U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the filing period for certain Liberian nationals and family members to apply for adjustment of status under the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness provision has been extended until December 20, 2021.
The provision provides an opportunity for certain Liberian nationals and family members to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the United States.
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In this look around the globe, find the latest immigration news regarding Brazil’s re-introduction of visa requirements, Canada’s announcement of new post-graduation work permit measures and the UK’s upcoming electronic travel authorization scheme. But first, we start with this month’s WReview and WR Updates. WReview: Working as a Tourist? Challenges and Risks of Short-Term Assignments and Business Travel With the complexities and time involved in obtaining a work visa many clients ask us why their employees can’t simply travel for work on a tourist visa or visa waiver basis. While this may seem like an easy and expedient option, it is unfortunately fraught with risks for both the traveler and the company involved. Depending on the rules of the country the employee is traveling to, even short-term business travel to perform activities such as giving training, conducting an audit, or installing or troubleshooting a system or product, may require a work visa. If the employee is detected traveling without the appropriate work visa, the best-case scenario is that they will simply be denied entry, detained briefly at the airport, and sent back to their home country on the next available flight. Note that even in such a scenario, they may […]
By Joey Barnett The EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (“RIA”) created new EB-5 reserved visa set-aside categories which allow certain visa bearing nonimmigrants lawfully in the U.S. to concurrently file an adjustment of status application on Form I-485 with the Form I-526E, Immigrant Petition by Regional Center Investor. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) has also heeded Congress’ directive to prioritize the processing and adjudication of EB-5 petitions for investment projects located in rural area, and USCIS has approved several Forms I-526E in as quick as 3-4 months! Some adjudications on Forms I-526E for investments in a “High Unemployment Area” are taking “only” 12-14 months. This “last-in-first out” LIFO approach to processing post-RIA cases is frustrating to investors who filed petitions in 2019 (or in some cases 2018) before the Regional Center program lapsed in June 2021. WR Immigration has filed hundreds of Forms I-526E and have already received dozens of approvals. Here are next steps for the immigrant investor and his/her family. 1. Form I-526E Approval Notice. The Form I-797C, Notice of Action indicates that the Form I-526E has been approved for one or more visa classifications and lists two visa categories – both reserved and […]
