New Hurdles in Access to U.S. Immigration Benefits
On August 25, 2017, Politico reported that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) intends to implement a new policy to require interviews for all employment-based adjustment of status applicants and will be expanding the interview requirement to other categories. On August 28, 2017, Politico released via Twitter what appears to be the first page of a USCIS press release confirming that, effective October 1, 2017, interview appointment notices will be issued to all employment-based adjustment applicants, as well as for all refugee/asylee petitions. The press release referenced "incremental expansion of interviews for benefits that lead to permanent residence," which may be an indicator that the interview requirement will be extended to other categories.
The Immigration Attorneys of Mintz Levin are closely watching this space and will post updates as we receive them.