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We are tracking the development of the national interest waiver law since the seminal decision, Matter of Dhanasar. Introduction Congress has made available a limited number of immigrant visas to skilled and unskilled foreign workers who want to take a job in the U.S. that local workers do not want…
On December 12, 2016, The U.S. Department of Education announced that it will derecognize the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) as an accrediting agency. On March 15, 2017, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) began issuing notices to SEVP-certified schools accredited by ACICS who had not…
On March 31, 2017, USCIS rescinded a memorandum from December 22, 2000, called “Guidance memo on H-1B computer related positions.” According to USCIS rescinding this 2000 memorandum will prevent inconsistencies because it was based on outdated information about computer occupations. This new policy will affect our clients in Chicago and…
President Trump today signed a new Executive Order, explaining the reasons to suspend admission of foreign nationals from certain countries. The Order, entitled Executive Order Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States restricts admissions of foreign nationals from six countries: Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Libya, and…
On February 20, 2017, John Kelly, the Homeland Security Secretary issued two Memoranda implementing President Trump’s Executive Orders. The first Memorandum is entitled “Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest.” It implements the Executive Order entitled “Enhancing um Public Safety in the Interior of the United States”…
President Trump’s Executive Order signed on January 27, 2017, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States”, also affects Legal Permanent Residents from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The Executive Order cites to 8 U.S.C. Sec. 1182(f), which permits the President “by proclamation, and…
President Trump issued an executive order entitled Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States, which includes a list of violations or acts that may make an alien a priority for removal. The list describes aliens who are inadmissible or removable for having committed certain crimes, pose security…
The Administrative Appeals Office (“AAO”) recently scrapped the “national interest waiver” test of In re N.Y. STATE Dep’t OF Transp., 22 I. & N. Dec. 215 (1998) and replaced it with a new one in Matter of DHANASAR, 26 I. & N. Dec. 884 (AAO 2016). The AAO determined that the test USCIS has been following for the last 18 years was too subjective, and promised that the new framework “will provide…
The immigration attorneys at Zneimer & Zneimer PC reviewed a noticed the Department of Homeland Security published in the Federal Register that announced the decision of DHS to increase its fees for numerous USCIS applications, effective December 23, 2016. Even though the notice euphemistically calls the fee increase “adjustment” of…
A foreign national can file an application to become a permanent resident if the foreign national has an immediately available visa. A petitioner files an immigrant petition on behalf of a foreign national to establish the foreign national’s eligibility to immigrate to the United States and the US government sets aside…