Immigration News & Updates
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eNewsletter POSTING DATE: January 22, 2018
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Immigration
Questions & Answers
This Week's Immigration News
Question: I am married to my American husband and we filed for my immigration papers recently. We don’t have a scan machine, so we took pictures of our marriage certificate, past divorce certificates, tax returns, etc from our cell phones, printed them out and sent them in to the immigration with our application. We could clearly see all the documents. That is why we were really surprised last week when we got a letter from immigration requesting that we send legible copies of all supporting documents. We don’t know which documents they are referring to that are illegible. We did an infopass appointment and the officer said to resend everything again. Is that true?
Answer: Easy answer, yes! Make a very clear copy on a copy machine of every single document you originally included in your application and send back to the USCIS along with a copy of the Request For Evidence on the top. Immigrants should NEVER send a copy of documents taken as an image on a cell phone, since they do not qualify under USCIS requirements. Make a copy of the entire package for yourself for your records and send to the USCIS using U.S. Priority or Express Mail as soon as possible, but no later than 10 days before the deadline, just to be safe. Good luck!
Helpful Immigration Tips You Can Use
Department of Homeland Security Announces
Termination of TPS for El Salvador
The Trump Administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement and recent large scale cancellation of TPS status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants has resulted in a significant uptick in refuge asylum applications filed at the border between the U.S. and Canada. Immigrants who have been living in the U.S. for so many years with TPS status are fearful of returning to their home countries and no longer feel safe inside the U.S..
As a result, Canadian border officials at some crossings are now welcoming upwards of 250 asylum applicants from the U.S. per day and are said to be building additional temporary housing facilities near border posts to handle the influx.
Canada Scrambles To Accommodate Asylum Seekers At U.S. Canadian Border
The National Visa Center (NVC) handles processing of cases for relatives outside the U.S., in order to prepare the case for the U.S. Consulate in your family member’s home country. Once the I-130 family petition is approved by the USCIS, the NVC will generally send a letter to the sponsor letting them know that the case has been transferred by the USCIS to the NVC. If the family member is in a “preference category”, for all relatives who are not the Spouse, Parent or minor child of a U.S. Citizen), the letter will also say that there are no visas presently available for the foreign family member and that he or she should not make any plans to immigrate to the U.S. until a visa becomes available (which can be many years down the road).
On January 8, 2018, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for nationals of El Salvador will be terminated as of September 9, 2019.
This comes as the Trump Administration, recently terminated TPS for nationals of many other countries, including Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nicaragua. El Salvador TPS will end on September 9, 2019, Haitian TPS on July 22, 2019, Nicaraguan TPS on January 5, 2019 and Honduran TPS on July 5, 2018.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently launched a new webpage for nationals of Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries, which allows travelers to check the status of their stay in the U.S. by showing the number of days remaining on their 90 day stay. The site includes an option for VWP visitors to have the CBP send them a reminder email 10 days prior to the expiration of their 90 day stay. Visit the new webpage
Government Launches New Features To Assist Visa Waiver Travelers
USCIS Advice On Paying Naturalization Application Fee With A Credit Card
The USCIS allows Residents to pay the Naturalization Application Filing Fee with a credit card, customers can use Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and gift cards with the Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover logos to pay the fee. However, payment for the entire $725 application fee must be paid with one card and cannot be paid using multiple cards. Make sure and check your credit card balance before filing your application to make sure that you have enough credit or funds in the account, since the USCIS will reject any Naturalization applications paid using a credit card, if the payment is declined. Finally, be sure to fully complete Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transaction, sign and place on top of your Naturalization application package.
After the sudden cancellation of TPS for these countries, recent legislative bills have been introduced in congress to provide a permanent status (Green Card) to these immigrants. The “Extending Status Protection for Eligible Refugees” (ESPERER) Act (H.R. 4184), would allow qualified TPS holders from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua and their family members to obtain green cards. Other bills, the “American Promise” Act (H.R. 4253) and SECURE Act (S. 2144), would allow all TPS holders from countries designated for TPS as of January 1, 2017 to obtain green cards.
