Filing Location Change for USCIS Form I-130

Posted by USCitizen December 29th, 2011

Beginning January 1, 2012, Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative has to mailed to either the Chicago or Phoenix Lockbox facility depending on the place of residence of the applicant. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently made this announcement regarding stand-alone I-130 forms.

Information regarding the states and the corresponding Lockbox facility will be published on the USCIS website on January 1, 2012. Petitioners are advised to check which Lockbox facility has jurisdiction over their place of residence and send their Form I-130s to the appropriate address. Sending a petition to the wrong address will result in a delay in its processing.

Persons who are filing Form I-130 along with Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status need to continue sending their applications to the Chicago Lockbox facility. Persons filing the petition from outside the United States, from a country that does not have a USCIS office, have to continue sending their applications to the Lockbox facility in Chicago. Those who are filing the petition from a country that has a USCIS office have two options – they can either file it with the Chicago Lockbox facility or send it to the USCIS office having jurisdiction over their area of residence.

Until the end of 2011, petitioners can mail their applications to the Chicago facility from where they will be routed to the appropriate USCIS Service Center for processing. Form the beginning of 2012 the change in filing location will come into effect. Please make sure that the applications are sent to the correct address.

ELIS – The New Electronic Immigration System of the USCIS

Posted by USCitizen December 13th, 2011

Electronic Immigration System (ELIS) is the new system that the USCIS is planning to implement in order to convert their current paper-based system into an electronic one. ELIS has been developed and is in the testing stage. There has been a delay in coming up with this system. USCIS says that once it completes all the tests, it will inform the date of release. They intend to release a quality system which, according to them, “will allow customers to submit and track their applications online and enhance USCIS’ ability to process cases with greater accuracy, security and timeliness.”

USCIS is planning this as a staggered transformation with the first release being the Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status. They have posted an online video on their site demonstrating the creation of an online account and the process involved in submitting the I-539. Though this is in the testing stage, USCIS says there may be changes depending on the feedback they receive. This video is for demonstration purposes only.

Children Born In The United States

Posted by USCitizen December 9th, 2011

The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011, introduced on Jan 5 amends the INA to clarify a person born in the US “subject to the jurisdiction” of the US for citizenship at birth if the person is born in the US of parents, one of whom is:

1.a US citizen or national,
2.a lawful permanent resident (LPR) whose residence is in the US, or
3.a foreign national performing active service in the US Armed Forces.

Currently, the US recognizes any person born in the US as a US citizen, ignoring the constitutional requirement under the 14th Amendment that one must also be “subject to the jurisdiction” of the US.

According to estimates from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released in a March 2011 report on birthright citizenship, approximately 200,000 children were born in 2009, and granted US citizenship, to foreign national mothers legally admitted to the US on a temporary basis, despite the mother owing allegiance to a foreign country. They also estimate that between 300,000 and 400,000 children are born each year to illegal aliens.

The report also stated that in the context of overall population, 192,100 children born to non-immigrant foreign nationals in a single year may not seem too significant, but it must be added to the estimated number of children born to illegals (300,000-400,000) every year.

Recently, 34 people in Maine were recognized as being official citizens of the US. They were not required to go through the testing that most people who want to become US citizens have to go through. The reason being, all the 34-children derived their American citizenship through their parents who have already gone through the naturalization process. Citizenship was celebrated at a special ceremony inside the Children’s Museum and the kids were given their official documents. 33 of them were from Somalia and they left behind a brutal civil war in their homeland of Somalia and the remaining one was from China.

Diversity Visa Lottery – 2013

Posted by USCitizen November 24th, 2011

The registration period for the 2013 Diversity Visa Lottery (2013) program was between October 4, 2011, Tuesday noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and November 5, 2011, Saturday noon, EDT. Entrants in the DV lottery program may check their status starting May 1, 2012 on the E-DV website.

The last few days of the registration period saw a surge in the number of persons registering for DV-2013. However, this year the number of registrations has gone down considerably when compared to last year. There were only 8 million applicants this year, nearly half of last years count of 15 million registrations.

