U.S. family immigration weekly briefing – October 13th, 2017

USCIS has a new director

Lee Francis Cessna was confirmed as the director of USCIS by the U.S. senate on October 5th, 2017. An analysis by ProPublica seemed to indicate that Mr. Cessna is not a fan of some of USCIS humanitarian programs.  More here: https://www.immigrationplanner.com/2017/10/10/lee-francis-cessna-confirmed-as-the-new-director-of-uscis/

The November visa bulletin is out

We will release detailed analysis, but this is where the final action dates stand for all countries except Mexico and the Philippines:

• F1: January 22nd, 2011
• F2A: November 15th, 2015
• F2B: November 15th, 2010
• F3: August 15th, 2005
• F4: May 22nd, 2004

Only F1 and F2A are in line with our expectations. F2B, F3, and F4 movement is a bit disappointing.

White House ‘immigration demands’ and DACA’s future

It seemed a month ago that the President of the United States and the leadership of the democratic party in the House and Senate had an agreement about renewing DACA. This seems much less certain now that the White House released a list of immigration demands ‘in exchange’ for supporting DACA renewal. The demands include curtailing family immigration and moving to a ‘merit-based system’. Dreamers will begin to lose their work authorization starting March 5th, 2018. More here: https://www.immigrationplanner.com/2017/10/10/white-house-immigration-demands-for-daca-deal/

U.S. Attorney General urges tighter asylum rules

This is an excerpt of an original article written by Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post. Attorney General Sessions said that the U.S. asylum system is filled with ‘rampant abuse and fraud’, and that ‘the system is being gamed’. Sessions is also reported to have said that ‘We also have dirty immigration lawyers who are encouraging their otherwise unlawfully present clients to make false claim of asylum’.

End of Sudan’s TPS

The designation of Sudan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will not  renewed. The termination will be effective on November 2nd, 2018. As summarized by Axios, ‘TPS allows certain foreign nationals to stay in the U.S. because the government judges their home countries too dangerous to return to, either due to civil wars, environmental disasters or epidemics.’

The TPS status for South Sudan was renewed for 18 months mid-September 2017.

Change of the filing address for form I-129

This concerns only applicants for a work visa. USCIS announced that form I-129 will be filed:

• According to the state where the company is located
• Sponsors located in Floridan, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas will now file at the California Service Center.