On May 29, 2020, USCIS announced that the temporary suspension on premium processing requests for eligible Form I-140 employment-based immigrant petitions—such as EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 petitions, and eligible Form I-129 nonimmigrant worker petitions—such as H-1B, O-1, TN, L-1, and E-3 petitions, will be lifted in phases during June 2020.

Back on March 20, 2020, USCIS had temporarily suspended new premium processing requests for eligible Form I-140 and Form I-129 petitions. As a result of the suspension, Form I-140 and Form I-129 petitions (normally eligible for premium processing) could only be filed with regular processing from the date of suspension. Regular processing entails a much lengthier processing time of several months, as opposed to the 15-day processing time that premium processing provides.

Based on the May 29, 2020 announcement, USCIS will resume accepting premium processing requests (Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service) for eligible petitions in the following phases in June 2020:

Phase 1 (June 1, 2020): Resumption of Premium Processing for Eligible Form I-140 Petitions

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for eligible Form I-140 petitions on/after this date.

Phase 2 (June 8, 2020): Resumption of Premium Processing for Certain Pending I-129 Petitions

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for pending cap-exempt Form I-129 H-1B petitions filed prior to June 8, 2020.

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for all other eligible, Form I-129 non-H-1B petitions (such as O-1, TN, L-1, E-1, and E-2) filed prior to June 8, 2020.

Phase 3 (June 15, 2020): Resumption of Premium Processing for Certain New/Recent Cap-Exempt H-1B Petitions

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for certain, cap-exempt H-1B petitions not filed prior to June 8, 2020, which includes premium processing requests for cap-exempt H-1B petitions due to cap-exempt employer; beneficiary is cap-exempt due to qualifying cap-exempt institution, entity or organization; or the beneficiary is cap-exempt under INA section 214(l) based on a Conrad/IGA waiver.

Phase 4 (June 22, 2020): Resumption of Premium Processing for Cap-subject H-1B Petitions and All Other Form I-129 Petitions

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for H-1B cap-subject petitions (includes cap-subject H-1B petitions that were selected in the registration lottery in March 2020).

• USCIS will accept premium processing requests for all other Form I-129 petitions that are eligible for premium processing.

For any pending or new Form I-140 or Form I-129 petition, the above filing date restrictions must be considered for any premium processing request as USCIS will reject a premium processing request that is not timely made within the above constraints.

Graham Adair will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates here as they become available. If you have any questions, please contact your Graham Adair representative.

USCIS plans to reopen certain offices and resume non-emergency services on Thursday, June 4, 2020. The agency temporarily closed offices and suspended in-person services on March 18^th to slow the spread of COVID-19.

New safety measures will be implemented once offices reopen, including requiring visitors to wear facial coverings when entering buildings, providing hand sanitizer at entry points, and limiting early visitor arrival to no more than 15 minutes before a scheduled appointment. The agency asks that applicants not attend scheduled interviews if they are ill, but rather reschedule appointments per the instructions on the appointment notice. Applicants will not be penalized for rescheduling an appointment due to illness.

USCIS specified the following plans:

USCIS will send notices to applicants with previously scheduled appointments and interviews, and will automatically reschedule necessary Application Support Center appointments that were canceled by issuing a new appointment letter in the mail. This includes biometrics appointments and interviews for Adjustment of Status.

The agency will reschedule postponed naturalization ceremonies. Naturalization ceremonies will be shortened to limit exposure and visitors permitted to attend ceremonies will be limited.

Asylum interviews that were canceled due to temporary office closure will be rescheduled and will be video-facilitated to maintain social distancing.

If you have any questions about the status of your canceled interview or appointment, please contact your Graham Adair representative.

CDC extends and amends order temporarily suspending travel of certain foreign nationals from Canada and Mexico.

On May 20, 2020, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) extended the temporary suspension of certain foreign nationals traveling to the United States through Canada and Mexico.

The CDC Director first ordered the temporary suspension for 30 days in March and extended the order for another 30 days in April to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The orders have not applied to US Citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family members, military personnel and their immediate family members, foreign nationals who hold valid travel documents and arrive at a port of entry, or foreign nationals who arrive at a port of entry from countries in the visa waiver program who are not otherwise subject to travel restrictions. The May 20^th extension expands the order’s reach to apply to land and coastal ports of entry and border patrol stations.

The order is extended for another 30 days until the CDC Director determines that the suspension is no longer needed to protect the nation’s public health.

On March 20th, DHS deferred the physical examination requirement of work authorization documents for Form I-9.  This allowed employers to inspect Section 2 documents via video link, fax, or email, as long as specific notation is entered in the “Additional Information” field on Section 2.  You can find our news alert on the initial guidance here.

This flexibility was scheduled to end on May 19th. However, due to continued precautions related to COVID-19, DHS extended this flexibility for another 30 days or until June 18th.