Refugees at the border who file asylum applications are treated very humanely, given free temporary housing, health insurance, schooling for children (including college) and other benefits while they wait for their cases to be processed.
Find out more about applying for Canadian asylum:
Question: I got my residency through marriage and recently got naturalized to be a U.S. citizen. My 16 yr old daughter, who is not wed and lives in Jamaica had a baby last year, my first grandchild. I want to know if I can sponsor my daughter for a green card as a minor or does she not qualify because she has a child? If I can sponsor her, can my grandchild immigrate along with her as well at the same time?
Answer: Sorry to tell you this, but unfortunately, “no”, your grandchild will not be able to immigrate to the U.S. along with your minor daughter. This is due to a very heartless provision in immigration law which does not allow certain family members to bring their dependents (called “derivatives”) to the U.S. with them when they immigrate. Under this law which applies to “Immediate Relatives”, (spouses, minor children and parents) of U.S. Citizens, only the individual “immediate relative” can immigrate and no dependent family members can come along. However once the “immediate relative” has immigrated to the U.S., they can then in turn sponsor their spouse and or children. Children are considered to be “minor” until they reach age 21 or get married.
In this case, your daughter remains a minor until age 21 since she is single. You can sponsor her and it will take about 8-12 months for her to immigrate to the U.S. under current processing times. Once she enters the U.S. and obtains her Green Card within a month or so, she can sponsor her child (your grandchild). The process for a minor child of a U.S. Resident take approximately 1 ½ to 2 years. During that time, your daughter would need to maintain residency here and can come and back and forth between the U.S. and Jamaica during that time for limited periods so as not to lose residency status.
The other option is to wait until your daughter reaches age 21, then file for her in the F1 immigration category for single adult children of U.S. Citizen and their children. This will include your grandchild. However, the waiting time in this immigration category is about 7 years. Let me know if you would like us to represent you in your daughter’s residency case.
Often, family circumstances and addresses change and the NVC needs to be notified in order for them to have the sponsor and family members current updated contact information. Further, when U.S. Resident s become U.S. Citizens, that speeds up the process for their family member, but the NVC may not be aware of the change unless they receive a copy of the new Citizen’s Naturalization Certificate. To contact the NVC, call: (603) 334-0700. Be sure to give them the case number on the correspondence provided to you by the NVC or mail documentation or correspondence to them at: National Visa Center, Attn: DR, 31 Rochester Ave. Suite 100, Portsmouth, NH 03801-2914. Make sure that all correspondence includes a letter containing the NVC case number, your name/ birth date and the same for your relative.
Immigration How To:
How Do I How Do I Contact the National Visa Center?
USCIS Offices Remain Open During Shutdown –
So Attend Your Scheduled Interview!
The USCIS has announced that local offices will remain open during the shutdown. This means that all applicants should attend interviews and appointments as scheduled.
You can get an update on USCIS office closings:
Amid a government shutdown which began last week on Saturday morning at 12 am, Trump and Republican leaders are placing the blame squarely on Dreamers and on Democrats for trying to protect them. While millions of young lives hang in the balance as the countdown to DACA termination draws near, their plight has become the focus of the Republican’s ire for the shutdown.
In reality, Trump is the culprit responsible for the sad state of affairs in Washington, driven by his need to please his small, but very vocal staunchly anti-immigrant base of voters, with pressure from his rightwing extremist advisor, Steve Miller and his own anti-immigrant Chief of Staff Kelly, once thought to be the moderating influence on him.
Dreamers Blamed For Government Shutdown
Now it’s clear that the right wing hawks in the Whitehouse are in control, not seeking a reasonable compromise on DACA and immigration, but instead demanding an extreme reduction in legal immigration and dismantling of our current immigration system in exchange for protecting the Dreamers. Senate Republicans and Democrats may have reached a deal to temporarily reopen the government until February 8th, to give them time to negotiate a DACA deal and other matters, however at this moment, there is no assurance that the House leadership will agree. Stay tuned...
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