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Karol Brown spoke at the Pacific Northwest Immigration Law Conference on September 22, 2022 in Portland, Oregon. Her panel was titled, "Weighing Whether to Go to Press or the Public with Your Business Clients." Her co-panelists were Jamie Langton, immigration attorney in Oregon, and Belle Woods, Senior Associate Director of Communications and Digital Outreach for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. World One Law Group has used media attention to help overcome issues for our clients on several occasions. One of our clients was featured in a Seattle Times story that was on the front page, "Travel ban ruling leaves Seattle woman wondering when she will see her husband again." That story was picked up in a Washington Post story about the Muslim ban: "Trump's travel ban caused heartache and suffering. For what?". That client has since been granted a visa and is currently living in Seattle with his wife.  We also used media attention in a case involving an undocumented immigrant who "accidentally" crossed the US-Canada border. His university paper ran a story that was picked up by the Seattle Times in an article headlined "Scramble to help UW graduate who's an illegal immigrant." We also engaged in a social media campaign to urge ICE to grant "deferred action" to this young man with no criminal record and a long history in the United States since childhood. We were able to win deferred action for him and his family members who were brought into the case to try to force him to drop his defense against removal.
World One Law Group uses every resource to get the best outcomes for our clients. If it takes going to the media to pressure US government officials to approve a case, we will make it happen.
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By Katrina Mendoza For the last few years, the adjudication of I-751 Petitions to Remove Conditions on Permanent Residence by USCIS has been significantly backlogged. The global pandemic has only exacerbated these delays, leaving hundreds of thousands of conditional permanent residents with their statutes pending for years. Currently, around eighty percent of I-751 petitions are being completed within thirty-one months, a drastic increase from processing times pre-pandemic. In an effort to reduce this backlog and push for a more efficient immigration system overall, USCIS recently updated the interview waiver criteria for family-based immigrants seeking to remove the conditions on their permanent resident status. These new criteria will hopefully allow for more waivers to be granted and for I-751 petitions to be decided more quickly.  Who does the new I751 Petition policy impact? Foreign nationals are granted conditional permanent residency if their green card application is based on a marriage to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident if they have been married for less than two years at the time the green card is approved. While a green card is usually valid for ten years, a conditional green card is valid for only two years. A conditional permanent resident must file an I-751 petition to request the removal of the conditions on their residency within 90 days of their permanent resident card expiring. The conditional permanent resident is typically required to appear for an interview before the final adjudication of the petition. While a USCIS officer has the discretion to waive an I-751 interview, prior USCIS policy limited the circumstances where on officer could waive the interview. For example, the USCIS policy would not allow interview waivers for any conditional permanent residents that obtained status through consular processing, rather than adjusting status from within the United States. USCIS’s updated policy restores the authority of USCIS officers to use their independent judgement to waive an interview when adjudicating I-751 petitions, regardless of whether the petitioner obtained their status through consular processing or by adjusting status inside the United States.
What is the interview waiver criteria? The new policy guidance states that USCIS officers may consider waiving an interview if:
Hopefully, these policy changes are the beginnings of more changes of policy and staffing allocations within USCIS that will reduce case backlogs and improve processes. For conditional permanent residents who are preparing to start this daunting process or who have been waiting in limbo, this new I-751 interview waiver policy means that there is at least one less barrier ahead. Questions?
