On September 29, 2020, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White of the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction of the “USCIS Fee Schedule & Changes to Certain Other Immigration Benefit Requests Requirements” Final Rule which would have increased USCIS fees by a weighted average increase of 20 percent on October 02, 2020. The court concluded that “universal relief is warranted” and it is “appropriate to stay the effective date of the Final Rule pending resolution of the merits of this case.”.

Hence the USCIS fees will NOT increase on October 02, 2020.

USCIS announced that following the September 11, 2020, Second Circuit decision, it will apply the public charge final rule and related guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to all applications and petitions postmarked (or submitted electronically) on or after February 24, 2020.

Per USCIS:
“If you filed your Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, after Feb. 24, 2020, you may be required to file Form I-944, Declaration of Self-Sufficiency. If we receive a Form I-485 before Oct. 13, 2020, that does not have all required forms and evidence, we will request any missing forms and evidence. After Oct. 13, 2020, we will reject your Form I-485 if you do not include the required forms and evidence with Form I-485 at the time of filing.”

USCIS published a temporary final rule providing that, from today, September 23, 2020, through March 22, 2021, asylum applicants who cannot proceed with the asylum interview in English must ordinarily use DHS-provided telephonic interpreters, due to COVID-19. Previously, if the asylum seeker didn’t bring an interpreter and couldn’t speak English, the affirmative asylum hearing was rescheduled, which meant a longer wait for the applicant.

The current active court case backlog as of the end of August 2020 has grown to 1,246,164—up 11 percent from the beginning of March when the backlog was 1,122,824. Monthly case completions before the March shutdown were running over 40,000. In August just 6,113 cases were completed. Roughly half (52%) of these were ordered deported or given a voluntary departure order. In January 2020, this rate was 75 percent.

There were only 1,424 asylum decisions rendered during August 2020. Of the total asylum decisions issued in August 2020, 507 were successful and the judge granted their asylum request while 11 more received other forms of relief which allowed them to remain in this country.

There were only 2,425 bond hearings in August and bond was granted in only 622 of these. The average bond set for these individuals was $7,500.

Detainees with pending court cases now number 29,656.

Source: TRAC, Sept. 18, 2020

On October 2, 2020, USCIS will change the premium processing timeframe from 15 calendar days to 15 business days.

USCIS may adjust the additional fee for this service for inflation according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by notice in the Federal Register.

USCIS announced on September 4, 2020 that submissions postmarked on or after October 2, 2020 must comply with the 10/02/20 edition of the following new or existing forms:

• Form I-129H1
• Forms I-129H2A and I-129H2B
• Form I-129L
• Form I-129O
• Form I-129E&TN
• Form I-129MISC
•Form I-600/I-600A, Supplement 3
•Form I-765
• Form I-912

For applications and petitions that are sent by commercial courier (for example, UPS, FedEx, or DHL), USCIS considers the date on the courier receipt as the postmark date for purposes of filing.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Tuesday, September 1, 2020, that more than 2,000 individuals have been arrested during the period of July 13 to Aug. 20, 2020. About 85 percent of those arrested by ICE on immigration charges also had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.