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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has changed their organization insignia (Symbol). The new insignia is now a circle with the main feature in the center being the Statue of Liberty! I have included their mission statement below and a link for more details. To see the new USCIS insignia, open their homepage and look in the top left corner! 

 
USCIS Mission Statement: 

USCIS upholds America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility with fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve. 

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There will be up to 55,000 Diversity Visas (DVs) available for Fiscal Year 2026 and will be open for entries from October 2nd to November 5th, 2024 (noon, EST), so it already started! This program allows people from countries with low U.S. immigration rates and that meet the requirements, to enter for a chance to apply for a U.S. immigrant visa. For more details, please review the Federal Register Notice: Diversity Visa Instructions for DV–2026 (PDF).

Federal Register Notice: Diversity Visa Instructions for DV-2026

 
Source of Information:

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Univision is a Spanish-language television network owned by TelevisaUnivision and they will be holding two separate Presidential townhall meetings to be broadcast in English and Spanish for the United States! Their townhalls will try to engage undecided Hispanic voters to discuss issues that are important to them, such as the economy, jobs, healthcare, immigration and foreign policy. Univision Journalist Enrique Acevedo will moderate both televised meetings! 

  • Former President Donald Trump’s townhall will be in Miami, Florida and will be aired Tuesday, October 8th at 10:00 p.m. ET on Univision and ViX! 
  • Vice President Kamala Harris’s townhall will be in Las Vegas, Nevada and will be aired Thursday, October10th at 10:00 p.m. ET on Univision and ViX! 

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This is a very interesting Factsheet, Eligible to Naturalize Factsheet: Tennessee , published by USCIS using Office of Homeland Security Statistics data from August 26, 2024! This well put together Factsheet provides information on selected characteristics of people with Lawful Permanent Residence (LPR) status in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO area. There are 75,550 (Green Card holders) in this area of the country that are eligible to be naturalized U.S. citizen after meeting the requirements! 

For more information, please review the USCIS Factsheet, “Eligible to Naturalize Factsheet: Tennessee“! 

Source of Information: 

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MVP Law Group, P.A. makes available the information and materials in this forum for informational purposes only. The information is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice or any contractual obligations. Further, the use of this site, and the sending or receipt of this information, does not create an attorney-client relationship between us. Therefore, your communication with us through this forum will not be considered as privileged or confidential.

  1. What is the purpose of this Parole in Place if there is already an established path to a Green Card for undocumented Spouses of U.S. Citizens? There is a path, but that path is inherently risky and lengthy. Spouses of U.S. citizens are considered ‘immediate relatives’ of U.S. citizens and as such are generally eligible for an immigrant visa to obtain a green card/become a lawful permanent resident. Spouses of U.S. citizens who did not enter the country with permission (meaning they did not have a lawful admission, they were not inspected, admitted or paroled) they entered without inspection (EWI) and as a result have a much more difficult path to take to obtain a green card/become a lawful permanent resident. Because they have not been ‘inspected and admitted’ or ‘inspected and paroled’ they cannot apply to adjust status from within the United States. They are required to depart the country and attend an immigrant visa interview at a Consulate or Embassy abroad. However, once they leave to go to the Consulate, they often trigger either the 3 or the 10-year bar on legally re-entering and would be prevented from returning to the U.S. for up to 10 years for those who were unlawfully present in the U.S. for more than 1 year. Spouses of U.S. citizens who fall into this category may apply for a waiver called a Form I-601A Wavier, Application for Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver that will forgive the ‘unlawful presence’ if approved. They must be able to establish through a totality of the circumstances that their U.S. citizen spouse would suffer ‘extreme hardship’ if the two were separated for a long time. Spouses apply for this provisional waiver BEFORE leaving the United States because approval of the wavier is not guaranteed and leaving without it is entirely too risky. Moreover, the USCIS is currently taking over 41 months to adjudicate these I-601A waivers. If the I-601A Waiver is approved, the Spouse of the U.S. Citizen would then need to make arrangements abroad to appear at the Consulate or Embassy for their immigrant visa interview, and if successful, would return to the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident/green card holder. 

In other words, Spouses of U.S. citizens that entered the U.S. unlawfully and remained here are not eligible to apply for adjustment of status because they have not been ‘inspected and admitted’ or ‘inspected and paroled’. They would need to make plans to depart the U.S. and appear at a Consulate abroad for the Immigrant Visa interview. Leaving the U.S. without an approved I-601A provisional waiver would subject the Spouse of the U.S. citizen to a 3- or 10-year bar from returning to the United States.

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UPDATE: Explore American Immigration Council’ interactive map to get more comprehensive information on U.S. immigration data and its impact!

The American Immigration Council (AIC) has released all fifty states and the District of Columbia, for a total of fifty-one updated state-by-state fact sheets highlighting immigration data and facts. These fact sheets highlight the demographic and economic impact of Immigrants in each state.

With national immigration policy being discussed, we thought that it would be a good time to provide some statistics on the Immigrant population in the United States as provided by this AIC research. Once a week we will be posting a blog with information on three states at a time. This week we will highlight; Louisiana, Maine and Maryland!

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On Thursday, September 19, 2024, USCIS announced that it has reached the H-2B cap for the first half of fiscal year 2025. September 18, 2024 is now the “final receipt date” for cap-subject H-2B worker requesting employment start dates before April 1, 2025. The “final receipt date” is the date on which USCIS determined that it has received enough cap-subject petitions to reach the limit of H-2B workers for the first half FY2025. USCIS continues to accept petitions that are exempt from the congressionally mandated H-2B cap.

The exceptions are listed below:

• Current H-2B workers in the U.S. petitioning to extend their stay and, if applicable, change the terms of their employment or change their employers;

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The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be holding a national webinar on Tuesday, September 24, from 2 to 3 p.m. (Eastern). This webinar will provide an overview of Temporary Protected Status (TPS),explaining the extension and redesignation for Haiti, including eligibility requirements and filing tips. USCIS will respond to questions submitted in advance or via chat function during the webinar. They will not answer case-specific questions.

For more subject details, please review the DHS News Release, “Secretary Mayorkas Announces Extension and Redesignation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status“.

To Register for this webinar:

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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 those questions and provide the Q&A on our H-1B Visa Lawyer Blog.

If you have a burning question, are seeking assistance with a difficult immigration related case, wish to discuss your views on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, DREAMers, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, priority dates, the monthly visa bulletin, adjustment applications, etc., please contact us by submitting your question/comment/viewpoint in our comment box provided on our H-1B Visa Lawyer Blog.

Our next “Q & A Forum” will take place this Friday, September 27, 2024. Act now and submit your questions!

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