| Dear Readers, The California Service Center (CSC) advised AILA that the Nebraska and Texas Service Centers
will be forwarding their new I-130 (Petition for Family Members) to CSC for processing. I-130 applicants will now receive receipts from CSC,
and applicants should monitor the processing time for CSC, not for the Service Center at which the application was originally filed. This
transfer policy does not affect where I-130 petitions should be filed, and filings should still be made at the service center that has
regular jurisdiction. This forwarding arrangement is expected to be temporary with the Nebraska Service Center (NSC) but may be permanent
for the Texas Service Center (TSC).
In addition, TSC will be transferring pending immediate relative I-130s and family-based I-130s
with current priority dates to California. Such applicants will receive a transfer notice but will not receive a new receipt notice. Once
the case is transferred, CSC processing times, not TSC processing times will apply.
Additionally, USCIS has changed its I-797 Receipt
Notices so that they no longer include estimated processing times, which in the past were often quite inaccurate. Instead, applicants are
advised to check processing time reports that are available on the USCIS website. It is my pleasure to serve you and keep you informed. If you have any questions or concerns
about immigration,
please feel free to e-mail me at sardar@durrani.com. Sincerely, 
Sardar Durrani | | | | In This Week's Issue: State Department Apologizes for Actions of US Consulate in
Jerusalem: Not Allowing Hijab Passport Pictures a "Complete Mistake."
Caribbean immigration expands minority middle class in S. Florida
Assistant Secretary Michael Garcia Says SEVIS Program Ready
for Fall Influx of Foreign Students
Online effort to thin long lines - Immigration offices
offer appointment reservations on Web
USCIS Continues Nationwide Launch Of Online Appointment
System - 26 and counting
New Issue of CONNECT - AILA's Monthly Business Immigration
Newsletter Available
Lawyers hail governments admission of terror trial
misconduct
DHS Grants Extension of Time Limit on Admission of Certain
Mexican Nationals
State Department Apologizes for Actions of US Consulate in Jerusalem:
Not Allowing Hijab Passport Pictures a "Complete Mistake."
On Aug. 26, the State Department re-confirmed to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
(ADC) that photos of females wearing hijab are acceptable passport photos.
In mid August 2004, a woman contacted ADC after her
experience at the US Consulate in East Jerusalem. She had gone to the Consulate in May 2003 to renew the passports of her daughters, ages 12
and 14. After filing out the required paperwork, she then submitted photos of her daughters. In their photos they are wearing hijab, head
covering, which covered their ears, hair, and a small part of their forehead. The Consulate rejected the photos despite that fact that their
faces were fully visible. The woman then submitted another set of photos for her daughters where the hijab was pulled back to their hairlines
and the edges of their ears. According to the girls’ mother, their headscarves were pulled back "to the maximum allowable limit" according to
her religious beliefs and the faces of her girls were fully visible. Again, the pictures were again rejected.
You can read the rest of story here. Caribbean immigration expands minority middle class in S. Florida Longtime members of St. Benedict's Episcopal Church in Plantation can attest to the growing number
and influence of black Caribbean people in South Florida.
A predominantly white congregation in the early 1990s, St. Benedict's has
become a church where nearly half of its 1,400 members were born in Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad or Tobago, the Bahamas or one of the other
Caribbean Islands, according to its rector, the Rev. Robert Deshaies.
"Look at our pictorial directory. We have a lot of West
Indians," said Deshaies, who is white. "We were less than 20 percent West Indian when I came here in 1995. We've really grown."
The
West Indian population is growing faster than any other major ancestry group in Broward and Palm Beach counties, exceeding even the booming
Hispanic population.
You can read the rest of the story here. Assistant
Secretary Michael Garcia Says SEVIS Program Ready for Fall Influx of Foreign Students Assistant Secretary Michael Garcia was joined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Commissioner Robert Bonner for an August 27 Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) event at Dulles International Airport in
Virginia. The two were there to highlight a very successful first year and to kick off the second year of SEVIS by welcoming some of the
anticipated 220,000 foreign students this fall.
You can read the rest of this story here.
Online effort to thin long lines - Immigration offices offer appointment
reservations on Web
The end might be in sight for long lines at federal immigration offices in Montbello.
The Denver District of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has unveiled a new program that allows immigrants and others in Colorado
to use the Internet to make appointments with federal officers.
Denver is one of eight cities in which the InfoPass program kicked off
Friday. The InfoPass system is expected to be in place in all 33 U.S. district offices by Sept. 8.
"Don't wait in line; go online,"
Mario R. Ortiz, Denver District director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, said at a news conference. You can read the rest of this story here. USCIS Continues Nationwide Launch Of Online Appointment System - 26 and
counting
The InfoPass system continues its rollout, and is now available in 26 districts around the country.
You can view the district list here. New Issue of CONNECT - AILA's Monthly Business Immigration Newsletter
Available
AILA, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, has released a new issue of their monthly
immigration newsletter -- CONNECT.
You can read CONNECT online here. Lawyers hail governments admission of terror trial misconduct
The government's 60-page account of missteps in a major post-Sept. 11 terrorism case was praised
Wednesday by legal experts and civil rights advocates as a rare admission that its own prosecutors made egregious errors that deprived
defendants of a fair trial.
In a court memo filed late Tuesday night, the government conceded the terrorism convictions would not
stand up to scrutiny. It said it supported the defendants' request for a new trial and would no longer pursue terrorism charges against them.
If there is a new trial, the defendants would face only fraud charges.
The prosecutors "committed a pattern of mistakes and
oversights" and "created a record filled with misleading inferences," interim U.S. attorney Craig Morford told the court.
You can read the rest of this story here. New Issue of "Inside ICE" Available Immigration & Customs Enforcement has released a new issue of their newsletter, "Inside ICE."
.
You can read the Newsletter here.
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