The drop in registrations has been attributed to the fact that this year Bangladesh was not an eligible country. A majority of registrations in the previous years has been from Bangladeshis. Only countries that are considered low-immigration countries are eligible to participate in the Diversity Lottery program.

The Diversity Visa Lottery program, run by the U.S. government issues 55,000 visas to registrants from countries that have low-immigration rates. Of these 55,000 visas, 5,000 visas have been allocated for use under NACARA since DV-1999. Winners are randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries and the winners are invited to apply for a green card to come and live and work permanently in the United States.

Participants are required to check on the E-DV website for the status of their applications. Checking the website is the only means to find out whether a person has won the lottery or not. Winners will not receive any sort of written or email communication regarding the results. They may receive an email reminding them to check their case status, but they will not receive any information regarding whether they have won the lottery or not. This is an effort to put an end to the many fraudulent activities conducted by various parties as a means of collecting money from unsuspecting participants. The Department of State regularly warns the public to be aware of such fraudulent emails and notifications.

The Diversity Visa program is one of the quickest ways to get a green card, which means that there will be more participants for the program. This program is a free program. All applications are submitted online. With Bangladesh out of the list of eligible countries, the number of participants has gone down by nearly half this year. The number is expected to drop further in the coming years as the Senate has proposed to charge an entrance fee for the lottery program.

Nigeria, Ghana and Ukraine have had the largest number of registrants this year. All registrants can begin checking their status beginning May 1, 2012.

Edition Update to USCIS Form I-131

Posted by USCitizen November 14th, 2011

The USCIS has updated Form I-131, Application for Travel Document. The Edition Date of this form has been updated to 11/05/11 but USCIS says that it will continue to accept prior editions.

Form I-131, Application for Travel Document is filed by applicants to apply to the USCIS for a Re-entry Permit, Refugee Travel Document or an Advance Parole Document. These documents allow permanent residents or conditional permanent residents, refugees or asylees to reenter the U.S. after a temporary stay abroad. The Advance Parole Document is used to temporarily parole a person into the United States.

USCIS I-864 and I-864A Affidavit of Support Forms Updated

Posted by USCitizen November 10th, 2011

Affidavit of Support Forms I-864 and I-864A

U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents who are sponsoring family based green cards for their close relatives to come to live and work in the U.S. permanently, need to take responsibility for their beneficiaries. They need to ensure that the beneficiaries do no become dependent of the government for any welfare; or they are need to accept responsibility to pay back any welfare the government might extend to the beneficiaries.

This responsibility is undertaken by means of a contract between the sponsor and the government. The sponsor has to file form I-864, Affidavit of Support Under Section 213 of the Act, to make the contract legally binding. By signing the contract, the sponsor accepts legal responsibility until the beneficiaries becomes a U.S. citizen, or until he or she can be credited with 40 quarters of work in the United States.

When the sponsor is not able to meet the minimum financial requirements to sign Form I864, he or she can get a member(s) or dependent(s) of his or her household to co-sponsor. To do this, each co-sponsor has to complete and sign a separate Form I-764A, Contract Between Sponsor and Household Member. This makes them responsible, along with the sponsor, for the intending immigrant.

I-864 and I-864A Affidavit of Support Forms Updated

Both Form I-864 and I-864A were recently updated by the USCIS. The current forms have Edition Date 09/19/11. USCIS accepts previous editions too. It is best, however, to use the latest version of the forms that the government provides.

USCIS Enhances Processing for Naturalization and Citizenship Forms

Posted by USCitizen November 2nd, 2011

USCIS, with the intention of streamlining the processing of naturalization and citizenship forms is making improvements to the filing system. Following a prior enhancement the form N-400, Application for Naturalization is already being filed at a Lockbox facility. To ensure “consistency in the intake process”, USCIS has announced that local offices will no longer accept certain N-forms.

