USCIS, July 16, 2024 "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to address the new provisions added to the Immigration and Nationality...
DOS, July 15, 2024 " On June 18, 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration announced actions to more efficiently process employment-based nonimmigrant visas for those who have graduated from college...
Cyrus D. Mehta and Jessica Paszko, July 13, 2024 "Portability under Section 204(j) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows certain employment-based green card applicants to change jobs...
This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 07/12/2024 "The Department of State (the Department) publishes a final rule revising the Code of Federal Regulations to amend...
Visa Bulletin for August 2024
Phong v. Garland (unpub.)
"Petitioner Kai Hong Phong seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) summary dismissal of his appeal from an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) determination that Phong is ineligible for asylum, protection under the Convention Against Torture, or withholding of removal. After reviewing an audio recording of Phong’s hearing before the IJ, the BIA concluded that because Phong orally waived his right to appeal the IJ’s decision during the hearing, it lacked jurisdiction to consider the substance of his appeal. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252, and we remand to the BIA to develop the record on whether Phong waived his right to appeal. ... Without record evidence that Phong orally waived his right to appeal before the IJ, we decline to address his alternative arguments that any waiver was unconsidered, unintelligent, or otherwise unenforceable. Rather, we remand to the BIA to develop the record on the waiver issue and, if it deems it appropriate, to consider Phong’s remaining arguments in the first instance. See Aguilar-Osorio v. Garland, 991 F.3d 997, 1000 (9th Cir. 2021) (remanding where we lacked “an adequate basis on which to evaluate [petitioner’s] claim”). The government’s motion to supplement the record is DENIED, the petition is GRANTED IN PART, proceedings are REMANDED, and all other pending motions are DENIED AS MOOT."
[Hats off to Diego Aranda Teixeira!]