The USCIS National Benefits Center (NBC) released its most recent immigration forms processing time information. This post contains the average processing times as of June 30, 2016.
The USCIS’s Immigrant Investor Program Office released its new processing time report. The report shows the average processing time of three EB5 forms as of June 30, 2016.
On July 14, 2016, the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) released its updated case processing times report. The processing times are as of July 1, 2016. In this post, I will examine the newest AAO estimated case processing times chart.
On July 28, 2016, the DHS Office of Inspector General announced that it completed three rounds of its program of unannounced inspections of CBP and ICE detention facilities. The OIG will eventually incorporate the results of its inspections into a public report that it will issue in the fall of 2016.
For adjustment of status applications filed in September of 2016, USCIS determined that the application final action dates from the DOS Visa Bulletin must be used for all applications. An alien with an approved immigrant visa petition may file for adjustment of status if his or her filing date is before the final action cutoff date for September 2016.
The Department of State (DOS) released its new Visa Bulletin for September 2016. The Visa Bulletin includes final action dates and filing dates for family-sponsored and employment-based cases. The USCIS will determine whether applicants for adjustment of status in September must use the final action dates or the filing dates.
I recently came across a peculiar instance of illegal immigration that could quite literally have only happened in 2016. As reported by Reuters, two Canadian teenagers in Alberta were fixated on searching for Pokémon while playing Pokémon Go on their phones. They were in fact so fixated that when they were discovered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), they had crossed over the Canadian border into what the article describes as a “remote part of Montana.”
On August 8, 2016, the BIA invited interested parties to file amicus briefs regarding whether there is a duress exception to the persecutor of others bars to asylum (INA 208(b)(2)(A)(i)) and to withholding of removal (INA 241(b)(3)(B)(i)). The BIA will be accepting amicus briefs until September 7, 2016.
On July 28, 2016, the EOIR published a proposed rule (81 FR 49556) that sets to create standards for reopening immigration proceedings based on ineffective assistance of counsel claims. The EOIR will accept public comments on the proposal until September 26, 2016. The EOIR will take the comments into account in publishing a final rule.
In the Matter of Fatahi, 26 I&N Dec. 791 (BIA 2016), the Board of Immigration Appeals held that immigration judges should consider direct and circumstantial evidence of whether an alien presents a danger to community at large in determining whether to deny a request for release on bond in removal proceedings.
