On December 2, 2015 in San Bernardino California, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, husband and wife, entered an office holiday party with high powered weapons and murdered 14 and wounded 22. Malik had entered the USA over a year before traveling on a K1 fiance visa.

I wish to extend our heartfelt sympathies to those affected by this tragedy. We pray for their healing and recovery.

About 36,000 fiances enter the USA each year traveling on K1 Fiance Visas. In the past 8 years alone over a quarter of a million fiances have entered the USA this way.

Malik apparently is the only person so far to enter the USA via the fiancee visa program in order to commit an act of terrorism.

Will her act have effects on the K1 Fiance Visa program? Continue reading “Effects on K1 Visa after San Bernadino Terrorist Shooting”

US immigration has just implemented another hurdle for prospective immigrants and visitors to the USA to jump. This is in line with the 2017 executive orders issued by President Trump to institute extreme vetting to vigorously screen visa applicants and strengthen K1 Fiance Visa Requirements.

Effective May 31, 2019, the state departments applications used for non-immigrant visas, the DS 160, and used for immigrant visas the DS 260, have been modified and the requirement is that all US immigration applicants need to reveal the social media accounts that they use.

Soon after his inauguration, President Trump issued executive orders tightening how US immigration treats its foreign clients.

Executive orders were issued to ban applicants from so-called terrorist countries, and US immigration was ordered to conduct “extreme vetting” on all cases. Continue reading “Social Media Disclosure”

It’s President Trump’s mid term already. Under President Trump we have gotten used to extended processing times, more hurdles to jump over, even USCIS given permission to deny an application without allowing an applicant the opportunity to respond and clarify misunderstandings.

And NOW another proposal has been made that will make it MORE difficult to get visas and permanent residency. This rule change may affect 20 million immigrants and what it will do is make legal immigration more difficult. President Trump has repeatedly stated he wants to reduce legal immigration, and this rule change may be the one to radically do it.

Today we are talking about the Higher Standards that are proposed to increase the number of applicants that will be found ineligible because they receive public benefits and are considered a “Public Charge””

The administration under President Trump has done it again. They are currently working on raising the bar higher, in order to restrict legal immigration. This affects those applying for fiancee and spouse visas and permanent residency. Continue reading “Public Charge Rule Change”

President Trump may not have gotten his wall on the border with Mexico built yet, but during the last two years of his administration he has been very successful in throwing up many roadblocks to fiance and spouse visa and green card applications. Today I am going to give him a report card or what actions he has taken that will affect you.

Immigration now, more than ever, is a minefield. The more you know about what the hurdles are, the better able you will be to prepare yourself for this ordeal. Hopefully through preparation and my guidance you will get safely to the other side.

Lets talk about What’s been going on with marriage based immigration in the first two years of the Trump Presidency. Let’s talk about Trump’s effect on K1 Visas, CR1 Visas, and Green Cards Continue reading “Trump K1 visa CR1 visa Greencard”

The Trump administration has announced that it intends to reduce USCIS’s international presence by closing ALL of its international offices. This means that those services that were provided to assist the processing of family visa applications, foreign adoption and similar cases now would be curtailed. This is consistent with the Trump administration’s objective to reduce legal immigration. Less support, means longer lines, slower processing, more frustration, and possibly less applicants willing to endure the process.

This action, is probably the final death knell to Direct Consular Filing.

In the past an American living overseas who wished to bring his spouse to the USA, could apply directly to the nearest US consulate, to obtain the spouse visa. This is called Direct Consular Filing or DCF. The American expat thus benefited as he could submit his application directly to local staff that would receive and process the application. And in practice this sped the process greatly, reducing a normally lengthy 1 to 2 year process into only a few months.

When Joyce and I decided to move to the USA, I applied directly to the US Embassy in Hong Kong, and she was granted her IR1 spouse visa in only 5 months. And then we moved with our two children to California.

In general, the State Department, has already been discontinuing DCF services from their consulates over the past 10 years, currently only those countries where USCIS has an international office is DCF still provided.

I guess it should now be called “Direct USCIS International Office Filing” instead of Direct Consular Filing, as the consulate is no longer initially involved.

Anyway, with the announced closing of all international USCIS offices I expect that DCF, regardless of acronym, will be a thing of the past.

