Holmes & Ramos, Immigration Attorneys LLP

CASE CLOSURES TO SHARE: 1. Stateside AOS through Gardena, California 246 days 2. AOS off a K1 visa entry through Orlando, Florida took 141 days for work and to complete 443 days 3. AOS off a K1 entry through Fairfax, Virginia took 148 days for work and 468 days to complete 4. K1 visa petition through Bangkok, Thailand 211 days... 5. IR1 visa petition through Bangkok, Thailand 306 days 6. ROC through Nebraska Service Center 372 days Immigration has not stopped, it is just moving slowly right now. See more

USCIS has been experiencing delays in issuing petition and application receipt notices for newly filed cases dating as far as October 2020. They recently posted the following update: The USCIS lockbox facilities have received a significant increase in filings in recent weeks. This increase, along with facility capacity restrictions necessary to protect the health and safety of the lockbox workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, is causing significant delays for processing receipt notices. We continue to work to minimize delays. Once we process your submission, we will review your package. If you have delivery confirmation of the package containing your filing, you can be fairly certain that USCIS has received it. You can also monitor your case by checking if the filing fee payment has been processed.

Our office is considered essential and we are open with normal business hours excluding upcoming holidays.

Even with pandemic-related travel restrictions for entering the Philippines, there is still a way to travel there to meet your loved one. If you are interested in learning more and are looking to hire an attorney to help you immigrate someone, please give us a call.

Our office will remain open the last two weeks of the year with the exception of Dec 25th. Happy Holidays everyone and Happy New Year. Here's to 2021 being a better year for the entire world then 2020.

On second thought...we will have normal business hours tomorrow, Wednesday and be closed Thursday and Friday this week. Office hours will return to normal on Monday the 30th.

Three case closures to share today. 1. CR1 spousal visa through Jerusalem, Israel 341 days. 2. Stateside AOS though Norfolk, Virginia in 159 days. Work authorization in 133 days. 3. Stateside AOS through El Paso, Texas in 267 days. Work authorization in 238 days.

Case Closures to share: 1. IR1 through Casablanca, Morocco took 380 days. 2. AOS off a K1 visa entry with interview date took 295 days in Nashville, Tennessee. 3. AOS of a B2 visa entry with interview date took 167 days in Chatsworth, California. 4. ROC though the San Jose, California office took 474 days.

It's the week of Thanksgiving. Our office will be open everyday this week except Thursday.

Today we complete an AOS case off a K1 visa entry in 283 days. Work authorization was issued in 142 days and the interview took place in Centennial, Colorado.

We completed a ROC case through Philadelphia, PA in 279 days (that's roughly a month faster then they were processing pre pandemic). We also completed an AOS off a K1 visa entry in 448 days through Long Island, NY. Work authorization took 272 days.

Three AOS case closures to share today. 1. Stateside AOS through Cincinnati, Ohio took 343 days. Work authorization issued in 292 days. 2. Stateside AOS through Boise, Idaho took 164 days. Work authorization issued in 148 days. 3. AOS through Greer, South Carolina off a K1 visa entry took 112 days. Work authorization issued in 112 days. All the above result in first time green cards for spouses of US citizens.

We just completed a CR1 spousal visa case through Guangzhou, China in 252 days from receipt of filing in the US to visa issuance.

We just completed a N400 (US Citizenship) case through Raleigh Durham, NC. Receipted 08/17/2020; Interview and Oath (same day) 10/13/2020. 57 days from start to finish.

The USCIS filing fee increase that was supposed to take effect on October 2, 2020 has been temporarily suspended. On September 29th, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction to prevent the new USCIS fee rule from going into effect as planned on October 2nd. This injunction against the implementation of the new fee rule, which would dramatically increase many of USCIS’s filing fees, is nationwide. However, it is temporary until final adjudication of the pending laws...uit. Moreover, the order prevents USCIS from seeking an administrative stay of the injunction pending an appeal of the decision. In other words, USCIS is not allowed to enforce the new rule to increase its fees until the main lawsuit against the rule is decided. The current fees will remain in place until that occurs. At least for now, this order grants a reprieve to family members seeking to immigrate loved ones to the United States. But because it is only temporary and there is no way of telling when the final matter will be decided or what the outcome might be, we still recommend that you file your immigration benefit applications and petitions as soon as possible.

Auckland, NZ processing K1s and CR/IRs

Two more openings: Johannesburg, South Africa and Ankara, Turkey. We have interviews scheduled for clients there next month.

REOPENINGS (SPOUSAL VISA PROCESSING)- TUNIS, TUNISIA MUMBAI, INDIA SKOPJE, MACEDONIA

The following is an updated list of embassies and consulates that we know of that have resumed visa services (assume all visa types unless otherwise noted): Kiev, UKRAINE Guangzhou, CHINA Manila, PHILIPPINES... Naples, ITALY SINGAPORE (CR/IR) HONG KONG Athens, GREECE London, UK Stockholm, SWEDEN (CR/IR) Vienna, AUSTRIA Reykjavik, ICELAND Nairobi, KENYA Amman, JORDAN (CR/IR) Bangkok, THAILAND Berlin, GERMANY Montreal, CANADA Abu Dhabi, UAE See more

The US Consulate in Guangzhou, China is now setting interview dates for spouses.

VISA NEWS: Abu Dhabi, UAE is now setting interview dates for fiancees and spouses.

Today we received an approval on a K1 petition for fiancee from the CSC. Processing time was 6 months.

Some good news for many of you, The US Embassy in Manila, Philippines has begun scheduling interview dates. One of our clients has an interview date for an IR1 visa in October 2020.