Asylum and Its Discontents in the United States
In an unexpected–but perhaps not surprising–move, the Asylum Division has canceled its Quarterly Engagement Meeting, which had been scheduled for November 14, 2019. This is the meeting where headquarters staff from the Asylum Division give updates and answer questions from stakeholders, such as non-profit organizations and lawyers like me. Over the years, I’ve attended a … Read more
Earlier this month, United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) issued a news release touting its accomplishments for FY 2019, which ended on September 30, 2019 (a belated Happy FY 2020 to all!). According to the agency, “FY 2019 has been a historic year for USCIS and we have achieved many of President Trump’s goals … Read more
Last week, I attended a meeting about InfoPass for the Asylum Offices. InfoPass is an online system that allows you to make an in-person appointment about your immigration case. It has been in use by USCIS for about 15 years, and now the Asylum Offices are debuting their own version of the scheduling tool. The … Read more
Last week, I wrote about my suggestions for a new Asylum Office website. In that post, I gave short shrift to a new development: For affirmative asylum applicants, it is now possible to check your asylum case online at the USCIS website. This development is actually pretty significant, and will be particularly helpful for those … Read more
Lee Francis Cissna, the Director of USCIS, is building an “invisible wall” to compliment his boss’s “big beautiful wall” along the U.S./Mexico border. The “invisible wall” consists of bureaucratic barriers to prevent people from obtaining immigration benefits in the United States. Ostensibly, the plan is to make America more secure and to protect our country’s workforce. From … Read more
In the past few weeks, we’ve had two former asylum clients return to our office for help after USCIS denied their applications for citizenship. The applications were denied due to mistakes the former clients made on their I-485 forms (the application for a green card). These cases illustrate the danger of incorrectly completing the I-485 … Read more
There’s a new State Department rule in town about misrepresentation, and it could signal trouble for certain asylum seekers and others who enter the country on non-immigrant visas and then seek to remain here permanently or engage in other behavior inconsistent with their visas. To understand the problem, we first need to talk a bit … Read more
According to a new report released by USCIS, asylum applicants are “highly satisfied” with the service they receive at the nation’s various Asylum Offices. Asylum seekers who appeared for interviews at the different Asylum Offices answered the written survey. A total of 933 responses were collected from September 2011 through March 2012. Surveys were collected … Read more