The U.S. State Department recently launched the Virtual Embassy Tehran website to foster a cultural connection between the United States and Iran and to connect Iranian people with more information about the U.S. The last actual Tehran embassy was shut…

The Department of State recently reported a 17 percent increase in U.S. visas from the previous fiscal year. Throughout fiscal year 2011 more than 7.5 million U.S. visas were issued, with heavy demand from Brazil, China, India, and Mexico. International…

U.S. Customs and Immigration Services is taking steps to significantly improve its EB-5 Program adjudication process by improving internal communication, streamlining application analysis and consolidating policy memoranda into a single comprehensive agency memorandum. As background, Congress created the EB-5 Program…

Security along the U.S. border with Mexico is at an all-time high, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced in an October 2011 presentation at American University in Washington, D.C. As evidence, Secretary Napolitano reports that DHS has doubled…

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court have stayed parts of Alabama’s controversial new immigration law, HB56, which requires schoolchildren and commuters to prove their immigration status, and makes it a crime to give an illegal…

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has changed the way it issues Social Security numbers (SSNs). Instead of using the first three digits to indicate the state of issuance based on the zip code of the applicant, its new method will…

On October 13, 2011 the Department of Homeland Security published notice that it is extending Temporary Protected Status for the Sudan from November 2, 2011 through May 2, 2013, and that it is separately designating TPS for the newly formed…

USCIS has released EB-5 program statistics for fiscal year (“FY”) 2010 and Q1 through Q2 of FY 2011, showing a marked increase in program usage. As of June 30, 2011, USCIS reports that there are 147 approved Regional Centers operating…

In August 2011 a USCIS supervisor and his son, both convicted of federal corruption charges, were sentenced to five years and four years in prison, respectively. The USCIS supervisor, Fernando Jacobs, 72 years old, had been found guilty of conspiracy,…

After Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, often referred to as the “Underwear Bomber”, allegedly tried to detonate a bomb on a flight to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009, questions have arisen regarding the roles of the Department of State and the…