U.S. immigration weekly briefing – Jan 5th, 2018

Part of the refugee travel ban blocked

On December 23rd, 2017, a U.S. judge limited the impact of the ‘travel ban’ on refugees: ‘follow-to-join’ applicants (spouses and unmarried children individuals already granted refugee status) must be processed, including citizens from the 11 so-called high risk countries.

Spouses of H1Bs who filed for a green card will lose work authorization

When an H1B visa holder formally submits an application for an employment-based green card, his or her spouse is generally authorized to obtain a work authorization in the United States. USCIS recently announced its intention to cancel in 2018 a practice that has been in place since May 2015.

Re-launch of online application for naturalization

When it was first launched in April 2016, the online N400 lead to an increase of backlogs of more than 60% and processing times nearly doubled and the program was discontinued in August 2016. Now it’s back.

The international entrepreneur visa just won’t happen

USCIS stated that it would ask that the international entrepreneur program be terminated, even as a U.S. judged forced them to accept applications for that very program. It is clear that entrepreneurs who have established a U.S. start-up entity, and who have been awarded substantial U.S. investor financing will not obtain a visa through this program.

Immigration Planner I-485 news

We added the I-485 to the existing I-130 and I-130A. Be among the first to give us feedback on our automated checks on issues of completeness, logic, eligibility, and more. Find the I-485 here.

We will follow and analyse the following in 2018:

• Anything, big or small associated with family green cards- obviously our job 😉
• Predictions for Visa Bulletin dates
• DACA: will it pass?
• Travel ban: the ruling of the Supreme Court and its consequences
• TPS: how much of it will be terminated?
• H1B: can it survive as is?