Category: Uncategorized

Aug. 9 Update: USCIS announced in a news release today that they have cancelled plans to close operations at 7 international field offices: Beijing, Guangzhou, Nairobi, New Delhi, Mexico City, San Salvador, and Guatemala City. The news release calls these operations “cost-effective and high value”: they will continue to “adjudicate complex immigration petitions that require… Continue reading USCIS Partial Retreat: Some International Field Offices, including Beijing and Guangzhou, Will Remain Open

Are you a U.S. citizen or permanent resident married to a spouse living overseas? Maybe you are living overseas together, or maybe you are in the U.S. waiting for your spouse to immigrate.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ processing of Forms I-751, Petitions to Remove Conditional Resident Status is in a state of disarray. Sandra Feist writes for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that USCIS has been adding new procedural delays and hurdles to I-751s, like brick after brick in an “invisible wall” making life difficult for… Continue reading USCIS Processing of I-751s in Disarray

Happy Lunar New Year! The U.S. Embassy and Consulates General in China will be closed Feb. 4 to 7. Chodorow Law Offices will be closed for the official holiday, Feb. 4 to 10.

The federal government is now in partial shutdown due to a failure by President Trump and Congress to agree on how to fund the government.  How does this impact key immigration agencies?

Gerry Shih reports for the AP today that the U.S. government may pursue sanctions on Chinese officials involved in human rights abuses in the western region of Xinjiang. Shih has recently reported elsewhere on a sweeping security crackdown in the region. 

The latest Immigrant Visa Instructions published by the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou on Nov. 24, 2017, require that an applicant who has “ever used another name or alias on legal documentation or for other official purpose must provide a certified alias certificate” (别名证明文件).

The Trump administration’s war on immigration has included an array of tactics. There have been full frontal assaults, such as the Muslim ban, cancellation of DACA, the border wall, and the RAISE Act. Simultaneously, the Trump administration is using the tactic of death by a thousand cuts: numerous assaults in the administrative agencies and courts… Continue reading Death by a Thousand Cuts: Evisceration of the Foreign Service

On August 2, White House adviser Stephen Miller held a press conference defending President Donald Trump’s support for the RAISE Act, legislation that would reduce legal immigration to the United States. CNN reporter Jim Acosta asked whether the bill is in keeping with Emma Lazarus’ sonnet, The New Colossus, at the base of the Statue… Continue reading Steve Miller, Meet Saum Song Bo: What the Statue of Liberty Symbolizes

The Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act (RAISE) Act – introduced by Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue, with the support of President Trump – would eliminate the immigration system that we know today and replace it with a points-based system that ignores the benefits of family unity and the needs of U.S.… Continue reading The RAISE Act Would Harm U.S. Families and Businesses

Daniel Bell, Why Anyone Can Be Chinese (Wall St. Journal, July 14, 2017): Daniel Bell is a Canadian by birth who has who has taught political science in China for twenty years, speaks Chinese, and studies Confucian philosophy. In this essay, he writes, “I identify with Chinese culture” but objects that “no one considers me… Continue reading Quick Takes on Visa Law News

A report commissioned by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and disseminated agencywide recommends that the Department of Homeland Security take over the issuance of U.S. visas, passports and other travel documents as a cost-saving mechanism, according to media reports.

Members of Congress from both parties are investigating whether Kushner Companies’ EB-5 fundraising activities constitute securities fraud. As has been widely reported, Kushner Companies recently put on a roadshow to market to Chinese investors a New Jersey real estate project called One Journal Square. The investments are structured such that investors may qualify for green… Continue reading Members of Congress Probing Potential EB-5 Related Securities Fraud by Kushner Companies

AmCham China just published its 2017 White Paper on American Business in China. “With uncertainty stemming from political and economic transitions in both the US and China, perceptions of a deteriorating investment environment for foreign companies in China, and a slowing economy, 2017 will likely be one of the most challenging years in decades for… Continue reading AmCham China 2017 White Paper: Visa Policy