In a recent communication, it appears that the Department of State will only accept the accreditation of spouses of newly arrived officers and employees of international organizations and embassy staff, both same-sex and opposite-sex, as members of the immediate family of the principal A or G visa holder, as of October 1, 2018. Domestic partners accompanying them or seeking to join them must be married in order to be eligible for a derivative nonimmigrant visa. Moreover, effe

The Department of State (DOS) has been scrutinizing individuals applying for green cards under the public-charge bar. Some of these non–U.S. citizens must show that they are not likely to become dependent on the government for cash assistance or long-term care. In making a public-charge determination, the government must look at a person's age, health, family situation, income, resources, education, and skills, and may also consider an affidavit of support or contract signed

Historically, at the end of the fiscal year, visa preference categories further retrogress or become backlogged for the first time, only to become current again on October 1. This has been the pattern for the employment-based first preference (extraordinary ability, outstanding professors/ researchers, and multinational executives and managers) for years. This year, however, the EB-1 category has retrogressed for September to June 1, 2016, for visas worldwide and January 1, 2

USCIS's new policy regarding "unlawful presence" for foreign students (academic and vocational) and exchange visitors and their dependents are now in effect. This means that foreign students (F-1, J-1, M-1) will begin accruing unlawful presence on the day after the student violates the terms of his or status, such as fails to pursue the authorized course of study or practical training or engages in unauthorized employment. Why is this such a big deal and the why are the conse

Around the same time that USCIS issued its new policy regarding RFEs and NOIDs, noted above, USCIS updated its guidance for referring cases to the immigration court through the issuance of a Notice to Appear (NTA), and thus increasing its enforcement actions to a whole host of cases that normally are not automatically referred for proceedings. Service of the NTA provides a foreign national with notice that deportation proceedings are being initiated and that they are now unde

The new USCIS policy has abandoned that limitation and restored full discretion to USCIS adjudicators. "This policy is intended to discourage frivolous or substantially incomplete filings used as 'placeholder' filings and encourage [those filing] to be diligent in collecting and submitting required evidence. It is not intended to penalize filers for innocent mistakes or misunderstandings of evidentiary requirements." The policy memo cites some possibilities for an automatic d

Of the more than 2,500 children who were separated from their parents due to the Trump Administration's "zero tolerance" policy on border crossers, close to 550 children have yet to be reunified and an estimated 463 of their parents are no longer in the United States. In the wake of this disastrous policy, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the American Immigration Council filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspecto