On November 5, Acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler swore in 23 new immigration judges during a ceremony at the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR) headquarters. Hiring for the judges began back in December 2009 but not before the applicants went through screening on criteria such as: ability to…
On October 28, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) commenced their first quarterly public engagement in Spanish. The series are part of an effort to communicate with the many different people USCIS services and each event will focus on a specific topic related to immigration or citizenship. In addition, live…
Brooke E. Reyna, a State Department employee, pleaded guilty on November 5 to giving false statements to officials in connection with an investigation that she was allegedly illegally accessing passport application files. Reyna was an employee at the National Passport Center in Portsmouth, NH where she had access to the…
The recent improvement in the country’s economy has created an increase in blue collar jobs and the demand for immigrant workers. Casa de Maryland, which has five job centers around the state, was able to place19, 000 immigrants in jobs during June of 2010 compared to 16,000 job placements during…
MVP “Q & A Forum” – This Friday, December 3rd, 2010 We wanted to find a new way to engage our reader base. Every other Friday, we will post the ten (10) best/most frequently asked questions received during the week from our h1bvisalawyerblog, Facebook, and Twitter readers. We will answer…
The announcement on November 10 of E-Verify’s systems expansion was made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas. New capabilities of the system include US passport photo matching as well as automatic checks of US passports for…
According to Tyler Cowen, a writer for The New York Times and economics professor at George Mason University, immigration to the US is increasing business activity and therefore creating an increase in jobs. He cites “Immigration, Offshoring and American Jobs” which explains that keeping companies onshore also helps keep low-wage…
On October 27, the DHS Office of Immigration Statistics released a compiled Fact Sheet which compares the naturalization rates of IRCA(Immigration Reform and Control Act) legalized immigrants up until 2009 with the rates of other immigrants who arrived during the same period or obtained in a LPR(legal permanent resident) status.…
Effective October 13, the US District Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned a ruling that allowed special immigrant religious workers to file their Form I-485 alongside the organizations’ Form I-360. United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) will no longer accept Forms I-485, I-131, I-765 that are filed…
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the launch of its newly designed website, ICE.gov, on October 26. Features of the new website include up to date news from ICE as well as an improved image gallery. Information about ICE Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) and ICE Office of Enforcement…