Soon, All family visa cases regardless of whether the US sponsor lives in or outside of the USA, will be submitted and initially processed in the United States. This means those ex-pat families who previously enjoyed DCF, will now experience a much slower, and more complicated process in order to obtain visas and green cards to the USA.

The countries where USCIS currently has international offices are shown here.

Dominican Republic – Santo Domingo
El Salvador – San Salvador
Germany – Frankfurt
Ghana – Accra
Greece – Athens
Guatemala – Guatemala City
Haiti – Port-au-Prince
India – New Delhi
Italy – Rome
Jordan – Amman
Kenya – Nairobi
Mexico – Ciudad Juarez
Mexico – Mexico City
Mexico – Monterrey
Peru – Lima
Philippines – Manila
South Africa – Johannesburg
South Korea – Seoul
Thailand – Bangkok
United Kingdom – London

The US state department says it will take over the duties, at least some of the duties, previously conducted by these offices. USCIS says it will save money. Applicants for visas can certainly expect to suffer additional delays in the processing of their cases.

If you are currently on the verge of submitting a DCF case, better submit it within the next few weeks cause very soon no more DCF cases will be accepted and you will be faced with processing times that drastically jump from 3 to 5 months to 1 to 2 years.

By Fred Wahl
the VisaCoach

USCIS, which was never that helpful, on September 11th 2018 will become less so.

In the past when applications for fiance visas, spouse visas, adjustment of status ran into trouble, because the applicant didn’t quite know what he was doing, the reviewer at USCIS often, halted processing, then spent the time and effort to issue a RFE (Request for Evidence) that listed what was missing giving the opportunity to respond and correct the error. Or if a case was in risk of being denied due to missing materials, a NOID (Notice of Intent to Deny) might be issued, also giving the application an opportunity to correct mistakes. Now USCIS can skip the RFE, skip the NOID and go directly to denial, and in some cases directly to the start of deportation.

Under the Obama Administration USCIS reviewers were only allowed to deny out right under the most obviously ineligible cases. Now Obama’s “friendly” USCIS is a thing of the past. Under President Trump, two new policies are now taking effect. First USCIS can now deny, without warning, without allowing an applicant to fix his problems. No longer is USCIS required to issue a warning describing what is needed. No longer required to issue an RFE and ask for more info, or even a NOID (notice of INTENT to deny) warning that an application is in jeopardy.

And second and even more troubling, is that if the immigrant is physically present in the U.S.A., once a decision to deny is made, USCIS can immediately start deportation proceedings. Many applicants will be put on track for deportation before they have a chance to clear bureaucratic glitches or misunderstandings.

Now is not the time to risk making mistakes when filing applications to immigration.

For clarity let’s explain what these policies and acronyms mean.

What is an RFE?

RFE means “Request for Evidence”. This is a notice issued by normally issued by USCIS when an application is missing a particular piece of an application such as a document, photo, signature, properly completed form and so on. RFE’s sometimes are issued in error. Sometimes the application has been completed correctly, or the needed item properly submitted Sometimes the reviewing officer, does not see what is in front of him. These type of occurrences are especially worrisome, for in the past if an officer asked for an RFE in error, the applicant could clarify the error, or resubmit the evidence. It was difficult enough in the past to rectify a reviewers mistake by pointing out his error, when replying to an RFE, but now if the same issues occur, and there is mistaken denial instead of mistaken RFE, it will be much more difficult and time consuming for an applicant to get his case back on track.

What is a NOID?

NOID means “Notice of Intent to Deny”. This is similar to an RFE. It is a notice that USCIS issues too warn an applicant that the USCIS reviewer feels the applicant has not provided sufficient evidences in general to satisfy the application. And that so much is missing the officer feels appropriate next step is denial. Typically similar to an RFE the applicant has an opportunity to respond and thus a chance to satisfy the suspicions of the reviewing officer, before the application is finally denied..

What is deportation?

When a foreign-born alien applies for immigration benefits in the United States if his request is denied then U.S. immigration can initiate proceedings to have the alien forcibly removed from the USA. In past the steps initiating and leading to deportation were not automatic and allowed applicants opportunities to respond. This slow processing was especially helpful if the reasons for deportation were based on evidences or documentation that were available but were not presented due to errors in the applicants application. Applicants had time and opportunity to clear up confusion and present missing documents before things got “out of hand”. Under the new policies immediately, once, an applicant is denied, remember there is no RFE, and no NOID, the proceedings leading to deportation are allowed to begin. Without warning, without notice, without delay. This will undoubtedly lead to many more foreign Nationals being forced to leave the USA.

