TPS Update
On March 1, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security announced that in compliance with a court ordered preliminary injunction, they are automatically extending through Jan. 2, 2020 certain documents for foreign nationals with TPS (Temporary Protected Status) from Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, and El Salvador. For individuals from these four countries who already have TPS, their work cards and I-94 records will automatically be extended to January 2, 2020. Forewarning, the government has filed its appeal of the preliminary injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. For more information please see here. We will keep you posted.
TPS beneficiaries will maintain their status, but they must continue to meet all the individual requirements for TPS eligibility. These requirements, including the most recent TPS re-registration requirements for beneficiaries under each country’s designation, can be found here.
Worrisome Increase in Case Delays
Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter on February 12, 2019, to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Lee Francis Cissna, expressing their grave concerns about the alarming growth in processing delays at USCIS and requesting prompt and detailed responses to a series of related questions. The letter notes that as of the end of fiscal year 2017, the Department of Homeland Security reported a net backlog of more than 2.3 million cases, which was more than double the backlog reported after 2016.
The letter asks for responses to questions about, among other things, the causes of the backlog; the use of extreme vetting; USCIS’s reversal of longstanding guidance on deference toward prior determinations regarding nonimmigrant employment extension petitions; and USCIS’s proposed FY 2019 budget, which requested the transfer of over $200 million from USCIS to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The letter is available here. We support our elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives in holding USCIS accountable for the processing delays.
Trump Administration Increases Scrutiny, RFEs for H-1B Petitions
According to statistics released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the percentage of H-1B cases with requests for evidence (RFEs) has greatly increased. In the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2017, the rate of H-1B RFEs was less than 30%. In the first quarter of FY 2019, that rate skyrocketed to 60%. At the same time, the percentage of H-1Bs with an RFE that were approved has fallen, from almost 80% in the first quarter of FY 2017 to about 60% in the first quarter of FY 2019. According to reports, a frequent reason for the RFEs was asking companies to prove that the offered job was in a specialty occupation. Other questions related to valid employer-employee relationships and specific assignments. Numerous lawsuits have been filed in federal court challenging recent H-1B denials. The USCIS statistics are here.
March Visa Bulletin
The March 2019 Visa Bulletin is at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2019/visa-bulletin-for-march-2019.html.
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