Earlier this month it has been announced that USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) has started two new funding programs. These programs are opportunities for organization to receive grants of up to $10 million to aid is citizenship preparation programs nationwide. Applications are now open for this extremely competitive grant that will be dispersed to organizations to aid the preparation of lawful permanent residents for naturalization. These organization also promote civic integration through increased knowledge of English, U.S. history, and civics.

Through these grant opportunities, USCIS is looking to expand the availability and the quality of citizenship preparation services that are provided to green card holders. By providing these opportunities they hope that it will promote and aid their integration into American society. Increased learning opportunities and additional citizenship instruction resources in communities will help immigrants improve their English language skills, increase their knowledge of U.S. history and government, and gain the tools to become successful citizens and meet their responsibilities as U.S. citizens. Recipients of these grants are to be announced in September of 2021.

According to USCIS the two programs that are under the citizenship and integration Grant program are:

• Citizenship Instruction and Naturalization Application Services: This opportunity will fund public or nonprofit organizations that offer both citizenship instruction and naturalization application services to lawful permanent residents. USCIS expects to award 33 organizations up to $250,000 each for two years through this opportunity. Applications are due by July 16, 2021.
• Refugee and Asylee Integration Services Program: This grant opportunity will provide extended integration services with a focus on individualized programming to former refugees and asylees to attain the skills and knowledge required for successful citizenship. It will also provide other services that foster a sense of belonging and attachment to the United States. The program has expanded eligibility to include lawful permanent residents who were admitted or entered the United States as Cuban or Haitian entrants or individuals admitted on a Special Immigrant Visa. USCIS expects to award six public or nonprofit organizations with experience in serving refugees up to $300,000 each for a period of two years through this opportunity. Applicants must design an integration support program that provides a suite of services to program beneficiaries to promote long-term civic integration and citizenship. Applications are due by July 16, 2021.

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According to Chief technology officer, Rob Brown United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is focusing their efforts on automating functions that will aid in pre-processing immigration cases. This new function will help line up the stories of applicants and make it easier to spot fraudulent information. The system will sort through the biographic information provided in order to identify applicants and make a connection regarding their relationships and employers.

New tools will dissect supporting evidence related to an immigration case. In theory, making it easier for adjudicators to make decisions on who can receive benefits such as a green card and employment authorization. This new automated system also benefits the applicants as the processing time of their case will be cut down significantly. The work of organizing and vetting the information is done before the application hits the desk of the adjudicator on the case. Character recognition will be used to validate documents and classify necessary evidence. By doing this the USCIS workers can simply decide which documents they want to view rather than sorting through entire case files.

Switching to this form of identity validation also presents a number of cons, the number one con being cyber-attacks. Therefore, before making this a permanent switch the USCIS needs to seek help to ensure any sort of cyber-attack on the system is impossible. This will take some time to perfect as they have to conduct proper experimentation on their security systems.

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After some major changes being done to the U.S. naturalization civics test, USCIS has announced on March 1st,2021 to revert to the 2008 version. The changes to the test came on December 1st,2020 when USCIS decided to include more questions on the exam that covered a variety of new topics. After much deliberation, the U.S. Citizenship and immigration services have concluded that this new version may cause potential barriers to the naturalization process. This revised test was viewed by many as a far more difficult test and may result in failure for many test-takers.

The original 2008 version of the civics test took multiple years to develop and finalize. USCIS received the input of more than 150 organizations before completing it. Some of these organizations include English as second language experts, educators, and historians. The 2008 civics test consists of 100 questions for which the applicants prepare, while the revised test consists of 128 questions. Applicants taking the 2008 test are assigned 10 questions and must answer 6 of them correctly to pass. In the December 2020 revision of the test, applicants would be required to answer 12 questions out of 20 correctly. Many were concerned that the revised test would discourage people from seeking citizenship due to failure of failing.

Applicants who filed their application for naturalization on or after December. 1st, 2020, and before March 1st, 2021, will have the option to take either the 2020 civics test or the 2008 civics test. There will be a transition period where both tests are being offered. The 2020 test will no longer be used starting April 19th, 2021. Applicants filing on or after March 1st, 2021, will continue to take the 2008 civics test.

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A few other pieces of legislation that are being brought to the House and Senate in 2021 are the American Dream and Promise Act as well as the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. Having these bills passed would essentially provide protection from deportation for undocumented immigrants, as it is meant to secure a path to citizenship. Some groups that would qualify under these acts include DACA recipients who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children. In addition, immigrants  who are eligible for temporary protected status would fall in these parameters. Lastly, these bills would also include agricultural and essential workers.

The Biden Administration aims to create a more flexible legal immigration system by working with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of labor. Although the bill aims to increase the number of employment visas distributed, as unemployment rates continue to rise it is more difficult to find employers that are open to sponsor immigrants. Employers are more inclined to sponsor foreign workers who have previously been employed by their company on a temporary visa as it can be an expensive process for both parties.

Although many new proposed plans are being brought to the table there is a current policy that will stay in place. All immigrants must hold a permanent resident card for a certain period of time prior to submitting a naturalization petition. The only aspect changing is she different paths for immigrants to apply through.

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What documents qualify for the extended response time?