The new policies are vague in defining under what circumstances and for what reasons an officer can deny an application. So it is quite likely that results WILL VARY between individual USCIS officers. Some will approve, some deny, and hopefully some will still issue RFE’s or NOID’S.

It remains to be seen how tough USCIS will become, however in the current atmosphere of President Trump’s Administration where “extreme vetting”, and “vigorous enforcement” of immigration laws is being promoted, it is clear that many applicants are about to experience hard times.

What is to be done?

Check, check again, and check one more time before submitting any immigration application. Insure that all evidences and required materials are included and the forms properly filled in.

Fortunately that has always been the practice of VisaCoach. Our policy is to craft each application, touch all bases, and we “do it right. The first time”

I provide each couple with a detailed, personalized checklist of everything that should be submitted to USCIS. The list I create for them is color-coded, Red for Required, Green Highly Recommended and Black for recommended. Ask my clients about what happens if they try to get away with not providing me with all the critical Red items. I become the “squeaky wheel” that keeps reminding them to provide the items before we can submit. This policy has paid off for my couples in the past, and I expect will continue to save them from the troubles that others will experience due to a tougher USCIS.

I have met plenty of smart and capable people. And regardless of how smart or capable they are, I would never recommend that they attempt fate by risking disaster by “doing it themselves” or using cheap no-frills form filling services.

There are just too many pitfalls. In past the punishment for making common errors could sometimes be recovered from due to the generosity of a USCIS reviewer asking for RFE or warning with a NOID. Now this safety net is gone. Now more than ever we expect to see many denials come out of USCIS.

By Fred Wahl
the VisaCoachuscis-denies-without-rfe-noid.html

Planned October 2, 2020 USCIS Fee Schedule temporarily blocked by Injunction

“Procrastinators, YOU can rejoice” You still have time to avoid big
increases in the cost of Naturalization to become a US Citizen as well as Work and travel authorizations
for green card applicants.

For months, actually probably years, USCIS has had a price increase in the works.

Finally after much, much, deliberations, posting in the Federal Register, reviewing and replying to comments,
delays due to Covid 19, challenges from Congress, back and forth with Congress, FINALLY they got their wish.

A new price list was set to take effect on October 2.

Most fees went up. Some down. Some like Naturalization and Work + Travel Authorizations when up A LOT !.

The biggest bumps were a $445 increase from $725 to $1,170 for Naturalization,

$545 increase from 0 for Work Authorization
and
$585 increase from 0 for Advance Parole.

Other benefits that VisaCoach clients are concerned with changed little. Some a little up, some a little down.

Once the fee change was announced, we jumped on it, letting all our clients know what was happening
and helping those who would suffer the must from the fee increases to get their applications in on time.

We were very, very busy for a month during the run up to October 2.

Then, at the eleventh hour, just before October 2 came around, a group of opponents to the fee change were successful
to convince a court to place a temporary injunction, temporarily halting the fee change.

Well that’s Good news and bad.

Good news for procrastinators, who delayed but now can still submit under the old fee schedule.

BAD news for applicants in general, as total confusion is the rule of the day. The injunction is in effect,
but for HOW LONG? At any time it could be dropped.

Maybe the all new fees will be implemented, maybe only some parts, maybe none.

Who knows?

But is does cause problems. First of all, the fees could change without notice at any time. We are asking our clients
to reach out to us, when they are ON THE WAY to the post office to mail in their applications to confirm what
the correct fee is on the day they submit.

We can handle that with out clients, on a one by one personal case. Thats manageable. What I worry about are
how well the clerks at USCIS will handle the processing of cases and acceptance of payments once the fees actually change.

Officially, USCIS should check the postmark and mailing date shown on each package they receive. And then
apply to the contents of the package, the fees and procedures that were in force on the day of mailing. Unfortunately
that system does not work so well. The last time a major change occured, and this was on February 24 when the
public charge rules came into effect. Hundreds of applications that had been shipped, on time, were rejected, due
to clerical error. It took months for clients, who had legitimate proof of mailing to battle with USCIS to
get their cases back on course.

I am afraid in the week after the new fees take effect, that there will be even more such mistakes
made at USCIS causing great inconvenience and unnnecessary delays to applicants.

This was Fred Wahl, The VisaCoach