and their related adjustment of status applications) to ensure that the marriage [...]

The U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) reported today that in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, the agency has naturalized over 11,000 U.S. military service members in military duty stations throughout the U.S. and abroad. That is the largest number of military naturalizations in any year since the Korean War. The number of military naturalizations is increasing due to the USCIS’ outreach to eligible military [...]

The Orlando Sentinel reported yesterday that President Obama and his Administration is considering easing the restrictions imposed on U.S. citizens on traveling to Cuba. Loosening the travel restrictions would expand opportunities for American students, educators and researchers to visit Cuba.  However, the ongoing economic embargo that the U.S. imposed on Cuba 50 years ago will remain intact. This is great news for the [...]

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has recently published a delayed update of the poverty guidelines for the remainder of 2010.  The poverty guidelines are usually published every year in late January or early February. The reason for the delayed update of this year’s poverty guidelines was due to legislation enacted in late 2009 and [...]

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced yesterday that it will conduct an agency-wide policy review to examine and potentially change its policies concerning the adjudication of applications for benefits and customer service. The USCIS has selected the following ten (10) areas to examine in its policy review: National Customer Service; H-1B visas; Citizenship & Naturalization; Employment based green cards in general; Employment [...]

The House of Representatives earlier this week passed the International Adoption Harmonization Act of 2010 (H.R. 5532).  The bill would amend the immigration law regarding the eligibility of foreign born adopted children to obtain permanent residence (green cards).   The bill if signed into law, will allow an adopted child to immigrate to the U.S. as long as the adoption is completed and the application for [...]

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) seeks public comments on its proposal to increase filing fees for the adjudication of applications, and to recover costs in administering the immigration laws. The proposal was posted yesterday in the Federal Register.  The proposed increase would raise filing fees for most applications by 10%. The comment period begins on June 11, 2010 and ends on July 26, 2010.  [...]

The Orlando Sentinel reported today that a federal judge in Los Angeles tentatively ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to reopen the cases of 22 individuals who were denied legal permanent residence because their U.S. citizen spouses died during the application process. U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder ruled the so-called “widow penalty” doesn’t require that immigrants’ permanent residency applications [...]