“USCIS upholds America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility with fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve.”
WASHINGTON— Today, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur M. Jaddou announced the agency’s new mission statement. Last year, USCIS leadership empowered employees to submit words that they felt best illustrated the agency’s work. The new mission statement is a reflection of this feedback from the workforce, the priorities of the Biden Administration, and Director […]
There are an exceptionally high number of employment-based visas available this fiscal year (October 2021 through September 2022). In partnership with the U.S. Department of State, we are committed to attempting to use all these visa numbers. There are many more visas available in the first (priority workers) and second (workers with advanced degrees or […]
By Leslie Dellon, Immigration Impact The Biden administration recently announced four actions intended to improve immigration “pathways” for noncitizens in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. However, these changes are constrained by the delays at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and congressional limits on immigrant visa numbers. These actions include: Early Career STEM […]
By Walter Ewing, Immigration Impact Thousands of applicants for U.S. citizenship have been waiting for well over a year for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to process their applications. But the problem isn’t the usual bureaucratic red tape. In this case, thousands of paper-based immigration records (known as “A-Files”) are locked in man-made caves that USCIS […]
An Afghan family walking to their home where is a traditional Afghan village. – Sheberghan, Afghanistan – 5 May 2019 (Shutterstock) By Rebekah Wolf, Immigration Impact As the United States hastily withdrew its military presence from Afghanistan in August 2021, it began Operation Allies Welcome, a program designed to assist the tens of thousands of […]
By Kate Goettel, The Immigration Impact U.S. workers are losing their jobs due to bureaucratic delays at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), despite an economy desperate for workers. Asylum seekers wanting to renew their employment authorization documents are often waiting for upwards of a year for renewal, resulting in job loss and associated benefits. […]
WASHINGTON— U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will honor Veterans Day this year by holding more than 90 ceremonies naturalizing more than 4,440 current and former members of the military and their families. Each year, on Nov. 11, the nation honors members of the U.S. armed forces who have served our country and defended our freedom. […]
By Leslie Dellon, Immigration Impact Annual limits on immigrant visa numbers, combined with processing delays and wasted numbers, mean even longer waits for people to become U.S. permanent residents. In November, the “cut off” date for visa eligibility retrogressed (moved backward in time) for people born in India who are in the employment-based (EB) third […]
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated cap on H-2B visas for temporary nonagricultural workers for the first half of fiscal year 2022. Sept. 30 was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2022. USCIS will reject […]
To continue to keep our workforce and applicants safe during the COVID-19 global pandemic while maintaining efficiency and providing access to the asylum process, USCIS is again extending the temporary rule requiring use of a USCIS interpreter at asylum interviews, to March 16, 2022. On Sept. 17, 2021, USCIS published another extension, which includes a modification, […]
