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On May 14, 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will publish an interim final rule (IFR) implementing the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act of 2018, which protects U.S. workers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and ensures that U.S. workers will not be displaced or encounter a competitive disadvantage for employment compared to non-U.S. workers.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced a temporary final rule to change certain H-2B requirements to help support the U.S. food supply chain, maintain essential infrastructure operations and reduce the impact from the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency.  

USCIS recently migrated to Microsoft 365.  As of April 24, we are unable to receive and answer emails sent to i-9central@dhs.gov.  If you sent an email to this email address on or after April 24 and have not received a response within 48 hours, please resend your message to the email address below:  i-9central@uscis.dhs.gov

What is an interrupted stay?USCIS officers use the term “interrupted stay” when adjudicating extension of stay requests in the H-2A and H-2B nonimmigrant classifications. It refers to certain periods of time an H-2 worker spends outside the United States during an authorized period of stay, that do not count toward the noncitizen’s maximum 3-year limit in the classification. Interrupted stay regulations are the same for both H-2A and H-2B.  They are summarized as follows:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced that U.S. service members and veterans can now file Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, online.  

On April 20, the Department of Homeland Security published a temporary final rule to amend certain H-2A requirements to help U.S. agricultural employers avoid disruptions in lawful agricultural-related employment during the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency.

Because many areas are under stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19 and some online renewal services have restrictions, employees may experience challenges renewing a state driver’s license, a state ID card, or other Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, List B identity document. Considering these circumstances, DHS is issuing a temporary policy regarding expired List B identity documents used to complete Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.

In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is extending the flexibilities it announced on March 30 to assist applicants and petitioners