Our team at World One Law Group consists of attorneys who specialize in family-based immigration matters and regularly assist clients with their I-751 Petitions to Remove Conditions on Residence. If you have questions about your immigration situation and would like to schedule a consultation, please email info@world1law.com or call our office at 425-250-8110. We would be happy to meet with you. For more information and updates on U.S. immigration news, please visit our website at www.world1law.com. By Feiya Go Job hunting is hard enough. Ever go through 18 interviews at a trendy tech company only to be told you weren’t a good fit? How about seeing the application portal that makes you manually enter each experience again, even though you just uploaded your resume? All this warrants a deep breath and a good glass of wine. But job hunting as an immigrant, that is a whole other level of difficulty. Every immigrant job seeker dreads the question, “Do you have US work authorization?” You may find yourself giving an immigration seminar to the recruiter or hiring manager. You have to convince someone that hiring you won’t be that much more trouble than hiring anyone else. Inevitability, even if you aced your interview and are offered the job, the immigration process requires detailed biographic information, uploading documents, and submitting forms to the USCIS. After long processing times, you finally get that all-important approval. But soon your work authorization expires, you get that email from HR needing updated proof of your work authorization, and the cycle starts all over again. Today, we bring you two great pieces of news about work authorization to make life just a little easier for immigrant employees.  L2 Visa Holders Automatically Granted Work Authorization
The first improvement relates to work authorization for L2 visa holders. The L2 visa is a status for spouses of L1 visa employers who are transferred by multinational companies. On November 10, 2021, US Department of Homeland Security settled a lawsuit that allowed all L2 visa holders to be granted employment authorization without the need for a separate employment authorization document (EAD). Before this announcement, an L2 visa holder would be approved for the status but then have to file an I-765 application for permission to work. Only after that application was approved would they be issued an Employment Authorization Document (“EAD) and be allowed to work legally in the United States. Sound easy? Not lately. The wait times for EAD approval stretched to between 8 to 14 months in the last few years. With this lawsuit settlement, L2 visa holders now have work authorization “incident to status.” This means that L2 visa holders are able to work legally in the United States from day one of their arrival or the approval of their change of status. This policy change will also remove thousands of L2 EAD applications from the USCIS pipeline. This is a win-win situation in our books. EAD Automatic Extensions up to 540 Days for 18 Categories The second improvement relates to automatic EAD extensions for 18 categories. The USCIS has different rules for whether an automatic extension is given when the applicant files a renewal before the previous EAD card expires. These rules are based on the underlying reason someone qualifies for an EAD, such as a pending I-485 Adjustment of Status, pending asylum application, H4 spouses with approved I-140 petitions, and other categories. Previously, certain categories were given an automatic 180-day extension. Currently, as of May 4, 2022, USCIS temporarily increased the extension period for an additional 360 days above the 180, resulting in a total of 540 days for certain types of EADs. You can see a list of EAD categories eligible for this automatic extension at https://www.uscis.gov/eadautoextend. This temporary increase is available to eligible renewal applicants with pending applications if you filed your Form I-765 renewal application either:
If you file your Form I-765 renewal application after October 26, 2023, the normal 180-day automatic extension period will apply. This new automatic extension will help reduce the chances of a break in employment for those on EADs. It will also enable the USCIS to focus on producing initial EAD approvals. Our office has already seen the positive effect of this policy for our clients. We are happy to announce these two updates and look forward to sharing more good immigration news with our readers. Questions? For more information and updates on U.S. immigration news, please visit our website at www.world1law.com. If you have questions about your immigration situation and would like to schedule a consultation, please email info@world1law.com or call our office at 425-250-8110. Our team would be happy to meet with you!  By Andrea Lee
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the expansion of premium processing service to more case types. Premium processing is an expedited adjudication service for specific types of forms filed with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). It is currently available to those filing a Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, or a Form I-140 for certain employment-based immigrant visa petitioners. The final rule expands the regulation to apply to three more categories, detailed below. Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status This form is commonly used for spouses of individuals who hold nonimmigrant employment visas in the United States. Premium processing is already available for employees seeking temporary work visas, which allows for quick adjudication of their petitions. However, their spouse’s applications currently get delayed with long backlogs, without the option for premium processing. Hopefully, this new rule will help keep families on the same processing timeline, now that the employee, their spouse, and their children are eligible for premium processing. Form I-765, Application for Work Authorization U.S. employers are required to verify the identity and authorization to work for all employees. For many non-immigrants, this is often done by showing an employment authorization document (EAD), issued after Form I-765 is approved. Without an approved EAD, many individuals must take extended unpaid leave from work or become unemployed altogether. This new premium processing rule gives applicants the opportunity to pay the premium processing fee to receive approved work authorization within 15 calendar days of submission. Cases that are now taking almost a year may be approved in just two weeks. The expansion of premium processing regulations is great news for employers and employees alike. Form I-140, Petition for Alien Worker The Form I-140 Petition for Alien Worker is used by employers to request permanent residency for an employee, often after the certification of a PERM labor certification application. Premium processing was already available to certain categories under the I-140 petition. This new rule adds premium processing options for additional classifications in the employment-based immigrant visas, such as national interest waivers or multinational executives or managers. Implementation The new expansion will be implemented in a phased approach, starting in fiscal year 2023 (which starts on October 1, 2022). USCIS plans to begin the implementation process with Form I-140, for those requesting EB-1 classification as a multinational executive or manager and EB-2 classification as a member of professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability seeking a national interest waiver. Questions? For more information and updates on U.S. immigration news, please visit our website at www.world1law.com. If you have questions about your immigration situation and would like to schedule a consultation, please email info@world1law.com or call our office at 425-250-8110. Our team would be happy to meet with you! |
AuthorThis blog is published by the attorneys of World One Law Group, an immigration law firm in Bellevue, Washington. World One specializes in employment and business immigration, family-based immigration, naturalization, as well as asylum, DACA, VAWA, and U-Visa cases. Archives
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