Updates
Here are summaries of important legal or procedural changes that affect the latest edition of this product.
If you want to check on the accuracy of any other information in the book, please follow the legal research
instructions in the book or in Nolo's research manual, Legal Research: How to Find and Understand the Law.
Applicants for Reentry Permits and Refugee Travel Documents Now Need to Be Fingerprinted
Effective date:
Jul. 8, 2008
If you will be filling out USCIS Form I-131 in order to get either a reentry permit or a refugee travel document, a new step -- and a corresponding fee -- has been added to the process.
You'll need to provide biometrics, better known as fingerprints. This involves including an extra $80 with your application, then attending a fingerprint appointment.
Because this step could add extra time to the approval process, be sure to send in your application well in advance of when you need to travel.
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Certain F-1 Students Can Extend Optional Practical Training Period
Effective date:
Apr. 4, 2008
If you're in the U.S. with F-1 status, a new rule may allow you to extend your maximum possible period of Optional Practical Training (OPT) from 12 to 29 months. (This is a temporary, interim rule for 2008/2009, and will probably be replaced at some point with more permanent regulations.) To qualify, you must:
- have successfully completed a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM), which degree must be on the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List, and be from a college or university certified by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program
- already be participating in a 12-month period of approved post-completion OPT by having accepted a job or working for a business enrolled in USCIS’s E-Verify program
- be doing a job that’s directly related to your major area of study, and
- continue to properly maintain your F-1 status.
The new rule will also allow students to apply for OPT within 60 days of graduation.
Part of the purpose of this extension is to acknowledge that many businesses would like their OPT employees to receive an H-1B visa, but can’t get USCIS approval or an available visa in time to avoid the student having to return to his or her home country. In fact, the rule also automatically extends the period of stay and work authorization for all F-1 students with pending H-1B petitions until October 1 of the fiscal year for which the visa was requested.
For more information, and assistance in applying for the extension, talk to your school's foreign student officer (DSO) and see the full text of the rule at www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/press_opt_ifr.pdf.
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New Rules for Intercountry Adoption
Effective date:
Apr. 1, 2008
U.S. citizens hoping to adopt orphans from other countries may get both more help and more hassles from the recently implemented Hague Convention on the Protection of Children (HCIA). (The U.S. signed this convention in 1994, ratified it in December of 2007, and it entered into force on April 1, 2008.) You can get the text of this law and other information from http://adoption.com.
Although the convention hasn’t yet changed the basic immigration procedures described in Nolo's books, some changes may be in the works (stay tuned). In the meantime, prospective adoptive parents will be affected in the following ways:
- You'll get more information from the Department of State (DOS) website. The DOS is the central authority for overseeing implementation of the HCIA. As part of its role, it will provide more information via the DOS website (at http://travel.state.gov, click on Children & Family, and then Intercountry Adoption), including procedural summaries, specific country policies, and warnings about problems in different countries.
- You may have access to children from fewer agencies than before. Adoption agencies must now, before U.S. parents can adopt children through them, be accredited by either the Council on Accreditation or the Colorado Department of Human Services (CO). Click here for a list of agencies that have received accreditation so far. (This list is found on the DOS website, at http://travel.state.gov.)
- You'll receive a better idea of the fees you'll need to pay from the outset. Adoption agencies are now required to provide clear information about their fees, payment policies, and other financial matters. This should be an improvement over the past, when some adoption agencies were known for underestimating fees, with U.S. adoptive parents feeling like they were strung along and held hostage to ever-increasing costs.
- Your prospective child will be more carefully screened to ensure that adoption is in his or her best interests. The HCIA requires that the sending country make an active effort to keep the child within his or her family and kinship group, or a least country. Of course, the downside for parents is that you may wait longer while certain countries are investigated, or be barred from access to legitimate orphans because of the bad actions of some adoption agencies.
- Countries with a history of adoption irregularities (such as paying parents to place their children in orphanages) will be less available for adoptions. In fact, a moratorium will be imposed on some nations that have signed the HCIA and are found not to be complying with it.
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Visiting a Consulate? Visa Fees Increase
Effective date:
Jan. 1, 2008
If you're planning to apply for a visa to come to the United States from overseas or another country -- whether you're applying for a nonimmigrant visa, such as for tourists, students, or temporary workers, or an immigrant visa, such as a green card through marriage -- be ready to pay higher fees than before.
As of January 2008, the nonimmigrant visa fee has increased from $100 to $131. The immigrant visa fee has increased from $335 to $355. For more details, see the U.S. State Department website at http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1263.html.
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TPS to be terminated for citizens of Burundi
Effective date:
Oct. 29, 2007
DHS Secretary Chertoff has decided that the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Burundi should be terminated. The termination will not take effect until May 2, 2009.
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Liberians Who Had TPS Now Eligible for Deferred Enforced Departure
Effective date:
Sep. 30, 2007
Nolo's book U.S. Immigration Made Easy explains deferred enforced departure (DED), but says that no countries' citizens are currently eligible for this benefit. However, President Bush recently designated certain Liberians -- those living in the U.S. with temporary protected status, or TPS, who haven't committed crimes, returned to Liberia, or otherwise become ineligible -- for DED.
You don't need to apply for DED status, and if you got a work permit with your TPS, it is automatically extended. (Or you can apply for a replacement one.) For details, see the USCIS website.
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Time Extensions Help Adoptive Parents
Effective date:
Aug. 6, 2007
Many U.S. citizens planning to adopt an orphan from abroad start the process without having a child in mind. The first step is to fill out a USCIS Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition (Form I-600A).
The form assumes you've already figured out which country you plan to adopt a child from, and asks questions about your travel plans. But what if, even after several months, you are unable to find a child in that country?
You have two relatively new options, based on 2007 regulations by USCIS. Both assume that the 18-month validity period of your I-600A approval hasn't run out.
One option, if you still have hopes of finding a child in the same country, is to simply prepare a written request for an extension of time. Send your letter to the same USCIS office that approved the I-600A petition. Do so no earlier than 90 days before the expiration of your Form I-600A approval. There is no fee for this extension, but you can request it only once.
The second option is to request a one-time change of country, also at no extra charge, and by sending a letter to the same USCIS office that approved the I-600A petition.
However, if you later want to change the country of adoption a second time, you'll need to file USCIS Form I-824, Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition, along with a filing fee (currently $340). The reason for all this paperwork is that by now, USCIS will have notified the U.S. consulate in the country you originally planned to adopt from, and now needs to notify a different consulate instead (you'll specify which one in Part 2 of Form I-824).
USCIS regulations now also allow you to request a one-time refingerprinting without paying the fee all over again. (Your first set of fingerprints is good for 15 months, which may run out during your search for a child if you request extensions.)
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