In a November 2009 AILA meeting, Mr. Charlie Oppenheim, who is Chief of the Immigrant Visa Control and Reporting Division at the Department of State (or also known as the person who determines the visa bulletin dates), has indicated some ways in which the visa bulletin numbers will move over the next few months. Mr. Oppenheim’s [...]
In an article dated November 17, 2009, we wrote about the CDC reversing course and eliminating the requirement of HPV vaccine for immigrant applicants, including I-485 adjustment applications. The new rule had an effective date of December 14, 2009, so our office has received a number of inquiries about (1) what happens with pending adjustments [...]
In a shift in policy, the CDC has announced that effective Decemeber 14, 2009, the HPV vaccine will no longer be required for immigrants applying for immigrant visa or adjusting their status from within the U.S. Background About the Required Vaccinations Under Section 212(a)(1)(A)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), any alien who seeks admission [...]
We are aware of many cases in which USCIS approves Form I-485 for the principal applicant but does not do so for any derivative family members’ I-485 petitions. While in some cases this may be due to missing evidence, security clearance difficulties, or some other legitimate reason, in many cases it is possible that the [...]
USCIS has released a schedule of the inventory of pending Form I-485, Application to Adjust Status. The statistics are fairly recent - as of August 25, 2009 - and are very helpful to understanding the relative queue positions for adjustment of status applicants. How Can I Determine My Place in the AOS Queue? An AOS application’s preference [...]
The Nebraska and Texas Service Centers (NSC and TSC, respectively) have informed that they will start issuing denials on pending I-485 upon denial of the underlying I-140 petition. Until now, USCIS has a policy from a Memorandum of Feb. 28, 2003 from William R. Yates, “Procedures for Concurrently Filed Family-Based or Employment-Based Form I-485 when the [...]
USCIS has announced that, in conjunction with FBI, it has met its goal of eliminating the FBI National Name Check Program backlog. The goal was to achieve a performance (which can actually be sustained going forward) of completing 98 percent of name checks requests submitted by USCIS within 30 days and the remaining 2 percent within [...]