If you have any questions on how to complete the Form I-9 during these times, please contact your Graham Adair representative.

Today, President Trump signed an executive order that will temporarily halt the issuance of immigrant visas to individuals outside the United States. The order goes into effect at 11:59 p.m. on April 23, 2020 and will be in effect for 60 days.

Immigrant visas are permanent residence visas issued to individuals who are outside of the United States when they apply for permanent residence.  The order is very limited in its scope and only appears to halt the consular processing of immigrant visas.  It does not appear to limit the approval of adjustment of status applications for individuals who are currently in the U.S. and in the green card process.  The order only applies to those who are outside the U.S. and do not currently have a valid immigrant visa or other valid travel document.

There are several exceptions to the suspension of issuance of immigrant visas including:

• any lawful permanent resident of the United States;

• anyone seeking to enter the United States on an immigrant visa as a physician, nurse, or other healthcare professional; to perform medical research or other research intended to combat the spread of COVID-19; or to perform work essential to combating, recovering from, or otherwise alleviating the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, as determined by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or their respective designees; and any spouse and unmarried children under 21 years old or any such person who are accompanying or following to join the person;

• any person applying for a visa to enter the United States pursuant to the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program;

• any person who is the spouse of a U.S. citizen;

• any person who is under 21 years old and is the child of a United States citizen, or who is a prospective adoptee seeking to enter the United States pursuant to the IR-4 or IH-4 visa classifications;

• any person whose entry would further important U.S. law enforcement objectives, as determined by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or their respective designees, based on a recommendation of the Attorney General or his designee;

• any member of the United States Armed Forces and any spouse and children of a member of the United States Armed Forces;

• any person seeking to enter the United States pursuant to a Special Immigrant Visa in the SI or SQ classification, subject to such conditions as the Secretary of State may impose, and any spouse and children of any such individual; or

• any person whose entry would be in the national interest, as determined by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or their respective designees.

The order directs the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to advise the President on whether this order should be extended no later than 50 days from now.  Further, they are directed to make other recommendations that the President can take on immigration to help protect U.S. workers.

For the time being, this order will largely not impact the clients of Graham Adair.  If you are going through the consular process for your immigrant visa, this will likely mean a delay in the issuance of the visa.  You should check in with your attorney at Graham Adair for further specifics on your situation.

On Tuesday, President Trump announced some details about what will be in an executive order related to U.S. immigration in light of the coronavirus pandemic. While the text of the executive order has yet to be made public, the President indicated that he would “pause” the issuance of green cards for a period of 60 days. This 60-day suspension could be extended depending on conditions at the end of the initial 60-day period.

The action is being described as an attempt to protect U.S. workers from new immigrants taking a diminishing number of open jobs. What is not yet clear is whether this will apply to both consular processing and adjustment of status applications. There also is not any clarity on whether there will be exceptions to the policy. Until we know for certain whether this will apply to would-be immigrants both in as well as outside the U.S., it is difficult to gauge the impact to our clients.

President Trump also indicated that there would be further review into other areas of immigration to determine whether additional restrictions should be implemented. Graham Adair will continue to monitor this situation and assess the impact on our clients. Please check back often for updates. When this policy is made public, we will provide more in-depth analysis.

President Trump tweeted late Monday that he will sign an executive order temporarily suspending immigration to the United States. His announcement cited the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the millions who have become unemployed in recent weeks.  There are significant questions that are yet to be answered around this announcement: exactly when and how this will be implemented, who it will cover, and how long it will be in effect.  It does seem to indicate that the President plans to extend immigration restrictions beyond those already in place to travelers coming from most of Europe, China, Canada, Mexico and Iran.

Graham Adair will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates here as they become available. If you have any questions, please contact your Graham Adair representative.

On April 1, 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had received approximately 275,000 submissions for H-1B applications in the electronic lottery that was conducted at the end of March.  They reported that 46% of applications were for individuals who hold advanced U.S. degrees. This was an increase of approximately 74,000 cases over the number that was received last year in the H-1B cap.

In total numbers, this means that beneficiaries had less than a 31% chance of selection. Cases filed under the advanced U.S. degree cap had a higher chance, although we don’t know the total number of these applicants so we cannot say for sure what the likelihood of success was. We estimate that the chances of selection for cases filed under the advanced U.S. degree cap was somewhere between 40% and 50%.

It seems that the lower cost threshold of $10 per registration lowered the barrier to entry enough to result in a surge of submissions.

Registrations that have not been selected will be held in reserve. Between March 31, 2020 and Oct. 1, 2020, in the event that USCIS needs to select registrations from the reserve to meet the H-1B regular cap and the advanced U.S. degree cap, it may select from registrations held in the reserve to meet such allocations.

Graham Adair will be checking unselected cases regularly until USCIS sends out rejection notices. If you have any questions, please contact your Graham Adair representative.