USA Green Card Immigration Blog

It has been announced by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that it has determined to certify U visa applications in favor of victims of certain crimes. Previously, only the traditional law enforcement offices were authorized to certify U visas for immigrant victims. Thus this transition can be termed as a major change.

The foreign nationals who are victims of certain crimes are encouraged to volunteer themselves and coordinate with the law enforcement forces through U visa. Individuals who are beneficiaries of the U visa are allowed to stay in the Unites States for up to four years. Further, the visa allows the individual to bring some of their family members into the U.S. and also grants automatic work authorization along with possibilities of obtaining the green card.

The immigrant victim is obliged to file USCIS Form I-918 along with the U visa application. A foreign national is eligible to apply for the U visa only if a law enforcement agency approves that the individual has been a victim of a crime and is cooperative while investigating or prosecuting those suspected of committing the crime. The applicant should be victim of physical or mental abuse in any of the criminal activities, including rape, sexual assault, female genital mutilation, witness tampering, blackmail, kidnapping, murder, slave trade, perjury, and other associated crimes.

Prior to applying for U visas, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Form I-918 Supplement B should be filled by a law enforcement agency with all the documents about the victim. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has authorized the U.S. DOL as one of the law enforcement agencies.

Foreign nationals who have been traded to work illegally in the United States or ill-treated by the employers will be given U visa protection by the DOL. If the employer threatens an employee of the consequences that he/she would face after cooperating with a government investigation, it would be recognized as witness tampering thus qualifying the individual for U visa certification.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Seoul Field Office commemorated the “Military Appreciation Month” with a naturalization oath ceremony of 81 members of the Yongsan U.S. Army Garrison military community.

Of the 81 members included in this USCIS naturalization ceremony, 57 members belonged to the U.S. armed forces, 22 were spouses, and two were children of members of military located across South Korea.

Kenneth Sherman, USCIS Seoul Field Office Director, after directing the Oath of Allegiance in the citizenship ceremony, stated that though the month of May is dedicated as a mark of respect to the military, it is has always been a priority of USCIS to extend their support to the Military officers and their families every day. He also added that their commitment to defend the United States of America prior to naturalization has only served as an inspiration to ensure that the military community receives quality immigration services in any place they are stationed.

Maj. Gen. Lawrence L. Wells, Deputy Chief of Staff for the United Nations Command and U.S. Forces Korea, said that he felt proud to see the American service men and women administer the Oath of Allegiance during their naturalization oath ceremony while they already serve the U.S armed forces. The army personnel who were naturalized belonged to 30 different countries. More than 59,300 service personnel have been naturalized since September 2001 where 889 became citizens in ceremonies held in South Korea.

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 has facilitated persons serving in the military to become citizens of United States even while they are in service at a foreign nation. Prior to this, the military service members were to be present in the United States for the naturalization ceremony to take place.

It has been announced by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stating the revisions in the Employment Authorization Document (EAD), or Form I-766. The revision has made in order to add a machine-readable zone on the back of the EAD cards.

In general, an Employment Authorization Document, also known as the U.S. work permit visa is issued to an immigrant by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The permit lets the holder to legally work in the United States. Immigrants who are in the U.S. temporarily can request for an EAD by filing the Form I-766.

The validity of the EAD cards depends on the foreign national’s immigration situation. An immigrant possessing a valid EAD card is allowed to work anywhere in the United States provided they employer does not have citizenship requirements. The employer also does not have to file a non-immigrant worker petition if the employee possesses an EAD card.

The EAD cards are issued under two categories, namely renewal EAD’s and Replacement EAD’s, by the USCIS. An individual can apply for renewal of the EAD card only 120 days before the current EAD expires. The EAD card can be replaced when lost, stolen, or damaged. EAD cards with incorrect information or misspelled name will also be replaced by the USCIS.

The USCIS has revised the EAD cards as an initiative to dissuade immigration fraud. The USCIS has begun issuing the revised EAD cards since May 11, 2010. The machine-readable zone complies with International Civil Aviation Organization standards. The two-dimensional bar code that existed on the backside of the previous version card has been removed. Further, the informational box of text has been shifted just below the magnetic stripe on the card. All the security features of the previous version have been retained in the revised EAD cards.

The USCIS has collaborated with the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement and the Customs and Border Protection to revise the EAD cards.

Governor of Texas, Rick Perry issued a statement expressing concern over certain provisions in the Arizona immigration law. According to him, the tough immigration law would not be the right one for Texas. However, he chose to reserve his comment, when questioned if he would veto a similar legislation.

The Arizona law, that authorizes the local and state officers to question any person about their immigration status whom they suspect unlawful, has sparked uproar nationwide questioning its constitutionality. The law also states that if the immigrants do not possess the necessary documents to prove their status it would be registered as a crime of illegal immigration under the Arizona state law. It means that they were liable to serve a jail term of up to six months along with a fine.

Taking all this into account, Perry stated that some features of the Arizona immigration law would allow law enforcement officers to act as immigration officials. He felt that the act could divert the enforcement officers from their existing law enforcement duties necessary to keep the citizens safe, especially in a situation that requires questioning an unauthorized immigrant. Such events could only pose a serious threat to the society.

According to him, guarding the national borders should be a top priority. In his endeavor to keep the border secure, he had even requested for 1,000 National Guard troops to support civilian law enforcement efforts.

The Arizona law has reopened the debate over the US immigration reform. Supporters of the law feel that only such tough laws can assure the safety and security of U.S. citizens, especially when the federal government’s inability to guard the U.S’s border with the Mexico is taken into account. Whereas, critics believe that this law is biased and would only pose people with brown skin as suspects.

