Yearly Archives: 2021

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it will temporarily suspend in-person services at all field offices, asylum offices, and application support centers on Jan. 19 and 20 to ensure the safety of our employees and individuals with appointments.

USCIS will reschedule individuals who had appointments on Jan. 19 and 20 and send them notices with their new appointment dates. The USCIS website and USCIS Contact Center will remain available for information, case status updates, and other online tools and resources.

In December, USCIS announced that 1.3 million biometrics appointment notices needed to be issued. The backlog is due partly to the shutdowns earlier in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please contact info@challalaw.com if you have any concerns about rescheduling your appointment.

COVID-19 Updates from the Department of State

In March 2020, the Department of State suspended routine visa services at consular posts worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since July 2020, U.S. Embassies and Consulates have begun a phased resumption of routine visa services. U.S. citizen services are the top priority, but routine services will occur on a post-by-post basis. The Department of State confirms that “U.S. Embassies and Consulates have continued to provide emergency and mission-critical visa services since March and will continue to do so as they are able. As post-specific conditions improve, our missions will begin providing additional services, culminating eventually in a complete resumption of routine visa services.”

However, DOS also notes that they “are unable to provide a specific date for when each mission will resume specific visa services, or when each mission will return to processing at pre-pandemic workload levels.  See each U.S. Embassy or Consulate’s website for information regarding operating status and which services it is currently offering.”

Due to the ongoing uncertainties, the DOS has allowed the following flexibility:

• Individuals may be able to renew their visas without an interview if they are reapplying for the same visa class that they previously held. Typically, interviews can be waived for individuals who are renewing unexpired visas or visas that expired less than one year ago. A recent Department of State announcement expanded that time frame to visas that have expired within a 24-month period, effective until March 31, 2020.
  • Challa Law Group resource: Interview Waiver Checklist: Are You Eligible for a Drop Box Appointment?
• The Machine Readable Visa (MRV) fee is typically valid within one year of the date of payment and may be used to schedule a visa appointment in the country where it was purchased. However, due to the ongoing pandemic, appointments have been extremely limited. The Department has extended the validity of all MRV fees until September 30, 2022. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.  Which additional visa services are embassies/consulates beginning to provide?

• All of our missions are continuing to provide emergency and mission-critical visa services.  As post-specific conditions permit, and after meeting demand for services to U.S. citizens, our missions will phase in processing some routine immigrant and nonimmigrant visa cases.  Posts that process immigrant visa applications will prioritize Immediate Relative family members of U.S. citizens including intercountry adoptions (consistent with Presidential Proclamation 10014) fiancé(e)s of U.S. citizens, and certain Special Immigrant Visa applications.  Posts processing non-immigrant visa applications will continue to prioritize travelers with urgent travel needs, foreign diplomats, and certain mission critical categories of travelers such as those coming to assist with the U.S. response to the pandemic, followed by students (F-1, M-1, and certain J-1) and temporary employment visas (consistent with Presidential Proclamation 10052).  We expect the volume and type of visa cases each post will process to depend on local circumstances.  An embassy or consulate will resume adjudicating all routine nonimmigrant and immigrant visa cases only when adequate resources are available, and it is safe to do so.

Q.  What criteria are missions using to determine when to resume routine services?

• We are closely monitoring local conditions in each country where we have a U.S. presence. Local conditions that may affect when we can begin providing various public services include medical infrastructure, COVID-19 cases, emergency response capabilities, and restrictions on leaving home.

Q.  What steps are being taken to protect customers from the spread of COVID-19?

• The health and safety of our workforce and customers will remain paramount.  Our embassies and consulates are implementing safeguards to keep staff and customers safe, including implementing physical distancing in our waiting rooms, scheduling fewer interviews at a time, frequent disinfection of high touch areas, and following local health and safety regulations.

Q.  Do the various Presidential Proclamations/travel restrictions still apply, or are those lifting with the resumption of visa services?

• The five geographical COVID-19 Proclamations (P.P. 9984, 9992, 9993, 9996, 10041) and the two COVID-19 Labor Market Proclamations suspending the entry of certain aliens (P.P. 10014 and 10052) remain in effect.

Q: Is my situation an emergency? I need to go the United States immediately for X.

• Applicants can find instructions on how to request an emergency visa appointment at the Embassy or Consulate’s website.

Q.  What about my application fee that expired while routine services were suspended? 

• The Machine Readable Visa (MRV) fee is valid within one year of the date of payment and may be used to schedule a visa appointment in the country where it was purchased.  However, the Department understands that as a result of the pandemic, many visa applicants have paid the visa application processing fee and are still waiting to schedule a visa appointment.  We are working diligently to restore all routine visa operations as quickly and safely as possible.  In the meantime, the Department extended the validity of MRV fees until September 30, 2022, to allow all applicants who were unable to schedule a visa appointment due to  the suspension of routine consular operations an opportunity to schedule and/or attend a visa appointment with the fee they already paid.

