Archive

At the end of the day on Dec. 21, 2018, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Center Program expired due to a lapse in congressional authorization to continue the program. However, on Jan. 25, 2019, President Trump signed legislation that reauthorized the EB-5 Regional Center Program through Feb. 15, 2019. On Feb. 15, the president signed legislation further extending the EB-5 Regional Center Program through Sept. 30, 2019.

We have revised Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status and will publish the revised form on our website on March 11, 2019. Starting on March 11, 2019, we will only accept the revised Form I-539 with an edition date of 02/04/19.

As part of the agency’s efforts to streamline requests for case assistance, we are discontinuing the use of USCIS service center e-mail boxes for case-specific questions on Jan. 21, 2019.

The current lapse in annual appropriated funding for the U.S. government does not affect USCIS’ fee-funded activities. Our offices will remain open, and all applicants should attend interviews and appointments as scheduled.

USCIS has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H 2B cap for fiscal year (FY) 2017. March 13, 2017 was the final receipt date for new H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before October 1, 2017.

On April 3, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting CW-1 petitions subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2018 cap. Employers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) use the CW-1 program to employ foreign workers who are otherwise ineligible to work under other nonimmigrant worker categories.

USCIS is automatically extending the validity of certain EADs issued under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for El Salvador for an additional 6 months.

“Fourteen years ago on March 1, 2003, DHS was established. We did so as a nation because we needed to rethink our approach to homeland security. Many will recall the conclusions we reached then; that we needed to overcome a “lack of imagination” with regard to the threats we faced, and, second, that we needed to overcome our collective inability to take the dots of intelligence and arrange them into a more comprehensive picture of the threats posed to America and our way of life.

Starting April 3, 2017, USCIS will temporarily suspend premium processing for all H-1B petitions. This suspension may last up to 6 months.

Starting February 16, 2017, USCIS began reissuing receipt notices (Form I-797) to individuals who applied to renew their Employment Authorization Document (EAD) between July 21, 2016 and January 16, 2017, and whose applications remain pending in certain categories.