The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on June 26, 2013. DOMA, which prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, stood in the way of providing marriage-based immigration benefits to legally-married gay and lesbian couples....
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a large volume of notices retracting many previously-issued requests for evidence (RFEs) on pending applications for adjustment of status (I-485) cases. These notices instruct derivative / dependent spouses and children to ignore the RFEs that were...
The USCIS Texas Service Center (TSC) has issued a large volume of Notices of Action, retracting certain erroneous requests for evidence (RFEs) on pending applications for adjustment of status (form I-485). These notices are intended to remedy the USCIS's admitted error in issuance of a...
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to release its decision on the constitutionality of the federal government's Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This highly anticipated decision may be released on Wednesday, June 26th, based upon the Court's schedule changes and related news reports....
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has recently issued a large volume of identical requests for evidence (RFEs) on pending applications to adjust status (form I-485) cases. The RFEs appear to be an effort to check key issues in long-pending employment-based I-485s. RFEs on EB3s...
The USCIS has started to issue a high volume of requests for evidence (RFEs) on pending applications to adjust status (form I-485) cases. The RFEs received to date bear a notice date of June 13, 2013 and originate from the Texas Service Center. These RFEs...
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) July 2013 Visa Bulletin includes some potentially wonderful news for individuals in the family-based, second preference "A" (FB2A) category. This category is for spouses and children of U.S. permanent residents. The FB2A category is usually quite backlogged, requiring years...
Numerous reliable news sources have issued reports predicting that the much-anticipated Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill will be introduced on April 16, 2013. A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill is scheduled for Friday, April 19, 2013, after being postponed to allow the committee...
As of March 4, 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) implemented a new procedure for requesting a provisional waiver of the three- and ten-year unlawful presence inadmissibility bars. The new procedure is available only to the spouses, child/ren or parents U.S. citizens. As...
The U.S. government budget cuts, known as sequestration, have dominated news reports in recent weeks. The cuts began on March 1, 2013, and many questions remain as to the impact on government operations and services. This summary of the available information from the U.S. Department...