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Join us on Wednesdays for a live webinar at 12 PM ET on critical immigration updates

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USCIS has been experiencing severe delays in issuing receipt notices, typically created and mailed to the applicant, petitioner, or beneficiary within 30 days. The agency provided the below update on January 8, 2021.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, USCIS is experiencing delays in issuing receipt notices for some applications and petitions filed at a USCIS lockbox facility. The information below explains the current state of our lockbox operations and the issues affecting receipt notices.

Current Situation

As a result of COVID-19 restrictions, an increase in filings, current postal service volume and other external factors, you may experience a delay of four to six weeks in receiving your receipt notice after properly filing an application or petition with a USCIS lockbox. These delays will not affect the receipt date which is determined pursuant to 8 C.F.R. 103.2(a)(7). Delays may vary among form types and lockbox locations. In some cases, you may experience significant delays if you filed a non-family based Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, or Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, based on eligibility categories described in 8 C.F.R. 274a.12(c)(3), relating to F-1 students.

The health and safety of our workforce remains a top priority. Across all USCIS offices, including lockbox facilities, the agency has taken necessary measures such as increased social distancing and frequent cleaning in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control guidance to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Some lockbox operations in locations that have been severely impacted by COVID-19 must adhere to stricter local guidelines.

What USCIS Is Doing

The USCIS lockbox workforce¹ is working extra hours and redistributing its workload in order to minimize delays. Once we open and process your application, we print and mail the receipt notice. We do not anticipate any receipting delays that would result in a payment that is past its validity date.

What You Can Do

If you have already filed your application and are waiting for your receipt notice, we appreciate your patience. We are working as quickly as possible to complete the intake of all filings.

You can take steps to decrease the time it takes us to process and send your receipt notice or find out the status of your case:

• File online (if this option is available for your form type) and receive immediate confirmation that we have received your form instead of waiting for the mail;
• Create a free USCIS online account and check the status of your case from your mobile device, anywhere, anytime using our case status online tool; or
• Complete Form G-1145, E-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance, and clip it to the front of your form when filing at a USCIS lockbox to request a text message and/or email when we accept your form.

Finally, visit our Form Filing Tips webpage for more information on filing with USCIS and our online tools for help in managing your application.

¹The USCIS lockbox facilities located in Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; and Lewisville, Texas, are operated by a Department of Treasury designated financial agent, plus federal staff.

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Join us on Wednesdays for a live webinar at 12 PM ET on critical immigration updates

Don’t miss out on the immigration news! You can sign up for our mailing list or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or LinkedIn. You can also join our Telegram community.

January 5, 2021

E-Verify distributed notices stating:

E-Verify is currently experiencing technical difficulties and remains unavailable. The technical team is currently attempting to restore the system. We’ll keep you informed on the progress.

After several hours of inoperability, the below update was provided.

E-Verify is temporarily not available due to technical difficulties.  While E-Verify is unavailable, employers will not be able to:  

•  Access their E-Verify accounts 
• Create E-Verify cases 
• View or take action on any case 
• Add, delete or edit any user account 
• Reset passwords 
• Edit company information  
• Terminate accounts 
• Run reports or view any information about an account

New Temporary Policies 

We understand that E-Verify’s temporary unavailability may impact employer operations. We have implemented the following policies to minimize the burden on both employers and employees:  

• The “three-day rule” is suspended for E-Verify cases affected by the unavailability of E-Verify. We will provide additional guidance regarding this deadline once the E-Verify system is fully operational. This does not affect Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, requirements. Employers must still complete Form I-9 no later than the third business day after an employee starts work for pay, and comply with all other Form I-9 requirements. 
• The time period during which employees may resolve TNCs will be extended. The number of days E-Verify is not available will not count toward the days employees have to begin resolving their TNCs. We will provide additional guidance regarding these deadlines once E-Verify is fully operational. 
• For federal contractors covered by the E-Verify federal contractor rule, please contact your contracting officer, as necessary, to inquire about extending federal contractor deadlines. 
• Employers may not take any adverse action against an employee because the E-Verify case is in an interim case status, including while the employee’s case is in an extended interim case status due to the unavailability of E-Verify. 
• Employers should also refer to ICE guidance on COVID-19 and ICE news releases for the latest information on Form I-9, Employment Verification policies.
  

Join us on Wednesdays for a live webinar at 12 PM ET on critical immigration updates

Don’t miss out on the immigration news! You can sign up for our mailing list or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or LinkedIn. You can also join our Telegram community.