As most, if not all, of you, have heard, our President is preparing an executive order to limit immigration into the United States. At this time, as the order has not been finalized, we cannot say what the impact will be on individual cases. Below is a list of what we have heard may, or may not, be included in the order:
- The reports are that it will only place limits on immigrant visas (definitely affecting consular processing and, maybe affecting the adjustment of status in the US as well). It is reported that it will not affect non-immigrant visa issuance.
- The reports are that the immigration halt will be in place for 60 days and then will be re-evaluated.
- There have been reports that it will only apply to employment-based cases and will not affect family-based cases.
- There have been reports that there will be other exceptions as well for essential employees, which could include health care workers, researchers, farmworkers, and, perhaps, others.
So far, the above is all we know, and even that is not certain because there is no actual draft of the order as of yet. We will update you once the order is finalized and we have more facts.
Please remember, as always, this blog does not offer legal advice. If you need legal advice, consult with a lawyer instead of a blog. Thank you.
Not everyone realizes but there are huge backlogs of cases for employment based immigrant visas. For about 1 year now the EB-1 category (Extra-ordinary Ability, Outstanding Professor and Researchers and Intra-Company Transferees) category has been backlogged about 1 year for most of the world and several years for China and about 4-5 years for India. The EB-2 category, while current for most of the world, has been backlogged about 4 years for China and about 10 years for India. The same is true of the EB-3 category. For those from India and China especially, the requirement of having to wait 10 years or more for a green card is hard on the family. It can cause children, who may be 2 or 3 when they arrive in the US, to age out before a green card can be obtained – forcing these now grown Children to either go home or get their own visas and begin their own processes. Furthermore, the employees are working for years without hope of major pay increases or promotions, for fear of being fired (if they ask and are denied) and loosing their place in line.
USCIS has released the February 2018 Visa Bulletin. While there is certainly some movement forward, the guidance given by Mr. Oppenheim last month is still in effect and has not changed. Relevant changes are listed below.
On September 24, 2017, the President issued a new Executive Order (“EO”) entitled “Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by Terrorists or other Public Safety Threats”. This new EO builds upon the last order, which was only valid for 90 days. However, part of the old EO directed DHS to do a worldwide review to determine what additional information is needed from each foreign country to assess whether foreign nationals who seek to enter the United States pose a security or safety threat. DHS completed that review and gave the President a list of seven countries that had “inadequate” information sharing practices. The new EO implements certain types of restrictions against nationals of these seven countries (plus one additional country that the President felt posed security risks) in terms of their ability to get certain visas.
The Department of State released the visa bulletin for October 2016 recently. Below is a summary of movement and changes.
The August 2016 visa bulletin was released by the Department of State yesterday. It features backlogs for ALL countries in the EB-2 category and other changed. However, readers should understand, that while certain countries (India and China) have regular backlogs in the EB-2 category, those for other countries in the EB-2 category and those in the EB-1 category are temporary. I will discuss this more in depth below as we look at the specifics of the Visa Bulletin: