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Updated July 26, 2026 Photographed by Salah Darwish A federal court has temporarily blocked USCIS from rejecting a pending asylum application, terminating asylum-based employment authorization, or initiating removal proceedings solely because an asylum applicant failed to pay the annual asylum fee. The July 21, 2026, order in Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts v. USCIS provides important protection for asylum applicants who missed a USCIS payment deadline. However, it do

Beginning September 18, 2026, the federal government will apply a substantially broader and less predictable public charge standard to certain people applying for permanent residence or admission to the United States. The new rule does not make the receipt of public benefits an automatic reason to deny a green card. It does, however, allow immigration officers to consider a wider range of public benefits and financial circumstances when deciding whether an applicant is “likel

Beginning September 15, 2026, a new federal rule will change how unlawful presence is calculated for many people who entered the United States with F, J, or M visas. The most serious consequence is not simply that students and exchange visitors will have new expiration dates or additional applications to file. The rule may prevent people who are already out of status from using employment-based or family-based immigration options that remain available to them today. Many form

If you have a case pending before the Immigration Court, you may have noticed that removal proceedings do not operate the way they did even a few years ago. Across many Immigration Courts, attorneys are seeing shorter timelines between hearings, greater scrutiny of continuance requests, evolving courtroom procedures, and increased efforts to move cases toward completion. While every Immigration Court and every Immigration Judge manages cases differently, these changes are aff

If you have plans to travel internationally this summer, you may be wondering whether recent developments in immigration law affect your ability to return to the United States. It is a reasonable question. Recently, the United States Supreme Court issued an important decision involving a lawful permanent resident who returned from international travel and was treated as an applicant for admission based on alleged criminal conduct. Although the Court's decision addressed a spe

One of the most common misconceptions in immigration law is that if a person cannot produce a visa stamp, an I-94 record, or a passport showing their entry into the United States, they were never legally admitted. While that may sometimes be true, immigration law is far more complicated than many people realize. In fact, whether someone was legally admitted to the United States is often one of the most important questions in an immigration case. The answer can determine wheth

This week, USCIS issued a new memorandum regarding adjustment of status adjudications, and almost immediately social media filled with claims that adjustment of status is effectively over. That is not true. The memo attempts to frame adjustment of status as relief that should only be granted in “extraordinary circumstances.” The legal problem is that Congress never wrote the statute that way. Adjustment of status exists because Congress created it under INA § 245(a), codified

Something has changed at USCIS. Immigration filings have always required attention to detail. That is not new. Forms have to be signed correctly, filing fees have to match, and supporting evidence has always mattered. But what we are seeing right now is different from normal scrutiny. Recently, USCIS has started rejecting filings over issues that often have little to do with whether the person actually qualifies for the immigration benefit being requested. The agency has roll

Most people think immigration outcomes are binary. A case is either approved or denied. In reality, there is a third category that receives far less attention and causes far more frustration: cases that simply do not move. No decision. No clear explanation. Just ongoing review, repeated status checks, and months or years of uncertainty. These cases are not stuck by accident. They are often the result of something more deliberate. Immigration officers are not required to rush

One of the most common misconceptions about immigration law is that it is simply a matter of completing the correct forms and submitting them to the government. From the outside, many immigration processes appear to be administrative: fill out an application, attach supporting documents, and wait for a decision. In reality, immigration cases rarely work that way. Every immigration application becomes part of a permanent government record. The information provided in that appl

One of the most common things people ask when they first contact an immigration attorney is, “Do I have any options?” People often think immigration benefits are based upon time, or paying taxes, or having a child born in the US- generally none of this is true. Sometimes that belief comes from advice given by friends or family. Sometimes it comes from information found online. Or, people reach out and say, "I don't think I have any options." These folks think just because th

Many people assume they only need to speak with an immigration attorney when they are ready to file an application. In reality, immigration law intersects with many aspects of daily life, and important events can have serious immigration consequences even when they appear unrelated at first. Waiting until a problem becomes urgent often limits the options available. In many cases, the best time to seek advice is before taking action or immediately after something significant o

For many years, immigration applicants and their families operated under a general assumption that routine immigration processes were largely separate from immigration enforcement. Filing an application for a green card, work permit, or citizenship was viewed as a step toward compliance with the law, not a moment of risk. That assumption has become less reliable. In recent years, changes in enforcement priorities and internal agency practices have begun to blur the lines betw

For many years, having an immigration case pending came with a practical expectation. While the law never guaranteed protection, there was a widespread understanding that pending applications often operated as a pause point. People waited. Cases moved slowly. Enforcement and adjudication frequently took the existence of a pending filing into account. That practical reality has changed. Not because of new statutes, and not because the legal definition of “pending” has shifted,

Delays are one of the most common and most frustrating aspects of the immigration process. Petitions that appear straightforward can take far longer than expected. Interviews are postponed or rescheduled. Files sit with no visible movement. Requests for evidence arrive months after filing. In many cases, the explanation given is backlog, and that explanation is often accurate. At the same time, not all delays stem from the same source. Some are purely systemic. Others arise b

One of the most persistent misconceptions in immigration law is the belief that immigration strategy should drive career decisions. In practice, that approach often produces weak cases, unnecessary risk, and long-term instability. The opposite approach is far more reliable. Strong, credible career decisions tend to produce strong immigration outcomes, often across multiple visa categories and over time. This article explains why building a career for immigration purposes freq

Recent country-based visa restrictions are often described as a “visa ban.” That shorthand is imprecise and has caused confusion. The current policy does not change who is legally eligible for immigration benefits under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Instead, it affects how discretion is being exercised across the immigration system, most visibly at U.S. consulates and increasingly inside the United States. This post explains what the proclamation does, who is affected,

Asylum law has always been complex. What has changed is how unforgiving the system has become toward mistakes, omissions, and inconsistencies. In the current enforcement environment, asylum adjudications are not merely skeptical. They are increasingly structured to deny cases early, often without a full hearing, through pretermission and other procedural mechanisms. For individuals fleeing persecution, the idea of preparing an asylum application on their own can feel reasonab

Many people approach employment-based immigration by trying to reverse-engineer a career that fits an immigration category. The goal becomes building a résumé for immigration rather than building a career that naturally supports immigration options. In practice, this approach often backfires. What we consistently see is that the strongest immigration outcomes tend to follow strong, genuine career development. When professional growth is real, coherent, and sustained, immigrat

Many immigration decisions turn not on what a client believes happened, but on what the government’s records say happened. These two things are often not the same. Clients frequently come to us confident about their immigration history. They remember when they entered, what status they had, who filed for them, and what was approved. Those memories are usually sincere. They are also often incomplete. Immigration records span decades, agencies, and filing systems, and they are