     Applicants who received any of the below-mentioned documents dated between March 1st, 2020 and January 31st, 2020 have the opportunity to take the additional 60 days to respond to the notice:

• Request for Evidence.
• Continuations to Request Evidence (N-14)
• Notices of Intent to Deny
• Notices of Intent to Revoke
• Notices of Intent to Rescind and Notices of Intent to Terminate regional investment centers
• Filing date requirement for Form N-336, Request for a Hearing on Decision on Naturalization Proceedings
• Filing date requirements for Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal, or Motion

UCSIC allows this flexibility because they acknowledge that the coronavirus pandemic has made it difficult for applicants to complete forms or retrieve necessary documents and evidence on time. For this reason, they have decided to provide the additional time to submit and requested documents to USCIS.

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The revised I-797 receipt notice paired together with the applicant’s permanent resident card, will essentially serve as temporary evidence of lawful permanent resident status. This status will be valid for 12 months from the expiration date of the permanent resident card (green card).

This change was implemented so that current legal permanent residents who have a pending application to replace an expiring Green card may have documentation for employment authorization as well as authorization to return to the United States after temporary foreign travel. However, applicants that have already been scheduled for their biometrics appointments will not receive a revised notice. Instead, they will receive an extension sticker at the biometrics exam.

Once applicants file form I-90 to replace their expiring or expired green card they will receive a receipt notice approximately 7-10 days after USCIS processes their application. The Notice will be printed on secure paper and will serve as evidence of identity. This should be carried with you alongside your expired Green card to prove the validity of your permanent resident status. You can use this pairing as your employment authorization when applying for jobs as well as authorization to return to the U.S. from a foreign trip.

At Law Offices of Inna Vernikov PLLC, we handle immigration matters including green card and citizenship petitions. Call us at today at (212) 729-3497 or learn more about how the Law Offices of Inna Vernikov can help you.

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The order came from Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York who stated that the administration must alert the public that they will begin accepting DACA applications again. As per the judge’s order, the notice must read that they are accepting first-time applicants for the consideration of deferred action under DACA, renewal requests, and advance parole requests, based on the original requirements of the program made before September 5th, 2017. The notice must also state that employment authorization documents will be valid for two years as opposed to the original one-year approval.

It is more than likely that the Trump administration with appeal the ruling, while Trump is still in office. His efforts into blocking this new order may be overturned once President-elect Joe Biden takes office this January, as Biden has pledged to restore the DACA program once his administration takes office.

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A growing number of New York judges are beginning to recognize the intense bond people have with their pets. Parties to divorce proceedings are increasingly being allowed to argue their cases for pet custody in open court.

Up until recently, pets were treated as property by the courts in divorce matters. It was quite straightforward: whichever party could show proof of purchase would get ownership of the pet. More often than not, courts would ignore certain factors like who walked, showered, and cared for the pet.

With new changes being made, the law now requires that the New York Court uses a “best for all” standard when determining custody of pets. Now more than before, pets are being seen as members of the family.  Pets being treated as objects in a divorce does not sit well with owners. In addition to considering which party would best care for the dog, the emotional impact on the dog owner should also be taken into account. There have been other states that have already adopted and implemented the pet standards that reflect child custody laws.

In New York, there are many factors for a judge to consider prior to deciding custody. Some of these factors include but are not limited to:

• Which party spends the most time with the pet on daily basis;
• Which living situation is best for the pet;
• Are there children involved in the case;
• Which is the party responsible for taking care of the pet’s needs.

Due to the fact that pets are not handled the same as a child custody case, the judge cannot grant visitation. Whether or not the party can see the pet will be up to the party that was awarded custody.

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In his first 100 days in office, some of Biden Administration’s pledges include:

• End prolonged detention and reinvest in a case management program
• Rescind the travel and refugee bans
• Ensure that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel abide by professional standards
• Expand opportunities for people who served in the military service
• Reverse the public charge rule

After being sworn into office in January, his administration plans to restore many immigration policies of the Obama administration. He is looking into implementing a 100-day freeze on deportations while his administration puts out new guidelines on who can be arrested and deported by ICE agents.

Biden will strive to focus on protecting undocumented immigrants once in office. He believes that he can remove roadblocks to naturalization for green card holders. The Biden administration is focusing heavily on immigration reform especially as the Vice-President Elect comes from a family of immigrants herself. Due to this he has pushed the immigration issue back into the national spotlight.

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The revised version of the exam includes more questions and covers a variety of new topics that will allow the applicant more opportunities to learn about the United States during their preparation. Although the exam is changed the passing score on the exam will not. The passing score will continue to remain at 60%, applicants must answer a minimum of 12 questions correctly out of 20. Furthermore, applicants that are of 65 years of age or older and have held a position of a lawful permanent resident for 20 years or more are only required to get 6 questions correct out of 10.

The new exam will include a total of 128 possible questions compared to the 100 questions in the current exam. This increase in questions may make it harder for applicants to pass because they now need to learn and memorize more information. Also, the interview officers are now required to ask all 20 questions rather than stopping once the applicant answers enough questions correctly to pass.

When will the new exam start being implemented? 

If an applicant has applied for citizenship before December 1st, they will still be tested with the old exam. Any applicants that submitted their N-400 form after December 1st will take the updated version of the exam.

Don’t forget – you can access the USCIS’ Citizenship Resource Center if you want more help and free study material.

Do you need legal assistance with any areas of immigration? See how the Law Offices of Inna Vernikov can help – visit our immigration services page for more information.

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