February 14, 2021
Alejandro Mayorkas has become the first Latino and immigrant to lead the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) The DHS is one of the largest government departments and administers the majority of immigration rules and regulations through agencies such as United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), United States Immigration & Customs Enforcement […]
January 22, 2021
Although originally touted as a 90-day restriction on immigration, the Trump travel ban has kept apart thousands of immigrant families from 13 countries for nearly four long years. Now that the Biden administration has reversed much of this ban, the State Department will develop plans to reconsider thousands of visa denials that were issued under […]
December 19, 2020
Badmus & Associates joins with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) in opposition to the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act of 2020 H.R. 1044, as amended by S. 386. Don’t get us wrong. We absolutely support removing the per-country limitations for employment-based immigrants because individuals should become permanent residents based on the skills they […]
October 22, 2020
With the 2020 Presidential Election coming up, Badmus & Associates posts this brief guide to compare the two candidates’ positions on immigration issues of concern such as USCIS accountability, the legalization of unauthorized immigrants, and legal immigration. USCIS accountability is extremely important because since President Trump took office, overall average case time processing time has […]
October 01, 2020
The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021, and Other Extensions Act gives the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) access to premium processing funds to pay for operational expenses. The Act authorizes premium processing services to employment-based nonimmigrant petitions and associated applications for dependents, such as Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker (Form I-140), Application to Extend/Change […]
July 29, 2020
USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) was originally planning to furlough 13,000 of its workers if no Congressional action was taken before August 3, but has now pushed the start of the furlough to August 31. Although USCIS had financial troubles prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, starting in March USCIS saw a 50% decrease in […]
June 23, 2020
The most recent executive order which attempts to reduce immigration to the U.S. was issued late this afternoon, June 22, 2020. With some exemptions, it suspends the “entry into the United States of any alien seeking entry pursuant to” an H-1B, H-2B, and L-1 visa. J-1 visas for interns, trainees, teachers, camp counselors , au pairs, or summer […]
June 18, 2020
On Thursday, June 18 the Supreme Court ruled in DHS v. Regents of the University of California against ending DACA (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program). About 700,000 people have status under DACA, a program that was brought about in 2012 under the former Obama administration. The program allows some undocumented immigrants, namely those […]
June 17, 2020
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has experienced a 91% increase in its average processing time of immigration cases from FY 2014 to 2018, which has led to increases in its case backlog. In response to the substantial increase in case backlog, a bipartisan bill named the Case Backlog and Accountability Act of […]
April 27, 2020
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its agency the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on April 3, 2020. AILA listed the necessity for action by USCIS due to restrictions such as the need for social distancing and mandatory stay-at-home orders put […]