Visa Lawyer Blog

US is finally joining the Civilized world as Obama lifts the 22 year long HIV ban on infected visitors coming to our country. Visitors who have HIV would be allowed to travel and immigrate to the United States.

The president signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009 at the White House Friday and also spoke of the new rules, which have been under development more more than a year.

The regulations are the final procedural step in ending the ban, and will be published Monday in the Federal Register, to be followed by the standard 60-day waiting period prior to implementation.

The November 2009 Bulletin brings mixed news. The State Department’s Visa Bulletin for November 2009 notes that demand from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices has far exceeded earlier indications of cases eligible for immediate processing. As a result, the Department said, it has been necessary to hold most of the employment cut-off dates for November, and it is not possible to provide an estimate of future cut-off date movements.

Regarding the employment fourth preference “certain religious workers” category, the Visa Bulletin notes that the non-minister special immigrant program expires on October 30, 2009. All individuals seeking admission as a non-minister special immigrant must be admitted into the U.S. no later than midnight on October 30, 2009.

This Bulletin brings excellent advancement in the family immigration categories, especially in the Family 1st and Family 2A categories and, for Mexico, in the Family 3rd category, what a relief. Mexico advances to 1 May 1992. The Philippines advances one month to 22 October 1991.

USCIS has revised Form I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility to make it easier for applicants to complete. Applicants may now select from a list of grounds of inadmissibility on the form itself and mark all which apply to them in order to request a waiver. This was confusing to many applicants in the past as they were not sure what to type in this section.

In addition to the list, the form includes a section where applicants can describe, in their own words, why they believe they are inadmissible. Again, this is something that was not so clear in the previous version of the form. In the previous edition of Form I-601, information about grounds of inadmissibility could only be found in the form’s instructions.

Please note that USCIS will continue to accept the previous version of the form, dated 10/30/08 Y, through November 20,2009. Beginning November 21, 2009 USCIS will only accept the revised Form I-601, dated 04/06/09 N, and will reject all requests using previous editions of the form. Concern is that Applicants using notarios and other consultants, may be rejected as these non lawyers may not be informed of the new procedures.

The Widow penalty debate has been going on for years. This week the problems of widows have come to an end. The Senate approved a measure on Tuesday that would end what has become known as the “widow penalty” — the government’s practice of annulling foreigners’ applications for permanent residency when their American spouses die before the marriage is two years old.

The measure, which passed 79-19, was contained in a conference report that accompanied an appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security. The House of Representatives passed the conference report last week. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law.

While the foreign spouse of a United States citizen may be eligible for residency under American law, the government has argued that the spouse’s death before the two-year mark ends the marriage, canceling the foreigner’s right to be considered for residency and opening the door to deportation.