The form filing location for naturalization of qualifying family of deceased service members has been centralized by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS.) The applications are now being accepted by the USCIS at the Nebraska Service Center (NSC.)

A foreign citizen is granted the U.S. citizenship by the process of naturalization, if the foreign citizen complies with all the requirements put forth by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA.) For naturalization, applicants are required to file USCIS Form N-400. Naturalization requires a foreign citizen to be a continuous resident in the United States for a period, to be able to read, write, and speak English, have good moral character, and adhere to the principles of the U.S. constitution.

To process the eligible applications for naturalization for the members of the U.S. armed forces and their families received at NSC, a specialized team has been constituted. Regardless of the geographic location, the spouse, child, or parent of deceased serviceman who was a citizen of the Unites States and was serving actively in the U.S. armed forces at the time of death, may file USCIS Form N-400 for their naturalization at the Nebraska Service Center under section 319(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA.)

The service members, their spouses, and children who are requesting for naturalization are required to submit their USCIS Form N-400 applications to the NSC. While rest of the applicants filing Form N-400 should do so at the facility allocated on the basis of their residence.

To make known the change of form filing location, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has revised the instructions for Form N-400. The new filing location has been brought into effect soon after the form instructions were updated. Filing the application for naturalization at the incorrect location may lead to delayed processing of the application. The incorrectly filed applications will then be sent to the NSC by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The K-1 visa petition can be filed by U.S. citizens who wish to marry their foreign national fiancé (male) or fiancée (female) in the U.S. To apply for the U.S. Fiancée Visa both the partners should either be unmarried or their previous marriages should have been legally settled through a divorce, annulment, or death of their prior partner.

The individual applying for the K-1 visa is required have to met with person intended to marry within the previous two years. Although, if there is any long followed custom or tradition that would violated and pose a hardship in your meeting, this requirement can be exempted. It is also mandatory that the marriage should take place within 90 days of your fiancé / fiancée entering the United States. The US Fiancée Visa also has provisions to accommodate your fiancé/ fiancée children in the United States who are below 21 years and are unmarried.

Application of fiancé visa / fiancée visa (K-1 visa) is not mandatory for legal permanent residents. They can very well apply for immigration even after the wedding.

The U.S. marriage visa can be obtained at the U.S. Embassy or consulate abroad, once the petition is approved. Until the arrival in the United States, the fiancé / fiancée are required to remain unmarried.

In occasions when any of these rules are violated, the fiancé / fiancée will be notified to leave the United States. They will be treated as a nonimmigrant until the marriage takes place. An extension to the 90 day original nonimmigrant U.S. marriage visa is also not entertained.

There are several ways to check the status of K-1 visa. One can check it online, by phone, or by contacting the suitable USCIS office. In case, the petition is denied, it can be reapplied within 33 days of receiving the denial mail.

On May 20, 2010, the Department of State has made a temporary announcement that the processing fees for the non-immigrant visa application will be increased. The increase in the processing fees, which is also referred to as the Machine-Readable Visa (MRV) fee, and Border Crossing Card (BBC) fees, will take effect from June 4.

The US non-immigrant visa fee has been increased by the Department of State in order to completely cover the cost of processing non-immigrant visas, which is on the rise. The processing fees for issuing both nonimmigrant visas that are placed in passports and border crossing cards that are provided to applicants in Mexico have been increased.

Certain categories of non-immigrant visas are more complicated than others, thus requiring higher unit costs for their processing. The new fee structure was framed to make up for this rising processing cost. The processing cost of non-immigrant visas should be recovered by the Department of State through the fund derived from the application fees. The US non-immigrant visa fee, which was fixed previously as $131 does not cover the present cost of non-immigrant visas processing.

All the visas that are not petition-based, including B1/B2 visitor visas and all student visas will be charged a processing fee of $140, as per the newly framed fee structure. Rest of the applicants who are applying for petition-based visas, including H visa, L visa, O visa, P visa, Q visa, and R visa will be charged a processing fee of $150. Applicants for K visas are obliged to pay an application processing fee of $350, while E visa applicants will be charged 390$.

Along with the interim final rule, the Department will simultaneously publish the additional cost of service data. The public comment period will be re-opened for an additional period of 60 days. The Department will take the public comments into consideration once the 60-days period comes to an end and announce the final rule on the US non-immigrant visa fee.

The U.S. Citizenship and immigration Services (USCIS) has recently made a proclamation that the Permanent Resident Card which is usually referred to as a “Green Card” has been redesigned. The change has incorporated many new security features.

USCIS has joined hands with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Screening Coordination Office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Forensic Document Laboratory and worked on the Green Card redesign.

The Green Card redesign has been putforth by the USCIS to dissuade fraudulent practices in immigration. To prevent forgery, obstruct tampering and to accelerate the authentication, the new card incorporates the state-of-the-art technology. The USCIS has begun issuing new Green Cards starting May 11, 2010.

According to the USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas, the new Green Card would contribute in maintaining the integrity of the immigration services. Since the new Green Card is added with new and improved features, it will serve the employers, law enforcement forces, and the immigrants better than before.

One of the Green Card redesign benefits is that the biometrics of the immigrants will be stored by social optical media enabling faster and authentic identification. To make the card difficult to be replicated, new technologies, including holographic images, high resolution micro images, and laser scanned fingerprints have been used.

Further the card has been integrated tighter to make altering the card difficult if stolen. With Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) capability, the card can be read from a distance by the Customs and Border Protection officers and be verified if it matches with the file date. In case, the card is lost, a preprinted return address will facilitate its easy return.

To enable easy recognition, the Permanent Resident Card has been colored green. Upon filing application for renewal or replacement, the U.S. Citizenship and immigration Services will replace the Green Cards of individuals already in circulation.