As of October 30, 2011 Forms N-336, N-600 and N-600K forms will have to be filed at the Phoenix Lockbox facility. Form N-300 has to be filed at the Dallas Lockbox facility. The local offices that receive these forms will forward them to the appropriate address until December 02, 2011. After December 02, 2011, all such applications that are still filed at the local offices will be returned to the applicants.

USCIS is doing this for the benefit of the applicants and therefore expects persons seeking benefits using the four N-forms – N-300, N-336, N-600 and N-600k to follow this update that USCIS has posted on its website.

It is to be noted that persons who file the wrong form while seeking an USCIS benefit will forfeit their filing fees. Their applications will be rejected. They will have to re-apply using the correct form and pay the new fees again.

Applying for a Re Entry Permit

Posted by USCitizen October 28th, 2011

You have to file Form I-131 with the USCIS to apply for a re-entry permit, refugee travel document or advance parole travel document, to include parole into the US for humanitarian reasons.

Advance Parole is for person having a pending Form I-485, Application to Adjust Status to Lawful Permanent Resident (green card holder), and who intend to travel before the I-485 application is approved. A Refugee Travel Document is for applicants who hold Refugee or Asylee status and who want to travel abroad and a re-entry permit is for green card holders who will be outside of the US for an extended period of time, generally a year or more.

If you are filing Form I-131, Application for travel document based on your pending or approved Form I-821, you have to mail the form to the USCIS Dallas Lockbox facility. Do not forget to attach a copy of the I-797, Notice of Action that shows that your application was accepted or approved. If you are applying to get your advance parole document renewed, the USCIS will accept and adjudicate Form I-131 filed up to 120 days before the date your current Advance Parole document expires.

You are required to complete biometrics at an USCIS Application Support Center (ASC). If you are applying for a Refugee Travel Document when you are abroad, you have to get the biometrics done at an overseas USCIS facility. All applicants aged between 14 and 79 years applying for a Refugee Travel Document or Re-entry Permit have to be fingerprinted as part of USCIS biometric service requirements. After you file this form, USCIS will review it and will notify you in writing of the time/location of your biometrics appointment. If you do not attend for biometrics, it might lead to a possible rejection of your application. If you are applying for a Re-entry Permit and/or Refugee Travel Documents and aged between 14 and 79, you should pay an additional $85 fee for biometrics.

The submission fee for advance parole or re-entry permit is $360 and for a Refugee Travel Document for an applicant aged 16 or older is $135. For a child below the age of 16 years, the fee is $105. For applicants aged between 14 and 79, a biometric fee of $85 is required for a Reentry Permit and a Refugee Travel Document , unless the applicant resides outside of the US at the time of filing the form. But note that a biometric fee is not needed for advance parole applicants.

Bill to Remove Limits on EB Quotas

Posted by USCitizen October 24th, 2011

A bill proposing to eliminate the country-based quota system for EB visas, or employment based visas, and to adjust the limitations on the family based visas without increasing the total numbers, was introduced on Sep 22, 2011. This bill has been called the, “Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act” (H.R. 3012).

A lot would happen if this bill is passed. The country based EB backlogs will be done away with. The way that visa numbers are allotted will change. If there were no more per country limits, all the priority dates would be current.

Congressman Chaffetz, who introduced the HR 3012, said that, “The current percentage cap has created a backlog of qualified workers. American companies view all highly skilled immigrants as the same regardless of where they are from, and our immigration policy should do the same.”

US employers are allowed to hire foreign workers only when there aren’t any US workers eligible, willing or available to take up the job. Employers also need to assure the DOL and USCIS that they will not affect the wages or working conditions of US workers by hiring foreign nationals. This bill, if passed, will allow US employers to hire foreign nationals on a first come first served basis and benefit from the best skill sets available to them.

The bill also aims at increasing the visa limits for countries in the family based immigration category from 7% to 15%.

It is to be noted that this is a bill yet, and has not yet been passed into law. Only if the Congress passes this bill will it become a law, bringing the immigration dreams of many so much more closer to fulfillment.