The Insightful Immigration Blog

Commentaries on Immigration Policy, Cases, and Trends

Subscribe
Visit Blog
By: Cyrus D. Mehta & Partners PLLC

Blog Authors

David Isaacson
Cyrus Mehta
Cora-Ann Pestaina

Latest from The Insightful Immigration Blog

By Cyrus D. Mehta On May 5, 2021, the majority opinion in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Sanchez v. Attorney General followed two other circuit courts in holding that an Immigration Judge (IJ) has the authority to administratively close cases. If there is a case that is deserving for an IJ to administratively close a case, this is it. Former Attorney General Sessions, under President Trump, issued Matter of Castro Tum holding…
By Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box* In previous blogs we have discussed the Trump administration’s numerous COVID travel bans that were extended by President Biden, and provided suggestions for overcoming them. On Friday, April 30, 2021, a new COVID-related travel ban was implemented, this time by the Biden Administration. President Biden issued a Presidential Proclamation suspending the entry into the United States of nonimmigrants who have been physically present in India in the past…
By Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box* COVID-related restrictions have caused difficulties for many noncitizens traveling abroad during the pandemic, but lawful permanent residents (LPRs) who traveled overseas in recent months face a unique set of issues. Many LPRs who traveled overseas in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic quickly became trapped there for the foreseeable future, either by travel restrictions that prohibited them from reentering the United States or because they or a…
By Cyrus Mehta and Isabel Rajabzadeh* Although H-4 and L-2 extensions continue to be delayed since our  last blog  “Coping with Delays Facing H-4 and L-2 Spouses”,  we highlight another issue,  which adds further hardship for H-4 and L-2 spouses faced with unjust processing delays. In October 2020, the EB-3 Dates for Filing in the Visa Bulletin advanced significantly, which allowed many born in India to file Form I-485, Adjustment of Status (AOS)…
By Cyrus D. Mehta & Isabel Rajabzadeh*  In March 2019, the Trump administration implemented a new biometrics requirement for some employment-based and nonimmigrant dependents. H-4 and L-2 dependents must complete biometrics each time an extension of status is filed on Form I-539. This superfluous mandate, paired with the already backlogged queue due to Covid-19 processing delays, has resulted in dependent extensions being processed months behind their principal applicants. Since most of the people impacted by…
By Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box* On March 30, 2021, USCIS announced that it had received sufficient H-1B registrations during the initial period to reach the Fiscal Year 2022 cap, including Master’s Cap registrations. All prospective petitioners whose registrations were selected should now have been notified. These petitioners may file H-1B petitions for the selected beneficiaries beginning on April 1, 2021.  At this time, many petitioners are seeing that less than 1/3 of their…
“Lex non cogit ad impossibilia.” In English, as translated by the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, that means: “The law does not compel the doing of impossibilities.” In 1948, citing this principle, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) held that a nonimmigrant seaman could not be deported for having failed to leave the United States timely when, at the time he was supposed to leave, he was in jail pending trial for…
By Cyrus D. Mehta One of the unresolved conundrums in our immigration law is the inability of children of lawful permanent residents to be protected under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) when their parents naturalize to US citizenship. The CSPA was enacted to ensure that a child remained under the age of 21 in order to obtain permanent residency with the parent or to stay in a more advantageous family visa category. Sure enough,…
By: Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box* On March 3, 2021, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Charles Grassley submitted a letter to new DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urging the DHS to implement the Trump administration’s H-1B lottery final rule entitled “Modification of Registration Requirement for Petitioners Seeking to File Cap-Subject H-1B Petitions”, which was published in the Federal Register on January 8, 2021. The final rule would replace the current H-1B lottery system with…
By Cyrus D. Mehta & Kaitlyn Box* Although the Trump era has ended, some of its draconian immigration policies continue to linger, including the COVID travel bans. On January 25, 2021, President Biden issued Presidential Proclamation 10143, entitled “Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Non-Immigrants of Certain Additional Persons Who Pose a Risk of Transmitting Coronavirus Disease”, which effectively extends many of the Trump administration’s COVID bans. Proclamation 10143 suspends the…