Asylum Changes May Come With Immigration Reform

Immigration reform may affect not only people in this country without documents and skilled technical workers, but also people seeking to escape persecution in their home countries. Congress is considering several changes to the law of asylum.

Right now, people who want to apply for asylum status must submit their applications within one year of entering the United States, or else their applications may be denied. This deadline for applications causes trouble for many asylum seekers. The current version of the Senate bill, which was recently approved in committee, would end that deadline. It could also give a second chance to people whose applications have been denied because they did not file their applications on time.

Another provision would take away a grant of asylum from anyone who returns to their home country without a good reason for doing so. Because the Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev visited Dagestan after receiving asylum in the United States, authorities are worried about visits to conflict-prone areas. However, this could cause lots of trouble for people who return to their home countries, even at great risk to themselves, to visit family or dying relatives.

The Senate bill may also increase asylum officers' power to resolve disputes, and impose stricter checks and security measures on people seeking asylum.

To read more, click here. If you are considering applying for asylum, contact Glickman Turley for information on how we may be able to help.

Border Security is the Compromise for a Path to Citizenship

The Senate has come to a compromise on bill language, the New York Times reported today. In exchange for a path to citizenship for many immigrants currently in the US, the senators want to strengthen border security, at huge expense to taxpayers. The estimated $3.5 billion plan includes a mandatory worker verification system, an electronic visa system at all entry and exit ports to the US, and surveillance capabilities along the entire length of the U.S. border.

While the plan does offer undocumented immigrants an opportunity to apply for green cards, this plan would also make them wait ten years before they could begin to apply. Even worse, the availability of applications may depend on whether the border security programs are operational.

The senators seem to agree with the idea that undocumented immigrants should be given a way to become American citizens. However, this plan seems to thwart that goal. How will people manage to work when there is a mandatory verification system? Will they be able to visit their families during the 10-year waiting period, or will they be blocked by the electronic visa system? This bill is in its early stages, and there is no guarantee that the final result will have any of these provisions.

How to Read a USCIS Processing Time Report

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) publishes a monthly report on processing times at its service centers.  The Service Centers may vary according to which type of application you are submitting.  In New England, a variety of applications are processed at the Vermont Service Center, which released a new Time Report on April 3 with processing dates as of 2/28/13. 

So, how do you read a Time Report?  There are four columns:  “Form,” “Title of Form,” “Classification or Basis for Filing,” and “Processing Timeframe.”  Make sure you have the right form number and classification.  The processing dates represent the receipt dates of petitions and applications currently being processed by the Service Center.  If a certain type of application is being completed within USCIS target timeframes, the timeframe of days, weeks, or months will be shown.  If a USCIS service center doesn't meet the target timeframe, a date will be shown (January 1, 2009) to indicate what cases they are currently processing. 

For example, USCIS set a goal to complete an I-765 Employment Authorizations for Asylum Seekers within 3 weeks, and the service center is meeting this goal, so the processing report shows “3 weeks.”  Notice that the processing times may vary greatly for the same form, but a different classification.  For example, the processing time for an I-765 for someone who has a pending adjustment of status application (I-485) is three months.

For an example where USCIS is not meeting its processing goal, look at the processing time for an I-130 Petition for a U.S. citizen filing for a spouse, parent, or child under 21.  In the column for “Processing Timeframe,” the date listed is “August 6, 2012,” which means that USCIS is processing applications received on August 6, 2012.