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 U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services  (USCIS) reported recently that it has accepted 45,600  H-1B visa applications so far in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011.  When we last reported on the number of H-1B visa applications back on October 28, 2010, the USCIS counted 44,300 applications. With less than 20,000 visas available, the race for petitioners to submit their applications before the quota is reached is intensifying. Related [...]

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) have been extended for an additional 18 months for eligible Somali nationals from the current expiration date of March 17, 2011, through the new expiration date of Sept. 17, 2012. During the past year, both the Secretaries of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of State (DOS) have [...]

The Orlando Sentinel reported today that critics in the federal government have raised concerns that although the President has heightened immigration enforcement efforts on businesses that are suspected of hiring undocumented immigrants, and despite the fact that the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (USICE) has already conducted more workplace audits of the I-9  (Employment Eligibility Verification) forms, critics feel that the government’s enforcement has been has been too lenient [...]

The U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) reported today that it has accepted 44,300 H-1B visa applications so far in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011.  When we last reported on the number of H-1B visa applications accepted by the USCIS on October 20, 2010, the agency counted 42,800 applications.  Between last week and today the USCIS accepted 1,500 applications, a spike from [...]

The Orlando Sentinel reported today that in Florida, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (USICE) officers under the leadership of Marc Moore who was appointed by the DHS earlier this year to head the USICE’s Office of Detention & Removal at the Miami Field Office, oversaw the deportations of over 15,000 foreign nationals, most of them were deported because of their criminal convictions. [...]

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reported today that it has begun issuing a new version of the Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550) with enhanced security features to combat fraud. The enhanced features on the new certificates include the individual’s digitized photo and signature laser printed into the document.  The background on the certificate has also been enhanced and contains a color-shifting ink pattern that is difficult [...]

The Los Angeles Times reported today that in an interview last week in Los Angeles, the President put fault on Republicans in Congress for their unwillingness to come together and work with him to to reform our country’s immigration laws that would legalize approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants. During the interview, he mentioned that when immigration reform was being debated in Congress back in 2006, 11 Republican [...]

The New York Times reported today that New York State Governor David A. Paterson formed a special clemency panel consisting of a group of five (5) individuals from the governor’s office and state agencies earlier this year to expedite the granting of clemency, otherwise known as pardons to lawful permanent residents (green card holders) who are in deportation proceedings for criminal convictions that [...]

The U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) via its Administrative Appeals Office (AAO), issued two (2) precedent decisions yesterday.  Those decisions are published by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) as part of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Furthermore, those decisions are binding on all USCIS and DOJ personnel for deciding cases.  The precedents that were set established rules and reasonings for deciding [...]