USCIS Announces Open Application Period for Citizenship and Integration Grant Program 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
USCIS Automating Pre-Processing of Immigration Cases 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
USCIS is Reverting to the 2008 Version of the Civics Test 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
The Biden administration has introduced several new pieces of federal immigration legislation over the past few months. On February 18, 2021 the U.S Citizenship Act of 2021 was proposed with the goal of allowing most undocumented immigrants to become citizens. As of right now undocumented immigrants make up about 3.4 percent of the current U.S.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that they are extending the flexibilities announced last year in March 2020. They decided to allow these courtesies to give applicants a sufficient amount of time to respond to notices in regards to their petitions. This flexibility allows applicants an additional sixty calendar
Effective Jan.6, 2021, USCIS replaced the previously issued sticker that extends the validity of the Form I-155 Permanent Resident Card. They are replacing it with a revised Form I-797, Notice of Action for Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card. The revised I-797 receipt notice paired together with the applicant’s permanent resident card, will
The DACA program also known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is a United States immigration policy that was created during the Obama administration. It allows a numerous amount of individuals with unlawful presence in the United States after being brought to the country as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred
Pets have been proven to bring comfort to homes during stressful times, and the current pandemic is no exception as the sale of pets has gone up significantly this year. 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
Another presidential election has come and gone, and with a new president-elect there are new policies being brought to the table. One pledge that president-elect Joe Biden has made is to make the United States “more welcoming towards immigrants who plan to build a life in the U.S.” His ideas and plans will ultimately break
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that they plan to implement a revised version of the naturalization civics exam. Revisions on the exam started back in 2018 because the USCIS wanted to ensure the exam was continuously used in a useful manor that would assess the applicants’ knowledge of American history, government rules, and
The one thing on people’s minds is how to get back to normal after bouncing back from a global pandemic. After people’s lives have been on hold for the past nine months, we are all finding our new norm. Those looking to file a divorce had no option but to put those plans on hold
In the past two months, there has been chatter of filing fee increases in the USCIS. The new rule would increase some of the filing fees by double the original amount and in some cases by 80%. This had many immigrants worried about how they would pay for their petitions. These new fees were to
