On Jan. 1, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a new policy memorandum that has had wide-ranging effects on immigration benefit processing.
USCIS Updates Guidance Adjudicating Requests for ‘National Interest Waiver’
On Jan. 21, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) updated its policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to address national interest waivers for advanced degree professionals or persons of exceptional ability. This update clarifies how the national interest waiver can be used by science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates and entrepreneurs.
The
House Judiciary Committee to Consider Visa Integrity and Security Act of 2016
Today, the House Judiciary Committee will consider H.R.5203, the Visa Integrity and Security Act of 2016. The bill is authored by Representative Randy Forbes of Virginia.
The bill’s purpose is to enhance security procedures for the processing of both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas. We provide a sectional summary of the bill below.
Section 2
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Issues FAQ’s to Changes to VWP
As part of its efforts to educate the public about the new changes to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) resulting from the enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published Frequently Asked Questions dealing with these changes.
By way of background, the VWP permits citizens of 38
Secretary of State Maintains Designation of Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula as a Foreign Terrorist Organization
On March 2, 2016, the Department of State published a notice in the Federal Register that the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, had determined that the designation of Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula as a Foreign Terrorist Organization “shall be maintained.”
Section 219 of the