USCIS Issued When to File Your Adjustment of Status Application for Family-Sponsored or Employment-Based Preference Visas: December 2015 to help readers determine if it is time to file their I-485 Application to Adjustment of Status to Lawful Permanent Resident (green card application). Earlier this year, the Department of State began issuing the monthly visa bulletin in a USCIS on new visa bulletin format with "Final Action Dates" and "Dates for Filing Applications."

The U.S. Department of State has issued the December 2015 Visa Bulletin. Of note:

Department of Homeland Security director Jeh Johnson has issued a memo directing USCIS Director Leon Rodriguez to change the Immigration Service's prior regulations to allow all family members eligible to immigrate to the U.S. to be allowed to file provisional waivers of inadmissibility.

Tonight, President Obama stated in an address to the nation that he would use his executive authority to deal with problems in our broken immigration system.

USCIS announced today that it has issued a new policy clarifying the definition of mother for immigration purposes to include mothers and parents who used alternative reproductive technology to conceive.

Kathryn N. Karam's latest article in Lebanon Times Magazine on how delays in implementing immigration reform may stall economic growth.

In the October edition of Lebanon Times reported on the August 8th, 2014 celebration of our One-Year Anniversary!

The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in the case of Kerry v. Din, in which a U.S. Citizen wife had petitioned for her husband. When her husband went to his immigrant visa interview at the U.S. Embassy is Islamabad, Pakistan, he was told he should receive his visa in two to six weeks. However, the Embassy ultimately sent a decision denying him the visa. The Embassy refused to provide specific reasons for the denial but indicated that it was due to terrorist activities. The Supreme Court held in 1972 that there is no constitutional right to obtain a visa. This case was brought in the 9th Circuit, where the is precedential case law distinguishing the denial of a visa where the denial affects a citizen's protected liberty interest in marriage.

Last week, the Houston Business Journal reported on a growing trend of American expats returning to the Houston area to meet the demand for experienced and skilled employees in Houston’s growing energy sector. While these returning expats might be United States citizens with no immigration issues themselves, they often face challenges related to their family members.

The Supreme Court issued its holding in Scialabba v. Cuellar De Osorio holding that children who turn 21 during their immigration process - or their parents' immigration process - must go to the "back of the line" and wait all over again to immigrate. The Court split 5-4 in favor of the U.S. Government's position that people who have waited years, sometimes over a decade, for a greencard have to go back to the beginning of that process and start over if they "age out," or turn 21 before they are eligible to apply for greencards. This decision is especially disheartening in light of severe backlogs in the family immigration system and makes the need for reform of both our family and employment-based immigration systems even more acute.