Family Immigration Newsletter

FAMILY IMMIGRATION NEWSLETTER

June 2018

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The Government Ends Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Hondurans

On May 4, 2018, the Government announced its decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Honduras. TPS for Honduras had been in place since 1998. This decision affects about 57,000 Hondurans in the country with TPS. Many of these individuals have legally resided in the United States for nearly two decades and have U.S. citizen children.

The effective date of termination has been delayed for 18 months, TPS for Honduras will end January 5, 2020. Honduras citizens with current TPS status will be required to re-register for TPS and apply for Employment Authorization documents in order to legally work in the United States until the termination of TPS becomes effective on January 5, 2020. Submissions for re-registration should not be sent until the re-registration period is announced on the Federal Register notice. Honduran citizens in the United States who benefited from TPS may still receive other protections if eligible.

We encourage individuals with TPS to consult with an immigration attorney with experience in immigration matters to review the options available to you to become a lawful permanent resident.

To review your options, please contact the experienced immigration attorneys at Monty & Ramirez LLP at 713-289-4546 or via email at info@montyramirezlaw.com .

Lawsuits filed Challenging Termination of TPS for El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras

The Government has terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for six countries since September 2017: Honduras, Nepal, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan. In all, over 250,000 individuals who have had lawful status to live and work in the United States pursuant to TPS will lose that authorization before the end of next year, placing them at risk of deportation.

Several lawsuits have been filed challenging the termination of designation of El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras for TPS. We will continue to provide updates as they become available.

For more information regarding TPS updates, please contact the experienced immigration attorneys at Monty & Ramirez LLP at 713-289-4546 or via email at info@montyramirezlaw.com .

Federal Judge Rules that the U.S. must Keep DACA and Accept New Applications

On Tuesday April 24, 2018, a Federal Judge for the District of Columbia, ruled that the administration’s decision to terminate the program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as “DACA”, was based on “virtually unexplained” grounds.

According to this ruling, DACA must stay in place and the government must resume accepting renewals and new applications. However, the judge’s decision is on hold for 90 days meaning the Government has the opportunity to better explain its reasoning for canceling it. If the Government fails to do so, it must then accept and process renewals as well as new DACA applications.

This is the third ruling of its kind in recent months against the Trump administration’s rollback on DACA. Federal judges in Brooklyn and in San Francisco each issued injunctions ordering that the program remain in place. But neither of those decisions required the government to accept new applications as this one does.

For now, NO new DACA application can be submitted, only renewals. We will send additional updates as the information becomes available.

For more information regarding DACA updates, please contact the experienced immigration attorneys at Monty & Ramirez LLP at 713-289-4546 or via email at info@montyramirezlaw.com .

How can I know how long it will take for my application to be adjudicated?

The Government has launched a pilot program to test a webpage that displays up to date processing times for four types of forms. The four forms available on this webpage are:

Form N-400 Application for Naturalization; Application for Naturalization;
Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card;
Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status; and
Form I-751, Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence.

This new webpage will make it easier for anyone to see approximately how long it will take for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to process a specific form. This will help individuals to determine if it is necessary to contact USCIS to make an inquiry when their case is outside the normal processing time.

You can find the normal processing time for specific immigration cases at: https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/ .

We are seeing that the overall time to adjudicate immigration cases is taking longer than before. If your case is taking longer than expected, that does not necessarily mean that there is something wrong with your case. It just means the USCIS may be taking longer than expected to process your case due to the surge of applications that have been filed.

For example, the following are the estimated processing times for “green card” and naturalization processes in Houston:

Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status: 11 to 25.5 months.
Form N-400, Application for Naturalization: 15.5 to 19.5 months.

For more information regarding Immigration Processing Times and how it could affect your case, please contact the experienced immigration attorneys at Monty & Ramirez LLP at 713-289-4546 or via email at info@montyramirezlaw.com .

The June 2018 Visa Bulletin has arrived!

The Visa Bulletin for June 2018 has been released by the Government. For more details, go to https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2018/visa-bulletin-for-june-2018.html .

If you have questions about the June 2018 Visa Bulletin, contact the experienced immigration attorneys at Monty & Ramirez LLP at 713-289-4546 or via email at info@montyramirezlaw.com .